Only 200,000 CableCARDS currently in service
By Matt Burns 
posted September 29th 2006 9:57AM
posted September 29th 2006 9:57AM
CableCARDs are quickly dying out but could the Series 3 TiVo be their knight in shinning armor? Currently there are only 200,000 cards in use and 180,000 of 'em are thanks to just one unnamed provider. We have gone over the lack of CableCARD support again and again but it still isn't getting any better especially when everyone is playing the blame game. Consumers are pointing at cable companies for not offering the service in a timely or cost effective manner and cable companies are blaming HDTV manufacturers for implementing the technology differently therefore causing lots of unknown issues. There is no question why CableCARDS are only penetrating 0.2% of cable market as everyone is simply gun shy. Hopefully, the dual-CableCARD TiVo Series 3 will force cable companies into providing a higher quality of CableCARD support thanks to a higher demand.
So i Emailed Charter cable Co .. Terrible HDTV support by the way , doesnt even have NBC ... and asked about cable cards , price and such .. wanted to by them outright , not rent them .. Anyway they told me in my area they only have cable cards , at $1.50 a month .. no biggie , then they say sorry they only have reg cable cards and not HD cable cards .. So is there even such a thing Cable card Vs. HD cable card .. i never heard of such a thing ??
The cable television industry has and probably always will be the most mismanaged set of local franchisers that can be imagined. It is what happens to any company with more managers than sense, and an complete disconnection between themselves, realty, and the technology basics being desired. Any notion of centralize, full-deployment, and quick and efficient to market solutions is lost in reality and presented in marketing virtual reality.
As long as your TV has a built in digital tuner you'll be able to get HD service with it. There is no such thing as an HD cable card.
Also, all you Tivo S3 owners better hope your cable company doesn't go to a switched system that will render all current gen cable cards useless. I think Time Warner & Comcast are the big players in that.
That's 200,000 less set-top boxes wasting energy. The only .2% is misleading because most have basic cable only and don't use a set-top box either.
my buddys got a cable card and it sucks. theres no guide.
Cablecards are great for second TV's. Keep the box for the guide and VOD on one TV and use Cablecards for the rest.
Newer TVs have "TV Guide" functionality now, so no need for the guide from boxes now. But you still lose the On-Demand video though.
I have charter cable (TN) (yes their HD does suck....WAYYY pixellated). I picked up their cable card and HD service, works fine. No such thing as a HD cable card. I only have the 1st 13 channels (like $15/mo) then added in HD for $6.99/mo.
CableCards had better not be relying on the Series 3 Tivo... How many of them do you think Tivo is going to sell this year at $800 each..?!? I think only be the early adopters from the exisiting Tivo user base will be getting into the S3 before the new year. Others will wait for price drops or use the Cable Co's own dual tuner HD DVR, especially those who can get Tivo software on Comcast boxes later this year. Cable Co's don't want to support CableCard and they have no incentive to help Tivo. I think the S3 will be Tivo's last hardware design before they move to a software licencing business model.
In my area(charter comm.) we have quite a few CC's out and generally they seem to work ok. I will say that we give them to whoever wants one but there has not been that much demand yet. The seeming lack of a standard in the CC devices does seem to be a problem. Every TV is a little different in the setup process and how I get the info necessary to have the card provisioned. And I have not seen 1 device yet(even the 'TV Guide' TV's) that can hold a candle to an STB on screen guide.
TImeWarner just took over ComCast in Los Angeles and seeing as I just ordered my first HDTV--I am so excited I cannot begin to tell you-I was suddenly on the warpath to figure out the cablecard thing (I am thinking about getting that Tivo box...but not for awhiiiiiile)---I got the same answer: they don't have HD CableCards yet but are planning to. yeahright.
oh well. i'll just have to live with this TimeWarner DVR for awhile, I guess.
I wish they would make a computer tv tuner with cablecard support.
How long till we see two-way CableCards implemented by Cable Companies? I'd love to ditch my box, it takes up space on my AV Rack, but I won't give up OnDemand.