Panasonic Stops Selling Tru2Way TV Sets Latest effort to kill the cable box doing about as well as the last few... Back in January of 2008, the cable industry announced Tru2way, a re-imagining of OCAP technology that was intended to integrate set-top box functionality into TVs and other devices. Users would be able to use these devices with any cable operator, eliminating the need for the set top box. That same year a huge deal was made about Sony joining the consortium and all of this "killing off the cable box," though Panasonic wound up being the only company to offer the new HDTV sets. Fast forward two years later, and Panasonic is has decided to stop selling Tru2Way televisions: "We currently have no tru2way products at retail and there are no announced release dates for Panasonic tru2way retail products at this time," Panasonic said in a statement. However, Panasonic hasn't abandoned tru2way altogether. Jeff Cove, Panasonic's vice president of technology and alliances, said the company has products in the works, including a standalone "set-back" tru2way adapter for TVs, though he declined to provide pricing or availability info. "We decided that the most scalable way to approach tru2way was on the set-back box," he said. So the death of the cable box will require -- a cable box? Tru2Way is still being used by cable operators within their own TV platforms, but companies like TiVO have long complained the technology doesn't work for them due to "costly and strict license agreements."
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  ThrowDemsOutIf you can't convince 'em, confuse 'emPremium
join:2002-03-03
Mullica Hill, NJ
kudos:4 |  Tech chgs too fast for cable box IN A TV
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Are you happy with your rep in Washington, DC? | |
|  | | | Re: Tech chgs too fast for cable box IN A TV said by ThrowDemsOut:Technology continues to morph too quickly to come up with a standard that can be incorporated inside a TV. Panasonic has reached the reality that a separate box is the only way to sell connectivity. A high quality high def monitor is the only way to sell a device that may last 10 years, but where the connectivity and display technologies chg ever couple years. and it give room for a DVR.
makes so the cable software can't brick your tv software. | |
| | | | Tech changes too fast for cable box? huuuh? The last time anything with my comcast cable box has changed was the program guide change a few months ago. Do you consider updates that occur once a decade as too quick? I live in Michigan, nothing about our cable service, box or box software ever changes, never. | |
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 ·Verizon FiOS
| Cablecards... Do you still need a card?
I've tried to get a card through Verizon for my HDTV (has card slot) and is there a magic word/number/queue to reach to actually get a card from Verizon?
I understand they rent them for $2/month. I just don't need a DVR.
Anyone with experience with the card on Fios HDTV? | |
| | Cogdis
join:2007-03-26
Floral Park, NY | Re: Cablecards... said by cableties:Do you still need a card? I've tried to get a card through Verizon for my HDTV (has card slot) and is there a magic word/number/queue to reach to actually get a card from Verizon? I understand they rent them for $2/month. I just don't need a DVR. Anyone with experience with the card on Fios HDTV? I use Verizon's CableCards with my Tivos (and soon with my InfiniTV4 Quad Tuner which when combined with extenders is the REAL multi-room DVR  )
To get a CableCard, follow these steps:
1- Call 888-553-1555 and select add services from the menu.
2- Tell the rep you'd like to order a CableCard.
3- Say no thanks when they try to talk you out of it.
4- After they ask if you'd like it mailed to you or if you want to pick it up from the store, tell them that despite what their system shows neither of these are options. If they try to mail it the order will go *poof* and you'll be wondering why your card never arrived.
5- Tell them that even though you will actually install it yourself, you need a truck-roll to deliver the card to you.
They've been charging me $3.99/mo each since I got them but in their latest "semi-annual customer notification thingy" it shows that cable cards are going to cost $4.99/mo. I don't know if it was a misprint or not... | |
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 DaveDudeNo Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey
kudos:1 | Allvid is the answer I think anything that takes control away from cable is a good idea. Have all cables cos use allvid, then its just a matter reprograming boxes and dlna tvs. Cable has demonstrated they cant handle making a standard. | |
| | | | Re: Allvid is the answer The cable companies will kill any product that threatens to replace their cable boxes. They'll just draw out the process so long that the product will become obsolete before it has a chance to enter the market place. It's worked well for them in the past.
Consumers would love options to the cable box. It's the cable companies that kill such products. I think they should just make a deal with Tivo and Moxi and dump their existing product line and rent receivers that people actually like. | |
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1 edit | Re: Allvid is the answer The only hope is for the FCC to follow Tivo's suggestion that the FCC mandate open standards access through proven technologies that exist today. Tivo's proposal was the use of open internet video standards that would make external access a breeze. If the FCC issues a mandate that matches Tivo's request the set-top box requirement is dead.
Thank god for Tivo as without them the proposal would have never been made. This proposal is the only hope of ever having independent DVR's, homebrew DVR's and frankly ending the need for company provided hardware. Tivo's proposal would actually make it possible to build a MythTV box that has direct access to everything without having to interface through a set-top box.
I pray that the FCC kills Cablecard and tru-2way and enacts the rules Tivo proposed. I also hope they apply the same requirements to Satellite. | |
| | | | markofmayhemI can haz competition?Premium
join:2004-04-08
Pittsburgh, PA
kudos:4 | Re: Allvid is the answer I belive you are referring to this FCC docket:
»www.scribd.com/doc/24455769/Tivo···and-Plan
Note the nice pictorial diagram at the end. TiVo's request, along with others, fueled the current "AllVid" device. This is not open standards internet video from the TiVo. It is another device in the home for which the TiVo can connect to, requireing two devices within the home total for the TiVo to access MPVD service. AllVid does not allow TiVo to access cable, instead, it is a "MODEM" design that the TiVo connects to. In the future, this would most likely be a fine solution, but caution must be given that this will cost us more during inception. We will have to rent this "MODEM" from our MPVD's and then buy our devices as well. Over time, prices will settle and it should be a cheaper (adjusted for inflation) solution than today, for all involved, including the cost of the MPVD's to deliver you content. But take head: the initial cost will be substantial and DRM will exist from source to display. Any device not capable of supporting this DRM will display nothing. This model should exist for ALL television outside of over-the-air. The FCC-Satellite, FCC-Fios, and FCC-Uverse discrimination must end for this to succeed as a consumer benefit. Everyone should be forced to the "MODEM" model with DLNA interface connectivity. An ethernet port will physically deliver the data and anything capable of running an application through firmware upgrades or installed on a "drive" can become DLNA capable, as long as the display output has a content protection enabled system. So your Wii can not become DLNA capable, while a PS3 can as long as all non-HDMI ports are deactivated.
Tru2Way hardware, direct to retail, was a pipe dream. Tru2Way will survive where it's roots started: open cable. A simple premise to offer interactive television, where a broadcaster can connect direct to an in-home device. AllVid will further Tru2Way in this regard, for the protocol between home device and closed network will not need to be known and easily translated between devices and networks. The hardware Tru2Way was dead before it was named.
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I can haz competition? | |
| | | | | Sammer
join:2005-12-22
Canonsburg, PA | Re: Allvid is the answer What is needed is for the FCC to actually enforce the law that has been on the books since 1996 rather than accepting any more excuses from the cable TV companies. Take away digital cable encryption for all but premium channels such as HBO until a significant third party retail market exists and watch how fast Cable Labs comes up with or accepts a solution that adheres to the law and ends the present anti-consumer digital cable box situation. | |
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Sahrin
join:2004-05-15
Houston, TX | Unfortunate, Unsurprising This obviously sucks for consumers, but is largely unsurprising. The best solution to this is for TV makers to put a virtual HTPC (thinner than current solutions, obviously, but thick enough to handle HD decode and media browsing/streaming) in every TV - along with a commodity OS (don't really care which - iOS, Android, WinCE, WinNT) plugins are offered (again, either on commodity platforms like Flash, HTML5, Silverlight or on exclusive-proprietary ones) for download for customers. The networks could obviously offer a commodity application for free (if they so chose), Comcast could offer one for their customers who would transition from "cable" to "IPTV" customers over generic broadband (could be Comcast, could be someone else). They would offer a rebate to customers who use their broadband (or maybe a surcharge? Who knows with those guys)?
I don't understand what the downside is for Comcast here. The networks already allow streaming of their content - does Comcast really get that much extra security (and copyright deniability) by putting an extra $300 box in every home? I want to say it's just engineering inertia. | |
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