Should I import a blu ray recorder from the UK or Japan

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by nec1912

Some one was saying the only thing you can record is over the air and you cannot record off cable or satellite do to copy protection .

And those Blu-ray recorders in the UK and Japan have HDMI copy protection in them.

All digital HD cable boxes you rent from the cable companies in the United States are required by law to have one working IEEE-1394 interface. Currently there are consumers making perfect bit for bit recordings of 1080I cable channels like HBO and Showtime movies if they own a discontinued D-VHS machine. All HD D-VHS machines have the I-link (IEEE-1394) interfaces. The D-VHS 1080I tape based system uses the 5C content protection that allows program providers to control and mark which programs on TV can be copied. Almost all programs on cable are marked with no restrictions or marked as copy only once. Some video on demand programs might be marked as copy never.

5C Digital Transmission Content Protection White Paper

In theory if you import a standalone blu-ray recorder into the United States that contains a IEEE-1394 interface then it will record any program off the HD cable box as long as the program is not marked as copy never.
I wish OPPO or some other company would build a Blu-ray standalone recorder for the US market. Right now consumers are only limited to 480i DVD recorders or temp recordings on a HD DVR. The first blu-ray recorders in the United States should at the very minimum have an ATSC and clear QAM tuner (also NTSC for legacy analog cable).

Satellite companies for several years now have not been placing IEEE-1394 interfaces on their boxes since they are not required by law to do so. So recording in HD quality from satellite is not possible with a D-VHS or Blu-ray recorder that uses IEEE-1394.