On Tuesday 30 June 2009 22:36:04 Tom Metro wrote:
...
> Something has changed, because there once was a time when "cable ready" 
> on a TV or VCR was an actual selling feature that seemed to matter. From 
> what I've heard, CableCard, the supposed remedy for this problem, hasn't 
> taken off, so I don't think that explains why there aren't more 
> consumers complaining.

Most of the cheap end spectrum of HDTVs don't have CableCard slots in
them to begin with, from what I've seen. Makes the tuners in 'em only
semi-useful (I have one such set in my bedroom, it does get the OTA
channels in clear QAM, everything else goes through one of the mini
digital converter boxes Verizon gave away when they dumped all analog).

...
> What do non-cable company DVRs do to address this? Some TiVOs use 
> CableCard, no?

Yep. I know a few folks with HD TiVos, they've got CableCards in 'em.

> Do they also use IR blasters?

Generally, no, they support CableCard. Otherwise the DVR is faced with
trying to record an encrypted (HDCP/5c/whatever) stream or re-encoding
the analog stream, which is the same issue MythTV users face. There's
just no great way to do it (well, except that we have the HD PVR now,
but that's a pretty recent development... And I suspect any commercial
TiVo-like standalone DVR employing such an encoder would face the wrath
of the media conglomerates for circumventing their precious DMCA...)

-- 
Jarod Wilson
jarod-ajLrJawYSntWk0Htik3J/w@public.gmane.org