The two way cable standard once incorrectly referred to as CableCARD 2.0 is officially dead as far as consumers are concerned.
Tru2way was originally touted as a way to integrate 3rd party HDTVs and set-tops boxes with all the services cable providers have to offer, is now just yet another proprietary cable technology. At one point
Sony and
most of the big TV manufacturers had promised to released TVs that integrated the feature, but only
Panasonic was actually selling them in a few select trial markets. We knew something was up when
cable providers missed their July '09 deadline to support 3rd party devices across the country, and then when
tru2way integrated TVs were missing in action at CES 2010, we had already declared the idea dead. Now even Panasonic is pulling its Panasonic tru2way sets and is instead
focusing on a set-back box (pictured above) that will be, wait for it, supplied and supported by the service provider. We were as optimistic as anyone about tru2way, but honestly thought it was far from the ideal solution. It is hard to say what is going to happen at this point, but the next tech to step up and try to free people from big cable's set-top tyranny is
AllVid, and sadly it probably has just as much of a chance as any to be successful.
posted July 29th 2010 7:18PM
As long as the set-top box rental is a cash cow, I don't expect to see anything that lets us go without one. Then again, it seems the cable/sat watching public is accustomed to very poor treatment, paying a lot of money to get a product that is 33% loud, obnoxious ads, as well as having no choice but to rent a stupid box with a bad user interface.
@JDM
Set-top box rental isn't as big of a cash cow as you think. Cable companies incur significant costs leasing them from the manufacturer and keeping inventory on them, maintaining stores where customers can go pick them up or have them exchanged, as well as the costs of developing the software to run on them. I mean, obviously it's profitable, but not so much that the cable companies would fight this hard to prevent any alternatives.
However, the set-top-box does give the cable companies something far more valuable to them: control over your TV experience. They are desperately fighting to keep full control over every aspect of your TV-watching experience so that they, and they alone, can make money from providing it to you.
The absolute last thing they want is to become a dumb pipe like the landline phone companies were forced to become, because if that happens, their service becomes a commodity and customers will have much less incentive to stick with them. That's why, in every discussion regarding the future of customer cable TV equipment, the cable companies insist on the requirement that they supply any and all software that runs on the equipment.
There is only one way to make the 3rd party navagation work. Do not allow cable companies to supply equipment. Then just like the telephone company, we'll have innovation and choice. The only thing the cable company would supply is the security device be it a smart card, cableCARD or software decryption download.
@johnw248 Uh, you're comparing a $10 audio transducer to a $200-$500 piece of complex electronics?
Look, if anyone wants to control their TV, they have plenty of streaming options now.
There's zero reason to worry about any so called box monopoly the cable companies have.
I think we all saw this one coming. On the bright side, cable companies are pretty much setting up their own downfall with forced dvr/voice/etc packages and regular cable bills having a tons of channels added to them without the option of removing then (e.g. ESPN1 through 100). But anybody who used to care is caring much less now, why? Antenna + Netflix + Hulu... cable companies are just going to be dumb internet pipes now, which is perfectly fine by me.
@BinaryTB So how is the cable company any worse then the Satellite guys now?
I don't understand how. Go to best buy, are there 20 different satellite boxes to choose from there? (for those that don't go to best buy, there isn't).
People are being stupid about this.
And btw, all this crying by the few people have caused the death of true2way. The FCC listened to the couple of you and are AGAIN changing the rules. Why would any CE company in it's right mind spend millions of dollars developing to a standard that the retards at the FCC kill before the CE companie's can even come out with the last thing?
People are so stupid.
@annonymiss
The FCC is listening to the consumer electronics company, not us vocal minority. They have a process they follow for comments and most of the comments are submitted by large companies, not people on this site or any forum.
Sony, Panasonic, TiVo and others have let the FCC know that tru2way wasn't going to work and a big part of that was because the cable operators missed their deadline to support 3rd party devices. How can you blame "some people" for the death of tru2way when Comcast, Time Warner and every other cable provider else promised CE companies they'd support their tru2way devices by July 2009 and here it is an entire year later and only one brand TV was ever officially supported in 3 cities? (which is now dead too)
As for why Sony and the other tv manufacturers are willing to invest money in another try. People have proven they won't change inputs on their TV for anything except a disc player. The TV manufacturers also don't want to become dumb panel providers. They want to enhance their products with widgets and streaming services like Hulu and Netflix. They want to deliver all these things that consumers are so excited about and without tight integration with the primary source of content in the home, none of it will really matter.
So the question is, do you want providers or 3rd party CE companies controlling your user experience? Based on the fact that providers have had it for 10 years and are only willing to give us the "free phone" of the set-top box industry, I'm ready to give the control to someone else.
Sorry to kill your article but CableCard 2.0 is the current CableCard standard. It has little to do with tru2way other than tru2way uses it for separable security. tru2way's former name was OpenCable.
@gabmasterjcc
Sorry to kill your comment, but CableCARD 2.0 was a name that people used inaccurately to describe two way 3rd party CableCARD host devices specification between 2004 to about 2006. And yes I know that tru2way's actual original and technical name is OCAP (OpenCable Application Platform).
I'm not saying it was ever correct to call tru2way CableCARD 2.0, just that wrong or right, many did.
@tkuhl87
I am well aware of the improper usage in the past, but as pseudo-news outlet engadget should try to use the correct names of things. CableCard 2.0 is alive and well for the time being (all current production cable STBs use it). You didn't kill my comment. You actually agreed with it. My comment was mainly made to suggest that the article be revised, so that it is not does not contain misinformation. It could easily be fixed by stating that it was referred to under the misnomer "CableCard 2.0." My term "kill" wasn't the best way to say it, but that is all I could think of this early in the morning.
@gabmasterjcc
Point taken, the way I had it made it sound like it was the proper name, which it wasn't.
No biggie, cable companies will soon be obsolete with all the content i want available on the Internet. Just need a media streaming box or something.