Post by dkennedy on Jul 26, 2007 7:00:57 GMT -5
Cable Without a Cable Box, and TV Shows Without a TV
July 26, 2007
By John R. Quain, New York Times
How would you like to use your video-game console to tune in “Big Love” on your television? Or perhaps use your DVD player to download “The Departed” while you watch a ballgame? Those features are now possible, thanks to some new devices and recent rule changes governing cable television service. Just don’t throw out your old cable box quite yet.
The key to this new world of TV entertainment is a Federal Communications Commission rule that went into effect July 1. Cable companies in the United States now have to separate the security functions that prevent you from watching channels you haven’t paid for from the TV tuner box most of us rent.
The practical result of the rule is that cable companies now have to supply set-top boxes that come with a removable CableCARD. The cards, which look like the PC Cards used in notebook computers, contain the information necessary to unscramble digital cable channels like HBO.
But they could allow other equipment to become much more versatile. The cards are designed to be inserted into a host of other devices, including TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs) and computers. Companies like Toshiba, Panasonic, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have sought this breakthrough for years because it opens an array of features for CableCARD-equipped devices. Cable companies have resisted the idea, which should surprise no one.
“CableCARDs don’t add anything to your TV viewing experience,” said Alex Dudley, a Time Warner Cable spokesman. He added that for several years the company has offered CableCARDs to customers who requested them.
Cable companies also point out that CableCARDs cannot support all the features offered by many cable TV services, such as two-way communication for video on demand or voting on surveys like those done by New York City’s NY1 channel.
“CableCARDs may not make a material difference to most consumers in the near term,” said Ross Rubin, an industry analyst with NPD Group, “but they have the potential to offer a lot more choices in the future.” Rubin said that CableCARDs have been difficult for consumers to obtain and that the new regulation is likely to make them more available.
A CableCARD could reduce your monthly cable bill. Cablevision, for example, charges its customers $6.25 a month for a set-top box but charges only $1.25 a month for a CableCARD. Time Warner charges $9 a month, on average, for the set-top box and $2 a month for the card. One thing doesn’t change; the cable company will usually send a cable installer to your home to set up a CableCARD.
Of course, you still have to have some sort of device to plug it into to reap this benefit, and some of those machines are expensive.
Simplest of all are televisions that are equipped with the card slot. You won’t find inexpensive smaller sets with the feature, but there are a few widescreen, flat-panel sets with CableCARD slots. One example is LG Electronics’ 60PB4D, a 60-inch plasma display that also includes a built-in DVR and an on-screen program guide. Such high-end sets are expensive; the 60-inch LG model is $4,700. So initially, CableCARDs will appeal mostly to videophiles who want the best picture possible.
A CableCARD with a TiVo unit improves the picture for recorded programming by using the digital signal from the cable company. Without a card, a TiVo box has to use an analog signal from a cable box, which degrades the picture quality, and then use a gadget called an IR Blaster to control the cable company’s set-top box. A CableCARD removes both of these drawbacks.
TiVo and Amazon have announced that TiVo has upgraded its “Amazon Unbox on TiVo” service so that users can rent or purchase movies online and have them downloaded directly to their living room TiVo boxes — without the use of a PC. The new service finally brings videos directly from the Internet to the living room and effectively offers a video-on-demand option that can compete with similar services offered by cable companies. (You can start to see why cable companies oppose the card.)
However, TiVo customers must connect their set-top boxes to the Internet, usually using a wireless Wi-Fi adapter. And although you can get a standard-definition TiVo box for $99, a top-of-line, high-definition TiVo Series 3 box costs $800, in addition to the usual monthly subscription fee, which starts at $12.95. TiVo has just come out with a more affordable HD DVR with two CableCARD slots and up to 20 hours of HD recording, for $300.
The TiVo-Amazon service offers cineastes thousands of movies to rent, compared with the scant mainstream-only offerings of cable’s pay-per-view services. TiVo boasts other features that keep it ahead of cable, including the ability to schedule a recording at home over the Internet from, say, your computer at work, or to record videos automatically from Web-based channels. Services like this are encouraging others to begin selling CableCARD-ready set-top boxes.
Digeo, which already supplies set-top boxes to cable companies that in turn lease them to subscribers, says it plans to sell a new model in stores this fall. Digeo’s machine, the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR, not only will include a TiVo-like DVR but also will let owners add more hard disk storage to expand the number of shows owners can record and store. Moxi owners will also be able to use the box to store music and pictures and watch recordings on TVs in other rooms. Prices for the CableCARD-ready box have not yet been announced.
Another option for those who want to free themselves from the cable box is to hook up a CableCARD-ready Media Center PC. Running Microsoft’s Windows Vista Ultimate platform, which supports CableCARD, systems like Niveus Media’s Rainer Edition not only include DVR functions but also play HD DVDs, play and record CDs, and let you surf the Web from your TV. But if you think leasing a cable box for $10 a month is expensive, the Niveus system isn’t for you. Niveus charges no monthly fee, but the Rainer box and accompanying digital tuner will set you back about $4,700.
Prices like that will keep most couch potatoes glued to their existing cable boxes. But many companies have hinted that they may offer CableCARD slots in other, less expensive devices soon. For example, Microsoft has been an ardent proponent of CableCARDs, but it doesn’t have a card slot yet in its Xbox 360, which already can be used to download movies. Adding one would put the console in a position to replace both DVRs and set-top cable boxes.
Even Scientific Atlanta, one of the largest makers of set-top cable boxes in the United States, concedes that consumers are likely to see a variety of CableCARD-ready devices appearing in the market. Indeed, Scientific Atlanta, which along with Linksys is part of the networking giant Cisco Systems, seems ideally positioned to offer a single box containing a digital cable tuner, DVR, broadband Internet access and wireless home networking. However, the company says it has no plans to offer such a product.
Combining games, video and Internet access on a home TV screen has long been the dream of those who advocate convergence. But after two decades of trying, no one has been able to deliver a successful convergence product. CableCARDs may finally make that happen.
July 26, 2007
By John R. Quain, New York Times
How would you like to use your video-game console to tune in “Big Love” on your television? Or perhaps use your DVD player to download “The Departed” while you watch a ballgame? Those features are now possible, thanks to some new devices and recent rule changes governing cable television service. Just don’t throw out your old cable box quite yet.
The key to this new world of TV entertainment is a Federal Communications Commission rule that went into effect July 1. Cable companies in the United States now have to separate the security functions that prevent you from watching channels you haven’t paid for from the TV tuner box most of us rent.
The practical result of the rule is that cable companies now have to supply set-top boxes that come with a removable CableCARD. The cards, which look like the PC Cards used in notebook computers, contain the information necessary to unscramble digital cable channels like HBO.
But they could allow other equipment to become much more versatile. The cards are designed to be inserted into a host of other devices, including TVs, digital video recorders (DVRs) and computers. Companies like Toshiba, Panasonic, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard have sought this breakthrough for years because it opens an array of features for CableCARD-equipped devices. Cable companies have resisted the idea, which should surprise no one.
“CableCARDs don’t add anything to your TV viewing experience,” said Alex Dudley, a Time Warner Cable spokesman. He added that for several years the company has offered CableCARDs to customers who requested them.
Cable companies also point out that CableCARDs cannot support all the features offered by many cable TV services, such as two-way communication for video on demand or voting on surveys like those done by New York City’s NY1 channel.
“CableCARDs may not make a material difference to most consumers in the near term,” said Ross Rubin, an industry analyst with NPD Group, “but they have the potential to offer a lot more choices in the future.” Rubin said that CableCARDs have been difficult for consumers to obtain and that the new regulation is likely to make them more available.
A CableCARD could reduce your monthly cable bill. Cablevision, for example, charges its customers $6.25 a month for a set-top box but charges only $1.25 a month for a CableCARD. Time Warner charges $9 a month, on average, for the set-top box and $2 a month for the card. One thing doesn’t change; the cable company will usually send a cable installer to your home to set up a CableCARD.
Of course, you still have to have some sort of device to plug it into to reap this benefit, and some of those machines are expensive.
Simplest of all are televisions that are equipped with the card slot. You won’t find inexpensive smaller sets with the feature, but there are a few widescreen, flat-panel sets with CableCARD slots. One example is LG Electronics’ 60PB4D, a 60-inch plasma display that also includes a built-in DVR and an on-screen program guide. Such high-end sets are expensive; the 60-inch LG model is $4,700. So initially, CableCARDs will appeal mostly to videophiles who want the best picture possible.
A CableCARD with a TiVo unit improves the picture for recorded programming by using the digital signal from the cable company. Without a card, a TiVo box has to use an analog signal from a cable box, which degrades the picture quality, and then use a gadget called an IR Blaster to control the cable company’s set-top box. A CableCARD removes both of these drawbacks.
TiVo and Amazon have announced that TiVo has upgraded its “Amazon Unbox on TiVo” service so that users can rent or purchase movies online and have them downloaded directly to their living room TiVo boxes — without the use of a PC. The new service finally brings videos directly from the Internet to the living room and effectively offers a video-on-demand option that can compete with similar services offered by cable companies. (You can start to see why cable companies oppose the card.)
However, TiVo customers must connect their set-top boxes to the Internet, usually using a wireless Wi-Fi adapter. And although you can get a standard-definition TiVo box for $99, a top-of-line, high-definition TiVo Series 3 box costs $800, in addition to the usual monthly subscription fee, which starts at $12.95. TiVo has just come out with a more affordable HD DVR with two CableCARD slots and up to 20 hours of HD recording, for $300.
The TiVo-Amazon service offers cineastes thousands of movies to rent, compared with the scant mainstream-only offerings of cable’s pay-per-view services. TiVo boasts other features that keep it ahead of cable, including the ability to schedule a recording at home over the Internet from, say, your computer at work, or to record videos automatically from Web-based channels. Services like this are encouraging others to begin selling CableCARD-ready set-top boxes.
Digeo, which already supplies set-top boxes to cable companies that in turn lease them to subscribers, says it plans to sell a new model in stores this fall. Digeo’s machine, the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR, not only will include a TiVo-like DVR but also will let owners add more hard disk storage to expand the number of shows owners can record and store. Moxi owners will also be able to use the box to store music and pictures and watch recordings on TVs in other rooms. Prices for the CableCARD-ready box have not yet been announced.
Another option for those who want to free themselves from the cable box is to hook up a CableCARD-ready Media Center PC. Running Microsoft’s Windows Vista Ultimate platform, which supports CableCARD, systems like Niveus Media’s Rainer Edition not only include DVR functions but also play HD DVDs, play and record CDs, and let you surf the Web from your TV. But if you think leasing a cable box for $10 a month is expensive, the Niveus system isn’t for you. Niveus charges no monthly fee, but the Rainer box and accompanying digital tuner will set you back about $4,700.
Prices like that will keep most couch potatoes glued to their existing cable boxes. But many companies have hinted that they may offer CableCARD slots in other, less expensive devices soon. For example, Microsoft has been an ardent proponent of CableCARDs, but it doesn’t have a card slot yet in its Xbox 360, which already can be used to download movies. Adding one would put the console in a position to replace both DVRs and set-top cable boxes.
Even Scientific Atlanta, one of the largest makers of set-top cable boxes in the United States, concedes that consumers are likely to see a variety of CableCARD-ready devices appearing in the market. Indeed, Scientific Atlanta, which along with Linksys is part of the networking giant Cisco Systems, seems ideally positioned to offer a single box containing a digital cable tuner, DVR, broadband Internet access and wireless home networking. However, the company says it has no plans to offer such a product.
Combining games, video and Internet access on a home TV screen has long been the dream of those who advocate convergence. But after two decades of trying, no one has been able to deliver a successful convergence product. CableCARDs may finally make that happen.