05-13-2005, 11:00 PM
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Contributing Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 2,291
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CableCARD and OpenCable
"In theory, it sounds like a good idea: �The networks will be open. OpenCable will free people from the repressive shackles of their cable boxes. We will all live in a cable-box-less utopia.� In reality, OpenCable is closer to the bastard child of greed and fear. The FCC, playing its long-standing role as �greed,� was (and is) desperate to get its analog band back from the broadcasters. Knowing this only happens once enough consumers are capable of receiving digital signals, the FCC eagerly pushed for TV sets to include digital capabilities. Cable companies, worried that tougher regulations would be the result of this greed, were willing to compromise. Thus the OpenCable system and CableCARD, the hardware that allows a TV or a set-top box to hook up to it, were born."
This article is a nice primer for what a CableCARD is and what it can and cannot do. More importantly it delves into the reasons why some of the biggest supporters of this initiative might be backing off.
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