Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Multi-stream CableCARDs are expected to be available this January. This is a small step towards a viable HDTV media center. Hopefully this is a sign that the Cable industry is warming towards the use of CableCARDs. Multi-stream CableCards will allow users to receive and decode two digital television signals simultaneously, in other words, they allow the consumer to record one television show while watching another using only one CableCARD.

The lure of using a CableCard is HDTV from your local cable company fed right into your media center. No cable boxes needed, no IR blaster, and no lag when changing channels. Digital cable has not been available to MCE owners. Today’s tuners are not able to decode the encryption pumped out by the cable companies. CableCARD rectifies those issues. Lack of cable and satellite HDTV support is the biggest flaw in Windows MCE 2005. Hopefully, Vista will change that as CableCARD support is the major feature upgrade offered in the next version of Media Center. Multi-stream CableCARDs are a big deal because they simplify the overall purchasing process. One card will be needed by the consumer.

From CableLabs press release on multi-stream CableCARDS,

The M-Card interface will allow multiple digital video streams to be decrypted simultaneously, even on unidirectional devices. Thus, a cable subscriber using an M-Card-enabled “Plug and Play” device can view one cable channel, while recording another. It is expected that DVR type devices will be the first to make use of the new multi-stream interface.

I originally got wind of this news from PVRWire.