A Brief FAQ on CableCards

TechNit writes "Just when I thought my Comcast DVR box was not going to change here comes the CableCard. Fascinating concept but I don't see these being used without the added features of Pay-Per-View, Video on Demand etc. that many consumers (me) have become used to. I see these being used more for authentication/theft prevention devices as apposed to stand-alone service providing devices. What do others know about this?" An earlier CNet column points out the shortcomings of current CableCard implementations.

Comments

One-Way CableCards not read for prime time

[jforster17]

I agree with CNET's "Five reasons to not buy a CableCard".

There's a long and sordid history in the Cable Industry behind the CableCard. From the outside it seems like a fine idea, but none of the insiders wanted it, so it happened slowly. Now that it's here, it's obsolete as the version available now only supports 'one-way' video services, i.e., traditional broadcast TV. EPG, VOD, built-in PVR, and more interactive services, all require two-way communication, which is not in this version.

There are specs in CableLabs for the two-way version, but it's not clear if they're finished or even workable. And more likely the existing specs would be trumped by the industry's NGNA -- Next Generation Network Architecture effort (see http://www.cabledigitalnews.com/ngna/ngnaprimer.ht ml for an NGNA primer). The cable video industry is a bit peculiar to the computer and networking crowd because there is basically only proprietary systems. There are standards-based components and approaches, but by the time a whole system is built, Set Top Boxes are not interoperable across multiple systems. The the kicker: with mostly analog video on cable systems, usually almost all the bandwidth was tied up with programming. That left no available spectrum to introduce a different, competitive system. Once a vendor got into a city, the operator never changed over to a differerent vendor in that city, because the switching cost was too great.

There's a chance this will change, due mostly to digital TV requiring less bandwidth, pent-up demand for new technology (VOD & PVR primarily), and the great success cable has had with DOCSIS-based Internet Access (they make a ton of money on it!) leading to some appreciation for open standards and interoperability. We'll see.

Re:Goodbye firewire set-top boxes

[GeorgieBoy]

FCC mandates that cable companies need to make firewire control possible as of early 2004: Link

If you live in the US you should be able to do something about this.