Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Sony made a splash in the media center world a couple of months ago being the first OEM to sell individual digital cable tuners, which are used to watch HD programming on premium cable channels. While you still need to have a computer with the special version of Vista that supported digital cable tuners, Sony offers their customers the ability to increase the number of digital cable tuners in their media center. While nice to see, the price was high for an individual tuner: $300.

I recently was on the SonyStyle website and noticed that Sony is now selling refurbished digital cable tuners for $199, a $100 discount. That certainly is more palatable. Digital cable tuners are known for having a high failure rate right out of the box so buying a refurbished unit may actually be better than buying a new one. I assume a refurbished unit would actually be tested before being sent out. Plus, who cares if you have a refurbished tuner? It either works or it doesn’t. These tuners are ugly and should be hidden anyway.

HP right now is selling the cheapest media centers that support digital cable tuners. Their main drawback is that they only you to purchase one tuner with your system. This makes no sense. Sony helps solve that issue. Currently, the cheapest way to have two tuners, which is almost essential so that you can record and watch TV at the same time, is to buy an HP computer and then buy a refurbished unit from Sony.