So they started out calling them CableCARD receivers, then it was OpenCable Receivers (OCURs) and now it’s Digital Cable Tuners….  whatever.

The info. that’s available to me know still says that the only way I can get one of these things working is through an OEM.  So long hobbiests, so long startup HTPC manufacturers, so long to ‘owning’ your entertainment content ever again.  Now if the CableCos want to take a page from the cell carriers playbook and give me a Vista PC with all the hardware necessary to be a subscriber, then I might be interested.

I guess I just don’t get it…  why do we need these things?  I can record a ton of HD content off-air today without paying the Comcast ‘digital cable’ tax.  Don’t even get me started on digital cable, what a crock-o-bits.  They charge more for something that costs them less to deliver, and at least in my area, the picture quality is less than that of analog cable.  Until I can get ala carte pricing they can keep it.

Now that the broadcast flag is, for the time-being, dead I can timeshift all the HD content I can watch straight off the air.  And when those baby-heads finally give up and settle on a High Def. DVD format I’ll spring the $400 bucks (that would get me about 6 months of digital cable) for a drive and watch all my films in HD.

“Movies on Demand” you say?  My Netflix subscription gives me all the movies I can watch for about $15 a month, that gets me about 3 movies via Comcast.

The only reason this technology exists is to limit consumer access to content and thereby create a new revenue stream for the content providers.

Robert McLaws: Windows Vista Edition : Exclusive: Windows Vista Digital Cable Tuners