Cable Card + DVR = ?

Only option to record cable HD is to rent their HD-DVR if its available.

You could also do firewire to a computer or DVHS deck, not that I would recommend it. Are you completely sold on cablecard?

The Toshibal Symbio will connect to the new Toshiba sets with a integrated tuner. It provides HD DVR capabilities utilizing the TV Guide on Screen. A perfect integrated solution!

Sony has a new CC DVR coming out - check the HDTV Recorders forum.

Several CableCard TVs are coming with Firewire output that can be used to record to a (dumb cheap) hard drive ... with integrated software in the TV. The above mentioned Toshiba / Symbio solution is one ... RCA has a similar existing combination (RCA DVR10) ... it looks like Sony (might) be doing something similar ... Mitsubishi TVs can use the RCA solution (and probably the Symbio too, but I haven't seen any confirmation on that) ...


A pretty cool / integrated / inexpensive solution.


However, most of the TVs I've looked in to that feature this DON'T have an on-board MPEG encoder. So ... you can record all digital channels (including encrypted and / or HD channels) in a glorious 100% digital way ... but you can't record analog channels at all. Kindof a bummer ...


But ... as cable plants move more and more to digital ... that would be less and less of an issue. Hey, in the mean time you could toss a $100 Tivo in the mix to capture the analog channels ...

Do you know if the CC that sony is working on will work in the XS series of their HDTVs (possibly with firmware upgrade or patch?) or will they only be supported by tvs in the future?