Jason Dunn
10-19-2005, 05:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2568' target='_blank'>http://www.anandtech.com/systems/showdoc.aspx?i=2568</a><br /><br /></div>"The problem is, someone looking for an expensive but capable HTPC probably has some other wants as well. HDTV compatibility is a major flaw in the design. Sure, you can watch DVDs without trouble, and you can even download movies from the Internet and watch them on your HTPC. The NVIDIA output, either through component or DVI to an HDTV, works great. The inability to record or view HDTV broadcasts on its own makes this, at best, a secondary A/V component for many people. If Shuttle could add cards with HDTV support as well as SDTV support in place of the current AverMedia cards, the HDTV recording would be better, but it still wouldn't be perfect. (We'd love to see a card with component-in connections, if someone would create such a card...)<br /><br />In the end, there are several things holding back the HTPC market, and none of them are Shuttle's fault. The DMCA and similar legislation are definitely not helping the home user get the most out of their electronics. Content providers share the largest portion of the blame, as standards like cablecard were promised years ago and yet content providers are still "nervous". MPEG-2 compression would be far preferable to the MS format, but the potential for piracy is always cited as a reason for alternative formats. As a standalone device, the M1000 works well, but the shared video aspect had problems with streaming, and the video codec was less than ideal."<br /><br />Anandtech's Jarred Walton has reviewed the Shuttle M1000, and while he likes what Shuttle has done, the basic problem is what I pointed out when I posted about it yesterday: no HDTV. This is something that will plague all MCE units until Microsoft is able to sweet-talk/strong-arm the content providers into letting real HDTV recording happen. Until then, I'm stuck with my horrifically bad Motorola PVR from my local cable company. :evil:<br /><br />A small aside: there's one issue where Jarred Walton misses the mark on. He says <i>"MPEG-2 compression would be far preferable to the MS format, but the potential for piracy is always cited as a reason for alternative formats."</i> This is absolutely not the reason why DVR-MS is used. DVR-MS is an MPEG2 file wrapped in a software layer (ASF I believe) that includes meta data that could not be included in the MPEG2 file: things like the description of the TV show, original air date, etc. MS-DVR has absolutely nothing to do with piracy. I share Jarred's frustration with MS-DVR, but for a different reason: there are few programs out that can work with DVR-MS, making it cumbersome to edit and compress. Not even Microsoft's own Windows Movie Maker or Windows Media Encoder can work with DVR-MS! I think this is downright shameful.