EchoStar lines up to make tru2way boxes too
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Aug 13th 2008 1:45PM
posted Aug 13th 2008 1:45PM
posted Aug 13th 2008 1:45PM
The number of televisions estimated that sit unused in closets.
The EPA estimates that nearly 100 million unused televisions are currently taking up precious, beautiful space. (source: EPA, July 2008)
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1. There is no reason to sell them to consumers because consumers (for the most part) have shown no interest in buying them. They would rather rent.
2. The manufacturers don't want to sell them to end users because of the potentional support nightmare (Ben, being a Vista Media Center Cablecard user, you should have some knowledge on this).
3. The retailers don't want to carry them, again because of support issues.
Those are all narrow-minded reasonings.
The fact is, if someone released a compelling-enough STB, consumers will sit up and take notice, and carriers and retailers will support it. Just ask Apple and iPhone users.
Speak for yourself, Jim.
I, for one, would prefer to research and purchase my own STB or TiVo (if they were permitted to support CableCard) rather than put up with my crappy Comcast Motorola STB that doesn't even have HDMI output.
You can buy a Tivo HD right now that supports Cablecard (unless you are in Canada).
And I am not talking HD enthusiasts (and posting here makes you one) I am talking just the guy with his Vizio who just wants to watch TV and record stuff with a DVR.
TiVo Series 3 and HD will also support tru2way (SDV and VOD) with their upcoming tuning adapter. It will be the best of both worlds: Great software, combined with cable interactivity. Not that I really care about the interactivity, UNLESS my local Cox provider goes to SDV eventually.
Tivo and Vista Media Center aren't compelling? It's the price of these solutions that scare people away. The most I think people are going to pay for an STB is the equivilent of 24 months of rental.
If we assume $7 per month for a HD 2-way digital box and $12 per month for a HD-DVR (right out of my Comcast rate guide). The most you could charge for a plain STB is probably $168. The most you could get for an HD-DVR is $288. I don't think you can build something "compelling" for that much. The Tivo HD comes close but you have that $10 a month service fee + cablecard charges on top of it that I think turns the average consumer off on that solution. VMC has no monthly charge other than cablecard but is at minimum a $1,000 solution and that is only going to attract high-end consumers.
I'm waiting for a Tru2Way/BluRay combo.
A couple of additional points.
1.) The tuner resolver for Tivo I believe only is meant to work with SDV. To get PPV/On-Demand I think will take a new model with the OCAP application stack.
2.) The biggest problem with Tru2Way (and what doomed Cablecard before it) is the lack of a requirement (based on what I read) for the head-end to send guide data for the TV or STB. You ended up with three scenarios, either no guide at all (like my LG Plasma), the crappy TV Guide On-Screen solution that never seemed to work quite right, or a Tivo/VMC solution which required a network connection and a fee to get the data (either paid monthly ala Tivo or built in to the price of the product ala VMC) and that requires some kind of network connection. Not something J6P will want to bother with.
Tru2Way supplies the guide data from the cable company.
It does look like it would provide the standard EPG like the MSO supplied STB. What I was really talking about was that the raw program guide data could be sent in a standardized format and then the manufactuer can use that data in their own guide program.