Why don't Media Center PCs have Satellite Receiver Cards?

[JerryDelColliano]

I check these units out EVERY TIME I go to a trade show and they all have cable cards and no Satellite.

Their DVRs are pretty COOL but I need NFL fotball from DirecTV.

Does anyone know why its only cable?

j

[Robinson_A]

My guess is that the signals provided by satellite are somewhat proprietary to the service using them. For instance, Direct TV has certain programing, channels and packages that you can only get through them. If they were to farm out their packages or at least their codes to companies making Media Center PC's then the exclusivity would be lost or at least diminished. I'm sure companies like Direct TV have looked into the possibilities of MCPC's and have concluded that it would eat away at the profits/market share, or worse allow customers to all together circumvent or hack their coding resulting in piracy not unlike what we see with the music and/or movie industry with illegal downloads and DVD ripping. A lot of what you can get on MCPC's is over the air or available through basic cable which costs little to nothing. However, most MCPC's still need the help of an outside cable or satellite box in order to take full advantage of premium services and channels. You can connect a DirectTV type receiver to a MCPC and use the MCPC to record but you will need the satellite receiver in order to decode the signal. I'm using DirectTV as an example, I'm sure the same applies for Dish or what ever premium service you use.

[kennyt]

I suspect Andrew is right. This brings me back to the main problem in automation/integration today.

No Standard.

Everyone is trying to make a system to control lighting, distribute music, etc, but NONE of them use the same techniques or methods and are all incompatible with each other.

The best analogy I've heard was to compare this to shipping. Every shipping container is the same size, they fit obn cargo ships, trains and semi's allowing them to freely go by any route to get to there destination.

We have countless music servers, lighting systems etc and ALL of them use proprietary systems to function. Imagine how easy all these things would be if they all had a defined, standard connections. Something like how Firewire is defined. Any computer to use Firewire works with it. Imagine if all the multitude of current high end home systems could do that??

[SteinyD]

I know this thread is a couple months old but I haven't seen the answer I believe to be the case. My understanding as to why we have cable cards today and not satellite cards is because the FCC mandate only included cable companies and NOT satellite or Verizon's Fios. I don't think we'd even see cable cards today if the FCC hadn't mandated it.

I've heard rumors that the likes of DirecTV is working on satellite cards but I did not hear anything specific. I would hope CES 2008 would shed some light on this topic. I'm getting tired of not being able to take full advantage of HD system integration without the need for an OTA antenna.


David

Originally Posted by kennyt

I suspect Andrew is right. This brings me back to the main problem in automation/integration today.

No Standard.

Everyone is trying to make a system to control lighting, distribute music, etc, but NONE of them use the same techniques or methods and are all incompatible with each other.

The best analogy I've heard was to compare this to shipping. Every shipping container is the same size, they fit obn cargo ships, trains and semi's allowing them to freely go by any route to get to there destination.

We have countless music servers, lighting systems etc and ALL of them use proprietary systems to function. Imagine how easy all these things would be if they all had a defined, standard connections. Something like how Firewire is defined. Any computer to use Firewire works with it. Imagine if all the multitude of current high end home systems could do that??

[Robinson_A]

SteinyD,

Good point. I'll be sure to keep a look out for new DirectTV news at CES.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by kennyt

I suspect Andrew is right. This brings me back to the main problem in automation/integration today.

No Standard.

Everyone is trying to make a system to control lighting, distribute music, etc, but NONE of them use the same techniques or methods and are all incompatible with each other.

The best analogy I've heard was to compare this to shipping. Every shipping container is the same size, they fit obn cargo ships, trains and semi's allowing them to freely go by any route to get to there destination.

We have countless music servers, lighting systems etc and ALL of them use proprietary systems to function. Imagine how easy all these things would be if they all had a defined, standard connections. Something like how Firewire is defined. Any computer to use Firewire works with it. Imagine if all the multitude of current high end home systems could do that??

I think some like Control4 don't use proprietary at all. They use Zigbee a very old but efficient technology that anyone can learn to program (that knows how) or buy other zigbee products and integrate it into their system.

I know one Control4 Dealer that specifically uses HTPCs to control the house and Control4 switches, etc. are just put throughout the house.