Now, Dell has added the ATI TV Wonder digital cable tuner to the 420's configuration page (example page here). What's great about it is the price: $180. That's less than half of what Sony sells theirs for. Dual tuners are $360. I'd still like to see the dual tuner price crack that $180 price point, but for right now AMD/ATI enjoys a virtual monopoly on the market. (And in case you're wondering: the word "cheap" in the headline means inexpensive, not poor quality.)

I also received input from HP regarding their CableCard support. Their quotes after the jump.

According to Sean Paterson, lead product marketing manager in the North America Consumer Computing business at HP:

"HP has worked very closely with CableLabs to test and implement a CableCard solution on our HP Pavilion Elite series. We have been offering the ATI TV Wonder external cable tuner + Internal ATSC/NTSC tuner since April 07. This option is available on our Pavilion Elite series and is one of several ways for consumers to enjoy HD content on their PCs. Along with our Blu-Ray and HD-DVD options consumers can also record over-the-air HD with our standard internal tuners. In addition, consumers can purchase the external digital tuner and enjoy HD and Premium channels from their cable providers.

Demand for HD drives and CableCard tuners have been growing consistently since launching these technologies. CableCard tuner sales is a small percentage of our overall sales; however we have seen strong interest from consumers that are enthusiastic about watching and recording HD content on their HP media center PCs. As demand for CableCard tuners grow we will expand our offering to other HP products and continue to offer this solution at a competitive price in the marketplace. We will also look at future CableCard technologies as they become available. Currently the m9000t and the d4996t are both certified products with CableLabs and have the external TV tuner as an option."