Just after I got back from my Christmas vacation in Virginia, the second hard drive failed in my Windows Media Center computer. This left me with a fully-functional Media Center, but with very limited space to store my recorded television. I loved my Media Center; I’ve been a fan since first hearing about it, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised many times to discover new uses for it. But this failure came at a really bad time. With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft is making some major improvements to Media Center, the biggest being their support for CableCARDs. This would finally let people watch HDTV and HBO on their Media Centers, and more importantly would let them record it. With the Vista version of Media Center and a CableCARD, I wouldn’t even have a cable box; I’d just watch all of my TV through my Media Center. But there’s just one catch: the new Media Center can only support the CableCARDs on CableLabs-certified computers, which ultimately means I’d have to buy a new  pre-built computer to get it to work. And Vista won’t be out in stores for a few more months.

So I was left without a Media Center, and while I’d already been thinking about replacing it with a new Vista one, I’d have to wait a few months. I could have bought a new hard drive for my old Media Center, but since the new one would have to be pre-built, that money would basically be wasted. Ultimately, I decided to just bite the bullet and get a Comcast DVR to tide me over, and to figure out what I’m going to do for Vista after it comes out. The Comcast DVR only costs me around $7 a month, and it will even record HDTV and HBO. The only downside is that it puts me at the mercy of Comcast, the interface sucks, and it has extremely limited storage space. But I figured it’d be at least tolerable, and that it would suffice until after Vista is released.

By the way, if you want an example of how I’m now at Comcast’s mercy, I have a good one. The new Cable Box (which was made by Motorola) actually has an external connector where you can plug in a bigger hard drive, which would solve the problem of its limited amount of storage. But Comcast has elected to disable it. They want to be able to rent out external hard drives to use with it, but they’re not ready yet, so until then they’ve just turned it off. I’m also guessing that when they do finally get around to enabling this feature (that’s already built into the box), I’ll have to get the drive from them rather than being able to buy my own.

Anyway, it seems to be working adequately so far. It’s definitely nowhere near as nice as the Media Center, but it does record HDTV and that part is a big improvement. I’d have to say that, as of right now, it’s probably the best solution for combining DVR and HDTV, at least until Vista comes out. It’s still a very flawed product, but if someone asked me to recommend a solution, I’d suggest this for right now. If nothing else, it’s not a long-term commitment.

After Vista comes out, I’ll have to take a tough look and figure out what to do. I’m leaning towards getting a new Media Center, despite its higher cost. This is both because I like what Microsoft has been doing with it, and because I dislike the way Comcast and the other cable companies have handled the situation. I don’t have any facts or studies to back it up, but my personal gut feeling is that they’ve been dragging their feet on supporting CableCARDs to let their DVR technology catch up to their competitors. I also dislike the way they close out their system (like they did with the external hard drive feature). So I’m leaning towards a new Media Center, but I’m still not sure.