WMCE graphics and tuner hardware in Vista beta

Nothing earth-shattering here as Vista is still in beta, but there's some basic information on WMCE functionality and the beta build hardware requirements so we thought we'd let you know where things are heading. Any computer that meets the Vista hardware requirements will run the Media Center functions. According to Microsoft's MCE Hardware Requirements doc that beta testers can view for this February CTP build [disclosure: I am a beta tester], the only officially supported graphics cards are ATI's Radeon X-series or 9800 and NVIDIA's GeForce FX or 6-series. Again, these are the cards that are supported for beta testing, so don't panic or purchase new cards.

There's a plethora of TV tuner cards that are supported in this beta build; a full listing is below, but a good portion are not DTV tuner cards and of course, it's way to early for any CableCARD 2.0 support. Unfortunately, Microsoft didn't add Windows Media Extender support yet in the Vista beta code available, so we won't be testing connectivity and HD streaming with our Xbox 360 just yet either.

Preferred TV Tuner cards:

• ATI Theater 550

• Adaptec AVC-3610 USB
  

• Hauppauge PVR-150/500, PVR-USB2

• Lumanate Angel PCI

• ADS PTV-380-W

• Pinnacle 310i

TV Tuner cards supported via Windows Update:

• ATI Theater 550, DTV Wonder

• Adaptec AVC-3610 USB

• ASUStek Blackbird, Falcon2, Europa, Tiger, Tiger-s, Mercur

• Hauppauge PVR-150/500, PVR-250/350, PVR-USB2

• Hauppauge HVR-900, HVR-1100, HVR-1300, Nova-T

• Lifeview LR1212, LR0214, LR0301, LR0303, LR0304, LR0306, LR3306, LR0307, LR3307, LR0314, LR0315, LR0502, LR1502, LR2502, LR3502

• Lumanate Maui1, Maui3, Angel PCI

• ADS PTV-380-W

• Creatix CTX917

• Pinnacle 100i, 110i, 300i, 310i

• Sony ENX-26

• VBox USB-A 3560/li>