Series4 and CableCards and Digital Cable

[jtodd929]

Is it possible to buy a CableCard (where can I buy one)? My only gripe about cablecards is that I need 3 of them (2 for Tivo, 1 for TV), and evil Comcast charges a high monthly fee for their rental. (I wish Series3 could use dual tuners with just one CableCard!) Currently I receive HD channels but TivoS3 can't get Season Passes for QAM channels without the CableCards.

Is there the potential for Series3 to get Season Passes for QAM channels without CableCard through a future software update?

Will Series4 be able to Season Pass QAM channels without a CableCard?

Will digital cable from a provider ever function like analog cable does now (where I just plug in my F-pin cable and can receive a basic cable lineup)? I don't care about OnDemand or any of that. I just want basic digital cable without additional rental fees or converter boxes etc.

I'm wondering if Series4 will address any of the issues I've presented above, or if Series4 will primarily only give OnDemand capability.

[cowboys2002]

The series 4 doesn't exist.

There are rumors of discussions between Tivo an NCTA, but "officially" no product with the name Series 4.

[classicsat]

Most providers only rent cablecards. The odd one you have to buy, and can use them on their system.
In the case of Comcast, you can only rent their cards.

The potential is there for the Series 3 and the later mode sto be able to manually map QAM channels, if TiVo cares to or is allowed to include that functionality. The Series 4 platform will likely be limited in that regard for the same reason the Series 3/TiVoHD is.

So far it seems, is that the purpose of development of the Series 4 is to get integrated OpenCable (AKA COAP) two-way functionality.