Cablecard 2.0 and S3???

[Prowest]

I apologize in advance if this has been hashed out already. I have not been able to find the information I am looking for in the forums.

I have seen a lot of discussion about the S3 and its supports of the Cablecard standard. Way back when I saw something saying that the S3 will only support Cablecard 1.0 specs since the specs on the 2.0 have not been set yet and will not have VOD or PPV capability. Now I am reading that the S3 will support Cablecard 2.0. Does that mean that when the Cablecard 2.0 specs are defined and they roll out the cards, that the S3 will be able to use PPV and VOD options and be pretty much transparent from a cable box?

TIA for help on this!
:)

[moyekj]

I apologize in advance if this has been hashed out already. I have not been able to find the information I am looking for in the forums.

I have seen a lot of discussion about the S3 and its supports of the Cablecard standard. Way back when I saw something saying that the S3 will only support Cablecard 1.0 specs since the specs on the 2.0 have not been set yet and will not have VOD or PPV capability. Now I am reading that the S3 will support Cablecard 2.0. Does that mean that when the Cablecard 2.0 specs are defined and they roll out the cards, that the S3 will be able to use PPV and VOD options and be pretty much transparent from a cable box?

TIA for help on this!
:) Nope, no 2-way capability. This is also why Switched Digital Video will cause a problem in very select markets as well since it requires 2-way communications. One of the cablecard slots (the bottom one) will support multi-stream cablecard so if your cable company provides them at the time you would only need 1 multi-stream cablecard to be able to record 2 encrypted channels at a time.

[TiVo_Fanatic]

One of the cablecard slots (the bottom one) will support multi-stream cablecard so if your cable company provides them at the time you would only need 1 multi-stream cablecard to be able to record 2 encrypted channels at a time.
Ok , so I'm new here but I feel comfortable with TiVo and its features etc but one thing out of curiosity... I have read alot on the S3's and CableCARD's and such but one thing... I thought the S3's werent gonna support 2.0 cards... if a 2.0 is AKA multistream that doesnt make much sense how the second CC slot on the S3 would support a multistream card AKA 2.0 card if the S3's wont support 2.0 cards bec of hardware / software things... :confused: :confused: :confused:

[SeanC]

TF you're a little confused. Multistream CC is not the same as CC 2.0. Multistream is just that, a CC that supporst 2 streams, they are still not capable of talking to the head end.

[m_jonis]

Nope, no 2-way capability. This is also why Switched Digital Video will cause a problem in very select markets as well since it requires 2-way communications. One of the cablecard slots (the bottom one) will support multi-stream cablecard so if your cable company provides them at the time you would only need 1 multi-stream cablecard to be able to record 2 encrypted channels at a time.

Are you sure that the CC 2.0 spec doesn't allow for two-way communication?

http://arstechnica.com/guides/other/cablecard.ars

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD

[elrcastor]

CC 2.0 Does allow for 2 way. But the S3's will only have CC1.5 (MultiStream) capability.

[Jonathan_S]

And just to add to the confusion, cable cards are suppose to be backwards compatible. So when the cable companies finally role out a CC 2.0 card (assuming they ever finish negotiating with the electronics makers over what the standard should be) that CC 2.0 card should work fine in any CC device. (Like the S3 TiVo).

But that doesn't give the old device any of the new CC 2.0 bidirectional features, even though a CC 2.0 card is installed.

[terryfoster]

It also doesn't rule out that the S3 possibly could be fully 2.0 compatible with a software upgrade.

I don't pretend to understand all of the underlying aspects as what is necessary to be fully 2.0 compatible, but it seems to me that if 2.0 cards will physically be able to plug into 1.0 slots then it seems possible for TiVo to update the S3 to use the new CC2.0 features. I don't remember reading anything to the contrary, but since the spec isn't finalized I doubt TiVo will say anything officially.

[moyekj]

It also doesn't rule out that the S3 possibly could be fully 2.0 compatible with a software upgrade.

I don't pretend to understand all of the underlying aspects as what is necessary to be fully 2.0 compatible, but it seems to me that if 2.0 cards will physically be able to plug into 1.0 slots then it seems possible for TiVo to update the S3 to use the new CC2.0 features. I don't remember reading anything to the contrary, but since the spec isn't finalized I doubt TiVo will say anything officially. It's been discussed already... it would require a hardware change most likely since I don't think Tivo S3 will have hardware required for 2-way communications such as DOCSIS or OOB tuner.

[dt_dc]

It's been discussed already... it would require a hardware change most likely since I don't think Tivo S3 will have hardware required for 2-way communications such as DOCSIS or OOB tuner.One way devices need an OOB tuner (QPSK demodulator). However what they don't need ... and one of the things a two-way device would need (under current specs) is a OOB QPSK modulator to communicate back to the headend.

In addition to the QPSK modulator and DOCSIS ... you'd need to support OCAP middleware (either a very beefy CPU or, more likely, some sort of OCAP SoC).

[m_jonis]

CC 2.0 Does allow for 2 way. But the S3's will only have CC1.5 (MultiStream) capability.

I could've sworn that the Series 2 was certified by CableLabs for 2.0?

But maybe I'm wrong.

[megazone]

I could've sworn that the Series 2 was certified by CableLabs for 2.0?The Series2 wasn't certified for anything by Cable Labs. The Series3 was certified for CableCARD 1.0 + MultiStream. There is no CC2.0 certification yet - the standard isn't even close to done.