One of the companies that received a Best Of CES 2008 Award was the EchoStar. It’s a digital media equipment company that’s specialized in satellite, IPTV, cable and terrestrial services.

The winner at CES2008 was the EchoStar TR-50 which is designed to free people from various cables or having to rely on huge antennas. True, the TR-50 hd tuner is not the first or only solution, but others in the market weren’t good enough to translate interest into sales.

Here’s what CNET reports.

The problem–as we’re reminded by many an e-mailer–is that there just isn’t a good DVR solution for the rabbit-ears crowd, especially if you prefer high-def. (You can opt for a TiVo HD, but you’d still have to pay a monthly fee for their programming guide.) But that may finally be changing, thanks to the EchoStar TR-50.

Actually, the TR-50 includes many good features that you can find in satellite DVRs, but you’ll not get so many channels as with satellite. However, this hd tuner will offer DVD quality at worst and uncompressed high-definition at best.

AUDIOHOLICS reports the list of features which TR-50 offers.

TR-50 Features Hit List

Component and HDMI outputs
7-day electronics programming guide
Easy-as-pie setup wizard
Dual ATSC, NTSC tuners
480i, 480P, 720P and 1080i HDTV support
Ethernet port to decode Mpeg4 and “premium online content”

TR-50 will be available in September, but there is so far no word on pricing. Until then, check out the video below.

Photo © admintell.napco

Tags: hd tuners, satellite