Microsoft said on Wednesday it is teaming up with cable companies to allow consumers to watch high-definition cable television programs through their PCs, Xbox 360 video-game consoles and other computer devices, without the need to connect an external set-top box as is necessary now. The Xbox 360 game console will feature the so-called HD Cable multimedia port, appart from the S-VIdeo output.

Cable cards are now available from some cable companies, though they can only be used with digital television sets that have slots built into them. The cable-ready PCs will be available for the 2006 holiday sales season and run on a multimedia-friendly version of Windows known as the Windows Media Center Edition, Microsoft said. PC makers including Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. already sell PCs loaded with Media Center. They come preloaded with software for recording, editing and playing music and video.

full text: cdrinfo.com