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Retail tru2way devices are officially DOA, even Panasonic stops trial
The two way cable standard once incorrectly referred to as CableCARD 2.0 is officially dead as far as consumers are concerned. Tru2way was originally touted as a way to integrate 3rd party HDTVs and set-tops boxes with all the services cable providers have to offer, is now just yet another proprietary cable technology. At one point Sony and most of the big TV manufacturers had promised to released TVs that integrated the feature, but only Panasonic was actually selling them in a few select trial markets. We knew something was up when cable providers missed their July '09 deadline to support 3rd party devices across the country, and then when tru2way integrated TVs were missing in action at CES 2010, we had already declared the idea dead. Now even Panasonic is pulling its Panasonic tru2way sets and is instead focusing on a set-back box (pictured above) that will be, wait for it, supplied and supported by the service provider. We were as optimistic as anyone about tru2way, but honestly thought it was far from the ideal solution. It is hard to say what is going to happen at this point, but the next tech to step up and try to free people from big cable's set-top tyranny is AllVid, and sadly it probably has just as much of a chance as any to be successful.
ADB set-back box squeezes a DVR on SDHC card behind your HDTV
The space and weight requirements to fit a tru2way cable box behind an LCD or plasma HDTV would seem to rule out DVR functions, but ADB showed off a second generation set-back box that does just that. Dubbed Phantom, it can hold an SDHC card with programs either recorded elsewhere, or it can record directly to the card itself. Light Reading mentions there's also MoCA support to stream from standard DVRs, so while it's unlikely you'd have a memory card big enough to hold all the HDTV programs we watch, whether you're old school sneakernetting or going multiroom it can be your hidden HD DVR. The ADB-4820C it designed for Sony HDTVs that we saw at CES 2009 never appeared, but the company said at The Cable Show the Phantom could be available by late this year or early 2011, with potential targets in the hotel industry or direct retail sales.
Hands-on with Panasonic's tru2way set-back box
We searched high and low on the show floor for signs of tru2way and in the back of the Panasonic booth we found the new set-back box we told you about. The box uses the VESA mounting holes so it might make it tough to use with some wall mounts. It wasn't a working demo so we didn't get to see how well the integration was with the TV, but the representative from the company seemed to believe that the box would be designed to only work with Panasonic TVs -- we assume it verifies via HDMI-CEC what type of TV it is connected to. With most cable companies still not ready for retail tru2way devices, and almost no manufactures showing tru2way HDTVs at CES, it seems that 2010 will not be the year for adoption, which leaves next year and by then so much can change who knows if anyone will still care. %Gallery-82747%
