Preview: Dish Network One-Ups CableCARD with USB and Microsoft

We don't have a ton of info on this, but DISH Network was demoing a cool new technology that made use of Windows 7 Media Center and integrates Dual HD Tuners via USB. What's so interesting about this is that it bypasses the ridiculous CableCARD format in favor of using the existing USB standard. What? Bypass an all-but-failed CableCARD format for a standard already used and which takes up less space and can be more easily integrated into existing equipment? That's preposterous. Apparently, someone over at DISH Network (and Microsoft) are putting on their thinking caps and doing some real innovation in terms of bringing DISH to Windows Media Center.

This is excellent news and the interface was pretty robust, offering a ton of meta data that can be viewed regarding television shows and movies. When we took a look at the proof of concept it was clear that DISH has been working hard to provide their service as a seamless integration within Windows Media Center. With the promised stability of Windows 7 (of course this remains to be seen) 2010 might be the year we see more and more Media Center integration into the living room - especially with proliferation of inexpensive laptops that include HDMI.

Since the proof of concept uses two USB ports, this means that you can both view and play back an HD stream at the same time. It will be interesting to see if the system ultimately requires another USB port for each tuner or if there is a more efficient way to transfer the data for additional recording and playback streams.

You won't see much more info on this from DISH network since it's preliminary, but it's certainly encouraging and we look forward to seeing it deploy.

Unless otherwise indicated, this is a preview article for the featured product. A formal review may or may not follow in the future.