As reported on GeekTonic before CES started, the long awaited Ceton multistream tuner is real and the four-tuner version is scheduled to arrive by March 2010 for $399.
The Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner will be available as a PCI Express, Low-Profile form factor at a suggested retail price of $399. The Ceton tuner was highlighted at Microsoft’s keynote address at the beginning of CES. Steve Balmer highlighted the Ceton four-stream CableCard Tuner with a demo during the keynote address showing how Windows 7 could be used with Windows MediaCenter.
From the Ceton Press Release:
PCs running Windows Media Center, included with most versions of Windows 7, with a Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner card installed will natively support high-definition pay TV, including premium cable TV channels, without the need for a separate cable set-top box. In addition to standard- and high-definition channels, the Ceton solution will also support channels delivered using Switched Digital Video (SDV) via a Tuning Adapter. A single Ceton Digital Cable Quad-Tuner card with a single multi-stream CableCARD(TM) (M-Card) and single cable RF connection will support playing and/or recording of up to four live channels of high-definition digital cable TV simultaneously.
The card requires Windows 7 with MediaCenter.
Because there’s quite a bit of interest around the Ceton card, you might be interested in the following two quick videos. The first is an interview of Jeremy Hammer of CetonCorp. The second is another interview, but you get to see the card
Interview via Pete at the GreenButton