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Cable Tech
I stumbled across "CableCard" only recently, when I saw some TV sets equipped with the technology featured in a Crutchfield catalog. Now, via Slashdot, C|Net is providing us with the low-down on this up-and-coming technology. In a nutshell: instead of separate set-top box, all you'll need to get cable service is a card. Said card can then be inserted into any CableCard-ready TV and viola! TV service.
At least that's the theory. According to the article, it looks like the tech has several years to go before it matures enough to fulfill its promises.
I detest cable boxes, always have. They add unneeded complexity to a TV system and their implications for things like VCRs and TiVos are just about impossible to explain to folks who don't play with electronics for a living. Anything that promises to get rid of them automatically has my interest.
Looks like we'll need to hold off buying that mondo TV a few more years.
The cable cards are a good start but the first version of these cards operate only in one direction. They only receive data and do not send data back to the cable system. The result of this is that you cannot purchase Pay Per View or Video on Demand programs (much of which are free). Also, since the settop box provided the Electronic Program Guide (EPG), that's gone too.
Other than that, these cards work (with some expected compatibility issues which you can work out with your provider). For me, the EPG absence is a show stopper. It's hard surfing hundreds of channels without it. Also, VOD is interesting.
Keep in mind that Congress mandated these cards and the cable equipment providers have been reacting slowly to providing them. That is because cable co's would rather you use their EPG because it generates advertising revenue.
Posted by: Pat on January 21, 2005 06:01 PMWe get our guide from our TIVO, and (to date) have had no use for on-demand or PPV. Really, all I'm looking for is a kind of "soopa" basic cable... we're the kind of people who'd watch the extra Discovery and History channels.
But we won't live without our Tivo, no sir, so we'll just have to wait until the CC-compatible ones come out in a year or two.
Posted by: scott on January 21, 2005 07:29 PM