Record HDTV--But No Sopranos
Pricey digital video recorder/receiver for high-definition TV comes with some limitations.
LG LST-3410A: First of its kind, but limited by copyright protection.
The last thing I want to do when I come home from work tired and brain-dead is battle just to watch television. At the end of the day, I'm not willing to wrangle with LG's $999 LST-3410A HDTV Digital Video Recorder/Receiver.
The LST-3410A provides an integrated high-definition TV tuner and a 120GB hard drive to which you can record over-the-air HD broadcasts--great only if you get good reception and lots of broadcast HD programming--and unscrambled cable HD broadcasts.
Unfortunately, because the 3410A lacks component inputs (for copyright reasons, according to LG), I couldn't connect my HD-enabled cable box. Instead I had to plug the cable line into the 3410A directly; this gave me standard-definition cable but no scrambled HD channels like HBO. I also tried connecting the cable box to the LG device via its (analog) AV inputs--but doing that prevented me from receiving HD broadcasts. I could watch and record The Sopranos only in standard definition--but I could do that with a $99 VCR.
LG uses a TV Guide-esque interface to show programming and to help you set recordings easily, but it can't perform any of the smart recording juju that TiVo does. Other un-TiVo-like behavior: You can pause and rewind live TV, but you can't pause or rewind during recording.
The list of your recorded programs displays thumbnail images to help you identify episodes easily, and it reports the amount of HD and SD recording time left--helpful because the 120GB drive holds just 12.5 hours of HDTV.
Copyright issues or no, the inability to record the premium HD programs I've paid to receive is a huge limitation. I'm not going to spend a thousand bucks just to record PBS gazelle specials in HD.