Niveus Media came to this year's CEDIA locked and loaded, and while most typical consumers won't look too far past the sub-$2,000 Vail system, those with cash to spare and colleagues to impress will certainly appreciate the Core i7-powered $19,999 Pro Series n9 media center PC. The rig setup on the show floor had said HTPC connected to four dual-CableCARD boxes via USB ($1,500 a pop), giving it the ability to record eight HD shows simultaneously while streaming HD movie clips to ten other Media Center Extenders (without a hiccup, might we add). The mid-range Denali was also on hand, and Blu-ray drives were found across the board. We also spent a tick with the new v1.5 Niveus Movie Library, which very neatly enabled us to surf to any media stored locally or on the networked 16TB Cargo Media Server. Even if you can't afford it, this stuff is still worth a look.

If you were curious as to which manufacturer would begin utilizing those fancy Core i7 chips first, we highly doubt Niveus Media came to mind. Granted, it isn't first to the punch per se, but Intel's latest will help power some of the 2009 line of media servers. The passively cooled Rainier, Denali Limited Edition (rear pictured after the break) and the rack-mountable Pro Series have all been upgraded with niceties like HDMI 1.3 and Seagate's Pipeline HD hard drives. You'll also find the G45 Express chipset, SSDs and support for eight CableCARDs scattered about, though pricing won't be disclosed until we get closer to the Q4 release date. More specifications are listed after the jump.

Niveus Media has announced its high-end media server updates for the 2008 model year. Like you'd expect from computer-based hardware, there are the requisite refreshes of components (processor, hard drive, video card, etc.). But a major new feature is the inclusion of a "Pro Audio" soundcard in their Pro Series (n7 and n9) and Summit Series (Denali and Denali Limited Edition) rigs. The new soundcard handles 7.1 channels with its Burr-Brown DACs and boasts a whopping 118dB SNR. For the bitheads out there, that's way more than the theoretical 96dB provided by CD audio, and a full 20-bits of resolution. Pro Audio is available now; pricing of these high-end systems starts at $5k for the Pro Series and $8k for the Summit boxes. Pricey, but we'll go on dreaming.

It's been a busy week for CableCARD HTPCs. First we caught the Dell XPS 410 preview prior to spotting an unofficial announcement in the AVS Forum that Velocity Micro would be shipping their CableCARD HTPC this week. Now we struck gold (we think) with the first official CableCard-ready Vista HTPCs now shipping from Niveus. As of today, both the Niveus Summit Series ($3,199 Rainier and $7,999 Denali) and Pro Series ($7,999 n7 and $15,999 n9) ship with HD DVD options and hot-blooded HD CableCARD-support. Keyword: "support," meaning you still have to spring an additional $1,499 to get the separate Digital Cable Receiver box with 2x CableCARD receivers like we saw at CES. You'll also have to track down a local dealer to bring home the Pro or Denali models but at least the Rainier is available online and shipping in 2-3 weeks. As always with CableCARD, there's still a piece that's unclear: the CableCARD receiver still shows a "mid-March" ship date. Pffff.

[Via Chris Lanier's Blog]

Read -- Niveus Rainier
Read -- Niveus Digital Cable Receiver

Niveus has been teasing us with various 2007 hotness for the past few months, with those oh-so-pricey Intel-based systems it's been trotting by. Well now that Vista is out, Niveus is throwing Vista into new versions of its Rainier and Denali PCs, alongside its Pro Series n7 and Pro Series n9 media servers, for a nice little family of beefy Windows Vista Media Center boxes. Highlights in the various PCs include full home theater outs, including HDMI; built-in HD DVD drives; dual CableCARD and that fancy quad-core QX6700 processor in the n9; and of course ridiculous pricetags to the tune of $15k for the "low-end" n9 box.