2 Way Cable Cards

2 Way Cable Cards

Odds are there is an unsightly cable box sitting in the middle of your home theater, which probably doesn’t fit with the décor. 2 way cable cards will eliminate the unsightly cable box. It will also eliminate the need for multiple remotes. In fact that unsightly cable box doesn’t even belong you. Legally speaking, the Cable company owns that cable box, and remote.

What is a 2 way cable card and why does it need to go 2 ways?

In 1996, a Telecom law passed, which had a section (629) instructing the FCC to: "...assure the commercial availability to consumers of multi-channel video programming and other services offered over multi-channel video programming systems, of converter boxes, interactive communications equipment, and other equipment used by consumers to access multi-channel video programming and other services offered over multi-channel video programming systems, from manufacturers, retailers, and other vendors not affiliated with any multi-channel video programming distributor."

The original cable card (by CableLabs) lets you watch all of your subscribed channels; including premium content. However, the limitation of one way cards is their inability to access on-demand content such as HBO On-Demand, Cinemax On-Demand, Showtime On-Demand, etc.), your pay per view channels, and your guide features. With the advent of the 2 way cable card, these features are now available.

There is still one problem. The two way cable card is small. As you can see in the image, that is a quarter next to the card. There is simply no room for a hard drive on such a small device. This means no DVR capabilities. Which means that you can only watch your favorite TV shows when they are on. For me such a notion is horrifying because I cannot bear to watch Lost with commercials.

With the lack of DVR, many companies are doing their best to provide an all-in-one solution. Such solutions include building SSD (Solid State Drives) and exterior wall-mounted hard drives for storage of recorded content. However, at this time such solutions are not yet available.

This cable card is inserted into a specially made television, which has a PC Card slot and then professionally installed by a qualified trained cable or satellite technician. It needs professional installation because it requires accessing advanced network features which average consumers a) do not have access to and b) have little to no understanding of.

Toshiba will be releasing televisions with solid state drives (SSD) in them so that they will no longer need a hard drive for DVR capabilities. However, such televisions will not be released in 2009.

Panasonic will release a 50 inch Plasma TV this year with a 2 way cable card. They will also make available a separate wall-mountable DVR box that is controlled through an HDMI connection.

Sony has similar plans but it is still in prototype phase and will not be released in 2009.

Samsung also has 2 models of televisions featuring 2 way cable cards, however they do not yet have a solution for the lack of DVR capabilities. When I spoke with the representatives at Samsung at CES they proposed using some kind of connection to a PC or Mac and recording programs to your computer’s hard drive. This is only a solution for more advanced users, and at best a stopgap measure.

I am hopeful that in the short term the Panasonic solution will become the norm for consumers who wish to do away with the unsightly cable box. However, I am equally hopeful that the Toshiba solution with integrated SSD will become the industry standard.

Regardless of which way the industry goes, in 2009 the consumer market will only see 2 manufacturers with 2 way cable cards: Samsung and Panasonic. In the years to come, however, the cable box will become a thing of the past.

For the complete version of this article (which has an image of what a cable card looks like) go to http://www.homeappliancegallery.co [...] tent_ID=13