Cannon PC shows off system with six CableCard HD tuners running on Windows Media Center

Do you have a need to record A LOT of content? You might be interested in this video clip by Cannon PC that shows off a Windows Media Center PC recording from six CableCard-enabled HD tuners. The video clip is of course a bit promotional because it shows one of their own systems handling the recording of six HD channels simultaneously while also playing back a high definition video clip. Keep in mind of course – this is NOT an incredibly hard task to accomplish. The video clip shows that the system is built around a quad core processor – that’s plenty of horsepower for Windows Media Center.

But what about the six HD tuners recording at the same time you say? Well one would assume that the six HD tuners had hardware based encoders thus relieving the CPU of any encoding duties. So.. the only left to do is to have a wickedly fast storage system which means you’ll want a nice RAID storage array with lots of fast disks. Finally.. playing back HD – well again – you’ll want a nice graphics card with hardware based decoding.

Now what is cool is how these guys have managed to get six tuners working under Windows Media Center. If you poke around on Google, you’ll figure out ways to get Media Center to see more than the normal 2 analog and 2 digital tuner limitation (hint – check out MCE Tuner Extender as an easy way to get this working).

While it’s certainly plausible for you to create a system like the demoed Cannon system – there won’t be an easy way for you to get a hold of six CableCard capable tuners. In fact, CableCard tuner cards are not sold directly to the consumer – you’ll have to buy it as part of a new system unfortunately. In any case, kudos to Cannon PC for pushing the envelope on MCE systems.