Ok, we've seen multiroom setups, mostly from IPTV providers, and tru2way has had a limited rollout so far, but Time Warner Cable and Motorola are teaming up to be the first to bring the two together in customers homes. Follow Me TV is already available on FiOS, but the Dolby Digital Plus-supporting DCX3400-M DVR we saw at CES in '08 and DXC-3200M set-top box will make it happen on cable, shifting high definition video around the house via Multimedia over Coaxial Alliance (MoCA) connections. Hopefully tru2way's interoperability lets customers choose what equipment makes up their home video network, not just the cable company, but we should find out more after launch later this year.

At the Cable Show this week Macrovision is showing off its new tru2way Passport software, which we have to say is pretty cool looking. Of course it isn't the coolest looking software we've seen, but it is the best looking tru2way option so far and at least it is widescreen. But maybe in what might be bigger news to Comcast fans customers around the country -- or anyone who uses the Passport of iGuide software really -- is the that like the Passport tru2way software, the new Passport and iGuide software will also support multi-room viewing. So you'll finally be able to have your content follow you around the house and automatically pick up where you left off. Unfortunately like other solutions based on the Motorola boxes it's limited to two tuners throughout the house -- because a DVR can only act as a server and not as a client -- and we'd bet our old friends at the cable company will continue to only offer DVRs with puney 160GB hard drives, which really makes it hard for most families to get by with a single DVR.

Yes, we were disappointed by the lack of tru2way at CES. Luckily, next month's The Cable Show should give a bit of a lift, with interactive program guides, games, chat, web browsers and more on display. Samsung is the most notable hardware name we noticed on the list, but with only set-top boxes, home networking and portability apps on the menu our question of when its compatible TVs may go one sale will likely remain unanswered. Check out the release for the full listing, whether 2009 is the year of tru2way or not should certainly be more clear once the show is underway from April 1-3.

With the looming Tuning Adapter practically stealing the limelight at The Cable Show 2008, we can't help but wonder: how many of you are actually waiting in tense anticipation to snag one of these rascals? Is your CableCARD-equipped TiVo not pulling in all of the HD channels that are being delivered via switched digital video? Are you holding off on buying a set-top-box until tru2way DVRs hit the market? Let us know just how important this stuff is to you.

This was the first time The Cable Show was back in the Big Easy since Katrina, and the first we've attended, too. For those unfamiliar, it's the cable industry's biggest event, and we certainly left with a new perspective on Big Cable. In case you missed what's coming down the coax in the next year, here's a rundown of our coverage.

Hands-on and on location

• Hands-on with the Motorola Tuning Adapter MTR700
• Hands-on with the Cisco Tuning Adapter STA1520
• The Cable Show 2008 floor tour
• The CableNET Booth tour at The Cable Show
• Up close and personal with the new Pace HD STBs
• Samsung shows off SMT-3090 tru2way DVR
• Cable has big plans for tru2way

Announcements

• Motorola study finds millennials hungry for VOD
• Tuning adapters hit CableLabs testing lair, still not ready for public consumption
• ADB shows off tru2way STB to MSOs
• ESPN unveils The Ultimate Remote, is WiFi worth $300?
• ESPN ratings 43% higher in HD homes than SD abodes in April
• Motorola's SmartStream remote diagnostics to replace truck rolls
• Comcast claims more HD than anyone, anywhere
• Time Warner Cable signs up MGM HD
• QVCHD launches on SES AMERICOM satellites

The MTR700 tuning adapter wasn't all that Moto was showing off at The Cable Show. Also getting introduced was its SmartStream Terminal Data Collector (STDC) software that gathers up diagnostic info from your Motorola STB and sends it to the helpful cable representative at the other end of the line. The idea, of course, is that field service (requiring a truck roll) will be replaceable by phone service (requiring hold time). Better still, the software is installable on-demand, so there won't even be a truck roll required to inject the code to your STB. We wouldn't expect cable companies to necessarily waive service fees for remote assistance, however. Just be thankful that help with your cable service may force you into tying yourself to the house between the hours of 10AM and 4PM.

We first heard about tru2way just before CES and at first we were confused, then after checking out all the tru2way HDTVs at CES, we realized it as a way for us access VOD and other interactive services on our non-cable issued HDTVs or TiVo DVRs. But now that we had the chance to sit in a on a few tru2way developers sessions, and walk the floor at this year's Cable Show, we are starting to get the big picture. You see there really wasn't that many mentions of third-party tru2way devices at the show. Instead everyone was more interested in the cable companies deploy schedule for their own tru2way STBs. Developers want to know how to get their applications onto customer's TVs, and cable companies hope to spawn new growth by providing interactive services while at the same time eliminating its dependency on a single STB manufacturer.

Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB) showed off the first fully certified tru2way STB at The Cable Show. While we're eager to get tru2way capabilities wrapped into our TVs, this is the next best thing. With a name like ADB-4820C, though, you know this device is aimed at multiple system operators (MSOs) only. The unit certainly looks friendly enough, though -- it's slim and designed to be mounted on the back of a TV and has a good-sized selection of outputs: RF, S-Video, composite and HDMI (with CEC) should make it suitable for deployment on just about every TV. Likewise, all the cable format bases are covered: MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and VC-1. Pricing and availability will depend, of course, on your cable provider; but it's available to them now.

[Via Asia Business News]

Read - ADB-4820C Press release [PDF]
Read - ADB-4820C Spec sheet [PDF]

It's tough to get too excited about new cable STBs, but the latest crop do have some pretty cool features. The coolest new feature we noticed -- other than tru2way of course -- was the fact that the new line of Pace HD STBs have a built in DOCSIS modem. This will allow the STB to access the Internet, but also via the included Ethernet port on the back, you can say goodbye to your dedicated cable modem. Anytime we can get rid of yet another box and accompanying wall-wart, we're happy.

The Cable Show is all about bringing the members of the cable TV industry together, and unlike the Consumer Electronics Show, everything is all about business to business. But this doesn't mean the big players don't have big booths, and just like any other show, everyone wants to be on the main aisle. So while we strolled through, we snapped some pics so you could get an idea of what it was like. Also like any other show, some booths were packed like Motorola's and Cisco's, but others were like a ghost town -- we almost felt sorry for the Aljazeera booth folks who were talking amongst themselves. The one thing that seemed to hold true wherever we went, was that everyone is excited about tru2way, and not for the reasons you think. Cable really thinks it has a chance to take interactivity to the next level, and we hope they're right.

All of the coolest stuff at The Cable Show was on display at the CableNet booth. The Motorola Tuning Adapter was there, but it was only one of about 30 small demos. The rest were from a entire range of companies showing off how cable can be the center of the connected home. There were software vendors showing off their tru2way award winning games -- which made us wonder if they were the only one -- Moxi's had its long overdue DVR for MSOs, GE and Next Alarm were hoping to help big cable get into the monitoring business, Sigma Designs had a triple HD tuner chipset, and finally Samsung was showing off its tru2way DVR and software called SeeNSearch which adds Internet links to the program guide and lets you access web pages directly from the guide for display on your TV, but interestingly, isn't tru2way.

Ring the bell folks MGM HD has racked up another one, this time inking a deal with Time Warner Cable to distribute its high definition network to subscribers. Promoting its wares on a 103-inch screen at The Cable Show, MGM continues to tout its 4,100 title-deep library of 1080i content. Multichannel News has more info its background, as an HD-only channel MGM HD charges a license fee to operators, causing it to reside on an HD tier with DirecTV and Dish Network. It's still unclear what it might cost to get the channel whenever it is eventually available on Time Warner, but executive VP Douglas Lee is confident those tiers will eventually "kind of melt away". We can only hope. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Via Multichannel News]

The highlight of The Cable Show for us was actually to be able to see the Motorola Tuning Adapter in action. Sure it isn't that exciting of a product, but just the idea that our beloved TiVo won't be useless because of the fact that all latest HD channels are being deployed with SDV (Switched Digital Video) is enough to get us going. The MTR700 was named before CableLabs renamed the class of product from Tuning Resolver to Tuning Adapter, and should be available to cable companies in July. Unfortunately there's really no way to tell how long it'll take before your provider makes it available to you, or for how much. For the most part, there's no change from a user's perspective, so much so that for the demo the channels were relabeled so we could tell which were SDV, and which weren't. In fact the only way you can even tell this thing is connected, is because the TiVo's Devices menu has a new option with a whole slew of troubleshooting options for the cable guy. Changing channels was just as fast -- or slow depending on your perspective -- as a TiVo HD tuning standard HD broadcast channels. Click on through to the gallery to see all the pictures of it in action.