HP has a sale right now until 8/31, 30% off on all m9300t desktops $999 and up, including those with cablecard support.

Select the base m9300t and customize with Vista Home Premium for digital cable tunner.  It will require the minimun upgrades: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS and ATI TV Wonder external digital cable tuner + internal TV tuner.  This will increase the price to $1099.99.  If you select no additional upgrades, software, or accessories and continue to checkout, enter "DT9021" (without quotes) in the coupon box and press add.  The price will drop to $770 plus tax and shipping fees will drop to zero ($839.29 for me).

Any other upgrades you add will also be 30% off.  So base or maxed out, this is a great deal for anyone wanting an intro cablecard system.  You can always add another cablecard tuner from Sony's website if you need two tuners.

Not sure if HP is shipping with TV pack yet.  If they are, does anyone know if it's possible to upgrade Home Premiun w/ cablecard support to Ultimate w/ cablecard support after purchase?  This would allow up to four cablecard tunners to be puchased later.

ssterb1:

You can always add another cablecard tuner from Sony's website if you need two tuners.

Sony has currently stopped offering the tuner separately.

Sony New & Sony Outlet

ssterb1:

HP has a sale right now until 8/31, 30% off on all m9300t desktops $999 and up, including those with cablecard support.

Select the base m9300t and customize with Vista Home Premium for digital cable tunner.  It will require the minimun upgrades: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 9500GS and ATI TV Wonder external digital cable tuner + internal TV tuner.  This will increase the price to $1099.99.  If you select no additional upgrades, software, or accessories and continue to checkout, enter "DT9021" (without quotes) in the coupon box and press add.  The price will drop to $770 plus tax and shipping fees will drop to zero ($839.29 for me).

Good deal...too bad I missed out on the last deal... They had a $400 off a new PC over $1000 and free shipping so the same system with a single ATI cable card tuner was $699 shipped...

Edit: checked it out, The hard drive has a free upgrade to 750gb to 320gb. The last deal had a upgrade from 2gb to 3gb ram...

Too bad I couldn't get in...(wife said no)

---

-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)

Great Deal. Saved me $360. That was close to the $400 coupon I missed too. Thanks

 

Instant discounts you received:
$360.00	Coupon DT9021

arandazz:

ssterb1:

You can always add another cablecard tuner from Sony's website if you need two tuners.

Sony has currently stopped offering the tuner separately.

Sony New & Sony Outlet

They do have them refurbished and ready to ship tomorrow for $199.99, and if you apply for their credit line, you get 24 months, free shipping and $150.00 off your credit card bill after 6-8 weeks.  looks like you can add 2 tuners to any Cable Card ready system for about $250 and the tax on $400.

Refurbished

I have the same system and was able to upgrade to Ultimate and the TV pack floating around. I now have 3 cablecard tuners and 3 clear qam.

ejezuba1,

So i just may pull the trigger on this system - but want to confirm two things:

1.  You say you have this exact system (m9300t) and were able to add a second cablecard tuner and get it to work with the one already in this unit, correct?  If so, do i just buy a refurb'd one from the Sony site mentioned above?

2.  How noisy is this thing?  I wish it was an HTPC form factor but in any case i do not want this thing belting out a bunch of fan noise...

 

Thanks,

Kevin

1. It really doesn't matter where you buy it... I bought my two extra on ebay. Just make sure it has the power unit. I read something here that someone bought from sony and did not get the power supply.

2. It is quite noisy. It is not livingroom ready. I have mine in my office in the basement with 5 extenders all over the house. The noise is mostly from the Videocard fan. The other thing is that the power unit is rated at 350watts, I had to upgrade mine to 550 get enough juice. It was constantly restarting itself before I figured out that it needed more power. Mine is about 6months old maybe they have changed the PSU. The motherboard is standard ATX so you could transfer it to a more suitable case if you wanted to.

ejezuba1:

1. It really doesn't matter where you buy it... I bought my two extra on ebay. Just make sure it has the power unit. I read something here that someone bought from sony and did not get the power supply.

2. It is quite noisy. It is not livingroom ready. I have mine in my office in the basement with 5 extenders all over the house. The noise is mostly from the Videocard fan. The other thing is that the power unit is rated at 350watts, I had to upgrade mine to 550 get enough juice. It was constantly restarting itself before I figured out that it needed more power. Mine is about 6months old maybe they have changed the PSU. The motherboard is standard ATX so you could transfer it to a more suitable case if you wanted to.

Is it possible to switch out the video card to a fanless unit?  If I were to go with the HP, I would most certainly transplant it into my mATX HTPC case... but I want it virtually silent like my current non-cable-card HTPC is today.

I don't think I could put up with an extender as my primary media experience.

Jon

ejezuba1:

I have the same system and was able to upgrade to Ultimate and the TV pack floating around. I now have 3 cablecard tuners and 3 clear qam.

ejezuba1,

I just bought this system. You said you upgraded to Ultimate. Did you do a clean install or did you just upgrade from your previous verison . I was wondering about doing a clean install of Ultimate to get rid of some of the extras HP will put onto the computer and if the cablecards would still work.

Also I bought a refurb from sonystyle and didn't receive a power cord for the ATI digital tuner.       So watch out!!!

Thanks, Jason

Ugh - that is what I was afraid of...  So I still am on the lookout for a HTPC with dual CableCards in a stereo component form factor that A - doesn't sound like a jet engine and B - doesn't cost $6,000+ for what is really a $800 PC... 

Anyone have any good suggestions?

Thanks,

Kevin

Yes, I did a clean install and all is good. I too hated the bloatware from HP.

Yes, you can change the videocard. It's just another pc. The only thing that is special is the firmware on the motherboard.

ejezuba1:

 You have a pm!!

I posted a cheap fix for the noisy 9500gs:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/post/279104.aspx

I was the one who posted that I didn't receive a power supply from Sony refurbished.  I bought a power supply of ebay for $25 but it is 3A instead of 4A so it runs hot.  At some point, I'll try to replace it with a 4A unit.

Lastly, I was unsuccessful in upgrading to TV Pack 2008.  The problem is that one of the tuners failed to tune into any channels.  The tuner that failed had a single-stream cable card that was made in 5/2005.  The tuner that worked had a multi-stream cable card from 8/2007.  I'm not sure if this was the reason but I attempted twice and finally restored the computer back to pre-TV Pack.  I haven't tried a clean install of Vista with TV Pack yet.

ejezuba1:

Yes, you can change the videocard. It's just another pc. The only thing that is special is the firmware on the motherboard.