Two-way Cable Cards Ushered in by Sony

[admin]

This just in from the "better-late-than-never" department: Sony has negotiated a deal to allow for itself and other television manufacturers to integrate two-way CableCARD technology into television sets. This new technology (which should have been announced, perfected, and released years ago) is dubbed "tru2way" and finally brings two-way technology to the completely stalled, but now mandatory, CableCARD revolution. To-date, the problem with CableCARDS has been that they lacked two-way communication - meaning they lacked program guides, Pay-Per-View, on-demand, interactivity, and any of the many other features that make cable set-top boxes work. All that is about to end and Sony has apparently helped usher in the future of the advanced two-way technology.


Discuss "Two-way Cable Cards Ushered in by Sony" here. Read the article.

[GlocksRock]

Is it really even worth bothering to continue to invest in cablecard technology? How many people actually use those anyway?

[bandphan]

Is it really even worth bothering to continue to invest in cablecard technology? How many people actually use those anyway?

me, and the hang up is vod, and comcast sucks arse and will not move forward with 2 way on their end. Cable Card is nice since you do not have the box to interfer with the processing, and allow a good display to handle it

[10010011]

Is it really even worth bothering to continue to invest in cablecard technology? How many people actually use those anyway?

I use one in my Tivo-HD.

Guide? Tivo has it's own guide.

On-Demand? I could care less about, but I still have a standard digital box for that. The digital box is free and the cablecard only cost $3.95 a month. Sure I can not get HD On-Demand but it's not like they could stream an HD movie any way without frequent macro-blocking and sound dropouts. I think in three years of On-Demand availability we have watched less than ten movies. Mainly because the selection sucks and it's hard to find a movie worth paying $2.99 to watch.

With Tivo I never even think about On-Demand as all my favorite shows are already on demand.

[BMXTRIX]

I think the biggest thing is stand alone DVRs and integrated display systems. I'm all for two-way cable cards if it means that I can get one installed into a cable box with perhaps some decent scaling on board, and one that has an expandable hard drive and rock solid HDMI output.

I would forgo the cable companies rental fees on the boxes and an integrated guide should allow the DVR to act on its own, without a monthly added feed.

[Biggiesized]

A correction for this article:

1) A common misconception is that CableCards, for the longest time, were not two-way. This is incorrect. They have always supported two-way communication. Only recently have more M-Stream (multi-stream) cards been seen on the market. An M-Stream card can handle more streams of video so you can use one in a DVR. The problem has been that televisions have lacked the necessary hardware for two-way communication via CableCards. It's never been the fault of the CableCard itself.

This is a good article to read for a better understanding of CableCards. Surprisingly, EngadgetHD gets it right.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/06/22...-2-0-is-ready/

[Clint DeBoer]

It's always been the fault of Cable Labs for not approving the use of two-way. Don't let anybody's slick spin tell you that it's the manufacturers' fault. The fact that the cards can "technically" support two-way is irrelevant. They aren't approved to do it and haven't been until now.

Whether they have to actually swap out existing cards or not is a good question. My guess is yes.

[10010011]

Yes but Biggiesized has a point.

Your TV or DVR or whatever device would have to have what amounts to a cable modem built in (like a cable box does) for any type of two way communication.

A simple card swap is not going to make any currently cable-card compatible device fully functional.

[bandphan]

Yes but Biggiesized has a point.

Your TV or DVR or whatever device would have to have what amounts to a cable modem built in for any type of two way communication, card or no card.

Cable boxes already have this.

all the new comcast boxes have "cards" built in. I use an m card with the hope of true 2 way, and in tivo s3 i install. The card ,as i stated before, will allow a good panel to receive and scale the signal better than the boxes

[10010011]

all the new comcast boxes have "cards" built in. I use an m card with the hope of true 2 way, and in tivo s3 i install. The card ,as i stated before, will allow a good panel to receive and scale the signal better than the boxes

I don't understand what you are saying.

You currently have a Tivo S3 with an "M" card and you are hoping for it to be true 2-way compatible when the cards come out?

Not going to happen, least not with a card alone.

Comcast and Tivo are working on a device that will plug into the USB port on S2 and S3 Tivo's to make them compatible with SDV. This device also has the promise of making them fully On-Demand and PPV compatible, I am not sure about the guide.