Normally we'd balk and just tell 'em what we tell everyone else – namely, that we're pretty damn good with gadgets and can set this stuff up ourselves – but the prospect of having a small army of people in our tiny NYC apartment just to set up one PC was too good to pass up. Īnyway, a few weeks ago we finally got the word that they were ready to send us a review unit – but that they wanted to fly a team of people out from Redmond (and bringing along a team of Time Warner Cable techs) to get us all set up.

We figured at the very least we'd be able to get our hands on one right after Vista launched, but there were numerous delays because of CableLabs' requirement that they be able to certify every CableCARD-enabled device and some apparent technical issues with getting Digital Cable Tuners to work properly. So ever since the first Vista betas became available we've been hassling Microsoft to hook us up with a CableCARD-enabled Media Center to test out. Here's the backstory: Just like a lot of you out there, we've been lusting after a CableCARD-enabled Media Center PC for years (or at least it seems like years). Or at least it would be six if the installation had actually been successful. How many people does it take to install a Vista CableCARD-enabled Media Center PC?

Linux media center pc cablecard