Today, across the world, Live Earth is taking place – a huge concert for “a climate in crisis”. This event is bringing together 2 billion people across the world with performances by over 150 musicians and presented by MSN. Unfortunately I was unable to make it to any of the live concerts myself but I have the next best thing to being there in person. Connected to a 42-inch LG HDTV (which is Energy Star compliant) is a Digital Cable Card Home Entertainment PC from Velocity Micro. Companies such as Velocity Micro, HP, and others are beginning to ship PC’s capable of HDTV with Windows Vista using Windows Media Center. These PC’s come with a special HD tuner with a slot for a special card called a CableCard. These CableCards enable HD capabilities through your digital cable service and are available through your digital cable providers (for example I received my CableCard from Comcast).
Through my digital cable package I have with Comcast, I get several HD channels that work wonderfully with my Digital Cable Card PC and Windows Vista. Today, UHD – the Universal HD channel – is broadcasting Live Earth in HD all day as the concerts take place across the world.
Here is a video I shot of the Foo Fighters playing in London to show the setup I currently have running:
In the coming weeks, I plan to cover very extensively the HD capabilities and scenarios that Windows Vista supports which include the use of CableCards for HDTV content with Windows Media Center. I plan to dive real deep with explaining how it all works together with Windows Vista.
Now – off to replace all my old incandescent light bulbs with new fluorescent light bulbs.