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... un-encrypted digital cable channels because of the built-in QAM tuner, ... One of my questions is whether I would absolutely need cablecards (which I am not really interested in having right now) to record these digital/HD channels or would the built-in QAM tuner in the Tivo function essentially the same as my TV's?
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You can record the channels manually w/o cable cards. To get full Tivo functionality with guide data & record by show name/season passes/wishlist etc. you need the cablecards. Having a way to manually configure channel mappings to guide data w/o cablecards is often requested by users at tivocommunity.com, but has not been implemented by Tivo probably because:
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...Another concern is that Time Warner may be re-mapping and adding to these digital channels every so often...What kind of problem might this present to the Tivo,if any?
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of this. With cablecards the re-map is handled automatically. Without, the user would have to reenter the mapping, unless PSIP info could be relied upon. Tivo wants to keep it simpler for the end user but those of us who want to not pay for cablecards probably would rather deal with having to reconfigure every now & then, and occasionally screwing up recordings.
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..Also what would be the situation after the analog turn-off in Feb 2009?...Is this Tivo future proofed and will it still be fine with my basic cable set up?
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Analog shutoff only applies to over-the-air, not cable. Cable company is free to continue to provide analog service if they want. The Tivo HD has both analog & digital tuner built-in so you are covered in any case.
The only concerns about compatibility w/ cable are for PPV / VOD (doesn't work now, may never work), and something called SDV (switched digital video). For basic broadcast cable you only have to worry about the SDV, which is a technology where the company doesn't have all the channels on the wire all the time, only broadcasting channels that are being requested by someone in your neighborhood. Tivo as of now can't handle SDV, since that requires signals to be sent back to the head-end, but there is rumors of solutions being proposed using a USB dongle.
