Another reasons for the lack of new high-end hard drive DVD recorders in USA?

Expanding consumers' TV recording capabilities by up to hundreds of hours, Western Digital Corp. today introduced its My Library™ Video Edition™ DVR Expander...

Cable box DVRs get expanded storage capabilites link (http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/WD-introduces-DVR-expander-Press-Release.html)

Sweet. $200 for a 500GB external drive is reasonable. I wonder if Panasonic could introduce eSATA ports to their next-gen non-HDD models then let the consumer decide if they want to attach a HDD or not. What a coup that would be. I could see going for that.

I received an email today from WD stating that this is now available.

This is the item on the wdc site:
/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=334

I am about to order one, but thought that I would see if there are any comments to be posted here first. :rolleyes:

I don't have a HD unit (Cox cable with SA 8300), so I may not face the issues many have posted about here.

Geezer :D

Key limitation to the DVR expander concept is that it only works with the Scientific Atlanta box mentioned. I also read somewhere that you can not take that hard drive filled with programming and hook it up to your computer. I believe a proprietary filing system or OS is used so the hard drive will only speak to the cable box.
I do like Kelson's idea that the manufacturers could make the DVD recorders hard drive optional by providing external connections like eSata.