In the latest episode of as the cable industry turns, the rumors that CableLabs would rename OpenCable to tru2Way are indeed true. For those keeping track at home, once upon a time the world dreamed of ditching their cable box, but wanted to continue to take advantage of all the services their cable co' forced them to pay for. Then after an act of congress and ten years time; along came CableCARD, but left out VOD and PPV, so we all waited with baited breath for CableCARD 2.0 -- but it never came. But hope wasn't lost, as CableLabs released OCAP, which was marketed as OpenCable, but there was still no love from the industry. So what is CableLabs to do? It does the same thing anyone does when in this predicament; give it a new name. Whether a new name is what's needed to gets things moving remains to be seen, we're at the largest consumer electronics show in the US this week and although we've yet to see any tru2way enabled HDTVs or DVRs just yet, we'll keep you posted.

Doth our eyes deceive us? Have we finally happened upon a real life computer with real life CableCARD after all these years? It looks like PC Mag's finally got that early review up of the Dell XPS 410 with ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner (and Blu-ray, to boot!), which we've come to find out is, unfortunately, still just a working prototype (read: not hitting the market just yet). That didn't stop them and their dual CableCARD tuners from jacking into some serious HD cable though. Interesting notes:

• Dell claims that the sales rep who takes the order for your CableCARD-equipped Dell box will also schedule an appointment with your local cable company to have the CableCARDs delivered and installed the same day your system comes. (Really? We're skeptical.)
• The initial CableCARD install apparently took three friggin hours to drop in, provision, and get running; one of the two tuners continually didn't work for PC Mag, which caused lingering issues. Both the cable company and Dell eventually had to reflash the tuner and CableCARDs.
• HD (and some SD) video had problems: "stuttering and video artifact issues". Bummer.
  
• Dell said "the company went with Blu-ray instead of HD-DVD [sic] simply because BD-RE is a writable drive now" -- does that mean when writable HD DVD drives are more commonplace Dell will offer both?
• Streaming live and recorded TV to your Xbox 360 works flawlessly, as expected.
• Blu-ray playback worked well with 3rd party apps, but like HD DVD, it can't yet be done in Media Center (yay DRM)
• The system hit some performance limits when playing back Blu-ray flicks and streaming or recording media. More power!
• We don't agree with PC Mag's assessment that "TV on Vista's MCE interface is still a niche product". Perhaps because many millions of Media Center PCs have been shipped -- but let's not split hairs.

There, are you as stoked as we are for this? Problems and crappy CableLABS DRM and CableCARD issues and all?

Cable industry consortium CableLabs has announced that they've drafted version 3.0 of their Data-Over-Cable Service Interface Specifications, otherwise known to those in the know as DOCSIS. The news sure to grab the most attention out of the specs is that they'll let cable operators offer speeds as high as 160Mbps downstream and 120Mbps upstream, which would open up more possibilities for HD channels and Video on Demand. The specs also incorporate Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), further opening the door for cable providers to offer more IP-based services. As our peeps at HD Beat point out, however, the hardware changes required to meet the specs are pretty significant, making it unlikely that we'll see a complete roll-out before 2008 at the earliest.

[Via HD Beat]

It's not really clear why the old CableCARD hasn't taken off as expected -- consumers blame their cable providers, who blame the card manufacturers, who blame device makers -- but nonetheless, the technology is far from dead, and now it looks like those long-awaited multi-stream CARDS could be available before the end of the year. CableLabs recently announced that Motorola's "M-Card" has joined Scientific Atlanta's offering in finally earning the organization's coveted "qualified" status, paving the way for such great functionality as picture-in-picture on compatible TVs and multi-channel recording for properly-equipped DVRs. Although the M-Card does improve upon current-gen CableCARDs by delivering access to more than one channel at a time, it is still classified as a version 1.0 device, and therefore won't allow the bi-directional communication necessary for on-demand or pay-per-view goodness. Still, this development is good news for consumers, as it should lead to increased demand for the cards, which will hopefully serve as a kick in the pants for the weak link in the CableCARD chain, whoever it is.

[Via HDBeat]

So it looks like TiVo is finally getting ready to roll out the long-awaited Series 3 DVR Digital Media Recorder, and just in the nick of time, it would seem; from what we can tell, consumers are chomping at the bit to start capturing the growing variety of high definition broadcasts available to them, making HTPCs a more attractive alternative as the days, weeks, and months pass with no HD TiVo. Zatz Not Funny is reporting that the DVR giant recently sent letters to both the FCC and major cable operators stating that Series 3 boxes are already being beta tested around the country and will be available "soon," though no actual release date is given. According to the letters, the CableLabs-certified device will sport two separate UDCP CableCARD slots, and TiVo is concerned about reports that certain cable installers have been refusing to provide beta testers with the necessary support -- no big surprise, as the industry has never shown much love for CableCARDs in the first place. Now, of course, we all want to know how TiVo defines the word "soon" -- previous speculation has centered around a September or early October release -- but we've been covering this beat long enough to know that hazarding a guess is pretty much useless, and that we won't find out any more info until the company is good and ready to reveal its launch plans. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Zatz Not Funny]

TiVo's HD-ready Series 3 box just got one step closer to being real now that it's been certified by Cable Labs. Sure, the cert may not mean as much as that golden FCC blessing, but it allows the box to be sold as compliant with various cable standards, including CableCARD. Meanwhile, the dual-tuner, 180-hour TCD649180 and 80-hour TCD64908 Series 2 boxes appear to have vanished, after initially appearing for pre-order on Amazon. We'll leave the rationale behind that to the conspiracy-minded among you. We're gonna keep waiting for Series 3, and hope that the dual-tuner, big-drive model stays in place for those units.