"Do What?" wrote in message
news
They are pretty much designed to be the hub of the entertainment
system.. with just about all A/V sources being able to be plugged
into the receiver, and have 1 output to the tv. So why not
include a cable-TV tuner?

Good question, given that entire cable-ready tuner systems are being
slapped onto PC video cards by ATI, Asus, and a number of smaller
manufacturers.

Exactly my thoughts w/ the basic cable subscriptions. A simple cable
TV tuner card can be had for around $25.

El cheapo vcrs can be had for around that price as well... so the
tuner itself couldn't have been costly to include, but woulda been a
nice feature to some, even if redundant to most.

These little TV front-end in-a-tin box OEM products look like $5 parts to
me. They are thoroughly standardized and commoditized. They do have visibly
mediocre video performance compared to even a middle-of-the line TV set.
Features like 3-line comb filters are rare or missing.

OTOH, there are higher-end products like "MYHD"
http://www.digitalconnection.com/Pro...deo/mdp120.asp .

Obviously w/ the cable co's trying to push everyone towards
digital, a stand-alone box is needed, but that was never the case
w/ the standard basic cable.

The digital boxes should be standardized as well.

True, but unlike the basic cable tuner of old, the cost to integrate a
digital tuner into a receiver is hard to justify... might even have
to go w/ a licensing fee as well w/ the new systems.

The licensing of set-top boxes should be something that is initiated by the
purchaser, and completed over the host cable system.

Then there is
the whole issue of them being able to be updated by the cable co's
through the cable line.... bringing up the chance for a decent amount
of problems.

Historically, problems like these have been solved at some point. We're just
not at that point, yet so it seems.

And while the boxes themselves may be the same, since
they can be upgraded by the cable so themselves through the line,
there is a decent chance that you wouldn't be able to move from one
cable co to another w/o some sorta problem.

Industry standards address issues like these. The big problem is that once
standards like these exist, the market for set top boxes has become
commditized. Then there is cut-throat competition among the set-top box
producers, which they obviously want to avoid as long as possible.

There's just too much cost, too much programming, too many potential
issue, etc etc in the digitals systems that a stand-alone box is
really the only way to go... but was still curious as to why we never
saw a tuner included w/ the basic 125 channel systems.

Well, it didn't happen!

Right now it is questionable whether the nexus of a modern HT system is the
A/V receiver or the HTPC...