Last week I talked about the post on TGB about hacking your PC to make a DIY CableCARD system and if your interested in trying out the hack checkout the brilliant guide Ben Drawbaugh has put together. He explains what you need and how to prepare your system for CableCARD including the BIOS hack and installing the hardware plus setting up the Media Center part of the system. Its a real step by step guide that details everything you will need to do to get it to work. Ben also points out that The Custom Integrators show is a great resource if you run in to trouble getting it working.
Access to premium HD on computers has eluded most for way to long, so as soon as we heard that it was finally possible for anyone to add a CableCARD tuner to just about any Media Center, we just knew we had to try it for ourselves, and more importantly, share with you exactly how to do it. This doesn’t really require any hacking, or anything illegal for that matter — we’re not lawyers — but it isn’t cheap. The internal version of the ATI Digital Cable Tuner pictured above can be found new on eBay for about $195, or new from PC vendors like Cannon PC for just under $300. If that doesn’t seem like a bad deal to you and you already have an HTPC up to the challenge, then you should join us on our journey to HD bliss by clicking through.
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