Monday, January 04, 2010

SiliconDust Networked CableCard HDHomeRun Confirmed

SiliconDust CableCard HDHR

Quick update to yesterdays post about the SiliconDust HDHR CableCard device.  I received confirmation today from a very reliable source of the following:

  • SiliconDust does in fact have a HDHomeRun in development that is a CableCard tuner
  • This device WILL be networked just as the current HDHomeRun works today meaning it requires no port on your computer.  Not sure if this would mean that it can be used on multiple computers in a setup or not given CableLabs limitations…

There are a few reasons I find this exciting news.  First it’s from SiliconDust who made Networked QAM tuners a working reality.  Second the fact that you can have CableCard tuners on a network could really make sense with the limiting Windows MediaCenter lack of softsled – that is IF you can use one of these with more than one PC.  And finally it’s a strong sign of life for CableCard when not long ago it seemed like technology that wouldn’t make it.  We’ll have to see if it’s a dual tuner or not – that would make this even bigger.

More details will flow this week at CES so stay tuned!