Home cinema - peripherals?

On Feb 26, 8:40 am, chuck schroeder wrote:
I have an analog tv with cable feed. I use a vcr to record and play
analog tv shows. I have an analog vcd to play movie rentals.

In going cable digital I mostly understand the digital tv part, but
what about recording and playing digital tv shows? What about playing
vcd rentals?

Your analog VCR or DVD recorder cannot directly receive and record any
digital cable channels. You have several options:
1. If you use a cable box, you can set the cable box to the correct
channel prior to the record time and connect an analog output (yellow
video plus read and black audio OR s-video plus red and black
audio) to your VCR.
2. If you have no cable box, you can purchase or rent a DVR from
your cable company and use that to record digital cable channels.
For archiving purposes, you can still run an analog output from the
DVR to a VCR or DVD recorder and manually record.
3. If you are willing to wait until March, DVD recorders (and maybe
some DVD/VCR recorders) should be appearing with built in ATSC
(over the air) and QAM (unencrypted cable) tuners. These will
allow you to record any unencrypted digital channels.

The DVR will be the most satisfying solution, since it will allow
you to record HD programs *in* HD. The other mechanisms will
only allow you to record HD programs down-converted to SD.

You can still play analog VCR tapes and DVDs just like you
always did. Your digital TV has some old style analog inputs
to which you connect the old style analog outputs from your
VCR or DVD. (If you have a newer DVD player with component
or DVI or HDMI outputs, those outputs will give a better picture
than the older analog outputs.)

Dan Woj...

How do I get the same functionality digitally? Is hdtv different?

Thanks much!

Chuck