tru2way camp reassures FCC this is the open standard they are looking for

by Richard Lawler, posted Aug 15th 2008 at 1:32AM

The cable industry keeps going out of its way to mention tru2way is open to all, so after Verizon blasted the tech in a letter to the FCC as inhibiting technical innovation, here's National Cable & Telecommunications Association CEO Kyle McSlarrow's waved his hand and sent over this bit of suggestion. Apparently the NCTA is happy to have Verizon as a friend in attempting to rid cable boxes of those icky FCC-mandated FireWire ports (since Ethernet is a suitable replacement, according to them), but wants to clear up the misconception that tru2way devices are incompatible with cable alternatives (satellite, fiber, etc.) since hey, you can still use a set-top box just like you do now. Unfortunately since many of us have the "misconception" that we'd prefer devices that worked with any provider without requiring additional hardware, that's probably not going to cut it. Empty gesture or a real effort towards a unified set of standards across all providers? Take a look at the letter (warning: PDF read link) and decide for yourself.

[Via Cable Digital News]

Filed under: Regulatory, Set-top boxes, Cable, Fiber, Satellite

Tags: cable, fcc, fios, firewire, kyle mcslarrow, KyleMcslarrow, national cable telecommunications association, NationalCableTelecommunicationsAssociation, ncta, stb, tru2way, verizon

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

k @ Aug 15th 2008 9:36AM

I'm no expert but I fail to see the downside. Basically the NCTA is in agreement with Verizon but under current standards mandated by the FCC what Verizon wants will not work. The NCTA would like to see 1394 connections replaced with RJ45. Right?

Highly Ranked

UnnDunn @ Aug 15th 2008 10:00AM

No, the NCTA is not in agreement with Verizon, but this shyster used incredibly slick language to project the appearance of an agreement.

What Verizon (and most of us) want is a standard where you can take ANY TV and plug it directly into ANY digital TV service without any intermediary device such as a set-top-box, as long as both support the standard. It also wants the standard to allow anyone to develop applications that will run on such TVs.

Meaning, you could take this "OpenStandard" TV and plug it into DirecTV, Dish Network, Cable, FiOS, Uverse or any other system, and have it work with full two-way connectivity (technology permitting,) without the use of a Set-Top-Box of any kind, running UI and/or Guide software chosen by you or the device manufacturer.

Tru2way doesn't provide this. Tru2way only works with digital cable and specifically prevents you or the device maker from choosing the apps that run on it. For those who want to use tru2way devices on services other than cable, Kyle McSlarrow's solution is simple... use a set-top-box. Some solution.

The whole thing with 1394 vs. Ethernet is a total red-herring, designed to push Cable's agenda. Cable hates putting 1394 ports in their boxes.

Neutral

Andy @ Aug 15th 2008 11:50AM

It was my understanding UnDunn that try2way is what you described as the "open way". Go to BestBuy, buy a tru2way TV, or a tru2way DVR of my choice and plug it into the wall and away I go. Giving me choice of hardware (built into TV, receiver, PC, Bluray player, DVR...) and surface software (Sony vs. Samsung vs. Microsoft interfaces...) with the same underpinning middleware.
Instead it seems tru2way is simply a new OS for digital cable, which can be applied to any number of hardware compliant boxes, but they all run the exact same software (which is crap with Comcast anyway).

So it seems I am on Verizon's side, when I was mistakenly on tru2way's side.

Neutral

UnnDunn @ Aug 15th 2008 12:09PM

Exactly. And the Cable companies are yelling "tru2way is an OPEN STANDARD!!!!" as often and as loudly as they can, so that no-one will notice until they've bought into this thing, and by then it will be too late to change it.

Neutral

Jim Mallory @ Aug 15th 2008 2:52PM

I think it is the definition of Open Standard.

From a hardware manufactures point of view, it is. They can build one box that will work on both Motorola and Cisco based systems.

From a software development point of view, it is for the same reason. Write once, run on any system.

From a consumer point of view. Kind of. All you need to know is that your head-end is Tru2way compatible...you don't need to know if its a Cisco or Motorola head-end. From a software point of view, no probably not. Although, I do wonder, just how many manufactures actually want to code their own guide and other software or just use the standard MSO provided one. I know Tivo and Microsoft would obviously want to use their own guide (don't know about On-Demand and other apps) but I mean does Panasonic or Sony really want to be in the guide business?

Neutral

Andy @ Aug 15th 2008 5:21PM

@Mallory

I think you would be surprised how fast development of guides would happen if it were open. TV manufacturers would put nice big lavish guides that take advantage of the screen real estate on their 3000-4000 dollar TVs without any trouble, while having nice, well though out, compact guides on kitchen size 22 inch LCD TVs. No longer will we have to be subjected to SD sized guides on widescreen TVs. And I also imagine that companies will want to take advantage of this ability quite a bit by combining it with the newish HDMI-CEC which every major manufacturer is now touting on their respective systems as Bravia Link, Anynet and a number of other names.

I understand that the signal is different and I would not be opposed to a hardware that requires a mandatorily free cable card type dongle to be inserted or attached to a Firewire/Ethernet/USB that effectively is the decoder/liaison between the wall the device as long as it allows freedom of hardware and freedom of the software on the user end.

Neutral

Jim Mallory @ Aug 15th 2008 12:16PM

How can you possibly build a tuner that tunes and decodes every possible system that wouldn't double the price of a TV set? It might have been possible if the US used the European DVB system but I am not even sure how compatible each of the variants are with each other (DVB-C for Cable, DVB-T for Terrestrial, DVB-S for satellite).

The closest thing I could think of is a system based on IP (with common compression and encryption systems) and you would have to buy the appoporiate PHY (physical layer) module to match up with your delivery system / provider. A QAM PHY for cable, an ATSC PHY for OTA, a Verizon PHY for FiOS, etc.

Neutral

UnnDunn @ Aug 15th 2008 2:06PM

It would probably work exactly as you describe, for the reasons you outlined.

If they really wanted it to happen, they'd make it happen.

Neutral

Garst @ Aug 16th 2008 4:20PM

Let's take a step-by-step approach at what the National Cable & Telecommunications Association is saying. However, before we go there, it should be stated that it represents only cable companies. It is perfectly reasonable to be paranoid if you think that tru2way is going to be bias towards cable companies.

Now let's looks at who developed tru2way: CableLabs. A separate organization that only is associated with the cable industry as well. And from what I can tell, there is no known association between the two. In fact, they are based in two quite different locations. One is in the District of Columbia and the other is in Colorado. So, I don't think the NCTA can actually state that tru2way is an open standard. Not just because only CableLabs developed it, I highly doubt that it was tested on any other network. Without someone fully testing this on other networks, you cannot claim it will work on other networks or that it is an open standard.

So that paranoia that I mentioned earlier can be elevated to the status of legitimate concern.

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