Ed Bott has made a nice little discovery with the pre-beta release of Windows 7…a driver for none other than that elusive DirecTV HDPC-20 tuner for Media Center. While it has been a long time coming (first anounced in January 2006) it is nice to know Microsoft didn’t give up on it all together. Some even believe that an OEM PC won’t even be required for the tuner which means you’ll finally be able to add full HD support to your current machine (assuming it’s powerful enough of course)! I don’t believe that’s been confirmed quite yet but we can all hope right!

If you’ve read my blog before then you know I currently have a CableCARD PC. Prior to going back to cable I had DirecTV for a few years and I loved it. I couldn’t wait until all the new HD channels were coming out. Then I discovered that I have too many trees around my house and some pretty huge trees would have to be trimmed back for me to install the new larger dish. That’s what finally made me go back to cable and get a CableCARD PC. So while I’m excited this tuner appears to finally be coming, I probably won’t even be able to benefit from it unless I move within the next few years. My next house will definitely have a huge, open view of the southern sky so I at least have the option of DirecTV again!

For more information on the discovery by Ed Bott, head on over to his blog.