They do just work.. for the most part. I have both a Series 3 and a Tivo HD with 2 cable cards per, and they work fine. Initially when I only had the S3, there was 1 card in there that would lose the ability to tune in anything HD (or just digital) that could be fixed by a reboot, or popping the card out and pushing it back in. When I got the HD, I got that card swapped out, and all 4 cards/tuners have worked like a charm. There does seem to be some random incompatibilites that you might have to work through (like the 1 card on my S3) but once past that, they just seem to work. When I called for the cards for the HD unit, I made sure to ask them to bring several cards, which helped (IIRC one of the ones they brought didn't work at all in either).

The only things you can't do with the cards are:
1. PPV/interactive stuff.. which I never use so I don't care.
2. When they switch to SDV, you'll need a Tuning Adapter that'll connect via the USB port. There have been articles here about those. Time Warner sent out all cablecard customers a letter about them coming soon a few months ago.

I got a HL67A750 a couple weeks ago and it's just amazing. I really don't know why they keep repeating that the off angle viewing is poor too.. I watch from my kitchen at just more then a 45 degree angle and it still looks very good.

My only gripe at all has been the delay when I change source (all controlled via my receiver) because of the HDMI/HDCP handshake, or at least that's what I assume it is.

HD sources are just beautiful on the set.

Why is this guy happy? Duh.. it's avsforum. Filled with people that love to be bleeding edge and are definitely very often the very, very early adopters. There tends to be a lot of cred there in being the first to get a hands on with anything.

You can get tons of great info from people there, but often there's a ton of time wasted on stuff that I could care less about... all my opinion of course, and to each his own.. but they get more mired down in HT details in hidden factory menus and stuff in TVs then the vast majority of people would ever care to.

Yeah, the 6 5/69 swap is really odd. Apparently Fox wanted an affiliate here that's fully in the US (6 is broadcast from TJ, for the non San Diegans).

So technically the article is wrong... since KSWB is not yet the local affiliate. Wonder if they'll put in a request to change the call letters there immediately upon switch over too. :)

"I think the current $100+ price tag for Blu-ray series releases (see Band of Brothers news on EngadgetHD) already invalidates any idea that these could possibly be produced cheaply enough to benefit from any serious economy of scale."

That's such a dumb statement. When the series first came out on DVD a couple years ago, it was selling for >$80 most places (I bought it right when it came out and remember paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $85 for it). So BR is still a little higher... it's still not being produced in the numbers that kick in better economies of scale yet. It will likely come down over the next months. One release of a pretty well known and well selling box set does not prove the point for the entire format.

Richard,
I don't know when you talked to them, but I got a letter from Time Waner (San Diego) last week specifically about the initial channels switching to SDV which was targetted at Tivo owners and mentioned Tuning Adapters. However it didn't have a timeline. So either you talked before then and they through that together really quick, you talked to someone without a clue (shocking, I know).. or you're not a TWCSD customer.

I don't have the letter handy either, but yes it was mostly the east coast pay channels, and at least Universal HD and a couple other HD channels. Ironically I've never been able to tune in Universal HD (which was the only one I cared about... for BSG repeats in HD) even though it should be part of the package I pay for.

It depends on the stores (until now I guess). The 2 local BBs I frequent are very different.
One of them has Blu-ray in it's own row just down from DVD.. so it's got way more shelf space, but you have to know it's one past regular DVDs. HD-DVD, on the other hand, has a section on a wall (back of where they have a PS3 and 360 setup for demo play with lounge chairs) that is right next to and perpendicular to the DVD new releases, which gives it much more visibility.
The other store has them both in rows mixed in with DVD, very similar presentation and visibility.

Jeff...

Sorry new post, reply links not working, but at least comments are back (ironically they first vanished for me right after my post on here yesterday.. figure someone dorked with css files and didn't close a tag or something).

Anyway.. instead of rebooting when your HD channels won't lock in, pop out one of the cable cards, wait a few seconds.. push it back in. It'll take a few more seconds to pop up the diag screen.. hit clear and go see if they're ok again (if it says you need to redo setup, just say you'll do it later.. you won't have to). I'm betting you'll find it's just one card losing the ability to tune.

I had the same issue on my S3 and it was only with card 1. When I got an HD, while ordering the new cards, I asked them to bring a few extras.. while the guy was there I replaced the one bad one in the S3 and it hasn't happened since (several months now). CableCARD in general is really touchy it seems.. sometimes cards just won't work with some items or even just in some slots (when I first got my S3 one card would cause it to freeze hard in one slot.. worked fine in the other.. go figure).

Jeff...

Sorry new post, reply links not working, but at least comments are back (ironically they first vanished for me right after my post on here yesterday.. figure someone dorked with css files and didn't close a tag or something).

Anyway.. instead of rebooting when your HD channels won't lock in, pop out one of the cable cards, wait a few seconds.. push it back in. It'll take a few more seconds to pop up the diag screen.. hit clear and go see if they're ok again (if it says you need to redo setup, just say you'll do it later.. you won't have to). I'm betting you'll find it's just one card losing the ability to tune.

I had the same issue on my S3 and it was only with card 1. When I got an HD, while ordering the new cards, I asked them to bring a few extras.. while the guy was there I replaced the one bad one in the S3 and it hasn't happened since (several months now). CableCARD in general is really touchy it seems.. sometimes cards just won't work with some items or even just in some slots (when I first got my S3 one card would cause it to freeze hard in one slot.. worked fine in the other.. go figure).

Not a biggie really. I have an S3 and an HD and aside from the front OLED display on the S3, they're really a wash. Sure the HD is supposed to only work with "approved" eSATA expansion (I've had a drive on my S3 since the keypresses to activate one first came to light) but I think the vast majority of people could live with that. The lack of mCARD support on the S3 kind of hurts it too. The CableCARDs being on the front of the HD is a nice change as well.

About the only thing the S3 has that's just better, is the remote. The light-up feature is nice and the feel is just a little better; more solid, less plastic-y feeling.

Oh and yeah, there are buttons you can use on the front of the S3.. I've used those exactly 1 time, to unpause a show. Woo.