In article ,
UCLAN wrote:
Mark Zenier wrote:

C) No retailers with *any* boxes within 50 miles of me.

What are the chances that the government site it really up to date. ;-)

Maybe try the big box companies web sites, or call them on the phone?
Rant I'm not sure that would work any better. I went to a Best
Buy last week for another reason. That place doesn't have customers,
it has victims. /Rant

Just for grins, I visited and/or phoned about a dozen local A/V retailers
in my area. The result: Few have even heard of the boxes. Those that *had*
heard of them had no idea of if/when they would get any.

Yea, not only do the OTA stations now need the cable companies, the
cable companies are (at least around here) heavy advertisers. It's a
wonder that the TV staions even mention HD in their promos.

I wonder if the 80+% penetration by cable/DBS in this area has anything
to do with this? [nodding head...]

I wonder...could one hook one of these boxes up to his VCR to record an
analog version of a HDTV signal?

ooohhh. Good Question. I have a horrible feeling that they might
enable copy protection in the video if the right/(wrong?) bits in
the datastream say so. I wonder what the government certification
requirements said...

My VCRs are analog. They have no circuitry to recognize the copyright
"flag." They just react to Macrovision's AGC circuit fooling signal,
which isn't present in digital TV signals. I will probably get a
coupon/box (if/when they are available here) and try it out.

That's what I mean. They built Macrovision into DVD players. Did
they put it in these boxes too? Maybe just downconverting to SD
resolution was enough to feed the copyright sharks.

Mark Zenier
Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)