Comments on: Making the case for CableCard

Living with CableCard

[zgreenwell]

Xbox's Tivo-like Functionality

The Xbox 360 as a media center extender gives you the ability to stream HD content over your network, but also allows you to pause, rewind, and record live TV. You can also program media center to record a certain TV or series of TV shows from your Xbox 360. I do love Xbox 360 for games, but this is the best non-game feature any system has ever had. Even my wife likes it.

[zgreenwell]

Xbox's Tivo-like Functionality

The Xbox 360 as a media center extender gives you the ability to stream HD content over your network, but also allows you to pause, rewind, and record live TV. You can also program media center to record a certain TV or series of TV shows from your Xbox 360. I do love Xbox 360 for games, but this is the best non-game feature any system has ever had. Even my wife likes it.

[albertsoler]

CableCard is a hobbled technology

CableCard's technology is based on a specification designed for cable tv of the last century. I see no argument, at all, to downgrade from my cable company's box to a CableCard. Add to that, they will upgrade my service to Digital HDTV for no additional cost since I already have digital service. Video-On-Demand is far superior to the Premium Channel rip-off model -- another old school concept. CableCard's inability for two-way communication makes VOD impossible.

Imagine if they designed the USB specification to communicate in one direction only:

Stupid. Isn't it?

[albertsoler]

CableCard is a hobbled technology

CableCard's technology is based on a specification designed for cable tv of the last century. I see no argument, at all, to downgrade from my cable company's box to a CableCard. Add to that, they will upgrade my service to Digital HDTV for no additional cost since I already have digital service. Video-On-Demand is far superior to the Premium Channel rip-off model -- another old school concept. CableCard's inability for two-way communication makes VOD impossible.

Imagine if they designed the USB specification to communicate in one direction only:

Stupid. Isn't it?

[pkscout]

Cable Cartel Hobbled CableCard from the Start

The cable cartel has worked as hard as it can to hobble cable cards from the start. Two way cable card experiences aren't available because the specs that CableLabs (the front for the cable cartel) developed give control of the entire user experience to the cable company. What CE manufacturer would deploy it knowing the cable company would control the UI, leaving only hard drive size and color as differentiators.

And to ensure CableCards are worthless, the cable cartel is now deploying switched digital video and providing no way for third parties to interact with channels provided by SDV. How this is within either the spirit or the letter of FCC regulations is beyond me, but I guess when you're a monopoly it doesn't matter.

[pkscout]

Cable Cartel Hobbled CableCard from the Start

The cable cartel has worked as hard as it can to hobble cable cards from the start. Two way cable card experiences aren't available because the specs that CableLabs (the front for the cable cartel) developed give control of the entire user experience to the cable company. What CE manufacturer would deploy it knowing the cable company would control the UI, leaving only hard drive size and color as differentiators.

And to ensure CableCards are worthless, the cable cartel is now deploying switched digital video and providing no way for third parties to interact with channels provided by SDV. How this is within either the spirit or the letter of FCC regulations is beyond me, but I guess when you're a monopoly it doesn't matter.

[ack-thbbft]

CableCard 1.0 very buggy, will 2.0 fix?

Here's my experience with CableCard. My GF bought a 52" Mitsubishi DLP, which has tons of inputs, including a CableCard slot. We knew that we were already getting local HD channels via our existing basic cable, but we decided to order a CableCard and upgrade to digital cable.

The CableCard installation went fine, and we were quite happy to pay $1.99/mo for a CableCard instead of $6/mo for a box... at least for a while.

Then we'd see messages on the TV that said the CableCard was being updated, and we couldn't use the TV, even through a different input. Updates to the CableCard seemed to take a very long time to finish, and if something went wrong with the update, the entire TV would crash, and wouldn't even stay powered on for more than a few seconds.

After a little research, it seemed that it was not a problem with our particular set, since other makes and models of HDTVs with CableCard were reported to have the same problem. Bad CableCard = dead TV... At least until you replaced the CableCard.

We had our CableCard replaced three times before we said enough was enough, and switched from paying $1.99 for CableCard to over $15 for an HD digital converter box (this was where I feel a bit cheated by Cox, since we knew that a box rental would be about $5, but their pricing said nothing about an extra $10 for HD service with that box, which we were already getting with the CableCard).

According to the Cox installer who came out to replace the CableCard, it seems that CableCard has no built-in error correction. So, if something comes down the pipe corrupted, whether it be video or data, the CableCard can't fix it. If it was a firmware update, it killed the card.

This is, of course, a major design flaw which should have been addressed before releasing it to the consumer. Even without bi-directional communication, error detection could have been built in so that a downloaded firmware update would not be installed if corrupted, and instead the card could simply wait for the next download cycle to try again.

So, will CableCard 2.0 fix these issues? We know it's supposed to have bi-directional communication, which would certainly help with VOD/PPV service. But will it have error correction so that downloaded firmware won't kill it (along with the TV)?

Even then, it has been said that CableCard TVs sold today with CableCard slots won't even be compatible with 2.0, which pretty much renders the question moot for current HDTV owners and buyers. (When our TV was purchased, we were told that it had upgradable software of it's own which would enable CableCard 2.0 compatibility, but I'm wondering if the salesperson lied about that.)

My CableCard experience is pretty much what is keeping me from buying a Series3/HD TiVo. At least not until ALL the bugs are worked out.

[ack-thbbft]

CableCard 1.0 very buggy, will 2.0 fix?

Here's my experience with CableCard. My GF bought a 52" Mitsubishi DLP, which has tons of inputs, including a CableCard slot. We knew that we were already getting local HD channels via our existing basic cable, but we decided to order a CableCard and upgrade to digital cable.

The CableCard installation went fine, and we were quite happy to pay $1.99/mo for a CableCard instead of $6/mo for a box... at least for a while.

Then we'd see messages on the TV that said the CableCard was being updated, and we couldn't use the TV, even through a different input. Updates to the CableCard seemed to take a very long time to finish, and if something went wrong with the update, the entire TV would crash, and wouldn't even stay powered on for more than a few seconds.

After a little research, it seemed that it was not a problem with our particular set, since other makes and models of HDTVs with CableCard were reported to have the same problem. Bad CableCard = dead TV... At least until you replaced the CableCard.

We had our CableCard replaced three times before we said enough was enough, and switched from paying $1.99 for CableCard to over $15 for an HD digital converter box (this was where I feel a bit cheated by Cox, since we knew that a box rental would be about $5, but their pricing said nothing about an extra $10 for HD service with that box, which we were already getting with the CableCard).

According to the Cox installer who came out to replace the CableCard, it seems that CableCard has no built-in error correction. So, if something comes down the pipe corrupted, whether it be video or data, the CableCard can't fix it. If it was a firmware update, it killed the card.

This is, of course, a major design flaw which should have been addressed before releasing it to the consumer. Even without bi-directional communication, error detection could have been built in so that a downloaded firmware update would not be installed if corrupted, and instead the card could simply wait for the next download cycle to try again.

So, will CableCard 2.0 fix these issues? We know it's supposed to have bi-directional communication, which would certainly help with VOD/PPV service. But will it have error correction so that downloaded firmware won't kill it (along with the TV)?

Even then, it has been said that CableCard TVs sold today with CableCard slots won't even be compatible with 2.0, which pretty much renders the question moot for current HDTV owners and buyers. (When our TV was purchased, we were told that it had upgradable software of it's own which would enable CableCard 2.0 compatibility, but I'm wondering if the salesperson lied about that.)

My CableCard experience is pretty much what is keeping me from buying a Series3/HD TiVo. At least not until ALL the bugs are worked out.