said by camper:said by DocDrew:but most manufactures stopped after all the problems they had with them.
 
I've oft wondered if those problems were intentionally created to keep the STB rental fees in place....
Most of the problems I saw where on the TV side. Such as badly made CableCARD ports, firmware issues on TVs with no easy way to fix them short of RMA (USB and networking on TVs didn't exist), but the worst problem was the lack of an easy to use guide (TVGOS was best of the worst). 400+ channels with a shitty guide was death. Cable side problems were usually fixed when you got the right person in support.
Then there was VOD and since services like Netflix, Amazon Video, and Hulu weren't around, people wanted VOD which didn't work without a box. Add to that CableCARD wasn't needed since most systems still had large amounts of clear analog and clearQAM TVs were gaining market share as broadcasters started switching to HD.
I think by 2006 customers were apathetic to CableCARD, it had too many problems and wasn't really needed yet, so makers started dropping it as a feature. By the time Tivo release Series 3 in 2006 it was too little too late for general consumer interest. The FCC mandated better cable support in 2007 was way too late.
TV makers could revive it if they wanted too. The wide spread encryption of digital and dropping of analog is creating a new market for it on the infrequently used TV sets or space constrained installs. FCCs announcement of the DOA AllVid pretty much killed it though.