After some hemming and hawing, we ordered a new Tivo Series 3 "HD" recorder two weeks ago. It arrived last week.

In the back of my mind I knew I had to deal with the twits at Time-Warner Cable to get a Cablecard for optimal experience, but figured in the interim I'd reconnect our HD cable box and output its DVI or RGB to the Tivo.

It never occurred to me that Tivo would remove all video inputs into the box. Let me repeat that: all video inputs to the Tivo Series 3 have been removed.

The only option is to connect your cable to the system. If you have digital cable, you are screwed until your cable service provider deems to fulfill its FCC requirements to perhaps just maybe respond to your inquiry about a Cablecard.

The Cablecard was conceived of in the 1990s as a way to route around the cable monopolies' rental income stream from cable decorder boxes that date to some time in the 1970s. Specifically, it was an attempt to shunt the cable companies back into being transports for content, and to allow consumers to consume content using whatever home electronics systems they wanted to use.

The weakness in this plan, of course, is that it is still the cable companies who must provide the Cable Cards. And they are less than interested in making it easier for consumers to consume content, especially if that means a loss in income.

Argh.