The Windows Team Blog has the scoop on the newly released Ceton InfiniTV 4 digital cable tuner card, which Media Center enthusiasts have been waiting on for some time. Last November, changes to industry policy allowed for the installation of digital cable tuner cards to any Windows PC that supported them.

Now, thats a very real possibility with the new InfiniTV 4 card.

The card outperforms most cable companies DVRs by a longshot, allowing you to record up to four live channels of HDTV at once. It offers support for regular, HD and premium channels, too.

The card interoperates with Windows Media Center and its Extenders like the Xbox 360, allowing you to ditch the monthly DVR rental fee you pay to your cable company today. Instead, you install the card and then just stream live or recorded TV from the PC where its installed to the other PCs and TVs (via extenders) around the home.

The card is designed for desktop computers, not laptops, but will support slim entertainment PCs thanks to its PCI Express Low Profile form factor. The company says an external USB-attached version and other form factors are currently in the works for laptop users and those on other platforms.

The Ceton InfiniTV 4 card has a Suggested Retail Price of $399.00 and is available to pre-order today from Zones.com. Pre-ordered units will ship mid-2010. Over time, it will arrive in brick-and-mortar and online stores as well as in PCs built by OEMs.

To see if your PC supports the card, check out the system requirements here.

By now, you probably heard the news that Hulu has finally unveiled its new subscription-based service called Hulu Plus. But in case you missed the details, its worth mentioning that one of the ways youll be able to enjoy this service in the near future is via your Xbox 360. Thats right - Microsoft is partnering with Hulu to provide a native, customized experience for watching Hulu right from your Xbox. The full service wont be available until 2011, though. It will also require an Xbox LIVE Gold membership.

But I have a little secret for you: you dont have to wait until 2011 to watch Hulu on your Xbox. There are several ways Media Center users can gain access to Hulu right now. Its been awhile since I last tested these (posted here), but the one I liked the best was PlayOn, which still supports Hulu, Netflix, CBS, YouTube and more. Its kind of pricey though $39.99 for the first year and then $19.99 afterwards. But as a cancel your cable alternative, its an investment worth making since its yearly price is comparable to what many pay monthly for their cable TV.

It seems that Microsoft has finally taken Internet TV out of beta and released a final version to public users. Not only does this give Windows 7 Media Center users support for Internet TV but also adds Netflix and Adobe Flash support to the package. Netflix was an entirely expected addition with the retail release of Windows 7 finally upon us as Windows Vista users have had access to Netflix for quite some time now. What wasnt as expected however is the addition of Adobe Flash support, required to take advantage of the addition of some full length episodic content.

Upon first entering Internet TV from the main start menu, listed under the TV strip, youll be required to agree to the first in a series of end user agreements. Several sections of the new application require you to agree to extensive user agreements, a small price to pay to finally get the functionality Media Center needs to stay relevant in a world of ever more powerful cable and satellite company provided DVR boxes.

The new Internet TV applications most apparent change is an extremely improved interface in terms of both design and functionality. The most popular shows are listed in a large format at the top of the interface, allowing you to quickly select and watch full episodes from a number of channels including CBS, PBS and the Zune Videocast library. This new interface is very reminiscent of the menu systems featured on the Xbox gaming consoles from Microsoft and its likely the company is finally utilizing its stable of talented interface developers for Media Center projects (or theyre at least talking to one another).

Scrolling down to the lower menus youll find a listing of previews for upcoming shows, available channels featuring full episodic content, top shows and a full lineup of news content. Hopefully Microsoft will be working on developing relationships which other networks such as NBC, ABC and Fox whove already shown a willingness to develop relationships with other internet broadcasting services such as Hulu. Here youll also find a listing for the popular Netflix movie service.

Entering the Netflix application youll need a Netflix unlimited subscription to enable downloading and viewing movies from your Windows 7 Media Center. Just agree to the Netflix user agreement and enter your username and password to enable Netflix viewing. Youll also see a popular Netflix movies strip in the main Internet TV interface listing a handful of popular selections from the service.

To the actual meat of the application, streaming full episodic content, the first thing youll notice is the addition of Adobe Flash support to the Windows 7 Media Center program. This is important being easily the most popular format for distribution of broadcast network television over the internet. Most networks are now providing flash episodes through their corporate websites as well as other third party services. For years Microsoft has resisted this addition to the Media Center arsenal but its an integral part of the streaming TV revolution and was only an eventuality if Media Center was to remain the product it aspires to be.

After updating Media Center to include Adobe Flash youll be able to select recent episodes from a show listing, whether by channel or show. Each channel even includes a few sorting options to help you locate the program your interested in, though the listings are per channel. Perhaps as time progresses well see a longer timeline of shows available as the product matures, currently only the most recent episodes are available. This, of course, is a vast improvement over the previous Internet TV offering however.

Launching an episode youll be presented with the customary commercial introduction along with an episode name and description. Selecting the content box will enabled full screen content viewing once the commercial has finished.

Typically this is about the time we get around to the downside and in this case its downright huge. In an era of HD everything and high quality video even on sites like Youtube the quality of content provided by Microsofts Internet TV application is still utter crap. Theres no sidestepping or candy coating the situation to be had. Watching NCIS or How I Met Your Mother inside Internet TV is almost painful, especially for those accustomed to watching those shows in HD.

We had hoped that the addition of Flash to the Windows 7 Media Center arsenal would lend itself to an improvement in video quality and perhaps it will in the future. For those truly desperate to catch the latest episodes of their favorite shows from the handful of partners provided there are much better methods to get your content fix. The convenience cant be beat, free streaming internet TV from your couch, but the video quality seems almost defeatist.

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