12-31-2009, 04:15 AM
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Thoughts Media Review Team
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 111
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Is Cablecard Really Dead?
"For years, industry pundits have claimed that Cablecard is dead. Cablecard, which enables consumers to get local and premium HD cable television programming directly into TV's and Media Center PC's via a digital cable tuner. It seemed poised to unlock consumers from the underpowered, much maligned cable boxes many rent from their cable provider and often loathe today. Yet the reality is there are only 443k 3rd party Cablecard devices in service (4 of those in my own house) and it's clear the situation is going to get worse before it gets better." 
With two young boys in the house the inability to use video on demand was always a show stopper for me, but I hope that the new Tru2way cards get rolled out in a big way. Competition would do wonders to improve the user experience, but for now the only viable alternative seems to be Tivo. Unfortunately, the cost of two Cablecards and the Tivo monthly fee makes the per TV price twice as much, and that doesn't even include the price of the hardware. It would be wonderful to be able to stroll into the local Best Buy and have as many choices for set top boxes as there are for cellphones, wireless routers, cameras, and just about every other technology that is subject to some competition.
The current Comcast offerings might have been OK before HD, but the 20 hour recording limit for HD programs doesn't give you a lot of room to work with. The occasional 30 second pause after a button push doesn't add to the user experience either. The 6 tuner card mentioned in the article sounds like the start of an awesome media server, but it will need lots of other hardware to complete the experience. It would be great to be able to record everything on one server and then watch it on any TV around the house. Comcast doesn't even allow you to watch programs recorded on a DVR on any other TV. Fios does allow this, but will charge you more for this feature. Let's hope that Tru2way catches on, so that at this time next year we can all have a couple terabytes of disk space on our 6 tuner servers recording anything and everything we want to watch.
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12-31-2009, 07:06 AM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Cable Card was one of those ideas that seemed so great, but never went anywhere. I remember shopping for a big screen TV a few years back, and cable card support was on my "must have" list...until I discovered that virtually no TVs supported cable card. 
I think of of the problems was the the big CE players - Samsung, Sony, etc. - didn't seem to want to jump into the PVR/DVR space, so they never pressured the cable companies to move cable card along...and that's why we're stuck with PVR/DVRs that have user interfaces from 1997. 
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12-31-2009, 05:02 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 639
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
I remember shopping for a big screen TV a few years back, and cable card support was on my "must have" list...until I discovered that virtually no TVs supported cable card. |
I actually did the same thing, but spent $300 extra and actually bought one with CC support. Worst $300 I've ever spent. Got home...called cable company...asked for cable card...they had NO CLUE what I was talking about. Never did get one. Moved and the new company did know what I was talking about, but wanted to charge $12.95 per month for one. Same as a DVR and $3 more than a standard HD box.
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I think of of the problems was the the big CE players - Samsung, Sony, etc. - didn't seem to want to jump into the PVR/DVR space, so they never pressured the cable companies to move cable card along...and that's why we're stuck with PVR/DVRs that have user interfaces from 1997.
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Well, based on my experience, it was the cable companies, but certainly you're right in that they didn't get much pressure from anywhere. The FCC was a complete joke in this. I've said it before, I can't wait for the whole damned cable industry to implode. It will happen in this coming decade and it couldn't happen to a more deserving group of jack legs. 
Oh, and Sony did produce branded DirectTV TiVO boxes for a while. I wonder if they got burned there? Maybe that's why they got out of that business and were afraid to jump into the cable DVR space?
FWIW, AT&T U-Verse claims a whole-house DVR. Of course, they're not available where I am, but it is at least close to our uber-DVR nirvana. I'd really love to get the Ceton card and a big WMC box running in a closet somewhere with extenders everywhere, but alas it seems that this vision is simply not a reality yet for mere mortals. Especially since the extender concept seems to be a dead concept. I've got a Linksys extender, and if all were as slow and miserable to use as that one, I can see why they're dead...
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12-31-2009, 07:04 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ptyork
Especially since the extender concept seems to be a dead concept. I've got a Linksys extender, and if all were as slow and miserable to use as that one, I can see why they're dead...
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Yeah, I think Extenders might have been a concept before their time - they couldn't include decent hardware at a reasonable price, so you ended up with semi-expensive products with crappy performance. Microsoft seems to think that everyone should get an Xbox and use that as an extender, but there are two problems with that:
1) The Xbox 360, even the newest versions, is still too damn loud. I bought an Xbox 360 Elite bundle a few weeks back, hoping that what I'd heard was true, and it wasn't. The new version has fans that are just as noisy as the Xbox I bought four years ago.
2) Because the Xbox 360 is primarily a gaming console, it's hard to recommend it to someone who doesn't want a gaming console. There's a disconnect there - it's like telling someone to buy a fridge with a built-in water dispenser instead of putting a water dispenser next to their tap.
Some new TVs are coming with built-in DLNA-based media players, so ultimately that's the final nail in the coffin I think. It does suck though that when my dad asked me a few months ago what the easiest way was to get photos and videos from his desktop computer onto his TV, I didn't have a good answer for him. Netbook + VGA cable is what he ended up using, which is sort of a low-tech solution...
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01-01-2010, 01:31 AM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,520
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CableCard dead? I was just preparing to get a couple and upgrade my HTPC. With Windows 7 I thought I could move away from the shrinking analogue channels and record the cable channels.
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