Cable Card?

D

digilink

Gawd
Joined
Jul 27, 2002
Messages
566
I was talking to a co-worker today who uses Charter as his cable provider, and he got an insert in his monthly bill about cable cards. Apparently you can get rid of your set top box and replace it with this card, but you must have a TV that is capable of using it. I thought "hmmm, wonder if some kind of device exists to use on a PC?" Anyone ever heard of this and know of anything that you can use it on a PC with? This would be awesome for a HTPC.
 
Can't see why a standard tuner card couldn't handle something like this.
 
NeBa said:
Can't see why a standard tuner card couldn't handle something like this.
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A standard tuner won't give access to channels that are digital cable only. I assume that this card is going to act as some kind of authentication device, similar to what is in use on Satellite TV system boxes.
 
eldiet said:
standard tuner cards cannot decrypt digital cable.
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Ahh, didn't know thats what he was talking about. I'd like to know more about this magical card too. All the TV's I used to sell at BestBuy don't have card inserts in them.
 
This is one of the new card module concepts that was part of the FCC ruling which stated all cable companies must offer the ability for the digital tuners built into new tvs to decode the premium content with a smart card. I know some of the new Hitachi RPTVs and a few others offer this slot.
 
Do you have any more info on that card? Would be nice to know what they are using to decode the cable signal.

eldiet said:
standard tuner cards cannot decrypt digital cable.
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Thats why you use an IR Blaster with it, anyways from what I've been reading digital cable cards can't decrypt digital cable anyways ;) (tongue in cheek here)
 
CrimandEvil said:
Do you have any more info on that card? Would be nice to know what they are using to decode the cable signal.


Thats why you use an IR Blaster with it, anyways from what I've been reading digital cable cards can't decrypt digital cable anyways ;) (tongue in cheek here)
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Google CableCARD. I really can't believe you guys didn't know about this before now. This has been in the works for some time. All it is is a PCMCIA type II card. AS for making it work in a HTPC, not sure yet.

http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/productdetail.asp?ProductID=361
 
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