Time Warner Cable - Legacy → Re: Thoughts on this Updated Cloud DVR Time Warner Cable is Deploying?

Can we all agree that if the Comcast deal goes through, TWC Navigator is dead. I think most see this as a good thing. Xfinity is Comcast's new cloud-based guide, which is available in selected markets. They also use Motorolla and SA boxes. Xfinity's guide has some bugs. Does Comcast use Passport or i-Guide on its other boxes?

Satch

nope there will be split in the code likely as the older SA boxes will have to stay MDN and the ODN boxes will likely get X1 and Bright House will keep MDN and ODN meaning that MDN is going to be split into two code bases one for Comcast and one for Bright House. I just can't see Comcast deploying iGuide on the SA boxes it is too much of a hassle not to mention the pioneer and and pace ancient boxes don't support it.

Yes Comcast still has iGuide on a large percentage of boxes. Anything DCT or DCH based has iGuide.
»customer.comcast.com/hel ··· manuals/

X1 (X2 is in testing) are the new tru2way guides with some cloud features, it's a direct swap for Navigator on the tru2way capable boxes:
»www.comcast.com/x1

here is another angle Motorola originally mentioned the DCH series boxes as being capable of being OCAP which may still be true:
»www.motorolasolutions.co ··· ibItem=1

so Comcast could somehow figure a way out to retrofit those boxes with a cloud based box by enabling the DOCSIS 2.0 modem in them and move most of the features off of the box hey would work but it would definitely be slower than a DCX3510M at 640MB RAM versus 128MB on a DCH box.

Comcast wouldn't run x1 on the DCH just like TWC won't run navigator on them. Both just use iguide on them

yeah I know but it could technically be possible to run a cloud based guide on any box with a DOCSIS 2.0 modem built in. I know it would take a lot but it would require a lot of the features moved to the servers at the headend to accomplish it.

DrDrew do you think SDV will stick around? I am hoping so that we can keep all of the HD channels we have instead losing a lot. I hope we don't lose premium HD channels :/

Tecnically if a box has a DOCSIS modem built in, I don't see why not. However the DCH and earlier do not support HD graphics generation. So it would be either 4:3 SD GUI or stretched (depending on what the firmware and hardware would allow them to do). The only way to go HD GUI is to open a dedicated HD stream over QAM straight to the box. Then your putting the tuners in the headend and all the graphics overlay processing on top of that centrally. Then each active STB in the node would be tuned to an HD QAM feed specifically for it. That is definitely SDV at that point, plus you need some small node sizes because in some houses there are 4 or more active STB's. Some are not even being watched but many people don't turn them off. DVR's would also be "in the cloud". The number of simultaneous recordings per home would simply be a matter of how many tuner banks they have in the headend and a software setting per account. They want to offer 6 tuners, or 10 tuners, or 20 tuners... if they have the resources they could. All remote control commands would have to pass upstream to the servers. Could be laggy if not implemented right or if your return path is the slightest bit noisy.

You would eliminate all broadcast and conventional sdv/vod qams and instead the plant from Ch 7-135 would just be banks and banks and banks of HD 3:1 QAM's and DOCSIS 3.0. Each STB assigned a feed. Ch 2-6 would be unused for future return path expansion. There would be a few channels throughout 7-135 that may be excluded as well for Amplifier AGC control, ingress issues, FCC Flyover testing and balancing carriers.

You have no idea if that is what will happen or not. You shouldn't talk in such certainty. Comcast has already said they plan to standardize on X1, why wouldn't they? What happens to the TWC project and BHN has been argued in the BHN forum between me and you but it's obvious that it will be going away in the long term on TWC.