I looked for this question in these forums and couldn't find it. I currently have 2 jvc 40k's and a dh5u. I have a Comcast motorola dct 6200 which works perfectly to record all the premium HD channels. My question is this:
Can I hook one of these recorders to a Tv (which is connected to the STB above)which has firewire ports(such as the Samsung LN-s4096d) and record from the tv's firewire directly to the recorder?

I'm concerned that some day the STB will break down.

Also, if you play the recorder directly to the TV firewire, is there any picture value over the HDMI output to the same TV?

Thanks everyone.

Yes, you can record from TV's firewire to the D-VHS.

Yes, you can also playback directly from D-VHS to TV via firewire, and quality should be equal to or better than HDMI depending on your TV's scaler/MPEG2 decoder.

thanks timecop.

will the d-vhs recorder also record from the tv firewire if the STB is connected to the tv via the HDMI instead of the firewire?

No, that would require your TV to have an expensive MPEG2 High-def encoder.