http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/ Engadget HD Comments for Motorola ships CableCARD STBs http://hd.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://hd.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2009 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/Apr 17th 2007 4:06PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/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.]]>Apr 17th 2007 4:07PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/
That is a double negative...what you're essentially saying is you're hoping buying a TiVo WILL cause experience installation headaches.]]>Apr 17th 2007 4:40PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/Apr 17th 2007 4:41PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/
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.]]>Apr 17th 2007 5:09PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/
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?]]>Apr 17th 2007 5:39PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/Apr 17th 2007 5:55PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/Apr 17th 2007 6:59PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/]]>Apr 17th 2007 7:27PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/
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.

]]>Apr 17th 2007 9:25PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/Apr 17th 2007 11:51PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/
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.
]]>Apr 18th 2007 4:43PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/Apr 18th 2007 8:12AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/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.]]>Apr 23rd 2007 4:14PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/04/17/motorola-ships-cablecard-stbs/
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.]]>Apr 18th 2007 4:10PM