TuningAdapters
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A war of good and bad is raging before the FCC over CableCARD rules
A war has been raging in front of the FCC these past few weeks with judgment day coming later this year. The FCC wants to move beyond CableCARDs but wants to make the best of it for all those consumer who have already bought into the technology by making some changes to the rules in the interim. The battle isn't as fun or exciting as Jacob vs The Man in Black, but all the companies we love and hate are involved. Reading through the comments makes it very easy to see which companies consider us their customers and which know we have little choice but to buy their service. Basically TiVo and the rest of the consumer electronics industry supports the new changes while the NCTA, its members and suppliers think it is unnecessary because things are just fine the way they are. The biggest item of dispute is if Tuning Adapters are working or if a new solution is needed. On one hand the NCTA says they work just fine and on the other TiVo, the CEA and many individual commenters, say they don't and that a IP back channel would be more reliable, cheaper and easier to support. The only problem the NCTA does see with the current rules is that CableCARD host devices cost too much so the FCC should let them deploy cheaper boxes with integrated security -- we say let 'em do it, just as long as CableLabs starts certifying two-way 3rd party devices too. At this point the comment phase of the process is complete and we all have to wait for the FCC to announce when it'll vote one way or another -- although we expect the vote to happen this Summer if the FCC still intends to implement the changes this Fall. If you want to know who was saying what, click through for our interpretation of the comments.
