Cable cards

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Interactive is not part of the 1.x cable card spec. That's why you don't see
those features and won't until 2.x bi-directional cards are made available
and sets are shipping that support the spec. Sets will be backward
compatible for 1.x cards, but you won't get 2.x interactive features through
a 1.x card slot set.

The Motorola cable cards work reasonably well in our area on the Comcast
system. I don't think Comcast just "got lucky" in our area, so this smacks
of more finger pointing on the part of cable cos for why they can't get them
to work on their systems.

It's a decoder stuffed into a PCMCIA card. This isn't rocket science. I see
no reason other than laziness that the parties involved haven't debugged
these by now.

I'm using a cable card on my Samsung DLP set. The PQ is slightly improved
over the Moto STB, IMO, though I do keep both hooked up to the set for DVR
reasons.

Bob

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
> Anthony Rizzuto
> Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 10:19 AM
> To: HDTV Magazine
> Subject: Cable cards
>
> ----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
>
> I have it from a very reliable source that none of us should break our
> necks
> to get a cable card at this point as many of them are not currently
> compatible with a majority of cable systems. Those that are will not be
> able to bring up the cable guides or utilize many of the interactive
> features that are currently available using a cable box. From what I
> understand, this is not an issue of the cable companies making life
> difficult, rather it is an issue regarding manufacturers
> not designing to the full spec and a lack of uniformity overall.
>
> Anthony R.
> Orlando, FL
>
>
> To unsubscribe please click: [email protected]
>
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----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----

The key thing is that the current cards are 'unidirectional', which means
you can't order pay per view movies, or experience video on demand and DVR
functionality. The guide also lives in the set top box, so that's gone, too.

The issue is that when the cable card standard was being developed, the FCC
wanted to push it through as mandated, but the bidirectional support was
simply not there. The manufacturers told the FCC it would be at least two
years before bidirectionality would be feasible, so rather than wait, they
mandated it with unidirectional support. As Rodolfo has said, this was a
huge mistake. It has muddied the waters and now people are even more
confused about all the different ways to get HD programming.

The advantage to even a unidirectional card is, instead of paying $9 a month
or so for the cable box, you pay $2 or so to rent the card. If you have
simple tastes and don't plan to use the advanced features, or simply prefer
less boxes cluttering your TV area, it may have some appeal.

Jason

-----Original Message-----
From: HDTV Magazine On Behalf Of
Anthony Rizzuto
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 12:19 PM
To: HDTV Magazine
Subject: Cable cards

----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----

I have it from a very reliable source that none of us should break our necks
to get a cable card at this point as many of them are not currently
compatible with a majority of cable systems. Those that are will not be
able to bring up the cable guides or utilize many of the interactive
features that are currently available using a cable box. From what I
understand, this is not an issue of the cable companies making life
difficult, rather it is an issue regarding manufacturers
not designing to the full spec and a lack of uniformity overall.

Anthony R.
Orlando, FL


To unsubscribe please click: [email protected]

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day) send an email to:
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----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----

Rodolfo has mentioned this many times about the current cable card.

I am one who does not care. I would be pleased to no end if they could
just figure out how to get 1.x cards to work right...!

ARGH!

Hopefully we 1.x users are laying the foundation for the 2.x cards to
work right...



If I have to get a Sony and Charter engineer out here I will!

double ARGH!

Richard Fisher
www.HDLibrary.com Published by Tech Services
A division of Mastertech Repair Corporation

Anthony Rizzuto wrote:
> ----- HDTV Magazine Tips List -----
>
> I have it from a very reliable source that none of us should break our necks
> to get a cable card at this point as many of them are not currently
> compatible with a majority of cable systems. Those that are will not be
> able to bring up the cable guides or utilize many of the interactive
> features that are currently available using a cable box. From what I
> understand, this is not an issue of the cable companies making life
> difficult, rather it is an issue regarding manufacturers
> not designing to the full spec and a lack of uniformity overall.
>
> Anthony R.
> Orlando, FL
>
>
> To unsubscribe please click: [email protected]
>
> To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same day) send an email to:
> [email protected]
>
>
>
>


To unsubscribe please click: [email protected]

To receive the digest mode (one email a day made from all posted that same day) send an email to:
[email protected]