Time warner have any HD boxes with firewire port?

[pestario]

I got a great deal on an open box DVHS at Best Buy $350, however any recording requires a firewire connection, my current Time Warner box does not have this option. Does anyone know if TW carries a Cable box with Fire wire capabilities?

[mhz40]

None yet...

[pestario]

arghhh, are there any reasonibly priced HDTV cableboxes that can be purchased with Firewire ports? and does Time Warner allow you to buy your own HDTV equipment

[mhz40]

There was talk at one time about firewire being supported to allow connection to an external hard drive.  Not sure if it physically hit the current production models because I haven't seen one yet.  Even if the port is there, it may not be supported when released.

[borghe]

I think it will be a long time before we see Firewire being enabled for anything... Even firewire for external storage is bad as you can just hook the drive up to a versatile OS (linux) and extract recordings directly at that point..

I think it is setting a scary precident... cable/satellite co's are stopping us from archiving HD material... want to record it and keep it? no problem, as long as you don't run out of hard drive space. I hope I am wrong.. I hope we start seeing firewire enabled on more boxes, but all of the boxes released over the last two years aren't instilling faith in that hope. the only firewire I have heard on working so far is one market on Cox I believe... and obviously 169time for DirecTV boxes... that is probably the single reason I won't sell my E86... because worst comes to worst, I will just spend the $1000 to add firewire to that box. Hacked extraction from the Tivo and direct recording from the E86.... if they won't work with us, then we'll just have to work around them...

[mhz40]

Originally posted by borghe
[clip]I think it is setting a scary precident... cable/satellite co's are stopping us from archiving HD material... want to record it and keep it? no problem, as long as you don't run out of hard drive space.[/clip]

The precident is being pushed by the owners of the programming, not the distributers.  Viacom, Sony & many other outfits have learned from what the music industry has gone through and don't want to see a Napster-for-movies in 2-3 years.  In fact, (IMO) they are losing thier grip already.

Eventually, you may be able to 'archive' your stuff on something other than a hard drive, but it will be encryped in such a fashon that it can only be played be either:
1)  the hardware it was recorded from (ie: TiVo or DVR MAC address)....
or
2) the person who recorded it....
or
3) for only a pre-determined number of viewings.

Once this ability is demonstrated for the rightfull owners of the programming you record, you may be able to start dumping your files from a hard drive to DVD.

[summerfun]

Just saw in the paper yesterday that the FCC has approved a "FLAG" that can be put into a broadcast that will allow you to record your own stuff but not be able to distribute it to anyone else to watch.

Maybe someone else on the forum knows more about this and can fill us all in.

[borghe]

hmm... I don't entirely agree with that... The bottom line is that it is the cable co's who are disabling the firewire ports... maybe at the insistence of the content creators, maybe out of fear of them, but whatever the case, it is directly in the hands of the cable co's, because when it comes down to it, they are the only ones who control whether the ports are turned on or not. If it is up to the movie studios, then how come Cox has firewire turned on on the Motorolla boxes?

I am not out to blame anyone, but the fact of the matter is that firewire isn't and won't be turned on for the foreseeable future on most systems, and that capability falls on one group alone... The fact that many MSOs either own a studio or are owned by a studio doesn't help the matters....