[mythtv-users] CableCards to Become Useless ???
Joe Votour
vulturej at vulturesnest.net
Sun Apr 20 16:38:44 UTC 2008
Quoting Brian Wood <beww at beww.org>:
>
> On Apr 20, 2008, at 8:49 AM, Jay R. Ashworth wrote:
>> On Sun, Apr 20, 2008 at 08:07:38AM -0600, Brian Wood wrote:
>>> Perhaps a little OT, but probably of interest to a lot of Myth users:
>>>
>>> http://hdguru.com/how-the-cable-industry-plans-to-cheat-10-million-hdtv-owners/233/
>>
>> I'm going to put that "investigative report" in the "consider the
>> grammar capabilities of the writer" file:
>>
>>> supplied by either Cisco (formally know as Scientific Atlanta)
>>
>> Um, does he mean "formerly known"?
>>
>> And those boxes still *say* SciAt, so far as I know; Cisco bought the
>> company, they didn't merge with it.
>>
>> So, large grains of sodium chloride here...
>
> Yeah, a little more research shows that the writer seems to have a
> personal agenda, and is not terribly concerned with facts. Looks like
> he was running a little close to his deadline.
>
>
<snip>
If this person's accusations are true (that there is as two-tier
class, one CableCard, one with the rented STBs), then the FCC should
be coming down hard on the cable companies. The reason that I say
this is that newly manufactured STBs, as per the FCC, must use
CableCard, and the newer Motorola boxes that I've seen all have the
slots, with cards in them (locked up to prevent removal, of course).
These new boxes are supposed to provide the same functionality, at
least according to my understanding of things. At the same time,
however, I've also heard reports of (and seen with my own eyes when I
visited a cable operator) older STBs, which are exempt from the FCC
regulations, being horded for deployment, as a backup in case of
CableCard problems.
We all know that Switched Digital Video is coming, although I hope
that it's rollout in my area is delayed long enough to have an open
specification of how to use it with non-cable operator provided box
(i.e. HDHomeRun). Having worked (and still so) in the cable industry,
I know that CableLabs generally drops the ball, but I can't see this
issue not being fixed. I have a feeling that the STBs the cable
company rents out, even with CableCard, will continue to work, becsuse
there is a bi-directional protocol available now. It is, however, up
to the manufacturers' to provide updates to their products to support
it (which cable operators will, TV manufacturers' likely won't).
I really wish that the cable industry would have adopted a CAM
interface, like what is used for DVB. This would solve a bunch of
problems - SDV could be done via a SmartCard update, and there would
be a single API to use it. Of course, that would mean that the FCC
would have to have the forethought to demand such features.
One should also note that the FCC does not mandate CableCard per se -
they mandate an open solution where the hardware can be configured to
operate with many different cable networks. CableCard works for this
because the (de/en)cryption algorithm is actually run in software on
the CableCard. Any other hardware solution that accomplishes this in
the same way (i.e. can run the same (de/en)cryption code, but is not
CableCard) is also acceptable by the FCC. The key is that the
security is separate from the receiving/decoding hardware.
Granted, I speak from the position of hoping that the company that I
work for, and our partners will gain some traction (of course). There
are already a number of smaller cable operators who are so throughly
disgusted with CableCards due to implementation costs, unsuitability
for use, etc., that they are investigating the FCC-compliant
alternatives.
As for the point of updating lineups to STBs - when Comcast setup my
cable the box they provided pulled down a completely incorrect channel
list, preventing me from watching an analog channel. It was at that
point that, with the installer present (because he was clueless), I
unplugged the box and connected the cable straight to the TV. So,
even with the proprietary solution, I hardly trust them to get that
correct on the first dozen or so tries.
-- Joe
__________________________________________________
D O T E A S Y - "Join the web hosting revolution!"
http://www.doteasy.com
More information about the mythtv-users
mailing list