Hauppauge enter the Terrestrial STB market

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[updated:LAST EDITED ON 21-Apr-02 AT 06:48 PM (GMT)]Taken from Computer Buyer site

<http://www.comp-buyer.co.uk/> Hauppauge has revealed to us it will launch a set-top box to take on the £99.99 Pace box.

Determined to get the box in the shops before the World Cup, Hauppauge's set-top box will also cost £99.99 but will offer some key advantages. These include the ability to use Teletext: there's currently no Digital Teletext available, so going digital will mean you lose this service. However, the Hauppauge box will allow you to keep the analogue signal for Teletext and once Digital Teletext goes live, you can upgrade to that over the air.

The unit also boxes clever boasting an infrared remote control and a USB port. The latter means you can then plug the signal into your PC and record your favourite programs onto disk, pause live TV and so on. The software for this won't be bundled at launch, although you can freely download it from the Hauppauge site. You could also plug in a modem or a keyboard to get the most out of interactive services, pending appropriate firmware upgrades for the box.

There's also a CI-interface should you want to add in a subscription service. The interface is open so you're not locked to one particular content provider. A spokesperson for Hauppauge told us that with the number of free-to-air digital channels growing almost daily (the QVC channel has already gone free-to-air, and there are rumours that UK Gold will soon make that move), Hauppauge are 'entering the market with a PC mentality'. So offering the possibility to integrate these boxes with the power of your PC and adding Hauppauge's software into the equation could prove the biggest sell.

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