I've talked with a few people I know about CableCard among other things and this is what I've found out so far. Take this as a rumor until otherwise noted. I have been told that CableCard 2.0 will be fully supported by years end or early 2007 depending on various factors. But the cool stuff I've heard will be outlined below.
First all of this would require a new ONT that has the NIM built into it instead of needing the extra box and the reason for this is that for the MOCA to work it needs an ethernet connection to one of the boxes. With the NIM built into the ONT no box would require an ethernet connection to work with MOCA. The reason for this will be quite clear later on in this post.
So once CableCard 2.0 support is added if you have an HDTV set that supports CableCard 2.0 Verizon will provide a card for no or very low cost like a buck. This would allow you access to all SD and HDTV channels including full PPV and VOD services. Now this is the cool part. Because they have tons of bandwidth with the fiber they will be offering for an extra costs (per account cost) NDVR service. NDVR means networkable Digital Video Recorders. In simple terms you can view the guide and schedule any recording and it will be recorded on Verizon servers and you can play it back like any VOD show and you won't have unlimited recording space but it will be enough from what I hear to record over 100 hours of HDTV content or almost 400 hours of SD content. Now this is the cool stuff. This system would allow you to record six live shows at anytime and play them back on any TV you want including all digital boxes and on your CableCard 2.0 TV set without a box. They will still offer a DVR box as they do today but this will be an option for customers that would provide more homewide storage space along with trust that all recordings will be backed up and not lost. The only drawback is if service goes down you can't playback a show but what can I say.
So what we are looking at in the future is a three room house that has three HDTV sets that all have CableCard 2.0 support. With this they can pay 3.00/month total or less for three cablecards and say 7.00/month for example for NDVR service. This would allow all three TVs to use the same program guide, get all TV services including PPV and VOD. Allow all TVs to playback recordings of both SD and HD content and also allows six live shows to be recorded at the sametime. It also provides content backup as well so you will never lose the content until you delete it. Also this isn't VOD as you can schedule any recording you want on any channel at anytime by using your TVs remote control. When you go into the guide using your TV sets remote when you select a show that comes on later you will get a list which you can select using your Enter/Select button to record this show. Your Now Playing List would be a special channel that you would browse like a VOD channel but it will only be your recordings and it can be viewed in all rooms.
Very cool stuff and the only drawback is that anything recorded cannot be played back until the recording is done as its not being recording using one of your tuners because its being recorded at Verizon. You in simple terms are telling Verizon to record this show and they just VOD the show to your TV sets at request. You can pause, rewind and fast forward at anytime during the show as well even past commercials but they won't exactly advertise that but you can do this if you want.
I hope this gives you something to look forward too and as of now I have no ETA on when this will be made available but I do know this will be more of an early 2007 project for CableCard 2.0 but the NDVR could be offered much earlier but it will only work with a digital box. The goal in the future is to have all of this stuff working without the need for a box at all.
First all of this would require a new ONT that has the NIM built into it instead of needing the extra box and the reason for this is that for the MOCA to work it needs an ethernet connection to one of the boxes. With the NIM built into the ONT no box would require an ethernet connection to work with MOCA. The reason for this will be quite clear later on in this post.
So once CableCard 2.0 support is added if you have an HDTV set that supports CableCard 2.0 Verizon will provide a card for no or very low cost like a buck. This would allow you access to all SD and HDTV channels including full PPV and VOD services. Now this is the cool part. Because they have tons of bandwidth with the fiber they will be offering for an extra costs (per account cost) NDVR service. NDVR means networkable Digital Video Recorders. In simple terms you can view the guide and schedule any recording and it will be recorded on Verizon servers and you can play it back like any VOD show and you won't have unlimited recording space but it will be enough from what I hear to record over 100 hours of HDTV content or almost 400 hours of SD content. Now this is the cool stuff. This system would allow you to record six live shows at anytime and play them back on any TV you want including all digital boxes and on your CableCard 2.0 TV set without a box. They will still offer a DVR box as they do today but this will be an option for customers that would provide more homewide storage space along with trust that all recordings will be backed up and not lost. The only drawback is if service goes down you can't playback a show but what can I say.
So what we are looking at in the future is a three room house that has three HDTV sets that all have CableCard 2.0 support. With this they can pay 3.00/month total or less for three cablecards and say 7.00/month for example for NDVR service. This would allow all three TVs to use the same program guide, get all TV services including PPV and VOD. Allow all TVs to playback recordings of both SD and HD content and also allows six live shows to be recorded at the sametime. It also provides content backup as well so you will never lose the content until you delete it. Also this isn't VOD as you can schedule any recording you want on any channel at anytime by using your TVs remote control. When you go into the guide using your TV sets remote when you select a show that comes on later you will get a list which you can select using your Enter/Select button to record this show. Your Now Playing List would be a special channel that you would browse like a VOD channel but it will only be your recordings and it can be viewed in all rooms.
Very cool stuff and the only drawback is that anything recorded cannot be played back until the recording is done as its not being recording using one of your tuners because its being recorded at Verizon. You in simple terms are telling Verizon to record this show and they just VOD the show to your TV sets at request. You can pause, rewind and fast forward at anytime during the show as well even past commercials but they won't exactly advertise that but you can do this if you want.
I hope this gives you something to look forward too and as of now I have no ETA on when this will be made available but I do know this will be more of an early 2007 project for CableCard 2.0 but the NDVR could be offered much earlier but it will only work with a digital box. The goal in the future is to have all of this stuff working without the need for a box at all.
