http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/ Engadget Comments for Retail tru2way devices are officially DOA, even Panasonic stops trial http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/Jul 29th 2010 8:15PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/
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.]]>Jul 30th 2010 8:03AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/Jul 29th 2010 9:45PMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/
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.]]>Jul 31st 2010 8:28AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/Jul 30th 2010 12:07AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/
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.]]>Jul 31st 2010 9:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/
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.]]>Jul 31st 2010 9:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/Jul 30th 2010 7:50AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/
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.]]>Jul 30th 2010 7:59AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/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.]]>Jul 30th 2010 8:18AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/
Point taken, the way I had it made it sound like it was the proper name, which it wasn't.]]>Jul 30th 2010 8:19AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/29/retail-tru2way-devies-are-officially-doa-even-panasonic-stops-t/]]>Jul 30th 2010 8:12AM