Cable-ready

Last updated

Cable-ready is a designation which indicates that a TV set or other television-receiving device (such as a VCR or DVR) is capable of receiving cable TV without a set-top box. [1]

Contents

The term originated with analog TV, which uses different frequencies for cable versus over-the-air. This gives more channels, and at lower frequencies, so that early systems did not have to be so broadband and were therefore less expensive to build.

For North American cable television frequencies, [2] the VHF channels 2 to 13 are the same, while an extra 51 cable channels exist between there and over-the-air UHF channel 14. Thus, over-the-air channel 14 can be seen on cable channel 65. Conversely, those 51 extra channels (plus an additional five inserted at 95 to 99) cannot be seen at all on a device which is not cable-ready. A "181-channel tuner" receives 125 on cable (1 to 125), plus 10 (126 to 135) more for digital cable ready TVs, plus the 56 (14 to 69) which are not identical in both (2 to 13). Other cable channels, 0, 00 and 1, which along with channels 136-158 are ill-defined and thus rarely used, and often not included in otherwise cable-ready tuners. Those "lowest numbered" channels often reside between VHF channels four and five on HRC (harmonically related carrier) and IRC (incrementally related carrier) systems where the normally four MHz gap is increased to six MHz, wide enough for one NTSC channel. Similar situations exist in the rest of the world as well.

Another use of a cable-ready tuner is for receiving amateur television (ATV) in North America, where the main ATV band appears on cable channels 56 to 59, 57 being the most popular. Most repeaters output on these channels, while input from amateur operators is often in another band. [3]

Digital cable

Digital cable-ready or DCR is a label used by manufacturers on new televisions which feature built-in technology that allows consumers to receive SDTV and HDTV digital cable programs. [4] Usually this is a QAM tuner, since over-the-air broadcasts are either COFDM (DVB-T and ISDB-T) or 8VSB (ATSC-T). Some cable TV systems in North America use 16VSB instead of 256QAM, for which there are no cable-ready devices. Only channels that are left unencrypted can be received using this method, however encrypted channels can be viewed without a set-top-box using systems such as a CableCard or using a Downloadable Conditional Access System.

Interactive digital cable ready or iDCR extends DCR. Unlike the DCR standard, iDCR supports interactive customer features such as electronic program guides, pay-per-view and video on demand. Consumer devices which support iDCR also support the new OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) standard developed by CableLabs.

In practice however, the rental of cable converter boxes (or since the late 2010s, the rent-to-own arrangement of digital media players with a provider's app if the customer prefers) has remained a lucrative business line for most cable providers, and they have preferred to phase out support of analog or digital cable-ready televisions which are not CableCard compliant and rent converter boxes out instead, with prevention of cable theft another reason for the arrangement.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable television</span> Television content transmitted via signals on coaxial cable

Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadcast television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna attached to the television; or satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth, and received by a satellite dish antenna on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet, telephone services, and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital television</span> Television transmission using digital encoding

Digital television (DTV) is the transmission of television signals using digital encoding, in contrast to the earlier analog television technology which used analog signals. At the time of its development it was considered an innovative advancement and represented the first significant evolution in television technology since color television in the 1950s. Modern digital television is transmitted in high-definition television (HDTV) with greater resolution than analog TV. It typically uses a widescreen aspect ratio in contrast to the narrower format (4:3) of analog TV. It makes more economical use of scarce radio spectrum space; it can transmit up to seven channels in the same bandwidth as a single analog channel, and provides many new features that analog television cannot. A transition from analog to digital broadcasting began around 2000. Different digital television broadcasting standards have been adopted in different parts of the world; below are the more widely used standards:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Set-top box</span> Electronic device to convert a signal to an output for a television

A set-top box (STB), also known as a cable box or receiver and historically television decoder, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV-tuner input and displays output to a television set and an external source of signal, turning the source signal into content in a form that can then be displayed on the television screen or other display device. They are used in cable television, satellite television, and over-the-air television systems as well as other uses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Very high frequency</span> Electromagnetic wave range of 30-300 MHz

Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF are denoted high frequency (HF), and the next higher frequencies are known as ultra high frequency (UHF).

Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting is a Japanese broadcasting standard for digital television (DTV) and digital radio.

Digital cable is the distribution of cable television using digital data and video compression. The technology was first developed by General Instrument. By 2000, most cable companies offered digital features, eventually replacing their previous analog-based cable by the mid 2010s. During the late 2000s, broadcast television converted to the digital HDTV standard, which was incompatible with existing analog cable systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amateur television</span> Transmission of video in amateur radio bands

Amateur television (ATV) is the transmission of broadcast quality video and audio over the wide range of frequencies of radio waves allocated for radio amateur (Ham) use. ATV is used for non-commercial experimentation, pleasure, and public service events. Ham TV stations were on the air in many cities before commercial television stations came on the air. Various transmission standards are used, these include the broadcast transmission standards of NTSC in North America and Japan, and PAL or SECAM elsewhere, utilizing the full refresh rates of those standards. ATV includes the study of building of such transmitters and receivers, and the study of radio propagation of signals travelling between transmitting and receiving stations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">All-Channel Receiver Act</span> United States legislation

The All-Channel Receiver Act of 1962 (ACRA), commonly known as the All-Channels Act, was passed by the United States Congress in 1961, to allow the Federal Communications Commission to require that all television set manufacturers must include UHF tuners, so that new UHF-band TV stations could be received by the public. This was a problem at the time since most affiliated stations of the Big Three television networks were well-established on VHF, while many local-only stations on UHF were struggling for survival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuner (radio)</span> Frequency selection subsystem for various receiver systems

A tuner is a subsystem that receives radio frequency (RF) transmissions, such as FM broadcasting, and converts the selected carrier frequency and its associated bandwidth into a fixed frequency that is suitable for further processing, usually because a lower frequency is used on the output. Broadcast FM/AM transmissions usually feed this intermediate frequency (IF) directly into a demodulator that converts the radio signal into audio-frequency signals that can be fed into an amplifier to drive a loudspeaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CableCARD</span> Digital cable smart card

CableCARD is a special-use PC Card device that allows consumers in the United States to view and record digital cable television channels on digital video recorders, personal computers and television sets on equipment such as a set-top box not provided by a cable television company. The card is usually provided by the local cable operator, typically for a nominal monthly fee.

QAM is a digital television standard using quadrature amplitude modulation. It is the format by which digital cable channels are encoded and transmitted via cable television providers. QAM is used in a variety of communications systems such as Dial-up modems and WiFi. In cable systems, a QAM tuner is linked to the cable in a manner that is equivalent to an ATSC tuner which is required to receive over-the-air (OTA) digital channels broadcast by local television stations when attached to an antenna. Most new HDTV digital televisions support both of these standards. QAM uses the same 6 MHz bandwidth as ATSC, using a standard known as ITU-T Recommendation J.83 Annex B ("J.83b").

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ATSC tuner</span> Tuner for digital television channels

An ATSCtuner, often called an ATSC receiver or HDTV tuner, is a type of television tuner that allows reception of digital television (DTV) television channels that use ATSC standards, as transmitted by television stations in North America, parts of Central America, and South Korea. Such tuners are usually integrated into a television set, VCR, digital video recorder (DVR), or set-top box which provides audio/video output connectors of various types.

TiVo digital video recorders encompass a number of digital video recorder (DVR) models that TiVo Corporation designed. Features may vary, but a common feature is that all of the units listed here require TiVo service and use its operating system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital television adapter</span> Type of television tuner to display digital signals on analog sets

A digital television adapter (DTA), commonly known as a converter box or decoder box, is a television tuner that receives a digital television (DTV) transmission, and converts the digital signal into an analog signal that can be received and displayed on an analog television set. Some also have an HDMI output since some TVs with HDMI do not have a digital tuner. The input digital signal may be over-the-air terrestrial television signals received by a television antenna, or signals from a digital cable system. It normally does not refer to satellite TV, which has always required a set-top box either to operate the big satellite dish, or to be the integrated receiver/decoder (IRD) in the case of direct-broadcast satellites (DBS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coupon-eligible converter box</span> US DTV conversion program

A coupon-eligible converter box (CECB) was a digital television adapter that met eligibility specifications for subsidy "coupons" from the United States government. The subsidy program was enacted to provide terrestrial television viewers with an affordable way to continue receiving free digital terrestrial television services after the nation's television service transitioned to digital transmission and analog transmissions ceased. The specification was developed by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), with input from the broadcast and consumer electronics industries as well as public interest groups.

Digital television in the United States is available via digital terrestrial television (DTT), digital cable, satellite television, and IPTV providers.

Addressability is the ability of a digital device to individually respond to a message sent to many similar devices. Examples include pagers, mobile phones and set-top boxes for pay TV. Computer networks are also addressable via the MAC address on Ethernet network cards, and similar networking protocols like Bluetooth. This allows data to be sent in cases where it is impractical to control exactly where or to which devices the message is physically sent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable converter box</span> Converting cable television channels to analogue signal

A cable converter box or television converter box is an electronic tuning device that transposes/converts channels from a cable television service to an analog RF signal on a single channel, usually VHF channel 3 or 4, or to a different output for digital televisions such as HDMI.

When a descrambler is added to the Cable Converter Box in the same chassis, it is referred to as a Converter/Descrambler or sometimes a Combination Unit, and is a type of Set-top box, it allows : local broadcast channels, basic cable channels, authorized premium channels, "Pay-Per-View" (PPV), and “Video On Demand” (VOD) services to be viewed. A Combination Converter/Descrambler is generally called a Set-top box or STB it is a single (one-piece) system installed in a single cabinet and represents a single component that is capable of descrambling premium services, like HBO or Showtime, pay-per-view cable channels., Video on Demand, Games or other specialty pay services, and transposes the cable signal for RF output on channel 3 or 4. This unit contains a converter and a descrambler, enclosed in a common box and outputs the signal directly to a TV, VCR, DVR, PC, DVD or video projector.

The digital transition in the United States was the switchover from analog to exclusively digital broadcasting of terrestrial television programming. According to David Rehr, then president and CEO of the National Association of Broadcasters, this transition represented "the most significant advancement of television technology since color TV was introduced." For full-power TV stations, the transition went into effect on June 12, 2009, with stations ending regular programming on their analog signals no later than 11:59 p.m. local time that day.

References

  1. "Definition of cable-ready | Dictionary.com". www.dictionary.com. Retrieved 2020-04-01.
  2. "Antennas and Digital Television". Federal Communications Commission. 2011-05-10. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  3. "Cable TV Channel Frequencies". www.jneuhaus.com. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  4. "What is a Digital Cable Ready (DCR) device? | TV | Small Business Support | Verizon". www.verizon.com. Retrieved 2020-04-01.