The Clicker: CableCARD and OpenCable

Open cable? CableCARDS? What the heck is going on? Well my interpretation is that is might be seen a possible replacement for digital cable boxes. If this is the case, there are still some features that are lacking from this card that will have to be integrated someplace in order to get people to get excited about this technology.

In theory, it sounds like a good idea: “The networks will be open. OpenCable will free people from the repressive shackles of their cable boxes. We will all live in a cable-box-less utopia.” In reality, OpenCable is closer to the bastard child of greed and fear.

The FCC, playing its long-standing role as “greed,” was (and is) desperate to get its analog band back from the broadcasters. Knowing this only happens once enough consumers are capable of receiving digital signals, the FCC eagerly pushed for TV sets to include digital capabilities. Cable companies, worried that tougher regulations would be the result of this greed, were willing to compromise. Thus the OpenCable system and CableCARD, the hardware that allows a TV or a set-top box to hook up to it, were born. [Read the rest]