Motorola ships CableCARD STBs
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Apr 17th 2007 2:50PM
posted Apr 17th 2007 2:50PM
It isn't very long till the next deadline in the long road we call the digital transition. This next step will either be really big or really bad. While most people will agree that CableCARDs aren't that great, the FCC is dead set on making the concept work and starting in July cable companies will be required to only deploy CableCARD devices, that means no more built in security. It is an understatement to say that the cable companies are not happy. The irony is that they say it is because of the limited feature set of CableCARD, yet they were the one who came up with the standard in the first place. While we wait for CableCARD 2.0 or downloadable conditional access, we have to live with what we got in the meantime. The hope is that now that the cable companies are stuck with same system, they will actually be motivated to really make it work for consumers this time. With any luck this means buying a box like a TiVo Series3 won't mean: installation headaches and no VOD, any more.[Via Connected Home 2Go]
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But is this good for MythTV? AFAIK, there is no way for a linux box to use cablecards. I'm no fan of the STB, but at least I can get OTA stations (+ CSPAN) from firewire. I'm hoping that a foreign company will make a cablecard STB without any encryption on the firewire output.
Josh,
This does not change the 1394 requirement, the cable co's now have to give you a CableCARD box with 1394.
The best scenario for MythTV is for the cable co's to provide the channels free and clear, so you can record them with a QAM tuner, cutting out the STB completely.
'...won't mean you won't experience installation headaches..."
That is a double negative...what you're essentially saying is you're hoping buying a TiVo WILL cause experience installation headaches.
Thanks, updated.
First, true it doesn't change the 1394 requirement on STB's, but still, the only channels you are more than likely going to get are the OTA channels which you *should* already be able to get anyways. Almost all pay content is still 5C'd.
Second, it's not that most poeple think CableCARD's suck, it's more that we have yet to see them working as equal product replacement for a STB. Until we have 2 way CableCARD's, people are probably gonna think the technology sucks.
CableCard 1.0 is 1-way so no you wan't see VOD/PPV or other interactive services.
They may have to give you a box with 1394 but they don't have to send everything in the clear, in fact Comcast just announced copy protection will be enabled in ALL markets for ALL channels except local OTAs.
"The best scenario for MythTV is for the cable co's to provide the channels free and clear, so you can record them with a QAM tuner, cutting out the STB completely."
Uh, yeah sure. Why don't you just ask for a tree that grows free money and a date with Scarlett Johanssen while you're at it?
Does this mean if we rent a box from cable company after it will not have VOD, PPV? If so it is a big bummer, or is it? Who uses any of these features anyhow?
The new boxes will do everything the old ones did, including VOD. The cablecard is for security only.
So this means that soon to be released set-top boxes with cable card from Korea/China will have VOD, PPV, etc.? I thought that current users of cable card who have no cable box have no VOD, PPV?
It's a myth that the current CableCard design (often called "1.0") is one-way only. The cards are two-way cards. The HOST - the TV or Set Top Box that the card plugs have been by and large one-way only. When you go to Best Buy and buy a "CableCard ready TV", it's the TV that's one-way - it doesn't know how to do the VOD, etc. There are standards to get this information, but you have to work through CableLabs to do it and it's often a difficult process.
For example, Samsung certified a two-way television set at CableLabs: http://www.cablelabs.com/news/pr/2005/05_pr_samsung_082405.html
That means it can connect to the cable network, obtain a program guide, do VOD, etc. That two-way TV was certified using the current CableCARD technology, not any new design.
These new STBs to comply the FCC mandate will all be two-way hosts.
There is a new CableCard design that's launching this year called "MultiStream CableCARD". The older CableCard design could only support 1 stream of video. The newer one can support multiple streams of video. You can think of the Multistream card as having multiple tuners. This new card has nothing to do with one or two way - it's still the host (the TV, the PC, STB, etc) that controls that. In fact, the Samsung TV that was certified was certified using a single-stream CableCard.
For example, in advance of the multistream card hitting the market, the TiVo S3 had two CableCard slots - one for each tuner. One of those slots is upgradable to support a Multistream card. That way, you only need one card. Regardless, the TiVo S3 is a one-way host. It does not know enough to connect to the cable network to get movies on demand and the program guide from the cable network. Instead, it has a broadband connection and gets all that information over the Internet.
Hope this helps; I'd like Engadget to cover this a bit better.
So what you're saying is 2-way cable cards are not necessary if device is hooked up to internet? Ok, so we should be ready to rock n roll with cablecard 1, and multistream versions. Yes, EngadgetHD, it would be nice if you enlighten us more on this topic. Like what sort of connection speed is necessary for programming guide, VOD, PPV, IPTV, etc.? And why all this fuss about cablecard sucking? And why don't more devices use cablecard - they can't cost more than say a cable modem? They do seem redundant if you already have a cable modem.
uh....i have an s3 & no, neither slot is upgradeable. this was one thing that prolonged my compulsion to a month long decision.
the s3 cc slots are not firmware upgradeable to multi-stream or anything equal to cc 2.0. TiVo even confirmed this although manual might say differently on one overlooked page.
Not sure about upgrade ability, but slot1 in a Series3 is specifically labeled as Mult-stream compatible, or M-Card as we like to call it.
in reply to ben:
http://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10266409
http://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10281348
basically, multistream is possible if the card is cablecard 1.0 multistream compatible. if it's cablecard 2.0 & doesn't have 1.0 multistream, it will fall back to just normal single stream 1.0 (ie., 2 cards will still be needed). either way, it won't be bi-directional so no ppv or on-demand stuff. the only thing series 3 hardware has that might be good for owners on newer cards is the multistream part so we might only need to rent 1 card. this is confirmed on the website.
This whole cablecard thing is one big joke if you asked me. If you want to pay for Tivo services, be my guest... But I'm not going to pay them jack... I want to build my own HTPC with Vista (which I already have up and running)... But with their decision to FORCE you to buy the CableCARD HD cable tuners WITH a new PC, they can all go to hell.
I'm waiting for the DirecTV version, which will sell as a stand alone PCI or USB tuner... and WON'T require you to buy an entire new machine bundled with the capture cards like the cable solutions do... what a joke.