Time Warner Cable Cripples TiVO, Gets FCC Fine > Not TWs Fault

Not TWs Fault

So What happens when you have used it for a year, then TWC decides to change the way you watch cable. Kind of sucks to have that kind of investment taken away from you, so they can add additional offering. Sure great for the additional offerings, but why not allow the consumer to help to dictate what channels would be SDV. To take away channels without notice, then com back and delay the deployment for any sort of resolution, oh yea, then use their proprietary software based DVR, with little advantages, in other words, well you can do this and like it or no to those channels we chose to remove...

reply to krazymon2

said by krazymon2:

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I really don't see why its TWs responsible if equipment that YOU BOUGHT doesn't work on their system. Systems are changed and updated to benefit not only the company but the consumer in the long run. The Tivos that people purchased don't have the right technology to adapt. If anything Tivo themselves are at fault for not having the hardware to THEIR customers to handle SDV.

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said by LightReading.com :

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The MSO migrated some channels to its switched digital video (SDV) platform on Sept. 24, 2007. According to the FCC, Oceanic willfully violated a rule requiring it to give 30-day advance written notice to the Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Cable Television Division.

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reply to gqkull
I am saying its not their responsibility to make sure that every single box on the market works with their system. The simple fact is Tivo and others knew this was going to be on the market soon and didn't make the adjustments for their customers. And like any investment maybe people should have looked into what they were buying and realized Hey this might not work soon because changes are happening that Tivo hasn't adjusted for.

Being a monopoly, it actually is their responsibility.

Being in an apartment, you couldn't have been more wrong. I can barely get OTA(only managed to get two channels and those two would freeze up and skip a lot), can't get satellite, and I don't even think I could get dsl(u-verse isn't even offered) if I wanted to(Att has no record of my apartment building existing). Even if you could get OTA in certain areas you need a directional antenna with a motor to spin it because the digital channels are in so many different directions. If you can get satellite you still risk outages due to weather. The fact is a hard line service just cannot be compared to a wireless service. And in doing so you just make yourself look uninformed. Oh and I almost forgot that my media center pc doesn't work with satellite or digital cable.

reply to insomniac84
They aren't. People have other options for video services. Satellite not to mention in addition to my cable I get a good bit of my video over the net'.

Hysterical blindness? »Re: Not TWs Fault

reply to tubbynet
...cough cough...carterphone...cough cough

reply to insomniac84
Your decision to move in to an apartment lacking a clear view of the southern sky doesn't suddenly render Time Warner a monopoly. If you want cable TV but aren't willing to risk the possibility of your box being rendered obsolete by technological evolution, then just rent your STB from the cable company like most people do. If that's not good enough for you, you're free to go without--which, incidentally, is exactly what a growing number of people are doing. Between Netflix, iTunes, Hulu, Blockbuster, and a variety of other video providers, there are plenty of alternatives to cable television.

reply to krazymon2
Well, actually, it IS Time Warner's fault. The true issue is that there is no standard for SDV - CISCO does there own thing and Motorola does theirs - both proprietary. Since they are moving ahead deploying SDV prior to Tru2way (the "standard" that ThHird Parties like TIVO could build hardware to operate with), they've "isolated" a bunch of customers, like myself, that have Cable Card devices (it's not just TIVO's here - I have several friends with Cable Card TV's that are in the same boat.

There is a standard forming for "Tru2way", but that's not what TWC is implementing now. They (Time Warner) committed to developing and providing an "adapter" to handle the SDV until Tru2way is ratified and deployed, but it's not available now. It was supposed to be available earlier this year, but either they stalled or they didn't have the resources. I asked if a BETA program was available that I could participate in, or when an adapter would be available for me to rent/use, but the sales folks I spoke with only would/could offer to rent me their box.

TW did sent me a letter telling me they were making the move to SDV about 4 weeks prior to it happening here in Central Ohio. It told me to contact their sales department to discuss my options - which were to rent one of their DVR's/cable boxes, or to continue to pay what I am and have content slowly move off to SDV where my equipment could access it. I was actually surprised that they didn't offer to adjust the bill for the content I should have, but couldn't, until the adapter was available.

I've never had a problem paying a "fee" to rent their cable cards - I felt it was a reasonable compromise. I could buy the platform/interface I liked, and they had the ability to control the content I paid for.

Too bad - TWC lost a customer with me and Wide Open West picked up a new one. I'm fortunate in that I live in a area with competition and had a choice.
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and the hits just keep on coming.........

reply to insomniac84

reply to jaminus

reply to gqkull

quote:

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So What happens when you have used it for a year, then TWC decides to change the way you watch cable.

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reply to tubbynet

said by Lightreading.com article :

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Time Warner Cable also stressed that it had taken steps to keep subscribers apprised of the SDV deployment, going as far as offering customers with one-way CableCARD devices an opportunity to lease an interactive set-top box for two years without additional charges

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reply to va176thunder
tru2way is just a new name for a standard created a few years ago called OpenCable, which CableCARD is a part of.

CableCARD handles the security and physical 2-way protocols needed by the transmitter for 2-way communication. They've ALWAYS been built to handle 2-way communication. These decrpt the proprietary CA systems created by Cisco and Motorola.

CHILA is the hardware spec the equipment needs to be built to so that CableCARD can use it's 2-way capability and also run OCAP. It's first version came out in 2005, it's at 2.something now. Pretty much every cable box purchased and issued by cable companies in over a year is compatible with this spec due to the FCC "integrated security ban" on cable boxes.

OCAP is OpenCable Application Platform. It's the common OS applications for cable boxes can run on, like the guide, SDV, and VOD applications. TWC, Comcast, Tivo, and quite a few other companies (including the SDV and VOD system vendors) have software compatible with this spec that is released and in use by customers.

Together those 3 things form OpenCable, now called tru2way.

If you want more details, go here:
»opencable.com/

The specs have been there at least a few years now and that is how TWC was able to offer customers 2-way enabled CableCARD boxes that could use SDV, VOD, and thier OCAP based Mystro Digital Navigator. Motorola, Cisco (was Scientific Atlanta), and Samsung built their new boxes to be OpenCable compatible.

The tuning resolver was created not by TWC but by CableLabs again for those devices that weren't built to the full 2-way OpenCable spec CableLabs released years ago. Those 1-way devices had instead been built to the DCR spec the FCC had pushed through just to get manufacturers to build 1-way compatible CableCARD devices.

Why is Tivo manufacturing boxes that are crippled to begin with if the standards exist? This issue didn't just spring up over night. Tivo had YEARS to get ready for 2-way cable integration and they fell flat on their face fighting it.

[edit]Actually Tivo gave in late last year and agreed to start producing an OpenCable compatible box. It just hasn't hit the market yet: »www.multichannel.com/article/CA6506184.html