Official AVS 'tru2way' topic

We all are...
But I'd have to disagree in regard to the "saving money" aspect.

Purchasing a "cable box/DVR" as opposed to renting is not all that and a bag o' chips. Consider your initial expenditure to purchase (~ $500-$1000), vs. the warranty and a 'rental' of the CableCards.

By renting, the service/warranty alone provides the better option (over time) in the long run.

And then you'll have to wait for the new CC 2.0 capable Tivo also.

I am looking forward to Tru2way-capable DVRs. Hopefully customer-owned DVRs will become available at retail so users will have an alternative to renting from the cable company. Here are some potential upcoming manufacturers/products:


Panasonic:
Panasonic has real product info already! Check out the photo of the back in the brochure. It has a great complement of ports.
http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...del=TZ-PCH2180

This thread discusses the above box, dating back to 2006 surprisingly. Unfortunately it says it will be produced for Comcast, so it may not be available as customer-owned.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=640348

Tivo:
Tivo has a Tru2way license, but no specific product announcements yet.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6506184.html

http://www.gizmolovers.com/2008/08/2...ked-and-ready/

Echostar:
"EchoStar will also leverage the features of the 922 by announcing this spring a tru2way SlingLoaded STB for trials for the cable industry."
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...re/0464494.htm

This thread discusses the DTVPal DVR, which is an OTA DVR. Maybe they will add Tru2Way support in a future version?
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972197

Digio:
They haven't announced any Tru2way products yet, but they say they are working on Tru2way support for future products. Their Moxi CableCard DVR box is now available at Amazon.
http://www.twice.com/article/CA65961...dustryid=23099

Funai:
They were rumored to be announcing a Tru2Way DVR product at CES 2009.
http://www.lightreading.com/document...69375&site=cdn

Not much to discuss here. The Panny has been MIA since announced and no one else has a product to talk about. Hopefully that will change if the CE industry (other than Tivo) wants to sell a HD DVR to consumers.

I'm glad to see this thread, but doesn't appear as if tru2way is just around the corner in any form. It is September with new models due and I was expecting to see a lot of information and advertising of new sets. I'm still waiting before buying my livingroom set. I have one with good old one way cablecard and another set with just local broadcast stations over cable QAM channels. The livingroom set will be our primary set and I want tru2way.

Samsung has the SMT-H3090 HD-DVR. So they are in the tru2way DVR business. Time Warner is starting to deploy it in NYC. Other divisions will follow next year.

No, it is currently available in some markets

http://www2.panasonic.com/webapp/wcs...52008035707436

These are TVs, not DVRs.

I personally have seen Panasonic 42" plasmas and Samsung 32" true2way ready sets.

Did they have PIP or picture beside picture? I can't find anything that says the Panny does.

No.

we can set our dvr by computers or cell phones with comcast??

tru2way devices will be available in STB form and integrated into HDTV's.

Since October, in the Denver & Chicago TV markets, Comcast is supporting tru2way and Panasonic (thru retailers) is selling tru2way HDTV's.

I've heard zero feedback so far, from either market.

Is tru2way going to only work with cable, or will FIOS also offer it?

Ed

From engadgetHD

Verizon FiOS has decided not to support tru2way. They do support standard CableCARD.

Again, from engadgetHD:

But isn't this a problem since standard CableCard products are disapearing? Or will tru2way products be backward compatible with standard Cable Cards?

Ed

Er, you'll still need CableCARDs with your fancy new tru2way TV. DCAS is not available yet in any form that's production-ready. At some point in the future, the cable industry does want to shift to DCAS - but don't confuse the two. tru2way != DCAS.

I don't know what DCAS is?

But my question still stands. Will a tru2way TV with the cablecard that it uses work with FIOS?

Ed

According to Verizon CSR technical support (a supervisor), yes, tru2way devices with one of their CableCARD's will function as if it were a standard CableCARD device. Although I can't say with 100% certainty, I believe this is true.

In general, CableCARD's themselves are the same for either use, meaning tru2way will use the same CableCARD's as a standard CableCARD device.

The 'magic' of tru2way is in the tru2way device itself (HDTV, STB), not the CableCARD.

Some interesting news from Echostar, buried in the press release about the 922 DVR for Dish:

"EchoStar will also leverage the features of the 922 by announcing this spring a tru2way SlingLoaded STB for trials for the cable industry."

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...re/0464494.htm

So did Funai make the announcement at CES? I haven't heard anything about it.

Also, is Funai and Tivo the only two companies out there with plans for Tru2Way DVRs that are sold directly to the consumer?

Topics merged, one from HDTV Recorders, one from HDTV Technical.

Hmm, I disagree with this merge. The thread from the recorders forum was intended to discuss recorders only, so it was in the right place. Oh well, too late now I suppose, but next time maybe consider the context more carefully. Thanks.

I did, and my considered opinion is that at this early stage of tru2way, a single consolidated topic serves the forum best.

There's a guy on AVS who claimed to the be the first (though unofficial) person in Chicago to get the tru2way panny tv setup with comcast. I'm too lazy to search but I think his topic is under plasma tv.

Seeing that DCAS is dead for the time being, I think consumers should be demanding the next best thing: the ability to purchase cablecards. This way you still get the ability to have a truly cable ready tv (in the analog sense - where you just plug your tv into any cable outlet) without having to rent anything from the cable companies. TV manufacturers or your big box store may even throw them in for free with the purchase of an hdtv. Will cable companies still try to charge a per outlet fee? Perhaps, but their ability to do that was taken from them about 15 years ago in regards to analog cable and there's reason to believe they won't be allowed to with digital cable at some point either.

There's a problem with that. You can't just take any CableCARD and have it work with any cable network. The card has to be registered with the cable operator's network. You can't use a Motorola card (uses the MediaCipher II cryptosystem) on an SA network (use the PowerKEY cryptosystem). Are you going to expect them to provide the keys on CD to end customers? How is that information going to wend its way to the cable provider, then? Or are you suggesting the entire system needs retooling?

You're taking an awfully simplistic view of a complicated problem.