CableCARD

The CableCARD was the outcome of a U.S. federal government objective, directed in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, to provide a robust competitive retail market for set-top boxes so consumers did not have to use proprietary equipment from the cable operators.

A major concern was that cable operators were not motivated to provide efficient security access mechanisms to equipment competitors.

The physical CableCARD is inserted into a slot in the host (typically a digital television set or a set-top box) in order to identify and authorize the customer, and to provide proprietary decoding of the encrypted digital cable signal without the need for a proprietary set-top box.

The card also receives messages sent over the out-of-band signaling channel by the cable company's headend servers and forwards them to the host.

The ability for one-way devices to receive and view switched video has changed with the addition of the Tuning Resolver Interface Specification.

CableCARDs are not necessary for viewing unscrambled digital cable channels if the user has a QAM tuner—a feature in some televisions and DVRs.

This makes the common use of the phrase "CableCARD 2.0" as a requirement for video on demand misleading, since two way services have been provided with the actual cards from the very beginning.

[7] The physical CableCARD inserted into the host device is a PC Card type II that handles decryption of video and ensures that only authorized subscribers may view it.

This is important for products such as Moxi and TiVo CableCARD DVRs, televisions with picture-in-picture and CableCARD-equipped personal computers, which need to record one show while a user is watching another.

Existing integrated cable set-top boxes perform four basic functions: New digital televisions and other devices that are labeled DCR (Digital cable ready) contain: The CableCARD 2.0 specification includes support for #1-4, interactive two-way communications; however it is unknown exactly when CableCARD 2.0 hosts and compatible servers will become available.

They prefer to deal with content owners directly with their standards and regard cable company protocols and formats as a transport only.

CE companies objected that OCAP is unnecessary for the simple task of managing two-way communications on the cable networks.

The consumer electronics industry proposed in November 2006 that the CableCARD 2.0 specification be upgraded to include the provision for modified MCards that would support the communications necessary for VOD, PPV, and Switched Video.

The first test tool to verify compliance of OpenCable hosts with the CableCARD one-way single stream specifications, HPNX, was released by SCM and Digital Keystone in 2003.

[10] The first test tool to verify compliance of the CableCARD devices with the OpenCable specifications, Host Emulator Tool, and produced by Margi Systems, was first utilized by CableLabs to validate the Scientific Atlanta (Cisco) and Motorola POD devices in 2003 (POD was later renamed to CableCard).

There was much resistance from cable operators to the CableCARD rollout across the United States, preferring to support their own set-top boxes.

[16] Outside the United States, CableCARDs were adopted only in South Korea, in pair with Nagravision and VideoGuard conditional access (CA) systems.

[17] U.S. adoptions of CableCARD were mostly paired with Cisco's PowerKEY (originally developed by Scientific Atlanta) and Motorola's (now Arris) MediaCipher CA systems.

[18][19] Unlike CableCARD, AllVid intended to enable two-way services such as electronic program guides, pay-per-view, and video on demand.