The newest offering from TiVo, the HD DVR, might suffer from a problem when your cable provider uses Switched Digital Video (SDV).
This blog post on Lauren Weinstein’s blog signals a problem that might prevent the new HD TiVo’s, that are using CableCARDs to receive the channels, from receiving all channels when your cable provider is using SDV.
As it happens, two days after that blog post, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) made a filing with the FCC according to Lauren’s follow-up post. However, this solution (the OpenCable option) doesn’t sit well with the Consumer Electronics Association, who find the solution unduly expensive and cumbersome to develop.
Until a final solution is developed, the users of the Tivo HD DVR might have to resort to the old method of infrared switching of their cable boxes, instead of relying on the CableCARD technology…
Related posts:
Unfortunately, the Tivo HD does not include any serial or IR switching capabilities. It depends on the CableCARD for cable access.
–Lauren–
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
– People For Internet Responsibility – http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum – http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren’s Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
That’s a shame. I thought that since the HD TiVo had three different inputs (CableCARD, cable and antenna) they would still allow you to control the cable box. But looking at the specifications, I now see that it is only analog cable, so I assume it’s controlled by internal channel switching.
Thanks for pointing this out, Lauren!