New Panasonic - Direct connect to digital cable.

Will it work on scrambled/encrypted digital channels?

It will with the POD card from your cable co. The problem is you still need to wait for your cable co. to implement this new Plug-n-Play technology. The TV will not work with current scrambled digital channels.

How does this output Dolby Digital to your receiver or pre/pro?

I hope it has an IEEE1394 connection. For newer receivers this shouldn't be a problem but for older ones you might some intermediate component.


irfoton

I believe it has coaxial and optical digital audio outputs. Not positive about FireWire, but probably.

It may well have Firewire for a digital recorder hookup (I'm fairly sure it does). But it's not going to send audio over Firewire to some receivier unless something really odd has happened that I'm not aware of.

rogo,

Why wouldn't they use firewire for the audio? Pioneer does that with their DV47ai. It seems that would make good sense and has the 5C encryption if needed for the "Studios".


irfoton

Firewire aside (Audio&video) what difference does it make if its optical or coaxial. As long as the 1 and 0 make it. . . Right?


This sounds cool but it seems that the early release will be only RP CRT's.

Irfoton, most of the Firewire audio is not at all interopable. And the Firewire on Panasonic will carry video and audio.


I doubt it will work, but Barrybud's point is right --> there is going to be an easy way to get digital audio so worry not.

I thought I read somewhere that the Panny 50LC13 also has this feature, but now I can't find this anywhere. It does have card slot, but I'm not sure if it's for a POD card or just a memory PCMCIA card. Can anyone confirm or deny this?


If it does have it, does this mean it can receive HD over cable w/o a STB, even though it does not have a built-in HDTV tuner?

The card slot in PT-50LC13 is only for PCMCIA memory cards not POD. It's obviously too early for Panasonic to design POD into PT-50LC13 which is just been approved last week by FCC. Besides, it needs a built-in QAM digital cable tunner to use POD anyway. Not sure the upcoming LCX series(with built-in ATSC tunner) will have it or not.

Quote:
Where can I find info on this upcoming series? Do you have the exact model number? I can't find anything on google searching "50LCX".

You do realize that without a cable box to charge you rental on, they'll just make up the lost revenue by other means.

I think Cable Cos are happy to get rid of those rental cable boxes. Although the rental pays them in the long run, it also ties up their cash on the purchase of the cable boxes in the short term. You're right on the price rise. Just look at my cable modem service. The price has gone up two times in the past year. And the worst is Cox now no longer offer HDTV TSB for rental. I have to buy the useless (out side of Cox)and expensive HDTV cable STB in order to view HDTV.

Also realize that these first generation CableCARD enabled monitors will not work with interactive services (impulse pay-per-view, video-on-demand, etc). People who want those advanced services will still have to lease boxes from the cable SOs.


I haven't been a Pay-VOD user in the past, but when its in HD, which could happen long before HD DVD players and pre-recorded rental titles are available, I'll probably start using it. Therefore, I foresee continuing to lease a cable box for a while. I'll probably buy a CableCARD equiped PVR, though, when they appear.