Will We See HDTV DirecTV Media Center PCs in 2006?

Pocket-lint.co.uk CES 2006: Gates outlines alliances to push downloadable content news story: One of the more exciting things to think about with regards to the future of HDTV and Microsoft is the possibility of an HDTV DirecTV Media Center in 2006.

“Microsoft announced a broad agreement with DIRECTV Inc. that will open up new ways for consumers to enjoy their digital media in the networked home and on portable devices. Microsoft and DIRECTV will work together to enable digital content to flow between Windows-based PCs, DIRECTV devices, PlaysForSure™-based portable media devices and Xbox 360.”

Especially with the recent launch of more satellites to significantly enhance their HDTV lineup and their change to MPEG4, getting all these HDTV channels streamed into a Media Center PC would be pretty amazing and something I’d probably be even more excited about than recent CableCARD technology announcements.

I have not seen any specifics about an HDTV DirecTV Media Center that will record all their upcoming HDTV content (and quite frankly I’m still a bit skeptical as the HDTV DirecTV TiVo box that I own today is a very closed system) but it is nice to hear that Microsoft and they are working together to “enable digital content to flow between Windows-based PCs.”

Of course for those of you in the UK the even better news is that Sky Tuners will be made available for MCE as well.

Thanks to Bryan “Accident” Socha for the comment on this.