Reviews:
 ·ProLog
 ·DIRECTV
| Great Potential for this technology. I thought of something like this last year when Fios Rolled out. I figured, since Verizon can have a box on the side of the house that is capable of generating analog NTSC and digital QAM's from fiber, why can't cable make a box that does the same, but it derives from a different media type (coax vs. fiber).
Sure the boxes cost a lot, but it will transmit 80 NTSC analog channels through a whole household, rather than having an STB for every TV, which will also add up. Not only that, but the cable company only really has to install these for people that still want analog channels. Let us people with digital and DVR's alone. Sure we might have more than one TV set, but why not lease to own cheap all digital STB's like the Motorola DCT-700 for the secondary sets? Perhaps allow us to purchase them at major electronics stores and call in to activate them much like we currently can do with Cable modems. I think more people will go digital if they don't have to pay a ridiculous additional outlet fee. In our area it's $8.90 for each additional STB. They are not going to get a digital STB on every TV at that price. Perhaps if I payed $8.90 a month only until the converter is paid off (lease to own), then more people would go all digital.
SDV doesn't work with Cable Card 1.0, so maybe this is a better solution? This would free up tons of bandwidth for HD, HD on Demand, bonded HSI Data channels, etc... You could have that analog output for any TV without an STB, and then your straight un-modified pass through output to all your digital boxes. Who knows, they could put a MOCA gateway in it as well and pave way for multi-room DVR.
I think this has the potential to really take off. |
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 PolarBear03The bear formerly known as aaron8301Premium
join:2005-01-03 | I second that motion wholly. |
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 pfakBow before me for I am rootPremium
join:2002-12-29
Vancouver, BC | reply to cypherstream
Er, don't most places let you purchase STB's at retail stores?
.. They do up here. |
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| Not in the U.S. If you purchase an STB its 99.9% of the time stolen so the Cable Company won't activate it. The big STB players (Motorola, Scientific Atlanta) only sell to Cable Operators in the U.S. at this time. |
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 MacLeechThe one and onlyPremium
join:2001-07-14
SoCal
kudos:3
2 edits | reply to cypherstream
The TV channels on FIOS are analog from headend to TV... They aren't transported digitally and converted to analog at the ONT.
It's the same thing cable TV companies do now.
FIOS uses 3 different wavelengths with in the fiber to transport its "content". One wavelength for downstream data (excluding TV signal), a second wavelength for upstream data, and a third wavelength for the TV signal. I believe it's a standard 860 Mhz channel line up you'd find on a standard cable system with the first 500 Mhz or so being analog NTSC channels and the last 300 Mhz or so being QAM modulated digital channels. |
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