arstechnica.com — "Beginning in July, cable operators can no longer offer set-top boxes that contain integrated navigation and security functions. Instead, cable companies must use either CableCARD or DCAS—and they're not happy about it." Comcast may not be happy but I'm sure consumers and companies like TiVo will be ecstatic.
Jan 11, 2007 View in Crawl 4
sketchydaveJan 12, 2007
I'm in Boston and have HD and DVR, but no premium channels. I think the box costs $15 a month. fatdog789 is probably right on the money, it might be a contract issue, not a tech issue. You would probably lose the premium channels and pay more for the box. If you signed a contract, see when its up by and switch out then.
tuscanspeedJan 12, 2007
Comcast has a monopoly in my area. I have no other cable tv choice at all.Let the FCC fix that. Then maybe i'll be happy. Until then, this change does nothing.
loker269Jan 12, 2007
yes you can.....you can buy the Moto home theater box deal which functions as a cable boxyou can buy one of those ridiculously expensive Sony DVR's those support digital cableyou can buy one of those ridiculously expensive Series 3 Tivo's those support digital cableyou can buy one of those not as ridiculously expensive Toshiba DVR's and those support digital cablethere are plenty of third party devices that you can in fact use......they are just usually prohibitively expensive.....
pallasJan 12, 2007
daverp: "I wonder how this will work with dual tuners. Tivo s3 requires 2 CableCards, and thus two charges from your cable company."According to the TiVo Series 3 manual:"If your TV programming source includes CableCARD decoders, you must have two CableCARD decoders installed for dual tuner functionality.Note: A single multi-stream CableCARD decoder installed in the bottom slot on the back of the DVR enables dual tuner functionality. However, as of the first publication of this guide, multi-stream CableCARD decoders are not yet available."Question: Anyone know if the CableCARD 2.0 design is slot-compatible with devices which use CableCARD 1.0, and whether devices which accept CableCARDs could then utilize the PPV and VOD services if fitted with a version 2.0 CableCARD? If not, those expensive TiVo boxes will need to be replaced when CableCARD 2.0 comes out to use PPV and VOD. (BTW, I do realize CableCARD 2.0 is not the same as a multi-stream card - I just thought the quote from the TiVo manual was interesting, since it alludes to a multi-streaming capability I had not heard of before.)
leopardhunterJan 12, 2007
This is a big win for Cisco, which bought Scientific Atlanta.
daverpJan 13, 2007
I've seen a few CableCard v2 cards and devices at trade shows and the card looks the same. Both CableLabs and the device makers do say a v2 will not work in a v1 device. CableLabs may have not made them pin compatible to slow adoption.
happyscrappyJan 13, 2007
TiVo will upgrade the S3 to support CableCARD 2.0 and thus need only one card installed and have additional features.They intended to do this all along, so as long as the slot is hardware compatible and TiVo is still in business, you can count on it.