Post by dkennedy on Jan 26, 2009 11:49:34 GMT -5
Tru2way Not Quite Ready for Prime Time
January 26, 2009
By Mark Fleischmann, Home Theater Magazine
Are you ready for the second generation of digital cable readiness? Cable operators are saying yes and TV makers are saying no.
Longtime observers will be scratching their heads. After all, when the first generation of digital cable ready products hit, it was the TV makers who were ready to go and the cable operators who were lagging.
Why the turnaround? For cable ops, tru2way cable boxes and boxless TVs include a bidirectional protocol that allows lucrative video-on-demand and other interactive services. But TV makers are cool to the idea this time around, presumably because they got burned when their strong support for the first generation of unidirectional CableCARD products fizzled with indifferent cable system support.
And so we read in Multichannel News that the six largest cable operators will have millions of tru2way set-top boxes in circulation by July, with Time Warner alone accounting for 2.4 million of them. That's a refreshing change from the old CableCARD standard, whose penetration measured in the six figure range.
But though TV makers theoretically could support tru2way with boxless DTVs, they're more interested in streaming, as we learn from Pete Putman's CES coverage at HDTVexpert: "LG showed several new plasma and LCD HDTV models for 2009 that are Web-ready to stream content directly from sources like Netflix. This is quite a departure from just a few years ago, when it seemed like every major TV manufacturer at the show was supporting CableCARD and planning a jump to the Tru2Way digital cable platform. Not so fast! I didn’t see one single 'ready to ship' Tru2Way set at CES 2009, only a couple of technology demonstrations, while Web video (including YouTube) was playing in almost every booth."
January 26, 2009
By Mark Fleischmann, Home Theater Magazine
Are you ready for the second generation of digital cable readiness? Cable operators are saying yes and TV makers are saying no.
Longtime observers will be scratching their heads. After all, when the first generation of digital cable ready products hit, it was the TV makers who were ready to go and the cable operators who were lagging.
Why the turnaround? For cable ops, tru2way cable boxes and boxless TVs include a bidirectional protocol that allows lucrative video-on-demand and other interactive services. But TV makers are cool to the idea this time around, presumably because they got burned when their strong support for the first generation of unidirectional CableCARD products fizzled with indifferent cable system support.
And so we read in Multichannel News that the six largest cable operators will have millions of tru2way set-top boxes in circulation by July, with Time Warner alone accounting for 2.4 million of them. That's a refreshing change from the old CableCARD standard, whose penetration measured in the six figure range.
But though TV makers theoretically could support tru2way with boxless DTVs, they're more interested in streaming, as we learn from Pete Putman's CES coverage at HDTVexpert: "LG showed several new plasma and LCD HDTV models for 2009 that are Web-ready to stream content directly from sources like Netflix. This is quite a departure from just a few years ago, when it seemed like every major TV manufacturer at the show was supporting CableCARD and planning a jump to the Tru2Way digital cable platform. Not so fast! I didn’t see one single 'ready to ship' Tru2Way set at CES 2009, only a couple of technology demonstrations, while Web video (including YouTube) was playing in almost every booth."