Coaxial input on vaio AR790 -- why is it gone?!

Hello all, maybe someone can give me an answer to this. The answer I was given from Sony is that :

"the ar790 is shipped with the ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner so there is no need for the built in coaxial input."

That makes NO sense to me, so now I have to lug that big external unit around with me?! I suppose I could buy a smaller unit, but still! If the coax input was there, I could just run the cable directly into the laptop...instead of into the external box and then a usb cable into the computer. ALSO, the external cable thing needs it's own power brick! yet another thing to carry!!!

You can see I'm frustrated by all this. All the photos on the sony sites for the ar790 in fact still show the coax input...but on the spec sheets coax is not listed.

I LOVE my ar790 and if I have to give up coax for the power then so be it...I just want a real answer for why the coax was removed. If it was making the laptop unstable or something negative then I understand of course.

So, why is the coax input gone?

 

I had exactly the same problem! I was pissed at first, but what can ya do? When ordering the computer I was very specific about wanting a coaxial input and they assured me.

As far as I can tell, the only AR that had a coax in was the AR190G.

Can anyone verify this?

 

Well, I setup the ati tv tuner and connected it to my ar790 via USB...everything worked fine and I was able to watch non-HD programming. BUT, I had to watch in a small window as full screen resulted in a blurry picture.

I say again...using the ati tv tuner is a MESS! I have to run cable to the ati tuner, plug the tuner into the wall and run a usb to the computer! WHO carry the tuner everywhere when you could have plugged coax directly into the laptop?!

WHAT WAS THE REASON?

....hmmmm, I SUPPOSE, that sony may be pushing their location free items and so, if you can watch programming via wireless then why plug in....

 

I had VGN-AR290G that too had Coaxial input for cable TV or internet, i just now own VGN-AR690U is also having Coaxial input.

 

well...as it turns out I discovered a number of solutions to sony removing the coax input:

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584095&CatId=1427

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2485646&CatId=1427

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2971272&CatId=1427

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3389191&CatId=1427


Anyway, the challenge now it to determine which works best and won't bog down my system.

I see now that I would unlikely run a coax cable to my computer since the cable is thick and doesn't route as nice as thinner usb cable.

Regardless...I would still like to know the real reason for sony removing the coax input.