Why can't U.S. citizens buy hi-def DVD recorders?

[admin]

A glaring omission on the new products front was the high definition DVD recorder. You simply can't buy a hi-def DVD recorder in the U.S. Not a single manufacturer has yet announced plans to introduce one for the U.S. market this year.

-- snip --

But the powers that be who decide which products will get sold in which market when -- the same underlying thinking, incidentally, behind "regional coding" for DVD movies -- have, at least for the time being kept Blu-ray recorders off U.S. store shelves.

http://www.videsignline.com/news/214501927

[drfsupercenter]

So you can buy these in other countries?!

[Abuilder]

DRF
HD recorders have been sold in Japan since July of 06.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-195934.html

[justinlog]

Japan always in front of times of electronics..

[ed klein]

Because Sony, MPAA, RIAA, cable companies, and special interest groups control the market place when it comes to high defination recorders.

They all want to tell you what you can and can't record, and they want you to use their equipment when recording high defination, and only recorded on a non-transferable hard drive and not be able to burn to blank media.

[drfsupercenter]

Heh, well, obviously they have no control over TSReader.

(If you don't know what that is, it's a commercial software that will rip a 1:1 "transport stream" of over-the-air broadcasts... allowing me to record 1080i and 720p HD programming from antenna channels )

[admin]

Most of the HDTV broadcast systems where locked in before DRM was the "must-have" feature that it now is, but if given another chance, I'm sure the powers that be will love to have DRM'd HDTV broadcasts. Imagine being only able to record programs onto HDDs (not discs), and for those programs to expire within a week.

[drpepper]

Let us not forget DVHS. You can record HD to good old high grade vhs tapes ( with the holes on either side)
JVC dh30000u & the Mits are still in my house. OK it is real tough to find a TV that has firewire now a days so the Mits being w/o the mpeg converter is hard. The jvc does firewire & component. So like other posters stated, no reason why the Dvhs can't be traded in for a blu ray recoder expect for who holds the Power. We have a Comcast dvr with firewire out so I can archive HD programs to DVHS. I know a dead format but a working one for me.

[drfsupercenter]

Well there ARE such encrypted over-the-air feeds, though not in America. I've heard of some in Europe, though, where you have to lease a special receiver, and you use a normal antenna to pick up these encrypted signals.

Sounds a lot like satellite to me - only without the dish. Cable and satellite here are encrypted... though I'm curious if they have any sort of TV tuners that can either use a CableCard or HDMI, so that I can direct stream copy some HD cable feeds one day. (I know they have QAM tuners, mine only does NTSC/ATSC however so I have no way to test it)