http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/ Engadget HD Comments for CableCARD 2.0 is ready 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/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
I would be shocked if the FCC steps in. No one actually cares about the consumer. It does open satellite to be a potential nerd haven though.
]]>Jun 22nd 2007 12:10PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
I also meant to say that your CableCard 2.0 posts have been great. There really is nothing else out there explaining CableCard 2.0 right now. ]]>Jun 22nd 2007 1:06PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
With OCAP I guess my competitive choices amount to the size of the hard drive and the color of the box. Maybe. I guess the cable companies could even say their software only supports drives up to a certain size.

The only way I see OCAP working is if the cable companies are required to carry any OCAP compliant software (kind of like compulsory licensing of music). So I buy the box, call the cable company, and tell them which software I want. The cable company charges me for the software, keeps some for themselves, and passes the rest on to the vendor of the software.]]>Jun 22nd 2007 12:36PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
"We can certainly respect the cable companies desire to control their networks; after all they do own it, they do have a business to run, and rogue two-way CableCARD devices could cause a lot of havoc. While CableLabs is complying with the law, we don't think it is in the spirit of the law, because it does not introduce a truly open platform, and at some point the cable companies need to realize that what's good for their customers is good for their business."]]>Jun 22nd 2007 12:38PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
Cable companies are going to loose a lot of customers over this deal...the day my Series 3 HD Tivo stops working on Comcast's network is the day I cancel and never come back.
]]>Jun 22nd 2007 4:35PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
]]>Jun 22nd 2007 1:13PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/Thanks for the kind words.
Satellite has become worse than cable over the past few years. They don't even let 3rd parties make one-way devices anymore. They also don't support 1394. I don't expect much from them either.]]>Jun 22nd 2007 1:08PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
dbw]]>Jun 22nd 2007 1:33PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/Jun 22nd 2007 1:47PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
Thnx for the help. ]]>Jun 22nd 2007 5:39PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
Here is (almost) everything you could possibly want to know about CableCARD.

http://www.opencable.com/primer/cablecard_primer.html]]>Jun 25th 2007 11:21AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
Alex - Your 3412 has the security software 'baked in', so it connects right to the cable. What the FCC has mandated, as of July 1st (unless issued a waiver) cable companies have to use cable boxes that DO NOT have the security baked in, but rather use CableCARD. The idea is that this will force cable companies to 'eat their own dog food' as the saying goes, and having to deal with CableCARD for all of their own boxes will make them improve their support for the standard.

Basically, until now, CableCARD installs have been few and far between - only a relative handful of TVs, TiVos, and new Media Center PCs. So many cable installers have never installed CC. I had new CCs installed a couple of weeks ago, and my installer said I was his second install - ever. And he'd been with Charter for years. Now they'll be installing CableCARD several times a day, every day, so the installers, support people, dispatch, etc, will be *forced* to learn about them and how to deal with them. Which will be better for everyone trying to get CC installed in other devices.

It also, in theory, makes for a level playing field - where consumer electronics devices and cable MSO STBs all use the same tokens (CableCARD) and the same back-end, so there isn't an advantage to the MSOs. However, because of the feud over CC2.0 and OCAP, de facto this isn't really the case.
]]>Jun 22nd 2007 6:57PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
This VOD stuff needs to be like internet explorer, mozilla, whatever. Cable company via cable labs provides a set of API's (application program interfaces) for all CE boxes. The CE companies then implement the API's in any way they see fit.


Cable companies are crippled by the MPAA and dinosaur thinking. Their interfaces flat out stink. If Tivo implemented VOD for the cable companies, their sales would probably increase because you could actually find what you're looking for.]]>Jun 23rd 2007 11:46AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
cableric]]>Jun 25th 2007 11:18AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
1) Current CableCard devices integrate CableCard 1.0 (including Vista Media Centers).
2) CableCard 1.0 won't support SDV (switched digital video).
3) Cable companies are moving into SDV quickly, with Time Warner leading the race THIS YEAR.
4) CableCard 2.0, which does support SDV, was approved last week, just in time to meet the CableCard support compliance deadline of July 1, 2007. Now cable companies can legally claim that they are in compliance with the FCC order by sending signals (SDV) that ARE decodable with CableCard 2.0 - the new standard.
5) The hardware will be different for CableCard 2.0 devices.
6) The entire device must be submitted to CableLabs to be approved for 2.0 compliance, yours hasn't been.
7) MOST IMPORTANTLY: Microsoft has stated that they have no plans to support CableCard 2.0 in Vista, as it forces them to use the CableLabs dictated Java / OCAP software to run it.
7) Microsoft is preoccupied pursuing it's IPTV dreams anyway.

Here's what I see happening:
1) Time Warner and others WILL switch to SDV soon in our market.
2) CableCard 1.0 devices will not work.
3) You'll have a non-operational orphan TV card for a while.
4) IF a lot of you with orphans complain to HP, etc, and IF they push Microsoft to support CableCard 2.0, and IF Microsoft then pushes the FCC to drop the OCAP requirement, AND if the FCC drops the OCAP requirement, AND if Microsoft then decides to agree and support it, THEN you will have to wait - a long, long while for them to put it into a box. At a minimum, you will THEN have to buy another ATI box, maybe another Media Center with the CableCard 2.0 flashed BIOS...

This means that these $2000 Vista MediaCenter PC's could be orphans by the end of the year, with no ability to change the channels - literally. Without support from Microsoft - Dell, HP, Niveus, Velocity Micro and the like will then be helpless to save them. Am I wrong here?]]>Jun 26th 2007 11:39AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/The reason is that SDV will not be used for all channels, in fact SDV doesn't work very well at all for very popular channels.

New, less popular channels will be added with SDV, no one expects cable to move existing channels to SDV, the consensus seems to say that all new channels will use SDV.

As long as you can get the channels you want via CC 1.0 it isn't obsolete. ]]>Jun 26th 2007 11:49AMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/Jun 29th 2007 2:02PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/
What do you mean that "...SDV doesn't work very well at all for very popular channels..."?

Can you elaborate on the 'doesn't work' part? Like does smoke come out of the box, when you try to tune into NBC?]]>Jul 2nd 2007 11:06PMhttp://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/http://hd.engadget.com/2007/06/22/cablecard-2-0-is-ready/Jul 2nd 2007 4:06PM