Cannon PC announced it will soon offer its Home- and Pro A/V-series HTPCs with dual and even quad CableCARDs installed. This allows them to record up to four individual standard- or high-def programs simultaneously, as each card will effectively act as a separate TV tuner, taking the place of a set-top box. Cannon PC took the opportunity to announce a direct OEM partnership with Microsoft as well, and all of the company's HTPCs use Microsoft's Windows Media Center as the multimedia interface.

The EX series pictured is just one of three PR A/V Series customizable HTPCs Cannon PC offers, and features a 12-inch HD touch-screen as the interface. Inside the case, room has been provided for 6TB of memory, with a 750GB Seagate Barracuda drive provided as standard equipment. Features common to all the company's offerings are USB and FireWire connections, front inputs and outputs, 28-in-1 card readers, eight-channel HD audio support, and dual NTSC and HDTV tuners. The brains include Intel's Quad or Dual core or Centrino processors, P35 Express chipsets, and ATI or NVIDIA graphics cards, with up to 8GB of RAM.

Prices for the EX series HTPC start at nearly $5,600, but do not include the dual CableCARDs, which will be available as options early in June via Cannon PC's website.

That's a seriously cool looking HTPC.

Cannon PC to offer CableCARDs in its HTPCs