You’re probably right. Look at Roku. I think their newest streaming player is just going to be a USB stick, not even a set-top-box. Of course it doesn’t record more than a few seconds of video, but obviously it has to store something. So really all you’re talking about is scaling that up. Not sure what the input is but I think it’s wi-fi, I don’t think it gets the signal from the port it’s plugged into.
But as was mentioned, one issue is HDMI which monitors when you try to record something it thinks you’re not authorized for. You can get around that, if I’m allowed to discuss such things, by using a different input. If it’s available and you use it, I don’t see a problem. Coax, composite (red, yellow, blue) and component (5 cables, red and yellow for audio + 3 video) will all be fine. Component will, or at least is able to give you as good quality as HDMI although some will dispute that.
I think though that there is a really big disconnect between electronics makers and consumers. I don’t think they really have any concept of what is actually important to people. So they’ll strip off all but the HDMI connectors to save a few bucks so they can add some other feature you’ll probably never even know you have because it’s on page 242 of the manual and you just don’t give a shit. But they figure you’ll turn your nose up at those primitive ‘connectors’. Either that or as geek patricians, they have decided that you will have no idea what they are and will never use them so they make the choice for you.
There are options though if you don’t mind using a computer to do the recording and you do happen to have the right kind of connectors on the output device. I know that my cable DVR has a coax out that seems to work although I normally use it for the financial news so I’m not sure I’ve ever tested it on a premium channel. Regardless, some of the PC based video capture devices are really cheap. Here are some that use the USB port and start at about $25 bucks, just to give you an idea. You’ll see for the consumer grade stuff (at least on that site) they top out at around $100 for just capture devices. The pro equipment is another category.
I have a set top box that records directly to a USB device. Two of em actually, both free, as people are falling over themselves to get rid of them along with their SD TVs.
Yeah, but you’re in Australia, according to your profile, which is a DVB territory like Europe. These things, and cheap DVRs, are commonplace in places where lots of people receive digital TV via antenna. I know they have ATSC in the US, but I get the impression that most people there get their TV through cable which seems less standardised.
I think that when the cable providers broadcast “in the clear” they use QAM, which is similar to the ATSC signal used for over-the-air broadcasting.
I believe the problem is that not everybody broadcasts even the free, regurgitated local channels in the clear. But even when that’s true, you never know what else will be. Will basic cable be encrypted or not for example.
You can get around this via a device that takes a cable card. Rental costs are nominal, at least from my provider (cablevision). But devices that will take one tend to be in a higher price range than just plain old video capture thingies.