http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/ Engadget Comments for Sony selling the ATI TV Wonder CableCARD tuner all by its lonesome http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
Oh well, it's good to see that this may be easier to obtain now! Perhaps this will break it open for everyone else.]]>Oct 25th 2007 4:39AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 7:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 8:30AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 9:09AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 9:17AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 9:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 9:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 10:49AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 11:20AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 11:29AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/]]>Oct 25th 2007 8:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 11:43AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 12:00PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
I was Velocity Micro's Director of Product Development, and I deployed CableCARDs for them.

1) You need an OEM activation BIOS with the proper OSFR ACPI table not only present, but populated with vendor specific information.

2) You need a special copy of Vista with digital cable tuner activation PID. You will not be able to purchase this unless you are a direct OEM with MS and have signed a DTOS.

3) You need to sign a conformance letter with Cable Labs and they store the information from #1 in this list on central servers, and that information is checked every 90 days to ensure compliance.

4) If at any time it is found that the information has been compromised, Cable Labs need merely to flip a switch and you will cease to receive premium cable content.]]>Oct 25th 2007 11:52AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
This had a lot of potential.]]>Oct 25th 2007 12:12PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 12:49PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
I'm just a bonehead consumer but if you have just a second, I sure would apreciate your advice. My cable company stinks so I signed up with DirectTV when I bought a new Sony XBR4 (1080P) Television (Circuit City gave me $300 off on the TV).

I also just bought a new HP M9000T media PC. The PC came with the ATI TV WONDER Digital Cable Tuner. When I talked to the guys at HP, I told them I wanted to be able to record HD content on my new BlueRay R/W that came with the machine. They told me I needed to buy this particular TV tuner because it had to be configured at the factory with Vista tweaks and internal card etc.

Can I use the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner with Direct TV to view and record HD content from Windows Vista Home Premium ("tweaked by HP")?]]>Dec 27th 2007 7:42PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
You will not be able to record DirecTV HD content with an OCUR system. You can only watch premium cable content, not satellite. The rumor mill is alive with speculation about satellite support, but if it's true you're looking at a ways out in my opinion.

Sounds like your reps at HP just don't understand the technology and gave you bad info.

You also will not be able to burn "playable" Blu-ray disks with digital cable content on them. You can back up the data files, but you cannot create a Blu-ray movie, so to speak.]]>Dec 27th 2007 7:51PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
I am the Product Manager for Sony's VAIO line of Digital Home products so please allow me to correct some comments made above:
- @ Chris, thank you for detailed and very correct comment on CableCARD usage with PCs.
- you are absolutely correct, only selected models qualify for usage with this TV Tuner
- as everyone can see, we posted the following cautionary note: "Compatible Models: Units already shipping with ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner"
- this is a secondary/optional CableCARD tuner for VAIO models that already ship with one such tuner.
- by offering this secondary tuner we wanted to enable our end users (who bought a VAIO model shipping with one tuner) to view and record simultaneously premium TV content (especially HD channels)
- the applicable units are selected models of the XL, AR and LT series shipping with one tuner already
- This is an ATi Digital Cable TV Tuner and is not rebranded VAIO. we just used the VGP-ANK1 naming for our internal purposes

In the hope this clarifies matters,

Xavier @ Sony
]]>Oct 25th 2007 1:50PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/
I'm just a bonehead consumer but if you have just a second, I sure would apreciate your advice. My cable company stinks so I signed up with DirectTV when I bought a new Sony XBR4 (1080P) Television (Circuit City gave me $300 off on the TV).

I also just bought a new HP M9000T media PC. The PC came with the ATI TV WONDER Digital Cable Tuner. When I talked to the guys at HP, I told them I wanted to be able to record HD content on my new BlueRay R/W that came with the machine. They told me I needed to buy this particular TV tuner because it had to be configured at the factory with Vista tweaks and internal card etc.

Can I use the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner with Direct TV to view and record HD content from Windows Vista Home Premium ("tweaked by HP")?]]>Dec 27th 2007 7:44PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 3:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 6:04PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 25th 2007 6:54PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/25/sony-selling-the-ati-tv-wonder-cablecard-tuner-all-by-its-loneso/Oct 26th 2007 2:46PM