Cannon PC to offer up dual / quad-CableCARD Media Center rigs

Your options are fairly limited when scouring the market for a twin-CableCARD HTPC, but thanks to a new partnership between Cannon PC and Microsoft, yet another rival will be jousting for your business. Here soon, the outfit will be offering its Home and Pro A/V series Media Center PCs with dual CableCARDs pre-installed, and if you're willing to wait a touch longer, a quad-CableCARD model will also be available. Oh, and if that chassis above looks strangely familiar, that's because it is: Cannon has simply grabbed OrigenAE's famed shell, painted it black and slapped its own logo up there (though we aren't complaining or anything). The pictured EX line is just one of the many families with the new functionality, so head on over to the company's website if you're interested in shelling out.

[scjessey @ May 29th 2008 12:21PM]

Stuck with the Microsoft operating system though...

[OneLove @ May 29th 2008 4:15PM]

The S21T comes in black and white from factory. (just saying).

[E71 @ May 30th 2008 7:08AM]

For Home Theater PCs, Microsoft's OSes are the ONLY OSes! You seen how fugly and unintuitive Linux's Media Center software is? No thank you.

[Godskitchen @ May 29th 2008 12:34PM]

I have this case (OrigenAE's), the picture of Media Center on there is super imposed, the screen on it is almost unusable. The build quality of the case is however first class.

[ChuChu @ May 29th 2008 12:38PM]

I like the aesthetics of this case but I have to wonder how loud it is once you start packing the harddrives in there. I used to have a shuttlePC that I used as a HTPC and the HD whine drove me absolutely crazy during quiet parts in movies. That was with heatpipe and fanless GPU so the only moving part was the HD.

How noisy do you find it?

[Godskitchen @ May 29th 2008 12:45PM]

I have at the moment 7 1Tb drives in it and a SSD (Which of course makes no noise.

I did at one stage have it full with 10 HDD's and to be honest the noise is not too bad, the hard drives are stacked vertically and not screwed to the case, they are held in place by thick rubber screws and two strips of metal at the top to stop them falling out I assume. Although to make them fall out you would need to turn the case upside down.

I also have a Antec p182 case and its regarded as one of the best on noise, I would rate the OrigenAE the same to be fair. Most of the noise comes from the small fans they supply (2 of them) to keep each bay of 5 HDDs cool. I am looking for a work around for this but its pretty limited for space in there, Its not really that big of a case, its just separated very well.

[rock99rock @ May 29th 2008 2:11PM]

I would have liked this case, for the storage options. But the LCD is a little overkill for my needs. I would like this case without the LCD (or smaller LCD or VFD) for under $400. Thatd be sweet. 9TB raid 5 media server.

[Flashpoint @ May 29th 2008 12:33PM]

If Apple or Microsoft were smart (which they aren't) they'd have designed a touchscreen Media Center like this for a Car's radio headunit.

All they'd need is approproate failsafes to stop certain programs from running during vehicle movement or link it to the seats so that the passenger's presense would unlock it.

[AMFS @ May 29th 2008 1:25PM]

Just needs the standard e-brake censor connected like DVD players have so you can't play a DVD unless the e-brake is on. Of course, there's ways around them...

[Shadowise @ May 29th 2008 12:34PM]

I'm sure they'd get more sales if they just sold that case by itself. I'd buy one.

[Godskitchen @ May 29th 2008 12:35PM]

They do

[Shadowise @ May 29th 2008 12:35PM]

ho hum, you can buy the cases already >.

[rektide @ May 29th 2008 1:48PM]

Or they could sell one system and make eight times the profit margin of what they could charge for a case. Not saying that's smarter, just saying thats what the HTPC market is doing these days: it has some cush margins.

[palehorse @ May 29th 2008 1:49PM]

The cases alone sell for about $1000...

This system is damn hawt to look at, but for $5600, I could build two or three of my own with comparable specs... it's just too bad CableLabs has us by the balls... DOH!

Then again, there is that wonderful new Happuage HDPVR box... :)

[Richard @ May 29th 2008 5:10PM]

http://www.xoxide.com/hometheater.html

There's some HTPC cases. The Moneual (spelling, don't have the site open right now) are nice and have the screens on them already.

[scjessey @ May 29th 2008 12:41PM]

Isn't CableCARD pretty much obsolete because of imminent switched video? I'd hate to spend megabucks on a system like this, only to find that it will fail to work in the very near future.

[Mile @ May 29th 2008 12:55PM]

The Cable Companies will always find a way to force you to cough up $$'s for their box.

[rektide @ May 29th 2008 1:50PM]

The current spec is called "OpenCable Unidirecitonal Receiver," or OCUR. V2.0 will be bi-directional, where you send data back to the cable company. Spec is not finalized. So, to answer your question, this will almost certainly become obsolete in the future. I'm thinking at least another year though till we see OCBT (opencable bidirectional transciever). Doesnt have quite the same ring as OCUR now does it?

Some didnt know any better mods deleted the wikipedia article on all this. I blame them.

[rektide @ May 29th 2008 2:35PM]

Sorry I appear to be significantly behind the times here, successor to Tru2Way is OCUR, and it looks like it may be a tiny bit less of a rediculous fiasco than OCUR.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tru2Way
http://www.engadgethd.com/tag/tru2way/

[Joylove @ May 29th 2008 1:06PM]

Although, Vista MCE only allows two tuners...

[Mike @ May 29th 2008 1:11PM]

No they allow up to four. Two NTSC and two ATSC. Or Quad Cable Card or two Cable Card and two ATSC.

[Fitz @ May 29th 2008 9:56PM]

There's a simple reg hack to enable more digital tuners and Fiji will undoubtedly allow 4 digital tuners on day one.

[Joylove @ May 30th 2008 5:37AM]

I tried that hack and it keeps bieng overwritten and generally being awkward. Why should I have to wait for Fiji for a feature that was in XP MCE?

[Low Ranked @ May 29th 2008 1:11PM]

This has to be the most badass microwave I've ever seen.

[Ian @ May 29th 2008 1:16PM]

Prices?

[OneLove @ May 29th 2008 4:16PM]

you cant afford it, if you have to ask. :)

[OneLove @ May 29th 2008 8:10PM]

$5,599

[rektide @ May 29th 2008 1:46PM]

Two problems:
1) Stuck with not only Microsoft, but also a computer so locked up with insane DRM. They might just as well be licensing you the right to use a computer, not selling you the box.
2) May or may not support OpenCable Card 2.0? Standard has not been finalized, last I heard, so theres no way to know.

OpenCable card is a freaking joke. It was supposed to open accessibility and prevent device lock in, but you have to buy DRM locked HTPC's at highway robbery prices to play, and every usecase you want has to be approved by the content holders and microsoft. The FCC mandated OpenCable, but imo the three ring circus in the HTPC world is a sick sadistic joke.

[palehorse @ May 29th 2008 1:55PM]

one solution: Happuage's new HD-PVR... ;)

[OneLove @ May 29th 2008 4:19PM]

its vista...I mean windows 7, so relax.

[scjessey @ May 29th 2008 2:00PM]

The Happuage card is tied to Windows DRM evilnessage as well - you can blame that on CableLabs.

[Adam @ May 29th 2008 3:00PM]

Just a correction in text, they didn't paint it black. Black is one of the optional colors to acquire the Origen-AE case.


Bought this case for myself prior to the availability of the OCUR HTPC's, and I must say, it's high quality in itself. Sitting below my TV, it barely makes any sound. Sitting with about 2TB (.5TB OS, .5TB DVR, 2x.5TB for DVD's - also went out of my way to find the quietest drives possible), the loudest item I hear is the DVD drive when engaged.

I've found the touch screen to be almost useless since I can control everything from the TV itself or remote login from another machine. Also, the Touch Screen is compatible with VGA or DVI input, however the company only supplied a VGA loop back interface for it. And the IR sensor of course won't turn on the system if it's in Hibernation or Shut Off.

Case is top notch, but as someone specified, the touch screen is overkill.

The case itself retailed for about $1k by itself back in the days, so I'd consider this to be a pretty pricey drop...

[Xepol @ May 29th 2008 3:31PM]

I think I just felt something highly inappropriate about an inanimate object.

[gdrumm @ Jun 2nd 2008 12:58AM]

That looks a lot like Zap Wizard's Media PC...

http://www.zapwizard.com/MediaPC/index.html