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TheBuzz
Erika Engle
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New CableCards not quite sweeping the nation
SET-TOP cable boxes became so-five-minutes ago on Sunday. Or did they?
A technology column at Businessweek.com declared that the nation's cable customers should view July 1 as independence day, the day they gained freedom from having to rent set-top boxes from cable providers.
The latest newest thing is a two-way CableCard that can plug into a TV set to enable cable access.
It succeeds the one-way CableCard, which has been available for a few years.
As of July 1, the two-way card also must be contained in set-top boxes distributed to cable customers and must be available for monthly rental to customers with card-ready TV sets.
The card is required by the Federal Communications Commission to operate separately from other functions of a set-top box in order to keep it interchangeable with other manufacturers' boxes.
To justify the mandate, the FCC used the phone company analogy.
It used to be that anyone who wanted a phone had to rent it from the phone company, said Nate Smith, president of Oceanic Time Warner Cable.
Yep, the basic black, rotary-dial, desktop phone. Remember that?
When consumers were able to buy phones in the marketplace, multiple styles, decorator colors and push-button phones became available.
Welcome the Mallard Duck desktop phone. Mickey Mouse. M&M.
The FCC wanted TVs and their tuners to work with the TV remote, "to integrate those functions into the set -- and only use the CableCard to authorize (cable) service," said Mike Goodish, vice president of engineering for Oceanic.
That would open the marketplace as it did with phones, Smith said.
But the FCC mandate hasn't exactly changed everything overnight. The card won't replace your digital video recorder or TiVO, and you still have to lease the card from Oceanic, though it is cheaper than a box.
The rack rate for a DVR-equipped box is about $9.95 a month versus $2.70 for a card, Smith said.
Older-model one-way card TVs are not compatible with two-way cards. An upgrade could mean a new TV.
The all-things-techie Web site engadget.com ran a story in May about Mitsubishi's 1080p LCD HDTVs including CableCard-compatible models starting at $4,499.
Of the TVs carried by Video Life on Ward Avenue -- primarily Sony brand -- "none of the current models have that (CableCard slot)," said sales associate Ryan Matsumoto.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4747, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at:
eengle@starbulletin.com