said by r81984:said by bob1954:Tv manufacturers have been using cable cards in some of there models for almost 4 years...
In like less than 1% of HDTVs.
That is because CableCARD was priced as an option (and an expensive one at that) in most HDTVs in the early days; Sony and Toshiba were the odd folks out in offering CableCARD in their *tube* TVs (32" to 36"); most brands put CableCARD in their high-end models (primarily plasma and RPTV, including DLP). I have a Philips 42" plasma from 2005 (42PF7320A/37A; unique to North America and manufactured at NAP Hermosilla, Mexico) with CableCARD and bought it as a closeout; the model that replaced it lacks CableCARD support. Philips is one of the few TV manufacturers with few to no issues with CableCARD (Pioneer and Sony are the others).
The number of TVs with CableCARD support is decreasing, and decreasing rapidly, since 2005; however, I blame not the cable industry, but the CEA. Given a $400+ price difference between two HDTVs (and the only difference is CableCARD support), which would YOU buy?
