Self Install CableCARD Mandatory Nov 1
Well look at how things have evolved. This is great news for consumers who don’t have to waste their time waiting for techs to arrive, insert a card and dial a number (the CableCARD installation process).
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced Tuesday that the effective date for some new tweaks to the existing CableCARD rules is Aug. 8, but operators won’t have to comply with the self-install provision until Nov. 1. And, in case you give a hoot, the new rules give them until Dec. 1, 2012 to include a home networking output on HD set-top boxes.
The language from the FCC
FCC-10-181A1.pdf (you can search FCC.gov to download the full text.
Not sure where the August 8th
Not sure where the August 8th date is coming.
Also of note is the changes in regards to TAs
As JohnW248 was so kind to post, customers are starting to receive the updated Cisco TA firmware that complies with this.
Reading from the FCC order
Reading from the FCC order (p. 43), it also says in there that once a company gets its first CableCard product certified thru CableLabs, subsequent products don’t need to go through the same CableLabs process if they have adequate testing equipment (and odds are good that they do). The initial CableLabs certification is also scaled back in this order.
So basically Ceton, SiliconDust, and Hauppage, having each gotten a CableCard product certified from CableLabs, are now responsible for self-certifying future CableCard tuners. Same goes for TiVo.
Getting a product through CableLabs used to take a long time and be almost prohibitively expensive. Now that it’s going to be faster and cheaper, we can probably expect 1)more competition in CableCard tuners and 2) significantly reduced prices of said tuners.
Look closer at that, there’s
Look closer at that, there’s a little kicker. It refers to the first Television cableCARD device so it appears people who make stand alone navagation devices don’t that that break. But maybe I’m reading it too closely.
johnw248 wrote:Look closer at
[quote=johnw248]
Look closer at that, there’s a little kicker. It refers to the first Television cableCARD device so it appears people who make stand alone navagation devices don’t that that break. But maybe I’m reading it too closely.
[/quote]
Sadly you are not 🙁 it isn’t as simple as it seems
That linked article is
That linked article is wrong. Here is the actual wording from the FCC’s release. Note the November 1st date simply re-iterates what was originally published back in October. It has no effect on the August 1 deadline for compliance when the MVPD already allows self-installs for STBs and cable modems:
The Federal Register published the Order on July 8, 2011 and the notice of OMB’s approval of the information collections on July 25, 2011. The rules adopted in the Order are effective on August 8, 2011, with two exceptions. First, Section 76.640(b)(4)(iii), which requires cable operators to include a
home networking output on high-definition set-top boxes (except for unidirectional, non-recording settop boxes), has an effective date of December 1, 2012. Second, and only with respect to operators that
did not previously offer self install for leased boxes or cable modems and needed time to establish the necessary customer support infrastructure, Section 76.1205(b)(1)’s requirement that cable operators provide the means to allow subscribers to self-install CableCARDs becomes effective on November 1, 2011.
I believe the August 8th date
I believe the August 8th date is due to the late publishing. I think the rules have to start 30 days after the rules are published. Since they didn’t go up till 7/8 this pushed back the 8/1 date to 8/8.