If you are like me and have been wanting more options in the MCE SDK it appears your requests have been answered. The new SDK for Diamond (MCE in the vista timeframe) which is available on MSDN now offers developers the chance to leverage the same rendering that MCE itself uses. Check out the sandbox for more info.
http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/PermaLink,guid,817c2b05-2a9e-47ac-80c9-1c4db5b26c18.aspx
It looks like digital cable withouth a cable box is almost here. ATI’s OCUR was demonstrated at this years CES show working with MCE. I am a DirecTV guy myself (I refuse to have anything to do with Comcast) but for others this will be the end all be all of tuners. Now where is my DirecTV tuner….
Looks like some really cool things are coming down the pike. Cable Card support, new SKY stuff as well as a whole lot more. Check it out at the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/events/executives/billgates.mspx