Re: Important Warning Regarding New HD TiVo and Cable System Incompatibilities

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: August 23, 2007 11:05:41 AM EDT
To: Armando Stettner <aps () ieee org>
Cc: dave () farber net, Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Subject: Re: [IP] Important Warning Regarding New HD TiVo and Cable  
System Incompatibilities

> One small consolation is that content on SDV is usually what people
> would label as 'long-tail' content that is not - relatively - very
> popular (golf channel, some cooking or travel channels, and, sadly,
> CSPAN channels)....

Armando,

The problem of course is that one person's "long-tail" is another
person's favorite channel.  And there seems to be no consistency in
how SDV is deployed.  Some systems are putting foreign language
channels on there, others (as you note) things like C-SPAN, plus
various premiums or niche channels such as "Thriller" and the like.
Still others seem to be experimenting with HD channels in the SDV
space.  The potential bandwidth savings with SDV are just so large
that it's sure to spread and expand in scope very rapidly.

There is considerable confusion regarding CableCARDS.  My
understanding is that *both* CableCARD 1 and CableCARD 2 ("M-Cards")
actually support bidirectional communications.  The key difference
with CableCARD 2 appears to be that it can decode more than one
channel stream on a single card.  (See: for example:
    http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/printthread.php?t=355703 ).

The stumbling blocks to the required two-way communications to enable
SDV natively on TiVo devices apparently have been cable company
demands that certain of their (cable company) control software be
running on the associated TiVo units themselves (something that TiVo
has been unenthusiastic to permit), and that the hardware must have
the necessary bidirectional support functionality internally also,
(and be appropriately enabled).

So, it's quite a mess right now, which is a shame, since the new HD
TiVo really is an impressive piece of technology.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
   - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com

 - - -

> FYI, two-way CableCards (also known as CableCard 2 or 'M-cards') are
> available from the two most popular cable equipment manufacturers.
> Their availability from the cable companies vary and, of course, a
> subscriber must get them from their cable companies for proper
> provisioning.
>
> The CableCard specification comes from CableLabs - the same people
> who brought you the DOCSIS or cable modem specifications....
>
>    armando
>
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
> > From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
> > Date: August 23, 2007 6:01:14 AM EDT
> > To: ip () v2 listbox com
> > Subject: [IP] Important Warning Regarding New HD TiVo and Cable
> > System Incompatibilities
> > Reply-To: dave () farber net
> >
> >
> >
> > Begin forwarded message:
> >
> > From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
> > Date: August 23, 2007 1:39:22 AM EDT
> > To: dave () farber net
> > Cc: lauren () vortex com
> > Subject: Important Warning Regarding New HD TiVo and Cable System
> > Incompatibilities
> >
> >
> >
> >   Important Warning Regarding New HD TiVo and Cable System
> > Incompatibilities
> >
> >                http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000273.html
> >
> >
> > Greetings. You may have seen much (deserved) hoopla regarding the
> > new relatively low-priced HD TiVo, that uses CableCARD technology to
> > allow a direct interface between digital cable systems and the TiVo
> > unit.
> >
> > While it is generally understood that the current generation of
> > these devices (this may well change within a year or two) cannot
> > access two-way cable services such as Pay Per View (PPV) or Video On
> > Demand (VOD), many potential buyers of this TiVo product may not be
> > aware of concerns regarding the use of Switched Digital Video (SDV)
> > on an increasing number of cable systems.
> >
> > Briefly, SDV technology -- which is being aggressively deployed by
> > Time Warner Cable and also by many other large and small systems --
> > requires two-way communications with the cable company servers to
> > allow the customer to access all available channels.
> >
> > Since current CableCARD host devices don't support two-way
> > operations, this means that users of these devices (including the
> > new TiVo) could find themselves unable to watch or record channels
> > of interest (the exact set of which will vary from system to system
> > over time).
> >
> > While there are continuing statements that the cable companies and
> > TiVo are working on some sort of solution to this problem (keep in
> > mind that CableCARD compatibility is an FCC mandate), no specifics
> > on any possible "fix" or time frame for such a fix have been
> > forthcoming.
> >
> > There indeed are ways that the problem could be worked around. For
> > example, signaling over the Internet could be used (newer TiVos are
> > Internet compatible). Or, some sort of external device associated
> > with one of the TiVo's various interfaces could be employed to
> > communicate back to the cable system servers.
> >
> > However, until there are more details available, such workarounds
> > appear to be rather speculative right now. On the other hand,
> > deployment of SDV and the problems it could cause for CableCARD TiVo
> > users are very real and in some cases immediate.
> >
> > I'm definitely not saying that you absolutely shouldn't buy the new
> > HD TiVo -- it's a very nice box. But be warned that these
> > potentially serious issues do exist at this time.
> >
> > --Lauren--
> > Lauren Weinstein
> > lauren () vortex com or lauren () pfir org
> > Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
> > http://www.pfir.org/lauren
> > Co-Founder, PFIR
> >    - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
> > Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
> > Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
> > Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
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