Sony partners with cable providers on built-in set top box
The electronics maker said Tuesday that it will work with six major cable operators to include digital cable technology in its next-generation television sets. With the new sets, consumers will no longer be required to use a set-top box in order to receive advanced services. Sony has penned an agreement with Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, Charter, Cablevision, and Bright House Networks, which collectively provide service to about 82 percent of cable-receiving households. The agreement is essentially a memorandum of understanding on how channel guide and digital program delivery technology will be rolled out to the consumer. The technology used is called tru2way (formerly known as OpenCable or OCAP), which first rolled out at CES in January. At the time, Sony was not listed among the partners, although Panasonic and LG showed off television models based on the technology.
Peripherally, the technology is related to CableCARD, and the company behind tru2way — CableLabs — is behind both. The difference here is that CableCARD is a removable unit for retail devices, whereas tru2way is the middleware that provides for the control of functionality. The technology eliminates the need for an additional converter or receiver box, simplifying the cable installation process and allowing for the use of advanced features such as on-demand, DVR functions, and program guides. Sony’s move could very well solidify tru2way as the standard for non-set top deployments. While CableCARD was intended to do the same thing, it did not garner enough support from the industry to make it viable. Too bad it’s impossible to do something like this for Europe as well…
Source: Betanews
Comments(13)
Europe
(
10x for the info
At least have a pic of a SONY TV !!!
@3
as this has just happened sony won’t have any
bobo, since when does sony sell panasonic tv’s ?
Impossible to do in Europe? WTH?
All of Europe (and most of the rest of the world) has the same single standard for all of digital terrestrial, cable and sattelite TV. It’s corporatist America that is out of pace with their weird proprietary standards like cablecard.
My Sony TV supports all of DVB-S, DVB-T and DVB-S out of the box, the decryption has a standard slot called a common interface. You get a CAM card that looks exactly like a pcmcia card from your provider, and you’re in business. Hell I even have a DVB-C card in my PC.
It’d be nice if the editors got a clue before making fools of themselves.. again.
Where is the download link!?
What is this, why would we care. I download everythong so i don’t have to pay stupid overpriced corporate subscribtions!
Except to my internet provider, god bless them.
I like boobies.
Panasonic TVs are better than any crap Sony puts out. Sony makes one thing that isn’t overpriced crap: Consoles.
I don’t know why people have the stigma that Sony makes good stuff “oooo… sony!” when it should be “eeeeeew… sony!”
All large screen TVs in Europe are to be required to carry a CAM slot from later this year. The CAM slot allows a consumer to simply insert a suitable CAM card (looks very much like PCMCIA card) to receive the services they want, be it digital cable, satellite or Freeview type services. It is up to the broadcaster and satellite/cable companies if they bother to support it and produce suitable cards though and most dont, especially in the UK. Sky currently has the monopoly on D-SAT in the UK so has no plans to produce a cam, that way they can sell us the set top boxes too (which they also manufacture having bought Amstrad) as well as the normal subscription charges. Virgin, the biggest cable company, also makes money on the rental of each set top box (as well as subscription charges) so arent going to allow us to pay a one off fee for the cam. The only good thing is that the newly launched free digital satellite service will allow customers to simply purchase a cam if their TV has a slot.
CAM cards are available from many European satellite companies though, just not so much in the UK where the big satellite and cable companies want the extra revenue.
Wow! Great idea! Let’s build DRM right into the TV sets so that it can’t be bypassed. Come one, you know that these companies and especially Rootkit Sony aren’t going to add something like this to TVs without including strict DRM that can turn off the TV image at the first sign of a broadcast flag. And since it will be in the TV, there’ll be no way to circumvent it.
It’s Hollywood’s wet dream.
wow