Windows Media Center requires an NTSC tuner? WTF?

I was cruising AVSForums when I ran across a thread from somebody complaining that they were having a hard time setting up their MCE PC with just an HD (ATSC) capture card. Lo and behold, after a bit of digging, I confirmed (for myself at least) that it is indeed true. That in order to set up High-Definition in MCE2005, you must have an NTSC tuner installed. Here’s the snippet from Jay P. Kapur, Lead Program Manager, Windows Media Center TV Team:

You must setup an NTSC tuner first, so that MCE2005 can get the correct guide information for your area. There are no reliable ATSC only EGP services, so we have to key off of the NTSC information. If you don’t setup the analog tuner and EPG, the ATSC experience won’t work correctly.

Ah yes. Another reason to jump the Windows ship for MythTV.