Time Warner Cable looks to bring internet content to TVs
By Darren Murph 
posted May 30th 2008 3:59PM
posted May 30th 2008 3:59PM
Shortly after hearing TiVo's top dog speak of a "whole home model" to reduce the amount of STBs required for entertaining individuals in various rooms, along comes Time Warner Cable's chief executive talking up some innovation of its own. We'll be frank -- we're not entirely sure what Glenn Britt is getting at here, but through a broken series of quotes, we're led to believe that the carrier is prepping some "equipment" that will easily bring internet content to TVs. Not like there isn't a perfect solution for this quandary already, but we digress. Specifically, he mentions a " new wireless cable modem that will allow you to network everything in your house," which is about as broad / vague as you can get. Nevertheless, it's enough to keep us watchin', though we can't say our expectations are extraordinarily high. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family][Via eHomeUpgrade]
I'm taking a wild stab at this and am going to say Mr. Britt doesn't actually know anything about the tech that will be working this magic, but I can conjecture on what's going on...
First up, IPTV - TWC has dabbled in this before (http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?site=cdn&doc_id=135542). It's as simple as telling the customer where to go to get the IPTV, and voila. Not much magic there. Maybe we'll get a docsis 3.0 rollout? lol! Just kidding. ;D
Second, there are new monster boxes "coming out" that do EVERYTHING. It's ugly. (http://broadband.motorola.com/mso/product_information/dct6000.html) They pull cable box duties in addition to having a built-in cable modem & ethernet port. Add in multi-room DVR (mr-dvr) support, and you've basically got a gateway box that can share media with other cable boxes in the residence, along with providing Internet service. It's not a stretch of the imagination to see a wireless router built in to one of these monstrosities.
Either way, I wouldn't expect either one of these to be pushed to customers any time soon. Apparently IPTV wasn't a hit in the test markets, and an SA mr-dvr with a dvd burner was introduced at CES 2006...wonderful how we've got mr-dvr's available in all markets now, right....?
i've got one question. why does engadget provide the disclaimer. just curious.
Yeah, your right... Why does it matter anymore Engadget.. You may be part of the Time Warner family.. But TWC is not.. Come-on get with the times.. :)
Glenn Britt has an uncanny resemblance to Steven Colbert.
Maybe he should be focusing on fixing the completely crappy Navigator software they forced on us!
I could list 27 MAJOR bugs with it that were not a problem with the old Passport software, but I'll save you that horror.
Except for one. What good is a DVR if it can't keep your "Do Not Delete" items?
AMEN!
Let's fix what's broken and then improve upon the rest! I can't believe how they messed up something that was good the way it was.
He should try Microsoft's IPTV technology. I've personally used it on AT&T's U-Verse, and think it's wonderful. The next thing in digital TV.
The future of tech support...
To reboot TV, hold down Play, Stop, Rewind, and Press the Power Button for 15 seconds.
Seriously though, its bad enough to fix spyware/viruses on computers, has this been thought out?
TWC, you're doing it wrong. Backwards in fact!
Nobody that I know watches TV anymore. We watch shows streamed off private servers, accessible via the web.
We download movies, we watch them streaming live.
It's sad to think these are the people who are making decisions regarding our entertainment options.
Ethernet over coax?
in other news, TWC is in the top 10 in another category:
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SmartSpending/ConsumerActionGuide/HowCompaniesWereRanked.aspx