Vista Premium and PVR cards
We haven’t been talking much about Windows Vista, but the new Microsoft OS is out there and gaining foothold daily. In fact, I am writing this post on my Vista Home Premium PC, which I must say, I am pretty satisfied with.
If you got a computer with Vista Home Premium or Ultimate edition, it has the Media Center interface built-in, and all my kids find very convenient to watch movies/clips that are already on the computer via that interface.
If you are planning to buy a PC in the future, most like it will come with Vista. Make sure you are getting at least Home Premium edition of Vista, it contains Media Center, and the beautiful Aero Glass interface. The version below it, Home Basic, is something you should avoid at all cost. It’s only around $20 less, but stripped of Media Center and many other features. Frankly, looks like Home Basic was put out there just for people who are trying to install Vista on very old PCs, that can’t support modern interface or features.
Next thing to know is that most of the PCs with Vista Home Premium will Not have any sort of Tuner. Worry not, that can easily be added, if you choose to do so.
As I mentioned in the past, your only options right now are either pure Analog tuner card (make sure to get Vista certified one) or HD Over-the-Air tuner card. The Analog one is really designed to be connected to your local basic (analog) cable, and as you guessed, the HDTV expects to get connected to amplified and preferably roof-top mounted antenna.
Apparently market research shows that people will be buying a lot of these tuners in the coming years.
And what about Digital Cable support, you ask? That’s next up on my coverage list, stay tuned!
[via TV Squad via The Green Button via InformationWeek]
Of course I could have linked to InformationWeek article directly, but where’s the fun in that 
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