TWC to make Tuning Adapters available "later this year"

It's hard to say if letters like this are going out all over the country, but at least in central New York, Time Warner Cable has all intentions of providing CableCARD users with Tuning Adapters "later this year." Of note, the letter was addressed prior to the FCC slapping it with a fine for deploying SDV in an apparently improper manner, but at any rate, central NYers using a standard TiVo Series3 / TiVo HD now will see a whole slew of channels go dark on November 13th. The note also asserts that "it is currently contemplated that the Tuning Adapter will be provided at no additional charge," but that's a far cry from outrightly saying that they'll be doled out gratis. Guess we'll see in time, huh? [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 17th 2008 4:37PM]

Tuning adapter? What?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 17th 2008 5:44PM]

Tuning adapter so that things like TIVO and cable cards can still tune in digital channels.

Basically, the cable cos are going to Switched Digital Video (SDV). What that allows them to do is to only serve up channels that someone actually wants to watch. The current approach is to serve up all channels through the wire at all times. With all of the Video on Demand and other things they want to offer, they were running out of bandwidth. Supposedly with SDV, they will use less bandwidth.

So, if the cable co offers 100 digital and HD channels, but on your node, there are only 25 boxes hooked up. By using the SDV approach, they only have to serve up a maximum of 25 channels at once, and only while someone is actually tuned to that channel, rather than all 100 all the time.

[darklighter Posted Oct 17th 2008 5:25PM]

I got a similar letter a week or so ago from Time Warner San Diego.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 17th 2008 5:43PM]

UDCP = Unidirectional Digital Cable Products

Doesn't this also apply to DTV sets with CableCARD installed?

[darklighter Posted Oct 17th 2008 7:33PM]

No. The only UDCPs that support the Tuning Adapter are CableCARD TiVos. Theoretically, other UDCPs could use the Tuning Adapter, provided they have a USB port and provide a firmware update.

[rv65 Posted Oct 19th 2008 10:59PM]

Still no word on this to work with Cablecard PC's. Might need new tuners or the USB port is good enough. Might require 2 resolvers per cablecard tuners. Microsoft is still working on a solution for that crowd.