cable

To all you cable and satellite subscribers who gripe about writing checks each month for the privilege of receiving dozens of channels you never watch, take note.

A new lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in Los Angeles charges that every major cable and satellite provider--and the entertainment conglomerates that feed them content--form a cartel that deprives consumers of choice and forces them to pay "inflated" prices for services that don't correspond to their desires.

The suit, brought on behalf of cable subscribers in several states, calls for unspecified damages and for a court to decree that … Read more

Verizon's Fios TV service is stealing business from cable operators, according to a report published by OneTrak this week.

The report focused on 34 cities and towns in Massachusetts where Fios TV is offered. The report said that some incumbent cable operators could experience subscriber losses of 10 percent or more because of Fios competition. Traditional cable overbuilders, like RCN, will likely feel the brunt of the defections, the report said. (Overbuilders are companies that use or build on existing operators' networks to offer service.)

According to the report, Comcast lost about 2.6 percent of its subscribers, or … Read more

As with any first-generation product, CableCard has received its fair share of criticism. The cards are one-way devices, which means no pay-per-view or video on demand. The cards are also single-tuner devices, which means no recording one show while watching another unless you double up. There's no option for a DIY installation, and a visit from technician doesn't guarantee you'll be left with a signal.

I've been using Comcast's CableCard for a couple weeks now, however, and I've been pleasantly surprised. So much so, that I may turn in my cable box at the … Read more

Monster Cable today announced a new upgrade program intended to guarantee forward-compatibility for the company's high-end HDMI cables. Beginning in mid-September, Monster's Home Theater Ultra 1000, M Series M1000HD and 1000HD cable lines will be emblazoned with the new "Cable for Life" logo. Monster is pledging to replace said cables, free of charge, when and if future products eventually appear that make use of higher bandwidth HDMI connections. For instance, current 1080p video streams max out at 8-bit color and 60Hz frame rate, which require about 4.46 gigabits per second of data bandwidth, but Monster is anticipating 12-bit, 120Hz 1080p video streams a few years down the road, which will require more than three times the throughput capacity. So the HDMI output on a 120Hz-capable Blu-ray player that hits the market in, say, 2010 may exceed the current bandwidth capacity of existing cables--and if you've got one of Monster's "lifers," you can swap up to a new one at that time. (Note that the "Cable for Life" guarantee is separate from the lifetime warranty found on many Monster Cables.)

To be sure, the Cables for Life guarantee sounds great--but is it worth it? … Read more

After repeated attempts to get CableCard up and running with Time Warner in Brooklyn failed to produce a signal, we decided to shift our CableCard operations to CNET's northern outpost in Concord, NH. We sent back Velocity Micro its CineMagix Grand Theater for some fine-tuning, and it then turned around and sent the system up here.

New Hampshire is Comcast territory. I called Comcast and scheduled an installation last week. The technician had done a handful of installations on CableCard-equipped TVs and DVRs, but this was the first time he had seen a CableCard-equipped PC. After complimenting me on … Read more

While a cheaper Series 3 TiVo has certainly kicked around the rumor mill for some time now--and was essentially confirmed by CEO Tom Rogers earlier this year--the rumors have a new air of legitimacy, thanks to the posters at TiVo Community. While "Super Moderators" such as Mike Lang have been coyly hinting that the rumors are true since last Friday, yesterday posts containing images and detailed specs of the new Series 3 "Lite" showed up, along with links to the product page at Buy.com. This all adds up to pretty solid confirmation that we should … Read more

Digeo dropped by the CNET offices this morning to give us a demo of their upcoming HD DVR, Moxi. We first saw Moxi many a CES ago and were definitely impressed, but since then only certain areas have had access to the hardware through their cable company. Now Digeo is looking to bring Moxi directly to consumers, in two flavors: the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR and the Moxi Home Cinema Edition HD DMR.

The Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR is for cable subscribers that want to ditch their current cable boxes and use the Moxi with a CableCard. So what does … Read more

"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," apparently still has legs as a business strategy.

Intel has been trying for years to get PCs with its chips inside living rooms, trying to offset the slowing growth of the PC market by creating a new way to use PCs. That hasn't worked, as Media Center PCs and their Viiv successors have sold fairly well but few consumers are actually using them in place of their digital cable or satellite boxes at the center of their entertainment systems.

So Intel announced Monday that it will incorporate the OpenCable … Read more