Microsoft Media Center CEDIA predictions wrap-up

I’m sure you all remember Ben’s CEDIA predictions of what would go down, and now he’s got his own self-scoreboard up on EngadgetHD. Looks like he did a pretty good job as a fortune teller. It’s a shame all his predictions couldn’t come true for us enthusiasts…maybe next year!

EngadgetHD

Sadly this is the biggest section — we aren’t even going to include our list of might happen here because honestly we didn’t think they would. The biggest shocker to us was that ATI didn’t have a new Digital Cable Tuner to announce. Instead it seems that after about three years of being the only game in town, ATI is pulling out of the market. In retrospect it should’ve been pretty obvious because AMD sold off most of its TV business to Broadcom last year and along with it most of the people who worked on the DCT. Luckily Ceton was at the show with its new quad tuner and the details of the new offering was documented on its website. So while we would’ve liked to have seen more competition from AMD, at least Ceton and Hauppauge are interested in helping us get premium HD on our HTPC. Speaking of Hauppauge, we’re surprised official support for the HD PVR wasn’t announced at the show, but then again we hear that the 3rd party solution is pretty good.