In a filing yesterday with the FCC on the current status on CableCARD deployments the NCTA revealed that there have been a total of over 374,000 CableCARDs deployed for use in Unidirectional Digital Cable Products (UDCPs), such as the TiVo HD, by the ten largest cable MSOs, which cover roughly 90% of US cable subscribers. That may sound like a lot, but in their last filing 90 days ago in June ,...

Hey gang, So we're using two DirecTV TiVo's, one hacked with DVRUpgrade software and the other in its stock configuration. The hacked one is an HR10-250 (HD) while the other is SD. We're looking at switching...want/need? Also, how many total cable cards would we need? And, most importantly, is there a vendor that would let us trade-in our older gear for other gear? Would Weakknees work out a deal with us

The CableTechTalk blog has a very nice post up today about CableCARD and tru2way. While the blog is run by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), and the post in question was written by Paul Rodriguez, Director of Online Content for the NCTA, so you might expect some editorial slant, I thought it was a nice, factual article. It provides a concise history of the development of...

...done a fairly decent job providing information and being non-alarmist, it looks like they've cribbed from a recent letter sent out by Cox . The TWC letter reads, in part: The current generation of CableCARD-compatible devices sold at retail are only capable of accessing our one-way services. They were not designed to be compatible with SDV, which is a two-way service. As a result, once the channels...

It isn't just what you say, it is how you say it. And Comcast seems to be aiming for FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) with a recent statement to CableCARD users in Florida : Our records indicate that you have a Motorola Cable Card(s) that will no longer be compatible with our upgraded cable network as of May 31, 2008. Exchange your Motorola Cable Card(s) into an office today and we'll give you...

Blogger Christopher Price live-blogged his CableCARD install experience in his new TiVo HD today. While his experience is certainly not as bad as others have experienced, it still shows that the cable industry has some work to do on improvement the CableCARD install experience. The first card in his install failed, and Comcast had to provide a second card, which worked. It would really be helpful...

Following quickly after Motorola unveiled their MTR700 Tuning Resolver , Cisco has unveiled their tuning resolver as well , the STA1520, which looks like their RTG100 cable box. (Remember, Cisco purchased...be demo'd at the upcoming Cable Show, and it will be part of the Wave 60 certification process with CableLabs, so it too could be available by early July. Via Light Reading's Cable Digital News

Wow, in the past couple of days there has been an interesting flurry of online activity about CableCARD, Switched Digital Video (SDV), and the Tuning Resolver. HD GURU posted an 'investigative report' entitled "How The Cable Industry Plans to Cheat 10+ Million HDTV Owners" , so you might guess at the tone. Unfortunately, there are a few factual errors in the post - for example, all CableCARDs are...

...aren't really doing anything. And that's really frustrating. Oh, and in case Dan reads this: I do have an ulterior motive for writing this column. Right now, using a TiVo box—assuming I can get CableCard to work—means losing about half of my high-definition channels. That isn't a trade-off I am willing to make. If TiVo could make nice with Cablevision, I could have my high-definition Dwell and...

As reported by Multichannel News , cable MSOs have deployed 4.18 million CableCARD-enabled STBs in the last nine months. 1.9 million of those have been deployed since the last industry report on December 26th. However, as of March 19th, only approximately 347,000 Cablecards had been distributed for use in third party devices, such as TiVo and CableCARD-enabled HDTVs. The majority of the cards have...