Cable companies miss tru2way deadline, insist it's no big deal
cable posts
NBA TV follows NFL Network to Comcast's digital classic tier
It doesn't appear to be coming in time for everyone to enjoy C-Webb and The Glove's studio antics during the NBA Finals, but now that Comcast closed a deal to bring NFL Network to its many digital classic subscribers, working out an agreement to add NBA TV (home of the pioneering all-SkyCam broadcasts & silent game) as well was the only logical followup. No word on exactly when the switch will happen, but hoops fans should keep an eye on their (soon to change drastically) channel lineup with the long term deal slated to shift the channel off the sports tier and into mass availability ahead of the 2009-10 season, bringing along plenty of VOD and streaming content to Comcast.net. Unfortunately, NBA League Pass is still a pay add-on, but we guess that would be asking for just a bit too much, right?Cable companies losing stranglehold on apartments
It's no secret that loads of folks loathe their cable company, but for some apartment dwellers, there's exactly one choice of service providers for TV, internet, and/or phone service. See, cable companies in some areas (read - anywhere they can) have negotiated exclusive distribution rights in buildings that they wired up, keeping other services at bay. Well, those castle walls are crumbling as a the Court of Appeals in Washington has upheld the 2007 FCC ruling that banned such practices as anticompetitive. Don't expect this decision to revamp the entire landscape -- cable companies are well-versed in how to keep competition down -- but this decision should make it easier for offerings like FiOS and U-verse to make inroads to dense metro areas. If all that's standing between you and FiOS is a shady cable company arrangement, now's your time to grab some fiber![Image courtesy Videogum]
NFL Network remaining on Comcast, for the time being
Canoe's targeted ads set sail for households with income to spend
The six cable companies involved with Canoe Ventures -- Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House -- will be turning loose the targeted ad technology that has been in the works for a while now. Especially in the midst of the economic crunch, you just know that tax brackets are going to drive the tailoring of the bespoke ads, which go by the friendly name of CAM (community addressable messaging). Fully interactive ads will have to wait for tru2way, so for now CAM 1.0 will swap in one of two versions of a spot, depending on whether the destination is in a zone designated as "over $100,000." We foresee some interesting water cooler discussions ahead as coworkers report seeing different ads at halftime and thus give away some personal info.Comcast extending all digital push in Boston and Atlanta
R2E cable adds eSATA transfer abilities to RED camera
CableLabs investigating possible 3D delivery standards
Count one more standards body trying to figure out how to bring the 3D experience home properly, now that CableLabs has begun investigating the best delivery system. the CableLabs VP of consumer video technology is the chair of the SCTE working group on 3D and claims there's as many as 30 different methods of multiplexing the video stream, so it could be a slow march towards a standard, including such problems as where the decoding happens, on a set-top box or in the display itself, but we should be able to expect experiments like the recent live BskyB trial here in the future, but your guess is as good as ours to precisely when.Targeted ads coming soon to cable TV
One look at a company like, say, Google, and you know there's something to online ads. Cable companies have been working on competitive ad targeting for TV programming for a while now, and tru2way is just the thing needed to close the circuit. Your viewing habits are not all that different from the trail of cookies built up in your browser, so it's just a matter of time before someone brings up the idea of monetizing that information. Of course, TV that watches you will have to walk the line between pitching you ads that are relevant/interesting and making you feel dirty and violated, so expect some pretty interesting times ahead while the boundaries get set; with two-way communication over wide bandwidth pipes, though, you know this is coming.[Image courtesy simonrules]
Is your cable company of the present your IPTV provider of the future?
It didn't make waves at the Cable Show, but the New York Times reports further off than the CableCARD and streaming solutions of the present, cable's future could be in delivering Internet video directly to your PC or other devices. Delivering IPTV would be far more efficient than current video delivery systems, and could offer higher quality than current Internet streaming services. Of course, the glacial speed of current technology rollouts doesn't engender confidence we'll see any of these advances very soon.The slow rollout of interactive TV
Rogers reportedly implements more compression on HD channels
Sadly, we don't have any reason to believe that this is some nasty April Fool's prank. We heard right around this time last year that Rogers Cable was looking to pull a Shaw and compress its HD signals even further, and now, it seems that said smashing has begun. According to Digital Home, a "majority of all Rogers high definition channels measured are now being compressed." Investigation in the matter has found that around 60 percent of Rogers' HD channels in Toronto were compressed, with HBO, The Movie Network, MPix, Nat Geo, CBS West, ABC West, Fox West, NBC West and PBS suffering the most. We're told that those stations saw typical bitrates of around 10Mbps to 13Mbps, while Rogers SportsNet, CityTV, CBC, CTV, Global and Discovery HD saw streams between 16Mbps and 18Mbps. Any locals care to confirm / deny?Cable customers can get SlingLoaded too with the T2200S tru2way DVR
Update: Looks like the box is planned to start testing June, and go into production in Q4 of 2009, the specs from the PR are after the break. [Thanks, Justin]
Neutrik delivers a 1080p HD/SDI connector to pros, and it's not HDMI
Just how important is HDMI 1.3?
