The difference between the two was probably one of the first things he learned.

A few years back, I noticed my DSL modem, router, network hub, etc. were around 5-6 inches wide. I figured if I could take the guts out and put the boards in custom enclosures, I could convert an old PC case to a mini rack mount, with a lot of the cables contained inside. Never came up with an enclosure solution I liked, though. Most of these devices are powered by wall warts that feed DC current, the challenge is picking devices that take 5 or 12V (there's a lot of stuff out there that wants 7 or 9V, although that can be done if you want to get creative).

I doubt Tivo would have much legal standing in Canada. AFAIK, they've never shipped a single unit up here, and I doubt they ever bothered to file a patent in Canada. Before I got an Expressvu PVR, I e-mailed Tivo to ask if they had any plans to start selling products in Canada and they basically asked "where?"

The courts in Canada have a pretty low tolerance level for frivolous lawsuits. The only thing they hate more than that is being told what to do by Americans. If Tivo has any plans of appearing before a Canadian judge to take on Bell Canada (one of the largest and most powerful companies in the country), they had better make sure they've got a rock solid case, or they're gonna get their asses handed to 'em.

That leaves the technical question. I'm not sure who actually provides the software and programming services, if Expressvu handles that themselves or if they pay Echostar to do it. If it's done by Echostar, it's possible that they might decide to stop doing so. Hopefully Expressvu will have a solution for that in short order, or they're going to have a lot of extremely unhappy customers on their hands. Since there's no Tivo here, shutting off Expressvu PVRs would affect half the PVRs in the country (and probably more than that, I don't know anyone who has the Rogers version).