[kang]

Thanks for the quick reply.

I guess I get the quality control argument, at least for the average consumer. But I’m pretty savvy when it comes to these things. I’m willing to take the risk that the cheap converter box from eBay doesn’t work or might break. I certainly wouldn’t blame the cable company if that happened. Likewise if it needed an update or became out of date, the burden would be on me.

When I mentioned digital TV’s, I meant digital cable ready, not HD. Just like there are analog cable ready TV’s today, I understand that digital cable ready TV’s are on the way. As I understand it, TV’s and cable are gradually switching to digital over the next few years. The cable companies will not have much choice when that happens, I think.

My cable company already washes its hands of things out of its control, like the cables in the walls of my house, etc. They have a policy that if they come out to fix a problem, and the problem turns out not to be in their equipment, then I pay. Big time. Travel time plus an hourly rate, plus parts. They could easily wash their hands of problems in my personal digital converter with the same policy.