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PaulGo
join:2005-01-29
Gaithersburg, MD

PaulGo to PGHammer

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Re: [DTA] Motorola's High Definition Digital Transport Adapter

Montgomery County, MD Cable Commission and many other Cable commissions through the country are petitioning the FCC as a requirement of letting Comcast scramble all channel to provide some free HD DTAs. Montgomery County is asking for four per household. If you want to read the comments on this issue go to the link below also if you choose you can click at the link at the top of that FCC page and submit a filing (it's fairly easy!).

»fjallfoss.fcc.gov/ecfs/p ··· e=11-169
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678

Member

IF they try that in Chicago land some people may switch over to WOW that has locals + the old analog line up in clear qam.

andyross
MVM
join:2003-05-04
Aurora, IL

andyross

MVM

But once Comcast does it, WOW will probably quickly follow. As it is, the city itself has already dropped analogs, although I don't think basic digital is encrypted yet.

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Broadcom announced a new HD-DTA system-on-a-chip (SoC) today, the BCM7574:

Broadcom Chips In For Power-Saving HD DTAs, Web Gateways
Claims Next-Gen Products Can Cut Energy Usage Up to 65% Over Typical Day
Multichannel News - March 12, 2012
»www.multichannel.com/art ··· ways.php

"Broadcom is touting its next-generation chips for Internet-enabled cable gateways and HD digital terminal adapters as not only being chock-full of new features -- but also greener than ever.

The chip maker claims its two new system-on-chip solutions, one for gateways and the other for HD DTAs, can reduce energy consumption up to 65% over a 24-hour period. That's thanks to power-management features that put the devices into "stand-by" mode when they're not being actively used.

To date, operators including Comcast have deployed 40 million DTAs with Broadcom chips throughout North America. The relatively low-cost devices are designed to let MSOs eliminate analog TV signals, by converting digital signals to analog outputs.

Broadcom's fifth-generation DTA chip, 40-nanometer EZ-HD DTA system-on-chip, provides twice the performance of the company's previous 65-nm DTA SoC, said Brett Tischler, senior marketing manager for cable set-top boxes at Broadcom.

The BCM7574 chip has more graphics-processing power to be able to render full-featured interactive guides on DTAs, which typically have been limited to displaying the channel number on the screen. The new chip also can enable connectivity for DLNA applications, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission, which has restricted the kinds of features it allows in DTAs under its integrated-encryption ban.

"It lets operators deploy more advanced user interfaces and more advanced application frameworks to offer more compelling visual experience," Tischler said.

The chip's power-management features are based on a dedicated component that monitors when it can shut down system features.

At full power, an HD DTA will consume under 5 watts, but in standby mode DTAs with the BCM7574 will use less than 100 milliwatts. The new platform supports the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed Energy Star 4.0 requirements, according to Broadcom.

An estimated 45 million analog TVs in North America were still in use among cable TV customers at the end of 2011, according to In-Stat Research. "There is still a very large footprint of devices that need to be converted to HD," Tischler said.

As with its previous DTA chips, the BCM7574 is a universal DTA with integrated security for both Cisco Systems and Motorola headend networks. The chip also provides audio-leveling features designed to help operators comply with the Commercial Advertisement Level Mitigation (CALM) Act, which mandates constant volume across commercials, programs and channels."

Broadcom's Press Release:
Broadcom Announces 40nm EZ-HD Digital Transport Adapter Solution
»www.broadcom.com/press/r ··· =s656482

The Light Reading Cable site also has their analysis of Broadcom's new chips:

Broadcom Helps Cable Operators Go OTT
Light Reading Cable - March 12, 2012
»www.lightreading.com/doc ··· r_cable&
telcodad

telcodad to PaulGo

MVM

to PaulGo
On the Comcast Help and Support Forums site, there is a thread on when Comcast might be releasing the HD-DTAs:

Comcast giving out Motorola HD-DTA100u's? & Xfinity Spectrum quad-tuner HD dvr's?
»forums.comcast.com/t5/Xf ··· /1239959

One of the "Most Valued Poster"s on there says:

"My understanding (Comcast doesn't say anything!), is that the uDTA boxes will become available when Comcast starts encrypting the Basic (local) channels. I guess that also assumes that the FCC allows them to encrypt said local channels."
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

Our Comcast insider, "J Jefferson3," on another thread (»All Digital Now?) in this forum, just provided this update on what's the latest status of the HD-DTA roll-out:

[I made a few additions to his words in spots for clarity - I hope that is OK with him.]

"Comcast was promised that the FCC would have a decision by now, if the Limited Basic [channels] would be encrypted by now and that decision determines the difference in the security settings for each individual DTA for every individual region, and we need to know what the rules are so that when we are all-digital, which DTA's are set for [Digital] Starter [tier] and which ones are [set] for [just] Limited, so that people who should NOT be getting starter channels [won't get them] at the Limited price!!

That is why the engineers and supervisors want to do things only once and get it over with. It is because of this understanding that Comcast will only wait for so long, and then request [from the FCC] a blanket overall waiver [of its encryption rule], so that we can continue even if the FCC chickens out for the other cable systems and to make Boxee stop complaining!! Even in the worse case solution, with the under the table deal with the approval of the HD DTAs, we will probably have to get the HD DTAs out first with the waiver for that market, but not full in effect until 3 months after wide distribution, but even that is ok at least for me personally, but I think corporate would be a little pissed off though!!!

This decision only affects [the] Freedom Region because they were to be the first markets for the HD-DTAs, this does not affect me right now because the Central PA zone was not getting the HD-DTA's approval YET for this zone anyway, but are still be tested here, so that when they are deployed, it is my responsibility so see that they work!!! In fact, I/we [have] been making systems in My NEW zone all digital usually one system per week, did 3 already back-to-back-to-back with 3 more in 3 straight weeks, while locking in the May schedule, so I will continue not being here much!! Sorry but that how the Job goes!!!"
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678 to andyross

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to andyross
WOW planed to encrypted but they backed down and they post the QAM charts as well.