OK, well, maybe not so much as a replacement:

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And separately, in its ongoing dance with service providers, Microsoft may also be pursuing an HDMI pass-through feature that would allow it to overlay its own Xbox UI (user interface) on a cable video feed.

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Live TV, courtesy of your cable box

Leaks of key documents about the next Xbox’s hardware have shown that the device will come with two HDMI ports: One to connect the Xbox to your TV, and one to connect your cable box to the Xbox. That’s the same setup used by Google TV and the latest Slingbox, and it allows Microsoft to access your live TV programming and overlay it with its own programming guide, widgets and apps.

Why this matters: Microsoft wants users to always consume TV through the Xbox — even if the actual TV programming comes from traditional cable, and not an Xbox Live app. This shows how important TV has become for the Xbox, but the somewhat cumbersome setup also goes to show how complicated it is for even someone like Microsoft to get access to the content that matters most to consumers.

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Xbox One will utilize a few different methods to deliver live TV to the Xbox universe. Chief among those—at least in the US—is HDMI pass-through, in which the cable box, satellite box, or similar device (e.g., the aforementioned cablecard-equipped TiVo ) connects directly to the Xbox One, which then passes the mediated signal to the television via an HDMI-out port.

Because of that direct pipe from your TV provider to the Xbox One, you can watch TV with varying degrees of Xbox overlay. It can look exactly like your plain old TV interface, being controlled with the original remote. Alternately, you can use Xbox’s electronic programming guide, which presents a lineup based on your favorite channels or tells you what your friends are watching and can be controlled via voice, gesture, and game controller. Or, thanks to Xbox SmartGlass, the second-screen functionality that Microsoft introduced in limited capacity last year across multiple mobile platforms, you can use your smartphone or tablet to change channels with a no-look flicking motion. (For more granular control, SmartGlass will eventually be able to turn your phone into a skeuomorphic remote control, able to emulate any other control device.)

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The CEA officially filed its challenge with the FCC today:

CEA Challenges Charter's FCC Set-Top Waiver
Says Media Bureau decision is illegal and sets dangerous precedent
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable - May 20, 2013
»www.broadcastingcable.com/articl···iver.php

Well, it looks like Microsoft may be setting up their new Xbox as a cable STB replacement:

Microsoft Fires Xbox Bullet at Cable's STB
By Mari Silbey, Light Reading Cable - May 20, 2013
»www.lightreading.com/gaming-cons···40155235

Also see: »www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-2···mes.html

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And separately, in its ongoing dance with service providers, Microsoft may also be pursuing an HDMI pass-through feature that would allow it to overlay its own Xbox UI (user interface) on a cable video feed.

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quote:

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Live TV, courtesy of your cable box

Leaks of key documents about the next Xbox’s hardware have shown that the device will come with two HDMI ports: One to connect the Xbox to your TV, and one to connect your cable box to the Xbox. That’s the same setup used by Google TV and the latest Slingbox, and it allows Microsoft to access your live TV programming and overlay it with its own programming guide, widgets and apps.

Why this matters: Microsoft wants users to always consume TV through the Xbox — even if the actual TV programming comes from traditional cable, and not an Xbox Live app. This shows how important TV has become for the Xbox, but the somewhat cumbersome setup also goes to show how complicated it is for even someone like Microsoft to get access to the content that matters most to consumers.

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It looks like the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) may appeal the conditional waiver that Charter received from the FCC:

CEA Ponders Challenge to Charter Waiver
Critics of the move have until the end of the week to petition for review
By John Eggerton, Broadcasting & Cable - May 16, 2013
»www.broadcastingcable.com/articl···iver.php

I do think a proper industry standard downloadable security model is where everything is headed at this point.

It would also let people use things like an Xbox as a proper STB with the right secure app, etc.

What part of 'new Cablecard installs' did you not read? I didn't say that existing ones wouldn't be supported, that's stupid.

They should, because if this waiver succeeds it could mean the end of new Cablecard installs on Charter, without an industry standard to replace it. All they have to do is commission some retail box that no one will buy and that will be the end of it.

Others will follow.

Bottom line is that it takes a partnership between the CE industry and cable, and I'm not sure that will happen without FCC guidance.

The other problem with this waiver is that if Charter gets even one CE manufacturer to handle their DCAS at retail, they can cut off new installs of Cablecard.

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If the FCC turns this into a formal, proposed rulemaking, it may take another look at downloadable security and perhaps flirt with Cablevision's particular implementation, which uses the NDS Ltd. Key Ladder (KLAD) and the NDS VideoGuard conditional access system.

Likewise, sources say Cablevision is eager to push adoption of its soft security system to other MSOs, and is even considering spinning the effort into an independent entity that would handle technology licensing and other key operational tasks.

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KLAD, designed by NDS to accommodate other vendors' security systems, has recently emerged as a candidate to become a Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers (SCTE) standard.

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The problem here is that this is Charter-specific. I think we all agree that Cablecard should die but the devil's in the details to get to an industry-wide standard. DLNA w/DTCP-IP is a decent bet but right now the user interface for that is hideous.

Charter's response (»apps.fcc.gov/ecfs/document/view?···22078929) to the CEA's objections to their set-top security integration ban waiver request, from today's Light Reading Cable news round-up article:

Charter Strikes Back at the CEA
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - December 14, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/document.as···lr_cable

Charter Communications Inc. rejected assertions from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and others that a chip the cable operator wants to use for a new downloadable security system in digital set-top boxes is proprietary and will support only Charter's service and conditional access system. Charter is seeking a two-year waiver from the July 2007 set-top security integration ban so it can deploy dual security boxes containing silicon that would support the future downloadable security system alongside the traditional integrated conditional access system. Once Charter activates the downloadable system, it intends to use a "simulcrypt" system that will also allow it to support televisions and TiVo Inc. boxes purchased at retail that use CableCARD security.

In its reply comments at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) , Charter said the downloadable chip would rely on the same "commodity chips" that Cablevision Systems Corp. now uses for its downloadable system, and that the silicon can support security systems other than the one Charter wants to deploy. Cablevision's system, like the one being proposed by Charter, relies on the NDS (now Cisco Systems Inc.) key ladder as the "hardware root of trust," which will be offered on an open, royalty-free basis for use by other retail "host" (i.e. set-tops, televisions, and other connected devices), the MSO added. Charter intends to use its downloadable system as a key component of its all-digital video migration. The CEA wants the FCC to reject the request for temporary waiver and instead pursue a CableCARD successor called AllVid that would be applied to all pay-TV providers.

An article on the LRC site about Broadcom introducing their latest DTA chipset, the BCM7576, that will be used to deploy the proposed E-DTAs, which will allow cable companies to meet one of the conditions they agreed to for allowing encryption of their their digital basic-tier channels.

Once these E-DTAs become available, you'll likely see the basic-tier encryption begin rolling out quickly.

New DTA Will Extend Cable TV to Retail Devices
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - March 11, 2013
»www.lightreading.com/internet-vi···40150431

EDIT: The press release on it: »www.broadcom.com/press/release.p···=s746990

Shares in Entropic Communications Inc. dropped more than 8 percent Monday after the chipmaker slashed first-quarter guidance because a pay-TV provider changed its deployment plans for a new class of HD-capable digital transport adapters (DTAs), leaving Entropic with excess inventory. … Entropic, which counts Broadcom Corp. as a key competitor, didn't identify the MSO in question, but Comcast Corp. is among those that are in early-stage HD-DTA deployments.

Benchmark Co said it believes the service provider delaying set-top box orders is Comcast Corp.

"Because of the delayed rollout of these boxes to basic cable subscribers, it will take a few quarters for HD-DTA set-top box suppliers to burn through Entropic inventory," the brokerage said.

FYI - Just came across this new webpage on Comcast's Support site entitled "Encryption of Limited Basic Services" »customer.comcast.com/help-and-su···ryption/

At the end of that page, it says that (currently) the E-DTAs will only be available for Comcast customers with Boxee TV devices.

An article on the LRC site about Broadcom introducing their latest DTA chipset, the BCM7576, that will be used to deploy the proposed E-DTAs, which will allow cable companies to meet one of the conditions they agreed to for allowing encryption of their their digital basic-tier channels.

Once these E-DTAs become available, you'll likely see the basic-tier encryption begin rolling out quickly.

New DTA Will Extend Cable TV to Retail Devices
By Jeff Baumgartner, Light Reading Cable - March 11, 2013
»www.lightreading.com/internet-vi···40150431

Here in Portland, Oregon, all the NTSC channels have disappeared today. I guess this is part of the change?
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Now every NTSC channel shows a reddish slide saying "your TV isn't ready for comcast's digital network etc". Rescan didn't change anything.

Any idea then, what these "commodity chips" are that Cablevision currently uses for its downloadable system?

That is irrelevant to the point, which is that any new chip is by definition not a standard until CableLabs or the FCC says it is.

If it's a chip used by Charter STBs for their own downloadable security it's not an open cable standard, period. They're just trying to confuse the issue.

... that a chip the cable operator wants to use for a new downloadable security system in digital set-top boxes ...
:
Charter said the downloadable chip would rely on the same "commodity chips" that Cablevision Systems Corp. now uses for its downloadable system, and that the silicon can support security systems other than the one Charter wants to deploy.

Charter Communications Inc. rejected assertions from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and others that a chip the cable operator wants to use for a new downloadable security system in digital set-top boxes is proprietary and will support only Charter's service and conditional access system. Charter is seeking a two-year waiver from the July 2007 set-top security integration ban so it can deploy dual security boxes containing silicon that would support the future downloadable security system alongside the traditional integrated conditional access system. Once Charter activates the downloadable system, it intends to use a "simulcrypt" system that will also allow it to support televisions and TiVo Inc. boxes purchased at retail that use CableCARD security.

In its reply comments at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) , Charter said the downloadable chip would rely on the same "commodity chips" that Cablevision Systems Corp. now uses for its downloadable system, and that the silicon can support security systems other than the one Charter wants to deploy. Cablevision's system, like the one being proposed by Charter, relies on the NDS (now Cisco Systems Inc.) key ladder as the "hardware root of trust," which will be offered on an open, royalty-free basis for use by other retail "host" (i.e. set-tops, televisions, and other connected devices), the MSO added. Charter intends to use its downloadable system as a key component of its all-digital video migration. The CEA wants the FCC to reject the request for temporary waiver and instead pursue a CableCARD successor called AllVid that would be applied to all pay-TV providers.<

If you have cable service, you probably have at least one set-top box. On Monday, a federal rule change takes effect that could eventually force you to rent more cable boxes.
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The Federal Communications Commission had prohibited the encryption of basic cable since 1994. But in October, the commission voted to allow it, starting on Dec. 10.
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None of the six major cable companies in the country has announced a date to encrypt basic channels.
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When asked what it planned to do, Comcast, the country’s largest cable service provider, said in a statement:

“Currently, we do not have any announcements to make. Should we plan any changes in the future, we will notify any impacted customers well ahead of time.”
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Before a cable company can encrypt basic service, it must give customers 30 days advance notice. The FCC rule requires them to give two free converter boxes to customers with only basic service for two years and one free box to everyone else for one year. After that, the cable companies could sell or rent the boxes.

The FCC’s decision does not require those free converter boxes to deliver high-definition signals. For basic service in HD, customers would have to rent an HD box which could cost as much as $10 a month.

Consumer advocates say these box rentals will become a new revenue stream for cable companies.