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SDV FAQ

854K views 2K replies 303 participants last post by  dlfl 
#1 ·

What is SDV?


SDV stands for Switched Digital Video, a scheme where not all TV channels are broadcast out from the cable headend to the homes that it serves all of the time. This is attractive to cable companies, because they can offer more TV channels than their cable plant has the bandwidth to broadcast. For example, your cable company may have 10 different channels in your lineup, but only 5 physical channels to send them from the headend to the houses they service. This requires a cable box that can communicate back upstream to the headend and say "I would like to watch ESPN2HD now" and then headend would take that request, assign it to a frequency and then tell the cable box "ESPN2HD is available on xxx,xxx kHz"




What does this mean for the Series 3, Tivo HD and TiVo Premiere?


With out an additional Tuning Adapter supplied from the provider, the Series 3, Tivo HD and TiVo Premiere is not able to communicate upstream to the cable headend, so it cannot send the request for channels that are assigned to SDV. Users of the S3 and THD will not be able to watch or record any of these channels.

Which channels will be converted to SDV?

Traditional methods send every channel to everyone, and if no one on your head-end is watching that channel, the bandwidth is effectively wasted. SDV allows them to turn off that channel when it's not being watched so that another channel can occupy that bandwidth. If a channel is always being watched it will probably never be converted to SDV. So the less popular a channel is, the more likely it will be converted to an SDV channel. See this Multi-Channel news article. That being said, there are some providers who use SDV to deploy a very large number of channels, though.


The solution

The NCTA and TiVo worked together for over a year and finally the first working solution has reached TiVo owners in NJ on Comcast. The device from both Cisco and Motorola are called Tuning Adapters (formerly known as Tuning Resolvers) and connect via USB to the TiVo (9.4 or higher) and feature pass-through coax connections, so a splitter is not needed. So when you attempt to tune a channel delivered using SDV, the TiVo sends a signal via USB to the Tuning Adapter which sends the signal via coax upstream to the providers head-end. This turns the channel on and returns the tuning information back to the TiVo.

In a demo at the Cable Show a few years ago I had a chance to play and was not able to notice any difference in speed when changing channels that were deployed with traditional QAM or SDV.

Depending on the head-end there are two solutions, Motorola and Cisco (formerly Scientific Atlanta). If your operator hands out Cisco set-top boxes, then odds are they'll use a Cisco TA.

The Cisco STA1520


The Motorola MTR700


Some providers are offering these for free, but some charge at first or after a few months.

Here is TiVo's FAQ that address the Tuning Adapter.

Here is Time Warner's FAQ about the Tuning Adapter.

San Antonio TWC customers can pre-order their Tuning Adapter from here.

Here is some of the history of the Tuning Adapter, formerly known as the tuning resolver:
http://www.tivolovers.com/2007/05/10/mr-tivo-goes-to-washington
Here is TiVo's official info on the adapter.
http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/LaunchContent.aspx?CID=CBECF1B9-88DE-4B74-82C1-754C3260112A
CableLabs press release about USB dongle
http://cablelabs.com/news/pr/2007/07_pr_dcr_devices_112607.html
NCTA and TiVo press release
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/s...11-26-2007/0004711019&EDATE=#linktopagebottom
Of if you want to do something about it, report your missing channels to the FCC.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints_general.html


What about FIOS?


Right now, because of the fact that FIOS uses fiber optic cable to your house, FIOS has no plans to deploy SDV - they have instead chosen to invest in expanding their QAM RF overlay infrastructure and use IPTV for PPV and VOD.

Where is SDV located right now?

SDV deployments are changing very rapidly and impossible to track, in fact even most of the CSRs don't know if their company uses SDV and even if they do, not which channels.

Tuning adapters are here to stay
TiVo has asked the FCC to modify the rules pertaining to 3rd party CableCARD devices and eliminate Tuning Adapters. The proposed solution was to allow the TiVo to communicate via IP to the operators servers to perform the requests that are currently handled by the TA. This would've require that you have internet service from the same provider, but would eliminate a set-top box from the equation.

TiVo claimed it was necessary to increase reliability and would reduce costs for the operators. The NCTA and its members claimed that the TAs are well accepted and supported and it is not necessary to make any changes.

The FCC determined that it would rather not mandate a specific solution, but instead mandated the SDV channels work for CableCARD users and will be making it easier to report issues so that consumers could help enforce the mandate.
 
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#1,552 ·
yes, but I do not hear the 98% demanding more channels. Better content maybe, but not speciifcally more channels.
Perhaps you're imposing your own personal interpretation on what their clamoring means? As ah30k alluded to, when talking about what the majority is "demanding" that unequivocally means what drives them to make the purchasing decision one way or another. It means nothing else. Again, perhaps you're projecting, based on your own personal preferences, what you think the majority would end up enjoying more. However, what is important is only what will make that majority end up spending more money on. BIG difference.

And thanks to DirecTV, too many people are "demanding" more HD channels, blindly, without regard to what that means. They are switching from cable to DirecTV to gain FX HD while losing PBS HD and CW HD (this would be my own personal situation) and thinking that they are getting a better deal because there are these 25 other HD channels which they'll (I'll) never actually watch. Perhaps some of them will realize their mistake when watching History Detectives this summer in SD; maybe not.

The 2% are demanding ...
Blah blah blah. We've already established that what the 2% want doesn't matter. They're not entitled to anything that is not explicitly covered by the tariff, and if it is, then take the cable company to court. Don't expect them to change for the 2% unless they are found to be in violation of an actual law or legal agreement, as long as they're doing what is best to attract the 98%.
 
#1,554 ·
I'm pretty sure that 2-way cable card isn't deployed yet, although if it is, I'm 99.9% sure it is incompatible (2-way mode anyway) with any Tivo currently made.
All CableCARDs are two-way, and always have been. What's yet to be deployed widely is host devices that can make use of their two-way functions. So existing TiVos are compatible with "two-way CableCARDs," but they cannot make use of the bidirectional services.

That will change in the future, first with the Tuning Adapter (which will add to existing TiVos the ability to use bidirectional services), and later with the expected tru2way TiVo (which will have such capability built in). But neither advance represents a change in the CableCARDs, only a change in how the host devices make use of them.
 
#1,555 ·
More properly stated, CableCARDs themselves are not and never will be bidirectional (except in that they implement some APIs for communication back to the network when installed in the proper device). CableCARDs have no RF communication built in and get everything from the wire passed to them by the host device that they're installed in. Some CableCARD Host Devices (televisions, set top boxes) implement bidirectional cable network communication, though none have shipped for retail sale that I'm aware of. Technically, all of the new CableCARD-using leased set top boxes that the cable providers have deployed since July 2007, like the SA Explorer xxxxC models, are bidirectional CableCARD hosts. They've deployed millions of them and if you have an Explorer 8300HDC, 8240HDC or 4250HDC, you're already "testing" them (particularly if they're running TWC's horrible Digital Navigator IPG).

Bidirectional host devices that are M-Card capable and have OCAP (collectively referred to as <tru2way>) are supposed to be launching this year--some products might hit the market in the Spring.
 
#1,557 ·
I'm pretty sure that 2-way cable card isn't deployed yet, although if it is, I'm 99.9% sure it is incompatible (2-way mode anyway) with any Tivo currently made.
<sigh> Every CableCard ever made, including the very first one to roll out of the fabrication planet has been 2-way. Those very same cards are 100% compatible with every 2-way CableCard host ever deployed, and until the law changes that ever will be. The only caveat as far as TiVo is concerned is that the S3 requires 2 M-cards to receive dual streams, while the M-card is capable of receiving multiple streams. The TiVo HD can receive two simultaneous streams with only 1 M-card. Every CableCard must work in 2-way mode or it won't work at all. I don't know where you came up with that 99.9% number, but it is 100% wrong.

TiVos are not 2-way hosts, and so cannot participate in 2-way services with the CATV headend, but that has nothing to do with the CableCards.

As far as deployment is concerned, all SDV is 2-way, and the vast majority of SDV boxes out there are CableCard based. Prior to July 2007, a significant number of STBs and DVRs with integrated security were deployed, but with only a few exceptions having been granted, every MSO since July 2007 has been required to deploy nothing but devices employing separable security, which at this point means exclusively CableCards.
 
#1,558 ·
More properly stated, CableCARDs themselves are not and never will be bidirectional (except in that they implement some APIs for communication back to the network when installed in the proper device).
You say potaeto, I say potahto. If we're going to nit, I would say the "all CableCards are 2-way" statement is more representative of the situation. It's true the CableCard doesn't transmit RF to the headend, but then it doesn't receive RF from the headend, either, as you yourself mentioned. All communications in and out of the CableCard are with the host, of course, but regardless of the type of host, those communications are bidirectional. Even more importantly, no matter what type of CableCard or when it was manufactured, it is capable of being deployed in any bidirectional host and participating in 2-way CATV services, including SDV.

The bottom line is, there is no CableCard in the works that sports any special features as far as 2-way communications are concerned.
 
#1,559 ·
Consumers demand with their wallets not necessarily by voicing or writing. The fact is that there is an advertising battle going on now with every carrier touting the number of HD channels they carry. Those on the short end of that metric will surely pay the price with lost subscribers.
I think there is an important point in there. Many people (including me, sometimes) talk about companies paying attention to consumer's spending habits and intent, yet to a significant extent I have seen many businessmen all but ignore their customers in preference for listening to the PR and sales hype of their competition. It's an arrogance thing, endemic to corporate sales and PR types. There is sometimes a tendency to think of customers as being almost 100% malleable at the corporate whim, and that all that must be considered is the actions of the competitors.

Case in point: (And I swear this is 100% true) I was at a meeting of TWC employees, affiliates, and certain industry representatives about 15 - 20 years ago. There were about 3000 people present. T. J. Connally, the V.P. of PR for TWC in San Antonio at the time, was speaking at the podium. He had just announced the company would be doing yet another channel line-up change. Every time one of those was undertaken, the company received tons of complaints, and the field techs got a persistent earful from annoyed customers for several weeks after every major lineup change. One of the technicians - who couldn't believe they were doing yet another one - got up and asked point blank why they were doing this yet again since there was no technical reason they should and it just served to tick the customers off. Believe it or not, Connally actually became gleeful and said (quoted to the best of my recollection), "No, no. We want to annoy the customers! When we do a line-up change like this, it stirs them up and keeps us on their minds. Otherwise they just tend to forget about us."

Another case in point: Classic Coca-cola. When the Coca-cola bottling company was told that for the first time in history Pepsi was out-selling Coke, they panicked and rushed to change Coke's formula so it was closer in taste to Pepsi. Sales plummeted. Finally they were forced to re-introduce the old formula, calling it "Classic Coke". It out-sold the new Coke by more than 7 to 1.

There are many other examples I could site, including Mrs. Field's cookies, Federal Express, Sam Walton, and a host of others where businessmen ignored the public's opinions and desires in favor of business analysts' conclusions and the competition's antics.
 
#1,560 ·
Shocking, if not. For one thing, both companies brought products to test to CableLabs' Tuning Adapter interop event at the beginning of April and both claim to have passed muster there;
Is that confirmed? I have seen rumors to the effect, but I hadn't seen any official reports. OTOH, I have been quite busy with other considerations, adn since I'm no longer in the industry, I no longer get the trade rags.

both companies announced plans to submit their products for CableLab's Certfication Wave 60.
I had heard that about Motorila, but not SA. Again, maybe I'm out of the loop.
Now, unless both companies were lying, I'd really be surprised if they didn't bring working prototypes to New Orleans (again, they both announced plans to do that).
Ditto. Welcome news, however, if true.

If they don't show up with protos, they got some 'splaining to do.
What are we going to do if they don't? Arrest them? Nevertheless, I'm hopeful, if definitely still reserved of judgment. I'll call my friend later today and see if he's got anything to report.
 
#1,561 ·
Another case in point: Classic Coca-cola. When the Coca-cola bottling company was told that for the first time in history Pepsi was out-selling Coke, they panicked and rushed to change Coke's formula so it was closer in taste to Pepsi. Sales plummeted. Finally they were forced to re-introduce the old formula, calling it "Classic Coke". It out-sold the new Coke by more than 7 to 1.
There is no convincing evidence of arrogance having the impact you mentioned (a claim, incidentally, which seems to be launched most commonly as an outgrowth of consumer frustration than based on any objective evidence). Indeed, the most nefarious claim I've read, and see merit in, regarding the Coke situation, is that they planned this from the start (which is why they were able to relaunch the old formulation so quickly, and had already thought through the heartstring-tugging name "Coke Classic"). The hubbub perhaps was responsible for a massive surge in demand for Coke in the year or two afterwards. Amazingly strategic if true, and it is as believable as any other explanation I've read.

If there is any arrogance, per se, it is clearly justified by cases like that, rather than condemnable.
 
#1,562 ·
Is that confirmed? I have seen rumors to the effect, but I hadn't seen any official reports. OTOH, I have been quite busy with other considerations, adn since I'm no longer in the industry, I no longer get the trade rags.

I had heard that about Motorila, but not SA. Again, maybe I'm out of the loop.

Ditto. Welcome news, however, if true.

What are we going to do if they don't? Arrest them? Nevertheless, I'm hopeful, if definitely still reserved of judgment. I'll call my friend later today and see if he's got anything to report.
You're killin' me, lrhorer :rolleyes:! Pay attention! All of this was revealed in articles linked to by posts in this thread. First, from a bit in Engadget ("the company" is Motorola):
According to the company's Mari Silbey, its own tuning resolver -- which is meant to allow any third-party CableCARD device to access channels delivered via SDV -- will officially be christened MTR700. Additionally, we're told that it'll likely look just like the DCT700 set-top-box (pictured), and that the unit has just passed through a CableLabs interop "with flying colors." Next, we're expecting the device to be submitted for CableLabs' Cert Wave 60, and best of all, Moto assures us that the STB will be on display (and "functional" enough for demos) at next month's Cable Show in New Orleans.
From a piece in LightReading:
Cisco is calling its entry the STA-1520, and the first-generation version will look much like the RNG 100, a new standard-definition cable box that will support MPEG-4 and the removable CableCARD. The STA-1520, however, will be a dedicated SDV "tuning adapter," which is apparently the new industry name assigned to what was previously known as the tuning resolver.
...​
Jeff Kasten, the senior product manager for product strategy and management at Cisco's newly formed Service Provider Video Technology Group, said the company plans to show off the device at next month's Cable Show in New Orleans, and expects to submit it to CableLabs for certification testing for Wave 60, which is just getting underway.

Cisco has already conducted some interface testing with TiVo and expects to provide some samples to MSOs soon for their internal testing. "So we're pretty far along," Kasten says.
That bit doesn't say that Cisco's unit did well at CableLab's interop, but I've read that somewhere.

And as I said, having said all of this to the press, they'd just have some explaining to do if they failed to bring working units to "Noleans" as promised. I didn't say that there'd be anything we could do about it :).
 
#1,563 ·
You say potaeto, I say potahto. If we're going to nit, I would say the "all CableCards are 2-way" statement is more representative of the situation. It's true the CableCard doesn't transmit RF to the headend, but then it doesn't receive RF from the headend, either, as you yourself mentioned. All communications in and out of the CableCard are with the host, of course, but regardless of the type of host, those communications are bidirectional. Even more importantly, no matter what type of CableCard or when it was manufactured, it is capable of being deployed in any bidirectional host and participating in 2-way CATV services, including SDV.

The bottom line is, there is no CableCard in the works that sports any special features as far as 2-way communications are concerned.
In context, the term "bidirectional" was in regards to communication with the cable system, not communication between the card and the host device. My point was that when talking about unidirectional versus bidirectional, we should not be thinking about the actual cards, since they don't speak to the cable system at all or even directly listen to it. They're just tools used by the host device for decoding what they receive from the system (and, when in bidirectional hosts, for composing some messages to be sent to it).

This reminds me of your insistence that "SDV" also refers to "VOD". While technically true, people using the term "SDV" in the press and in this thread are never referring anything other than the relatively new bandwidth optimizing technique of using digital switching to transmit essentially linear video services. I and everyone else say "potato" while only you say "potahtoe". You enjoy semantic games too much, but it's part of why we love you :D.
 
#1,564 ·
<sigh> Every CableCard ever made, including the very first one to roll out of the fabrication planet has been 2-way. Those very same cards are 100% compatible with every 2-way CableCard host ever deployed, and until the law changes that ever will be. The only caveat as far as TiVo is concerned is that the S3 requires 2 M-cards to receive dual streams, while the M-card is capable of receiving multiple streams. The TiVo HD can receive two simultaneous streams with only 1 M-card. Every CableCard must work in 2-way mode or it won't work at all. I don't know where you came up with that 99.9% number, but it is 100% wrong.

TiVos are not 2-way hosts, and so cannot participate in 2-way services with the CATV headend, but that has nothing to do with the CableCards.

As far as deployment is concerned, all SDV is 2-way, and the vast majority of SDV boxes out there are CableCard based. Prior to July 2007, a significant number of STBs and DVRs with integrated security were deployed, but with only a few exceptions having been granted, every MSO since July 2007 has been required to deploy nothing but devices employing separable security, which at this point means exclusively CableCards.
Really?

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Albany/Products/Cable/CableCard.html

Further, I stated that the Tivo would not be compatible in "2-way mode". You conveniently ignored that and twisted my statement to claim something I did not. Name me a currently produced and available Tivo unit that can use a cable card in 2-way mode.

oh that's right, it's not out yet (because if there was one, we wouldn't need a tuning resolver and we'd also be able to VOD and PPV).

SDV may be two way, but the currently available cable cards do not send out the information. (at least according to the TW link above for retail devices). It may be with actually doing "2-way mode" with the cable companies STB, but I'm not sure about that. (TW website seems to indicate that they are, but I don't know that for sure).

Also, please backup your statement that the majority of all SDV boxes are cable card based. I would respectfully state that is untrue. In our area, TW own numbers state that they have approx. 500 cable card customers. The rest of their customers are analog only or TW non-cable card digital STB. Only NEWLY deployed devices are required to use cable cards, I believe. But I don't think that means that TW or other cable companies cannot "recycle" their existing supply of non-cable card STB.
 
#1,565 ·
Really?

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Albany/Products/Cable/CableCard.html

Further, I stated that the Tivo would not be compatible in "2-way mode". You conveniently ignored that and twisted my statement to claim something I did not. Name me a currently produced and available Tivo unit that can use a cable card in 2-way mode.

oh that's right, it's not out yet (because if there was one, we wouldn't need a tuning resolver and we'd also be able to VOD and PPV).

SDV may be two way, but the currently available cable cards do not send out the information. (at least according to the TW link above for retail devices). It may be with actually doing "2-way mode" with the cable companies STB, but I'm not sure about that. (TW website seems to indicate that they are, but I don't know that for sure).

Also, please backup your statement that the majority of all SDV boxes are cable card based. I would respectfully state that is untrue. In our area, TW own numbers state that they have approx. 500 cable card customers. The rest of their customers are analog only or TW non-cable card digital STB. Only NEWLY deployed devices are required to use cable cards, I believe. But I don't think that means that TW or other cable companies cannot "recycle" their existing supply of non-cable card STB.
Gee... you believe the pure crap that cableco say??? Why not go to the source... cablelabs...

http://www.opencable.com/primer/cablecard_primer.html

Snip...
The media has frequently reported that first-generation CableCARD 1.0 modules are one-way devices1. This is simply not true. CableLabs had always intended to develop the CableCARD module and host receiver standards with two-way capability. However the manufacturers of digital TVs requested that a host standard be developed that only had one-way capability. This one-way cable-ready receiver was defined by the FCC's Plug & Play order and by the Joint Test Suite (JTS). It is the definition of this one-way receiver that lacks the ability for two-way functionality, not the CableCARD module. While the FCC defined the elements of the one-way cable-ready receiver, CableLabs continued to define specifications for two-way receivers.

When a CableCARD 1.0 module is used with a two-way receiver (e.g., Samsung HLR5067C) that card supports all the necessary two-way functionality for VOD, SDV, and other interactive services.
 
#1,567 ·
Engadget was able to see the resolver in action at the Cable Show.
Cool. Now where's the report on the SA box that subs of the the most aggressive purveyor of SDV, Time Warner, are mostly going to need :rolleyes:? Nice to see some of the modifications to the TiVo GUI, though.

Thanks for the link.

EDIT: In comments on that article, author Ben Drawbaugh--aka bdraw, poster of this FAQ--indicates that Cisco's STA-1520 was there, but they didn't have a working demo up as for the MTR700. He'll try to get pictures up on Engadget of their display today.

I note that the primary cable provider in New Orleans is a division of Cox using a Motorola network, which might have made it easier for Moto to set up a demo there.
 
#1,569 ·
Further, I stated that the Tivo would not be compatible in "2-way mode".
Yes, you did. There is no such thing as "2-way mode" for a CableCard, nor is anything under development which would make use of such a mode.

You conveniently ignored that and twisted my statement to claim something I did not. Name me a currently produced and available Tivo unit that can use a cable card in 2-way mode.
Depending on how one defines "2-way mode", one may either say that no CableCard host does or ever will or one may say every CableCard host does and always shall.

oh that's right, it's not out yet (because if there was one, we wouldn't need a tuning resolver and we'd also be able to VOD and PPV).
That has nothing to do with the CableCards. Your original statement was:

I'm pretty sure that 2-way cable card isn't deployed yet, although if it is, I'm 99.9% sure it is incompatible (2-way mode anyway) with any Tivo currently made.
There is no such thing as "2-way mode" for any CableCard which may be distinguished in any way from the operations of the very first CableCard ever manufactured. Your post very clearly suggests there is some sort of revision to CableCards which looms on the horizon which will employ some sort of 2-way capability not found in the current batch of CableCards and this imminent card will have some sort of incompatibility with the Series 3 class TiVos.

SDV may be two way, but the currently available cable cards do not send out the information.
...and they never will. They can't. A CableCard is nothing but a standard PCMCIA card. It would fit in your average laptop. There are no RF connections to the outside world, and no real way to create one - there being no reason to create one, either. Every CableCard communicates bidirectionally over a 2-way bus to its host. No CableCard communicates directly to the Headend, although some of it's messages are passed along by the host if the host is 2-way.

It may be with actually doing "2-way mode" with the cable companies STB, but I'm not sure about that. (TW website seems to indicate that they are, but I don't know that for sure).
Take a look at the CableCard setup screen on your S3 or THD. You will see all sorts of information transferred from the CableCard to the TiVo, including the
CableCard ID. Then take a look at the diagnostics screens. You will see all sorts of information transferred from the CableCard to the TiVo at the TiVo's behest. Finally, take a look at your TV screen while watching a digital program. That digital stream is coming from the CableCard to the TiVo, after first being transferred from the TiVo to the CableCard.

Also, please backup your statement that the majority of all SDV boxes are cable card based. I would respectfully state that is untrue. In our area, TW own numbers state that they have approx. 500 cable card customers.
When they say "CableCard customers, they are usually referring to customers with 3rd party equipment containing CableCards.

The rest of their customers are analog only
In which case they don't get SDV channels and are not part of the metric.

or TW non-cable card digital STB. Only NEWLY deployed devices are required to use cable cards, I believe.
Yes, "newly" being defined as after July 7, 2007, or nearly a year ago.

But I don't think that means that TW or other cable companies cannot "recycle" their existing supply of non-cable card STB.
True, and it's possible there are more such boxes out there than new ones, in which case your comment would be correct. Given the fact a siginificant number of systems have only deployed SDV within the last 12 months, however, and given the huge number of CableCard based STBs and DVRS deployed in the last year, I suspect the number of CableCard based devices greatly exceeds the number of integrated devices. I could well be in error on this point.
 
#1,571 ·
Jeez... cable card(s), now a "Tuning Adapter"... pretty soon there will be more cable company parts than TiVo parts. :eek:
That will be the time to move to OTA recording!
Yeah, this is getting ridiculous! I have had a ton of problems with CableCard vs. TiVo HD ever since I bought my unit (5+ months), a day ago my M-Card stopped functioning altogether, so my local cable tech will be coming out to replace it. If they can't even get that one right, I can't imagine the kind of problems we'll be having when yet another box is thrown at us - from YET another company. :(
 
#1,572 ·
Yeah, this is getting ridiculous! I have had a ton of problems with CableCard vs. TiVo HD ever since I bought my unit (5+ months), a day ago my M-Card stopped functioning altogether, so my local cable tech will be coming out to replace it. If they can't even get that one right, I can't imagine the kind of problems we'll be having when yet another box is thrown at us - from YET another company. :(
What YET another company??? If you're using a Cisco/SA M-Card you will be using a Cisco/SA Tuning Adapter. The Cisco/SA TA will not work on Moto networks and the Moto TA will not work on Cisco/SA nets.

If you feel like making a complaint in this thread, do us all a favor and just quietly sell your TiVo and get DirecTV installed. First, everyone's up and arms about SDV rendering their TiVos useless and now the Tuning Adapter starts to become a reality and the cry-babies whine about that :rolleyes:.
 
#1,573 ·
Yeah, this is getting ridiculous! I have had a ton of problems with CableCard vs. TiVo HD ever since I bought my unit (5+ months), a day ago my M-Card stopped functioning altogether, so my local cable tech will be coming out to replace it. If they can't even get that one right, I can't imagine the kind of problems we'll be having when yet another box is thrown at us - from YET another company. :(
Well, first of all, it's not from another company. The TA which you receive will be manufactured by the same company which manufactures the CableCard. If you have a Motorola CC, then you'll get a Motorola TA. Secondly, the presence of the TA should make troubleshooting much easier. One of the shortcomings of the unidirectional CableCard host is that there is no interaction with the headend, so the CSR at the CATV company can't see what is happening at the receiver. With a 2-way device (which includes the TA / TiVo combo), the host controller at the headend can query the device to see if it's talking and in good order. To the CSR, it will look pretty much like the CATV company's own box, and the hassles associated with CableCard problems should be reduced.

Note I said, "Should be". As always, YMMV.
 
#1,574 ·
This reminds me of your insistence that "SDV" also refers to "VOD".
I really am not sure what you mean by that, although you've said something like it before. I don't believe I've ever said anything of the sort, or if I did it was a typo on my part. All Video on Demand is implemented via SDV or some other switched protocol such as IPTV. While not technically impossible to deliver VOD service over a linear channel lineup, even an extremely limited VOD deployment in a geographically very small delivery system would eat up hundreds of MHz of bandwidth for a single VOD offering on a purely linear system. It would be like laying train tracks to every house and trying to move everyone around the country by selling each person their own locomotive. Thus, in the vast majority of aluminum coax based MSOs, VOD strictly implies SDV. SDV, however, in no way necessarily implies VOD. There are a ton of services engendered by SDV, and VOD is only one of them. Indeed, VOD is only prudent in a system where there are enough SDV QAMs over and above the number necessary to handle the load of scheduled programs available to make it practical. Even in an SDV system, VOD eats up bandwidth in a hurry. A really diverse CATV lineup might have 300 scheduled streams. A VOD system with more than 100,000 subs could easily run to thousands in a hurry. More than 2/3 the SDV QAMs in a large metropolitan market must be allocatable to VOD if VOD is to be deployed at all.

While technically true, people using the term "SDV" in the press and in this thread are never referring anything other than the relatively new bandwidth optimizing technique of using digital switching to transmit essentially linear video services.
I think you mean scheduled services. A linear channel is one which is specifically not SDV. Nonethless, I shan't attempt to speak for the other members of this forum and certainly not for the press, but the simple fact is eliminating SDV means eliminating VOD, period. It also means eliminating most of the HD content which could be delivered in the future. For some systems, like TWC here in San Antonio, it would mean eliminating a large number of existing SD and HD channels that are available at this very moment.

Regardless of how the term might be used or misused in the vernacular, SDV is a protocol which switches the digital content on a node by node basis. It has nothing specifically to do with what that content might be, whether it be scheduled programming, interactive services, games, internet access, VOD, or features like "video rewind" and IPPV. By far the greatest number of SDV QAMs will be eaten up by VOD services. (Note: "Video rewind" is a VOD service, but doesn't look to the consumer like it is VOD.)
 
#1,575 ·
And as I said, having said all of this to the press, they'd just have some explaining to do if they failed to bring working units to "Noleans" as promised. I didn't say that there'd be anything we could do about it :).
Well, then it looks like SA / Cisco has some 'splaining to do. While true (as you mention above) the easiest way to get a CATV feed to the box at the cable show is to use the local CATV company's feed, the excuse of not having a compatible CATV feed for the box on hand falls rather flat. They are, after all, the people who make the equipment which produces the signals in question. I'm not saying they did, but anyone could take an existing STB and silkscreen the letters "STA1520" on it.

Although despite the fact I am rather disgusted by the approach they decided to take for the TA, few people, if any, are looking forward to the delivery of the SA / Cisco TA more than I. I'm not holding my breath, however. I would be willing to bet a Klondike Bar there won't be one (let alone 3) in my house before Thanksgiving. I wouldn't be shocked if I can't get one before next summer, and then perhaps not at a reasonable rate. I'd love to be surprised, though.
 
#1,576 ·
Regardless of how the term might be used or misused in the vernacular, SDV is a protocol which switches the digital content on a node by node basis. It has nothing specifically to do with what that content might be, whether it be scheduled programming, interactive services, games, internet access, VOD, or features like "video rewind" and IPPV. By far the greatest number of SDV QAMs will be eaten up by VOD services. (Note: "Video rewind" is a VOD service, but doesn't look to the consumer like it is VOD.)
Here we have a fundamental difference of opinion. I (and I believe many others) use the term "SDV" to refer only to the switching of scheduled broadcast non-trick-play services as demonstrated by the recent releases from SA, Mot and Bigband. Dynamic services like VOD are unique to the home ordering it and involve so many other technologies such as trick-play controls that they are refered to in other terms such as "VOD". VOD has been around much longer than the SDV as I've described and the use of the term SDV when you mean VOD is just plain confusing.

I'd bet a case of your favorite beverage that you are the only person on this forum using the term SDV to refer to VOD services.
 
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