Hd Guru confirms Scientific Atlanta / Cisco Tuning Adapter

[mfogarty5]

The hdguru's most recent post is about how SDV breaks CableCards. It's a pretty good read, but the part I found most interesting is quoted below.

"The HD Guru™ has surveyed several makers of CableCARD ready sets, and all said their sets were never designed to add such a device and even if their respective sets have USB ports, they will not be able to accept such an adapter.

So this leaves only the owners of high definition TiVo DVRs. The adapter device should work with HD TiVos, however, according to a Cisco spokesperson, its version is now undergoing testing at Cablelabs and is not expected to be released until sometime this summer. A Motorola source would not provide any status or a release date, likely missing the promised availability in the second quarter 2008."

This is the first confirmation of a Scientific Atlanta / Cisco Tuning Adapter.

http://hdguru.com/how-the-cable-indu...tv-owners/233/

[HDTiVo]

I don´t see a date for that article. It may have been written last week since Cisco mentions the testing which was done last week.

I´ve been looking for days for something on this. Thanks.

[ZeoTiVo]

basically the rest of the CE industry just said to heck with it. TiVo left on its own worked out something with Comcast and cablelabs.

It would have been nice if HDTV makers had been more vocal back in the days the FCC just kept moving the deadline and cable companies just kept saying the same old OCAP or nothing mantra.

[TexasGrillChef]

Just makes it more tempting to start boycotting Cable & go straight to OTA.

Understandable some people can't go straight OTA or they would get nothing. I have a vacation home that I have cable at, because you can't get OTA.

TGC

[MickeS]

This is good news IMO. "This summer" from Cisco is close enough to the "second quarter" deadline we were told before.

Not that I care anymore, I will dump cable soon. But good for everyone who currently pays for channels they can't even receive.

[HD GURU]

Details that I was not able to ascertain from Cablevision or TiVo by deadline were about the logistics of obtaining the "tuning adapter" ( I prefer the term dongle) from you cable provider. Will it be free or will the cable provider charge for it? If a charge, will it be monthly or a one time fee. Can a TiVo owner pick it up at their providers office or will the cable company charge around fifty buck for a "truck roll" to deliver it (as they do when requesting a CableCARD from Cablevision (NY).

One more detail I did not receive from our friends at TiVo: When will the required firmware download for the dongle to work be sent?

HD Guru

[vman41]

Originally Posted by mfogarty5

"The HD Guru™ has surveyed several makers of CableCARD ready sets, and all said their sets were never designed to add such a device and even if their respective sets have USB ports, they will not be able to accept such an adapter.

So this leaves only the owners of high definition TiVo DVRs.

HTPCs would be a possible market as well.

[ZeoTiVo]

Originally Posted by HD GURU

Details that I was not able to ascertain from Cablevision or TiVo by deadline were about the logistics of obtaining the "tuning adapter" ( I prefer the term dongle) from you cable provider. Will it be free or will the cable provider charge for it? If a charge, will it be monthly or a one time fee. Can a TiVo owner pick it up at their providers office or will the cable company charge around fifty buck for a "truck roll" to deliver it (as they do when requesting a CableCARD from Cablevision (NY).

One more detail I did not receive from our friends at TiVo: When will the required firmware download for the dongle to work be sent?

HD Guru

thanks for the deeper look These are all good questions

[JWThiers]

Originally Posted by HDTiVo

I don´t see a date for that article. It may have been written last week since Cisco mentions the testing which was done last week.

I´ve been looking for days for something on this. Thanks.

If you go to the main page it lists the date as Tuesday 15 April.

[classicsat]

Originally Posted by HD GURU

Details that I was not able to ascertain from Cablevision or TiVo by deadline were about the logistics of obtaining the "tuning adapter" ( I prefer the term dongle) from you cable provider. Will it be free or will the cable provider charge for it? If a charge, will it be monthly or a one time fee. Can a TiVo owner pick it up at their providers office or will the cable company charge around fifty buck for a "truck roll" to deliver it (as they do when requesting a CableCARD from Cablevision (NY).

One more detail I did not receive from our friends at TiVo: When will the required firmware download for the dongle to work be sent?

HD Guru

That all remains to be seen.

My guess is a truck roll will be required to deliver/install/authorise the unit (with the requisite truck roll fee), the same as Cablecards, and probably the same time as, for new customers. There will be a nominal rental fee. Or they could allow customer pickup and install, with totally no additional cost. I suspect the former will be the norm.

My guess for a software release date would be by the end of summer for full distribution.

[HDTiVo]

Originally Posted by vman41

HTPCs would be a possible market as well.

TVs have used tuning resolversadapters for like 40 years. They´ve generally been called cable boxes.

[vman41]

Originally Posted by HDTiVo

TVs have used tuning resolversadapters for like 40 years. They´ve generally been called cable boxes.

When using a cable box, a TV isn't trying to tune to anything other than 61.25 Mhz (analog channel 3). A resolver will be a gizmo that lets the TV find the right program stream when told to tune to channel 811.

[HDTiVo]

Originally Posted by vman41

When using a cable box, a TV isn't trying to tune to anything other than 61.25 Mhz (analog channel 3). A resolver will be a gizmo that lets the TV find the right program stream when told to tune to channel 811.

Its all about the same thing. I really refer to the guy´s mention that TV makers weren´t playing - like I´m a TV maker and I say "tuning adapter? huh, isn´t that what the STB is for?...

Series3 Platform TiVoes are comparatively unique in that they have no ability to interface with a STB, thus needing a specialized, analogous component...

[Austin_Martin]

Its all about the same thing. I really refer to the guy´s mention that TV makers weren´t playing - like I´m a TV maker and I say "tuning adapter? huh, isn´t that what the STB is for?...

Series3 Platform TiVoes are comparatively unique in that they have no ability to interface with a STB, thus needing a specialized, analogous component...

You're forgetting that these TV makers put in the digital cable tuners and cablecard slots specifically to avoid the STB's.

Both the cablecard tv's and the Series 3 Tivos were made to avoid an extra STB.

[ZeoTiVo]

Originally Posted by Austin_Martin

You're forgetting that these TV makers put in the digital cable tuners and cablecard slots specifically to avoid the STB's.

Both the cablecard tv's and the Series 3 Tivos were made to avoid an extra STB.

anyone in the know - knew that cable cards would not tune SDV by themsleves and that something extra would be needed. They should also have known that SDV was key to cable companies.

I can certainly unserstand purchasers of TVs being upset they are left out of the loop. Their was not as much reason for them to in the know on all this.

But for TV manufactures to be crying foul at this point in the game is like trying to say the goal scored in the first half should not count when there is 2 minutes left in the game.

In my opinion the TV set makers should be held accountable for the problem. I would say TiVo should as well but they are doing something about the issue and have been for a couple of years now.

[HDTiVo]

Originally Posted by Austin_Martin

You're forgetting that these TV makers put in the digital cable tuners and cablecard slots specifically to avoid the STB's.

Both the cablecard tv's and the Series 3 Tivos were made to avoid an extra STB.

Nah, I didn´t forget.

[FrancesTheMute]

The cable industry was also required to add CableCARD slots to their own cable boxes, but miraculously, its own boxes, (with over 90%) supplied by either Cisco (formally know as Scientific Atlanta) or Motorola, maintain the bi-directional functionality needed for impulse pay per view and VOD (and coincidentally SDV).

This is what I find amusing. All cable boxes are required to have CableCARDS in them, but they have no issue with getting SDV and VOD with their boxes. Almost makes me wonder if the cableCARDS in the STB's aren't just dummy cards that don't actually do anything. It stands to reason if they truly are using CableCARDS and they can handle SDV, then any device using a cableCARD should be the same. Either that, or the FCC should require the cable companies to provide whatever information is needed to get the two way communication to happen to companies like Tivo. With Tivo it should be really easy to add each company's information to the download when doing the guided setup.

To me, this whole thing is just a big F.U. to the FCC from the cable companies. It's nice that Tivo is being so proactive, since it's obvious the cable companies don't give a **** about their customers.

[Rob Helmerichs]

Originally Posted by FrancesTheMute

All cable boxes are required to have CableCARDS in them, but they have no issue with getting SDV and VOD with their boxes.

I thought they were just required to be cable-card ready.

[lofar]

Originally Posted by FrancesTheMute

This is what I find amusing. All cable boxes are required to have CableCARDS in them, but they have no issue with getting SDV and VOD with their boxes. Almost makes me wonder if the cableCARDS in the STB's aren't just dummy cards that don't actually do anything. It stands to reason if they truly are using CableCARDS and they can handle SDV, then any device using a cableCARD should be the same. Either that, or the FCC should require the cable companies to provide whatever information is needed to get the two way communication to happen to companies like Tivo. With Tivo it should be really easy to add each company's information to the download when doing the guided setup.

To me, this whole thing is just a big F.U. to the FCC from the cable companies. It's nice that Tivo is being so proactive, since it's obvious the cable companies don't give a **** about their customers.

I found this an interesting point, so I figured since I have one of these DVR's from the cable company that i'd pull out the cable card and see. So if anyone is interested this is what is in my Cox branded, scientific atlanta cable box.

http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...ar1/CCBack.jpg
http://i292.photobucket.com/albums/m...r1/CCFront.jpg

And sure as heck, the box does not work without the cable card.. What else is funny is that this is a MS card and they apparently don't offer MS cards in my area. hmmm

[HDTiVo]

Stop! Bad info! Do Not Disassemble your cable box just yet!

CableCARDs are a seperate entity from the components involved in accessing SDV.

For more details, read other threads on subject.

[lofar]

hehe it was hardly disassembling.. Lift plate, push button pop card. lol. I'm also very competent with electronics and electronic design. But yeah prolly don't want to dig deeper, especially since they have security stickers all over everything else.

I find all the finger pointing in this interesting and not just in SDV, but in the whole PPV and on demand/interactive components that are refused to tivo cable card customers. Seems to me a lot of this is either a limitation of tivo and their software/device or a limitation of the cable cards that tivos end up getting and not so much just a problem with the cable card or cable card tech itself. But who's to blame since neither will fess up?

[HDTiVo]

Go read Zatz (plus post on Mari´s blog) and Mega for some heat on the TR...

[classicsat]

Originally Posted by lofar

I find all the finger pointing in this interesting and not just in SDV, but in the whole PPV and on demand/interactive components that are refused to tivo cable card customers. Seems to me a lot of this is either a limitation of tivo and their software/device or a limitation of the cable cards that tivos end up getting and not so much just a problem with the cable card or cable card tech itself. But who's to blame since neither will fess up?

The two way components aren't being "held back" from the 3rd party manufacturers, the 3rd party manufacturers are
either:

• choosing not to go to the expense
• couldn't make 2-way hardware, based on what specs were available at the time the hardware was developed.
• refusing to play two-way the cable providers want (OCAP)
• choosing to play, but have no product out yet (for general sale to the public anyways).

The boxes the cable providers are now issuing are either OCAP/True2Way, or are basically their old proprietary platform with a cable card for conditional access, instead of their embedded security.

The cablecard itself isn't the limitation, it is the host.

[CharlesH]

Originally Posted by FrancesTheMute

All cable boxes are required to have CableCARDS in them, but they have no issue with getting SDV and VOD with their boxes. Almost makes me wonder if the cableCARDS in the STB's aren't just dummy cards that don't actually do anything. It stands to reason if they truly are using CableCARDS and they can handle SDV, then any device using a cableCARD should be the same.

To guarantee that cable providers will accept a device, a device must get CableLabs certification. To get CableLabs certification, the two-way functionality has to be approved by CableLabs. Until this "Tru2Way" proposal, there really wasn't a viable approved two-way standard. Although the cable company's set-top boxes aren't certified by CableLabs, the cable companies of course allow the boxes they themselves provide . These boxes use the cable cards for authentication (as required by the FCC), and whatever mechanism they want for two-way functionality.

[jrm01]

It's interesting that everyone seems to take it as a given that all new cableboxes being deployed now are cablecard boxes.

Here in Pitsburgh Comcast has the DCH3416 and 6416 boxes. They are cablecard boxes, but digital-only. They are deploying them in the areas where they have ADS, but then they pull out the old DCT boxes from those areas and use them for new accounts in non-ADS areas. Anyone on my headend cannot get anything but the old DCT boxes 96412).

[HDTiVo]

Originally Posted by jrm01

It's interesting that everyone seems to take it as a given that all new cableboxes being deployed now are cablecard boxes.

Here in Pitsburgh Comcast has the DCH3416 and 6416 boxes. They are cablecard boxes, but digital-only. They are deploying them in the areas where they have ADS, but then they pull out the old DCT boxes from those areas and use them for new accounts in non-ADS areas. Anyone on my headend cannot get anything but the old DCT boxes 96412).

Clearly there are some exceptions and redeployment allowances, which everyone should realize.

[ASW]

Originally Posted by mfogarty5

The hdguru's most recent post is about how SDV breaks CableCards. It's a pretty good read, but the part I found most interesting is quoted below.

"The HD Guru™ has surveyed several makers of CableCARD ready sets, and all said their sets were never designed to add such a device and even if their respective sets have USB ports, they will not be able to accept such an adapter.

So this leaves only the owners of high definition TiVo DVRs. The adapter device should work with HD TiVos, however, according to a Cisco spokesperson, its version is now undergoing testing at Cablelabs and is not expected to be released until sometime this summer. A Motorola source would not provide any status or a release date, likely missing the promised availability in the second quarter 2008."

This is the first confirmation of a Scientific Atlanta / Cisco Tuning Adapter.

http://hdguru.com/how-the-cable-indu...tv-owners/233/

http://www.lightreading.com/document...ng_sitedefault

[jacksonian]

So who runs a Cisco digital cable platform? I have TWC and they use Scientific Atlanta hardware.

[Rob Helmerichs]

Originally Posted by jacksonian

So who runs a Cisco digital cable platform? I have TWC and they use Scientific Atlanta hardware.

Scientific Atlanta is Cisco now.

[ah30k]

A Motorola source would not provide any status or a release date, likely missing the promised availability in the second quarter 2008.

When did Motorola ever promise Q2??