Link: Interactive TV: What's In The Cards?.
How do CableCards work?
CableCards slip into a built-in slot on the newer digital TVs as well as on upcoming DVR models from TiVo Inc. (TIVO ) Hewlett-Packard (HPQ ) also has a similiar product in the works. With a CableCard, you can get rid of your cable box and plug your cable directly into your TV or recorder box.
How will CableCards change the way you view television?
Viewers will have more choices both in the way they view programming and the equipment they're able to hook up to their cable systems. Rather than get their on-screen programming guide from their cable company, the guide will come with the TV you buy or the recording device you plug into it. LG Electronics Inc., for instance, just unveiled a big-screen, cable-ready set with its own digital video recorder included. South Korea's Humax Co. also announced that it will soon begin selling a liquid-crystal-display TV with built-in TiVo service. The cable company would then simply provide the pipe that carries the video signal.
Other new devices may soon allow you to bypass the video-on-demand interactive services of the cable-TV companies and order downloads directly from the Internet. TiVo, for example, is about to launch a service allowing subscribers to download movies over the Internet from Netflix, the popular DVD-by-mail service.
Comments