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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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#1,777 ·
Full initial deployment of switched broadcast appears to have started, one day later than stated in the notice (fine by me, since it allowed me to record one last episode of Torchwood on HDNet :)). I've lost access to the HD VIP Pak and all of the Sports Pak except for Tennis (the only one that I regularly watch). Very strange, and I'm not expecting that to last. Nice, for however long it lasts, since Tennis is currently covering early round matches at the Cincinnati AMS tournament.

Oh well. Bring on the Tuning Adapter!
 
#1,778 ·
You are right jrm01. I did mean TECHNICALLY NOT REQUIRED since this isn't an issue with the original equipment they provided with the service. It’s just here in the San Antonio, TX area, they have been adding more and more channels on SDV. As of right now, I am missing out on 30+ channels (roundabout guess), using the TiVo HD box. Before I switched to the HD TiVo, I had a Series 2 for more than 5 years. I loved it too much to just give up on it and start using the horrible equipment TWC supplies. So I will just sit here, continuing to pay for service and wait for a resolution to this problem. Suppose I just needed to complain a little. You know, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”.

But thanks to those who responded with some bit of updated information on the matter. I just got tired of trying to keep up with all of it and hoped that someone had a little more determination to stay informed on all this stuff.
 
#1,779 ·
Comcast appears to be going the all digital route first, then may add SDV when needed later. Opinion: They probably ran the numbers and found this method cheaper and/or irritated less fanchise authorities when you look long term at Tru2way TV sets. They can probably recycle some old SD digital STB's to serve remaining analoh TV sets.
 
#1,780 ·
I got the 9.4 update last night. I notice an added "Tuning Adapter" item on the "Account & System Information" menu. Selecting it displays a dialog with the big heading "No Tuning Adapter" and an explanation of what a Tuning Adapter is. Promising. (No doubt this has been covered in the 9.4 update thread, but I thought it was worth a mention here :)).
 
#1,781 ·
and I have seen on Gizmolovers where Cox Phoenix area has sent out Email to customers about the tuning resolver. Here in Northern Virginia they proclaim ignorance if you ask them, like their corporate offices haven't told them anything out here in the backwoods of fairfax county. We haven't gotten any of the new HD channels added since last spring since they deployed SDV here. FiOs is tantalizingly close to my neighborhood....but not here yet.
 
#1,783 ·
I am in Greensboro, NC and plagued by the SDV thing. I am missing a ton of channels and it stinks.

One thing I had a question about, is that sometimes some channels work and other times they don't. When someone else in my neighborhood is using the channel, does it become available to me as well, and likewise, if nobody is using the channel I can't watch it?
 
#1,784 ·
I am in Greensboro, NC and plagued by the SDV thing. I am missing a ton of channels and it stinks.

One thing I had a question about, is that sometimes some channels work and other times they don't. When someone else in my neighborhood is using the channel, does it become available to me as well, and likewise, if nobody is using the channel I can't watch it?
Well, it will be on the wire, but (in the absence of the Tuning Adapter) there's no way of telling on what frequency it might be placed or as what program in the MPEG Transport Stream on that frequency. I don't have an explanation for why you can get some channels sometimes and sometimes not.
 
#1,786 ·
Well, it will be on the wire, but (in the absence of the Tuning Adapter) there's no way of telling on what frequency it might be placed or as what program in the MPEG Transport Stream on that frequency. I don't have an explanation for why you can get some channels sometimes and sometimes not.
Could it be that the CableCard channel map has a fixed frequency still for some or all of the SDV channels (instead of being absent completely) and so once in a while the frequency matches up to one of the switched frequencies? For my headend when I tune an SDV channel and look at Tivo diagnostics it shows tuning failure and no frequency for that channel indicating there is no mapping for that channel at all.
 
#1,787 ·
I just noticed that in the CableLabs certification list of devices, there is now an additional column entitled Tuning Adapter Capable and only the Tivo THD & S3 devices have Yes in that column. I guess that means the Tivo devices now are officially certified as Tuning Adapter Capable thus clearing another milestone for general release.
http://www.cablelabs.com/udcp/downloads/OC_PNP.pdf
 
#1,788 ·
I am in Greensboro, NC and plagued by the SDV thing. I am missing a ton of channels and it stinks.

One thing I had a question about, is that sometimes some channels work and other times they don't. When someone else in my neighborhood is using the channel, does it become available to me as well, and likewise, if nobody is using the channel I can't watch it?
The VP of Engineering for Time Warner Raleigh region explained to me a few months back that the SDV solution they are rolling out will allow them to dynamically adjust what is SDV and what is not. At that time, they hadn't decided what to map where but he pointed out that it could be decided on a node by node basis using viewing statistics. It would not be "real-time" but could be adjusted fairly regularly. One of the examples he mentioned was the Olympics could drive viewing patterns that varied by node.
 
#1,790 ·
Well, it will be on the wire, but (in the absence of the Tuning Adapter) there's no way of telling on what frequency it might be placed or as what program in the MPEG Transport Stream on that frequency. I don't have an explanation for why you can get some channels sometimes and sometimes not.
If the stream is unencrypted, then the TiVo user can receive it if he happens to run across the stream. There have been other reports of some CATV systems sending out SDV content unencrypted.
 
#1,791 ·
Time Warner Cable of Southwest Ohio just sent a letter saying it will switch a large number of "little used" channels to SDV on Aug 15th. The reason is to fee up bandwidth for more HD channels. Letter lists the channels and says the tuning resolver for TIVO will be available at an undetermined time after the switch. The current plan is to not charge for it TR.
 
#1,793 ·
Really? They are suggesting that the dongle we need to deal with the SDV issue is going to be free? That's pretty exciting news, but I am not sure I believe it either.
search a bit-

this is not the first mention from a major cable company that they plan to be free.

(of course who knows if that "PLAN" plays out- but for now it sounds like we might get lucky and they'll be free....)

Thinking about it- Do they even get authorized? Or are the adapters/resolvers just a translator? I'd assume all the authorization is still handled in the cablecard.

If so and they don't need to authorize them, it might just not be worth the effort of messing around with billing systems. Likely if they tried to charge anything significant- the fcc would get bent (as I am under the impression the FCC hinted that cablecards need to be kept 'affordable' so as not to be a barrier to 3rd party entry). There's not all that many tivo's in the world- so if there's only a handful in each head end then is it worth the effort to have to change and update the billing system to charge 1 dollar a month?

Maybe they will just hand them out like amplifiers and splitters. You need one- here take it. I think technically they can charge for those but I don't think they do regularly. Granted the tuning adapter might cost 100 and a splitter 2 bucks. But you hand out 50 splitters or 1 adapter and it's still 100.

So maybe free is logical too…..

(although I just thought some more and I guess it needs to be authorized some how so it send the signal back to turn on SDV channel X to node Y?)
 
#1,794 ·
I think that the Tuning Adapter is probably pretty damn inexpensive. The typical cable modem has all the necessary hardware and you can buy those retail for about $30.

Right now, the demand for them is going to be pretty low--if every CableCARD-using TiVo owner wanted one, they'd only need some 100,000-200,000 or so, nationwide--peanuts for the MSOs. However, the cable industry has offered them up as a solution for engineering low-end television products capable of tuning switched broadcast; if the FCC and CE OEMs take the bait, there could be a ton of out-of-the-box Tuning Adapter-compatible devices on the market soon.
 
#1,795 ·
Will be interesting if the low end tv's bother with the usb ports and required computing power for cablecards and tuning adapters.

I was under the impression they wouldnt, but i guess there's no other way to make a sort of cable ready tv really for cheap.

I think the adapters will cost like 60-70 bucks since i think in moto's case they seem to have taken much of a low end box (dct7000?) that they used to sell for around that price range. I'm sure they stripped out some of the unneeded stuff but then had to put in the usb controller and other chips. And they'll be selling them in 10's or 100's quantities instead of 1,000's like the digital box it's based on used to be done in. I believe in their waiver filings cable or moto told the fcc those dct7000 boxes cost 60 or 70.


but all just guesses on my part.
 
#1,796 ·
Thinking about it- Do they even get authorized?
They will probabaly have to cooperate in obtaining a network address so switching can be implemented (essentialy an ARP), but otherwise, perhaps not. Depending on the implementation, the TA itself may not obtain and retain any info itself from the transaction. All that could be stored in the Tivo.

Or are the adapters/resolvers just a translator?
It's more of an intelligent modulator.

I’d assume all the authorization is still handled in the cablecard.
If you mean the de-encryption, then yes, it is, but the tuning request is created by the TiVo and then passed to the TA.

Maybe they will just hand them out like amplifiers and splitters. You need one- here take it. I think technically they can charge for those but I don’t think they do regularly.
'Depends on the provider. Some do, some don't.
 
#1,797 ·
Will be interesting if the low end tv's bother with the usb ports and required computing power for cablecards and tuning adapters.

I was under the impression they wouldnt, but i guess there's no other way to make a sort of cable ready tv really for cheap.
There is no "required computing power" for tuning adapters--it's a protocol involving the exchange of very small amounts of information and basically no computation. I could be wrong, but I don't believe that CableCARD interface is that big of a deal, particularly since they can use the Unidirectional CableCARD host interface, tens of millions of which have been put into Digital Cable Ready televisions and STBs over the past few years. The cost is negligible in comparison to the cost of implementing <tru2way> in a usable fashion, which requires bi-directional CableCARD Host Interface 2.0, a pretty fast processor, lots of memory and a license for an execution environment for a Java profile.
I think the adapters will cost like 60-70 bucks since i think in moto's case they seem to have taken much of a low end box (dct7000?) that they used to sell for around that price range. I'm sure they stripped out some of the unneeded stuff but then had to put in the usb controller and other chips. And they'll be selling them in 10's or 100's quantities instead of 1,000's like the digital box it's based on used to be done in. I believe in their waiver filings cable or moto told the fcc those dct7000 boxes cost 60 or 70.

but all just guesses on my part.
I'm guessing too, but I think that what both Moto and Cisco did was take the closest thing that they were already making and reduce the internals, keeping the same enclosures, since they were buying a ton of them for another product. I doubt that the board inside bears a lot of resemblance to the DCT700 and half the electronics of a cable tuning STB has no use in the application whatsoever: the MPEG decoder, the sound processor, the graphics processor and any graphics memory, the IR receiver, display LEDs, etc, etc. I'm sure that they ripped all of that off of the boards for the Tuning Adapter, as well as all the headers for A/V output.

You can see a picture of the back of Motorola's DCT700 STB here and one of the back of the MTR700 Tuning Adapter here--though they're in the same little plastic box, it's pretty clear that the board inside is very much different. I'm sure that something very similar was done by Cisco for the STA1520, which is stuffed into the enclosure for the RNG 100 STB. The price of manufacture for the two will be fairly unrelated.

Designing a custom enclosure and board of the smallest possible size would have required a lot of time and cost a lot of money, and I feel certain that they were ordered to keep the development time and manufacturing cost of the product at a minimum, since the cable providers were planning to charge nothing (or very little) for the devices.
 
#1,798 ·
The low end TV set manufacturers won't even have Cablecard at all, let alone bothering to support the SDV adapter.

For the sets that do have Cablecard and a USB connector, the manufacturers likely won't bother to support SDV. They would have to write and test code, and likely get it certified by CableLabs, as well as distribute it to sets, and the infrastructure isn't really there, except for a thumb drive upgrade.
 
#1,799 ·
The low end TV set manufacturers won't even have Cablecard at all, let alone bothering to support the SDV adapter.

For the sets that do have Cablecard and a USB connector, the manufacturers likely won't bother to support SDV. They would have to write and test code, and likely get it certified by CableLabs, as well as distribute it to sets, and the infrastructure isn't really there, except for a thumb drive upgrade.
thats what i was trying to say-
classicsat said it much better.

a couple years ago you could buy an analog tv in a supermarket. THey were all over and cheap. SOme for like 50 bucks. THere's no point in making a 50 dollar tv into a 100 dollar tv for cable's sake I'm guessing. The cheapo manufacturers will leave it on people to rent cable/sat boxes i think.
 
#1,800 ·
The low end TV set manufacturers won't even have Cablecard at all, let alone bothering to support the SDV adapter.

For the sets that do have Cablecard and a USB connector, the manufacturers likely won't bother to support SDV. They would have to write and test code, and likely get it certified by CableLabs, as well as distribute it to sets, and the infrastructure isn't really there, except for a thumb drive upgrade.
At the end of 2006, the CE OEMs (through the CEA) complained to the FCC that implementation of <tru2way> was too expensive specifically for inclusion in low-end products. They asked for the a cheap-to-implement, inflexible set of protocols for SDV, IPPV and VOD as an alternative, which they called "Digital Cable Ready Plus". That was actually going to have to include support for new bidirectional CableCARD interface.
For this article on the controversy:
On the CEA side, Sony Electronics complained in a Nov. 29 filing that the cable industry's OpenCable Platform is a “one-size-fits-all/take-it-or-leave-it solution that is designed to further entrench cable's market power by all but foreclosing competition and innovation.”

OpenCable requires too much processing power and memory to feasibly use in low-end and mid-range consumer electronics, said CEA vice president of technology and standards Brian Markwalter. “OpenCable is a Swiss Army knife,” he said. “There's a whole middle ground — 80% of the customer base — that doesn't need what is essentially a computer in the device.”
Apparently they don't even like the price of implementing <tru2way> in the mid-range. Since that was published the NCTA got Sony to agree to support <tru2way> and abandon DCR+.
 
#1,801 ·
The number of cablecard models probably peaked in 2006. If you do a search for cable card at the best buy site, you get zero results, Circuit city: 2 (1 is the THD), you get a few more at Crutchfield, mostly large Mitsubishis. A lot of TV sets offer clear QAM, which would be more useful if cable companies actually populated their PSIP tables correctly. Most manufacturers have given up on cablecard 1.
 
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