Cable Industry to Standardize Under Tru2Way

smooth wombat writes "In a move to stave off the FCC, cable operators have now agreed upon one standard to allow TVs and other gear that will work regardless of cable provider. This standard should allow the development of new services and features that rely on two-way communication over the cable network. The core of the matter is this: there are tvs and other devices which can receive digital programming but cannot talk back to the network. As a result, subscribers must rent out boxes from cable companies. This new standard should, in theory, do away with having to rent a box. There are two downsides to this standard. First, Sony has not signed onto the cable industry's idea and second, FCC Chairman Kevin Martin wants to put forth a proposal for a more open and competitive environment using a completely different standard."

Comments

Do you have to ask?

[overshoot]

Will my Tivo HD still work with this new standard, or will I have to buy everything all over again?

That's a trick question, right?

Sigh

[jeremy128]

Here's just one more technology that promises to solve a problem, and indeed might, if it was ever used.

The FCC standard.

[AltGrendel]

I believe that Chairman Kevin Martin calls it "No TV left behind".

Re:For a moment ...

[KingSkippus]

That, and CableCard v.2 was supposed to handle 2-way communications. I think v.1 was just one way.

Does that make v.3 the one where the NSA also gets to watch what you're watching in real-time?

Re:Building this stuff into the tv is a good idea?

[cHiphead]

How is the government supposed to watch US from our tvs if they dont have 2 way communications, ala 1984?

cheers.