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DIY: Build your own Cable Card HTPC

ati_digital_cable_tuner Direct from Ben Drawbaugh at Engadget HD, DIY’ers have successfully built their own Cabled Card equipped HTPC. This is some fantastic news. One of the biggest complaints in the HTPC community is the lack of being able to support premium HD content with self built HTPC’s. Prior to this, users had to purchase OEM built HTPC’s from approved vendors. That now looks to not be the case. Currently you are still limited on the motherboards you can use, right now it looks like the Asus PQ5 mother boards work, which to me is just fine, as Asus is a very reputable mother board manufacture that make an extremely solid product.

On top of being limited on the motherboards you can use, you still have to get your hands on an OCUR tuner product ID number, which currently is still limited to those who purchase OEM pc’s with cable card tuners. Some users are reporting that the generic PID of 263DJ-2Y9YT-6X9G6-W28DB-697TF works, but who knows how long that PID # will last before Microsoft starts blocking it. Head over to The Green Button Forums for more details.

Now if only I was in the market for a new HTPC mobo and had some extra cash to pick up some ATI Cable Card Tuners, I might have just tried this myself.

Author

  • DIY: Build your own Cable Card HTPC

    Five+ year veteran media center user. Over the years I have built over 20 media center pc's whether it has been to upgrade an existing system in my setup, or to build a media center pc (HTPC) for friends or family. My other passion besides HTPC's and Media Center is Home Theater. After purchasing my first home with a blank slate in the basement, I completely finished it off, building a home theater with a 120" front projection setup and 7.1 surround sound system. So between Media Center and Home theater that is what you'll find me talking about here. Like Adam Thursby, between the two of us are probably the only Zune users you'll find. I started out with an iPod nano but eventually found my way to the Zune and the Zune software and never looked back. Also like Josh Pollard I too am a mobile phone/smart phone gadget nerd. In my "day job" one of my job responsibilities is to test out new phones, specifically windows mobile phones, and test them out with our exchange server and trouble shoot end user issues. I am also a Blackberry convert as I recently got a Blackberry Storm for personal use and absolutely love it! I am a huge forum troll, you can find me on AVSforums, TGB, Missingremote, Hardforums, and even the AU media center forums. I like to help out where I can when it comes to HTPC's and media center in general, so if there are questions to be had, I try to answer them the best I can.

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About the author

Josh Shenkle

Five+ year veteran media center user. Over the years I have built over 20 media center pc's whether it has been to upgrade an existing system in my setup, or to build a media center pc (HTPC) for friends or family. My other passion besides HTPC's and Media Center is Home Theater. After purchasing my first home with a blank slate in the basement, I completely finished it off, building a home theater with a 120" front projection setup and 7.1 surround sound system. So between Media Center and Home theater that is what you'll find me talking about here. Like Adam Thursby, between the two of us are probably the only Zune users you'll find. I started out with an iPod nano but eventually found my way to the Zune and the Zune software and never looked back. Also like Josh Pollard I too am a mobile phone/smart phone gadget nerd. In my "day job" one of my job responsibilities is to test out new phones, specifically windows mobile phones, and test them out with our exchange server and trouble shoot end user issues. I am also a Blackberry convert as I recently got a Blackberry Storm for personal use and absolutely love it! I am a huge forum troll, you can find me on AVSforums, TGB, Missingremote, Hardforums, and even the AU media center forums. I like to help out where I can when it comes to HTPC's and media center in general, so if there are questions to be had, I try to answer them the best I can.

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