CableCARD

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A Motorola CableCARD. Motorola CableCARD.jpg
A Motorola CableCARD.

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.

Contents

In a broader context, CableCARD refers to a set of technologies created by the United States cable television industry to allow devices from non-cable companies to access content on the cable networks. Some technologies not only refer to the physical card, but also to a device ("Host") that uses the card. Some CableCARD technologies can be used with devices that have no physical CableCARD.

The CableCARD was the outcome of a U.S. federal government objective, directed in the Telecommunications Act of 1996, to provide a robust competitive retail market for set-top boxes so consumers did not have to use proprietary equipment from the cable operators. It was believed that this would provide consumers with more choices and lower costs.

A 2020 FCC decision removed the requirement for cable companies to provide CableCARDs, but they are still required to provide consumer access options via "separable security". [1]

Background

The portion of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which resulted in the creation of CableCARDs is known as Section 629, instructing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to:

...assure the commercial availability to consumers of multichannel video programming and other services offered over multichannel video programming systems, of converter boxes, interactive communications equipment, and other equipment used by consumers to access multichannel video programming and other services offered over multichannel video programming systems, from manufacturers, retailers, and other vendors not affiliated with any multichannel video programming distributor. [2]

Multichannel video programming refers to cable or satellite television. A driving motivation of this passage was to foster the kind of consumer choices that resulted after the Federal government landmark Carterfone ruling requiring telephone companies to allow consumers to purchase third-party telephones for attachment to the phone company network. The thought was that consumers would benefit from wider choices due to competition between consumer electronics (CE) manufacturers unaffiliated with cable companies. [3]

The FCC was charged with working with the industry to carry out the directives of the 1996 law. On June 11, 1998, after securing proposals and recommendations from interested parties, the FCC ordered that cable companies would provide a separable security access device by July 1, 2000, which could be used by third-party devices to access digital cable networks. [4] The separable security device was referred to in FCC regulations as a "Point of Deployment" (POD) module. After many requests for delay from the cable industry, the first CableCARD devices became available from third-party manufacturers in August 2004.

Integration ban

A major concern was that cable operators were not motivated to provide efficient security access mechanisms to equipment competitors. To address this, the FCC directed that by January 1, 2005, that cable operators must use the same separable access device available to third-parties and they were banned from providing equipment with an integrated security access mechanism. This rule is usually referred to as the "integration ban", and was unsuccessfully challenged in the courts and petitions to the FCC by the cable operators. The deadline was shifted forward twice until it went into effect on July 1, 2007. [5] The ban on integrated security ended in December 2015. [6]

Technical overview

CableCARD is a term trademarked by CableLabs for the Point of Deployment (POD) module defined by standards including SCTE 28, SCTE 41, CEA-679 and others. The physical CableCARD is inserted into a slot in the host (typically a digital television set or a set-top box) in order to identify and authorize the customer, and to provide proprietary decoding of the encrypted digital cable signal without the need for a proprietary set-top box. The cable tuner, QAM demodulator, and MPEG decoder are part of the host equipment. The card performs any conditional access and decryption functions, and provides a MPEG-2 transport stream to the host. The card also receives messages sent over the out-of-band signaling channel by the cable company's headend servers and forwards them to the host.

CableCARDs may be used to access both standard definition and high definition channels as long as they are not part of a switched video system. (This applies to one-way devices only; two-way devices are capable of receiving and viewing switched video. The ability for one-way devices to receive and view switched video has changed with the addition of the Tuning Resolver Interface Specification. Tuning adaptors and tuning adaptor interfaces have been added to provide communication back to the headend needed for switched video.) CableCARDs are not necessary for viewing unscrambled digital cable channels if the user has a QAM tuner—a feature in some televisions and DVRs. CableCARD support is most common on higher end televisions that include a special slot for the CableCARD and a built-in cable tuner. The card acts like a unique "key" to unlock the channels and services to which the cable customer has subscribed, and the television's remote-control will also control the cable channels. Televisions that support CableCARD should be labeled by the manufacturer as "digital cable ready" (DCR).

Interactive features such as video on demand rely on the CableCARD Host device being an OpenCable Host Device and have nothing to do with the physical card. This makes the common use of the phrase "CableCARD 2.0" as a requirement for video on demand misleading, since two way services have been provided with the actual cards from the very beginning. [7]

Physical CableCARDs

Cable-card-cropped.jpg
A Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) multi-stream CableCARD or "M-card"
Cable-card-cropped-rear.jpg
The backside of the same card

The physical CableCARD inserted into the host device is a PC Card type II that handles decryption of video and ensures that only authorized subscribers may view it. This is also known as a "conditional-access module" function.

There are two kinds of physical CableCARDs:

No actual M-Cards were released before the introduction of CableCARD 2.0, which combined and enhanced the CableCARD 1.0 and Multi-Stream standards. [7] M-Cards are backward compatible with current CableCARD devices. In older CableCARD devices that do not support multiple streams, the card appears to be a single stream card. CE companies have long wanted M-Cards for their CableCARD 1.0 host devices in order to compete with devices that use multiple tuners. This is important for products such as Moxi and TiVo CableCARD DVRs, televisions with picture-in-picture and CableCARD-equipped personal computers, which need to record one show while a user is watching another. To enable this without an M-Card, these products would be required to use multiple S-CARDs.

CableCARDs with personal computers

Existing integrated cable set-top boxes perform four basic functions:

New digital televisions and other devices that are labeled DCR (Digital cable ready) contain:

The CableCARD 2.0 specification includes support for #1-4, interactive two-way communications; however it is unknown exactly when CableCARD 2.0 hosts and compatible servers will become available. Future devices which support CableCARD 2.0 are expected to be labeled iDCR "Interactive digital cable ready". Among other requirements, CableCARD 2.0 hosts will be required to provide the OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP), also known as Tru2way, to run programs downloaded from the cable company.

Because the conditional access system is in software, it can be sent with the video as a form of digital rights management. The CableCARD Host Licensing Agreement and the DCAS agreement restrict the technologies that CE companies may use for distributing video from host devices. CE companies object to this expanding the notion of CableCARD network security issues to also include content protection issues. They prefer to deal with content owners directly with their standards and regard cable company protocols and formats as a transport only. CE companies wish to communicate video inside the home network using their own protected protocols and formats.

The OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) is a Java-based platform intended for use either with any security access scheme—whether it is CableCARD 2.0 devices or future downloadable security schemes. OCAP was tied to CableCARDs because, as it was imagined by CableLabs, the additional processing necessary for managing the communication with the cable company server would be performed, not on the cable company provided equipment (the CableCARD), but on the consumer electronics device—known as the CableCARD "Host". CE companies objected that OCAP is unnecessary for the simple task of managing two-way communications on the cable networks. The CEA perspective is that Java is not efficient for CE devices, and that cable companies are passing to CE manufacturers the costs of a software platform which they didn't need, and which won't run on their existing hardware architectures.

The consumer electronics industry proposed in November 2006 that the CableCARD 2.0 specification be upgraded to include the provision for modified MCards that would support the communications necessary for VOD, PPV, and Switched Video. This card would be backward compatible with older cards, and support would be required for them on cable company servers by January 2008. These modified MCards would not allow two-way communication using current OCURs, which, by definition, are unidirectional. This so-called "OCAP-less" proposal was rejected by the NCTA for a variety of reasons elaborated on in the issues segment of this article. The technical advantage is that much less is assumed about the computing capability of the host, allowing the manufacturing cost to be significantly reduced. The disadvantage is that the MCard will be slightly more expensive, but the host will not necessarily be able to support the envisioned ecommerce and banking applications. CE companies argue that such a card fulfills the 1996 law's requirement that cable companies allow two-way communication on their networks, and that OCAP fulfills technical goals far in excess of those necessary for such two-way communications.

Existing standard and certification procedures

Cable providers in the United States are required by the FCC to support the CableCARD 2.0 standard. The specification was developed by CableLabs, a research group run by a consortium of cable companies. Devices that use CableCARDs are known as "Hosts" and must be certified as compliant with the specification by CableLabs. The certification process can be lengthy and is performed in batches on a regular cycle every three months.

The first test tool to verify compliance of OpenCable hosts with the CableCARD one-way single stream specifications, HPNX, was released by SCM and Digital Keystone in 2003. [8] Subsequently, the HPNX Pro version, supporting two-way and M-card specifications, was released by Digital Keystone in 2006. [9] The "M-UDCP Device Acceptance Test Plan" published by CableLabs defines how to use the HPNX Pro test tool to validate the OpenCable host devices. [10]

The first test tool to verify compliance of the CableCARD devices with the OpenCable specifications, Host Emulator Tool, and produced by Margi Systems, was first utilized by CableLabs to validate the Scientific Atlanta (Cisco) and Motorola POD devices in 2003 (POD was later renamed to CableCard).

Cable companies in the United States are required to provide CableCARDs conforming to this specification, and must correct incompatibilities between their networks and certified CableCARD devices. [11]

The current CableCARD standard was borne out of an adversarial process between two main groups: cable companies represented by the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and consumer electronics companies represented by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The portion of the CableCARD specs that could be agreed upon describe how one-way services work, so only the portion known as UDCP (Unidirectional Digital Cable Product) was required by the FCC. As it was the only thing required, most of the early devices were one-way capable; however all the actual CableCARDs produced were two-way capable. Many enhancements to the CableCARD standard including the optional Multi-Stream support became known as CableCARD 2.0.

Optical cable services (e.g. Verizon Fios) are classified as cable services and must, by FCC rules, also support the CableCARD standard. In Canada, cable providers Cogeco [12] and Shaw [13] offer CableCARD-enabled DVRs. Video providers in Europe must conform to the DVB standard which is a more comprehensive open standard governed by independent standards bodies.

CableCARDs can also support non-television functions and can act as a cable modem controller with the host providing modulation and demodulation functions and the card providing decoding and IP routing functionality; however this feature is rarely used and depends on the cable provider.

Adoption

There was much resistance from cable operators to the CableCARD rollout across the United States, preferring to support their own set-top boxes.[ citation needed ] The adoption proceeded slowly with 141,000 units by February 2006. The resistance softened somewhat with the July 2007 FCC ban on integrated security in set-top boxes, which required all new set-top boxes to use CableCARDs as their decryption mechanism. By June 2009, the top 10 "incumbent" U.S. cable operators had deployed more than 14 million operator-supplied set-tops with CableCARDs and 437,800 CableCARD modules for use in retail devices. [14] The National Cable Television Association reported in April 2016 that only 621,400 CableCARDs were deployed for use in retail devices by the nine largest incumbent cable operators, compared to 55 million operator-supplied set-top boxes with CableCARDs. [15] This indicates that the CableCARD failed to achieve the goal of a competitive retail market for set-top boxes. [16]

Outside the United States, CableCARDs were adopted only in South Korea, in pair with Nagravision and VideoGuard conditional access (CA) systems. [17] U.S. adoptions of CableCARD were mostly paired with Cisco's PowerKEY (originally developed by Scientific Atlanta) and Motorola's (now Arris) MediaCipher CA systems.

Successor initiatives

In 2010, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued a notice of inquiry for a successor system, called AllVid. [18] [19] Unlike CableCARD, AllVid intended to enable two-way services such as electronic program guides, pay-per-view, and video on demand.

There are still many in the cable industry who are advocating that physical CableCARDs be dropped entirely.[ citation needed ] These cable companies prefer to move away from physical cards, and have proposed that a downloadable security component known as Downloadable Conditional Access System (DCAS) be used instead of a physical CableCARD. In this proposal, a custom security chip must be soldered into every compliant host; if a security scheme is compromised, a new security program can be downloaded to the host device. The FCC has not yet approved it.

Consumer electronic companies advocate their proposal for more unfettered access to cable company networks, with CableLabs' role reduced to addressing only cable company interests of maintaining network stability and security.[ citation needed ]

In September 2020, the FCC eliminated CableCARD support and reporting requirements by cable operators, recognizing that cable industry deployment and use of CableCARDs have been “disappointing”, and noting that competition has provided other options for consumer flexibility via streaming media over the Internet. [1]

Comcast has stop providing new and replacement CableCARDs on October 24, 2024. [20]

See also

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, or satellite television, in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite and received by a satellite dish 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">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, receiver, or simply box, and historically television decoder or a converter, is an information appliance device that generally contains a TV tuner input and displays output to a television set, turning the source signal into content in a form that can then be displayed on the television screen or other display device. It is designed to be placed alongside or "on top" of a television set.

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.

A digital video recorder (DVR), also referred to as a personal video recorder (PVR) particularly in Canadian and British English, is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes (STB) with direct to disk recording, portable media players and TV gateways with recording capability, and digital camcorders. Personal computers are often connected to video capture devices and used as DVRs; in such cases the application software used to record video is an integral part of the DVR. Many DVRs are classified as consumer electronic devices. Similar small devices with built-in displays and SSD support may be used for professional film or video production, as these recorders often do not have the limitations that built-in recorders in cameras have, offering wider codec support, the removal of recording time limitations and higher bitrates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cable television headend</span> Facility for cable television system

A cable television headend is a master facility for receiving television signals for processing and distribution over a cable television system. A headend facility may be staffed or unstaffed and is typically surrounded by some type of security fencing. The building is typically sturdy and purpose-built to provide security, cooling, and easy access for the electronic equipment used to receive and re-transmit video over the local cable infrastructure. One can also find head ends in power-line communication (PLC) substations and Internet communications networks.

Conditional access (CA) is a term commonly used in relation to software and to digital television systems. Conditional access is an evaluation to ensure the person who is seeking access to content is authorized to access the content. Access is managed by requiring certain criteria to be met before granting access to the content.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common Interface</span> Technology to decrypt pay television channels

In Digital Video Broadcasting, the Common Interface is a technology which allows decryption of pay TV channels. Pay TV stations want to choose which encryption method to use. The Common Interface allows TV manufacturers to support many different pay TV stations, by allowing to plug in exchangeable conditional-access modules (CAM) for various encryption schemes.

The OpenCable Application Platform, or OCAP, is an operating system layer designed for consumer electronics that connect to a cable television system, the Java-based middleware portion of the platform. Unlike operating systems on a personal computer, the cable company controls what OCAP programs run on the consumer's machine. Designed by CableLabs for the cable networks of North America, OCAP programs are intended for interactive services such as eCommerce, online banking, Electronic program guides, and digital video recording. Cable companies have required OCAP as part of the Cablecard 2.0 specification, a proposal that is controversial and has not been approved by the Federal Communications Commission. Cable companies have stated that two-way communications by third party devices on their networks will require them to support OCAP. The Consumer Electronics Association and other groups argue OCAP is intended to block features that compete with cable company provided services and that consumers should be entitled to add, delete and otherwise control programs as on their personal computers. On January 8, 2008 CableLabs announced the Tru2Way brand for the OpenCable platform, including OCAP as the application platform.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Downloadable Conditional Access System</span>

Downloadable Conditional Access System or DCAS was a proposal advanced by CableLabs for secure software download of a specific Conditional Access client which controls digital rights management (DRM) into an OCAP-compliant host consumer media device. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) proposed that DCAS be used as a substitute for physical CableCARDs, a standard also created by CableLabs for which products began appearing in August 2004 as part of industry compliance to the FCC mandate, which in turn is pursuant to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. DCAS is growing in popularity as a less expensive alternative for CableCARD, with major North American operator deployments from Cablevision and Charter. DCAS deployments can be expected to grow in the coming years, thanks to favorable regulatory view from the STELA Reauthorization Act of 2014 and FCC appointing a Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee, and wider support for key ladder (K-LAD) functionality from system-on-chip (SoC) vendors and set-top box manufacturers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Switched video</span>

Switched video or switched digital video (SDV), sometimes referred to as switched broadcast (SWB), is a telecommunications industry term for a network scheme for distributing digital video via a cable. Switched video sends the digital video more efficiently freeing bandwidth. The scheme applies to digital video distribution both on typical cable TV systems using QAM channels, or on IPTV systems.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual Digital Cable</span> US multichannel video distributor

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">HDHomeRun</span> TV tuner product family by SiliconDust

HDHomeRun is a network-attached digital television tuner box, produced by the company SiliconDust USA, Inc.

Multichannel television in the United States has been available since at least 1948. The United States is served by multichannel television through cable television systems, direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline video providers; among the largest television providers in the U.S. are YouTube TV, DirecTV, Altice USA, Charter Communications, Comcast, Dish Network, Verizon Communications, and Cox Communications. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 defines a multichannel video programming distributor (MVPD) as "a person such as, but not limited to, a cable operator, a multichannel multipoint distribution service, a direct broadcast satellite service, or a television receive-only satellite program distributor, who makes available for purchase, by subscribers or customers, multiple channels of video programming", where a channel is defined as a "signaling path provided by a cable television system."

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

<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.

Tru2way is a brand name for interactive digital cable services delivered over the cable network. Services include interactive program guides, interactive ads, games, chat, web browsing, and T-Commerce. The brand also appears as <tru2way> and is used to market cable services, applications, and devices that support the tru2way cable architecture. Tru2way is the successor name for technology known as OpenCable. Major cable operators committed to deploy the tru2way platform in service areas covering more than 90 million U.S. homes by the end of 2008.

AllVid was a proposal to develop technology enabling smart broadband-connected video devices to access the content on the managed networks of cable operators, telcos, and satellite-TV operators. It was initially proposed in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) National Broadband Plan in 2010. The AllVid hardware would act as a universal adapter for all types of pay TV content such as video-on-demand and pay-per-view, as well as interactive programming guides, delivered through a wide variety of means, including cable TV, satellite TV, VDSL, IPTV, and Internet TV.

An over-the-top media service is a digital distribution service offered directly to viewers via the public Internet, rather than through an over-the-air, cable, or satellite-based provider. The term is synonymous with "streaming platform", such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video which provide access to subscription-based film and television content (SVoD).

CloudTV is a software platform that delivers the web-media experience through television.

VidiPath is a set of guidelines developed by the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) that enables consumers to view subscription TV content on a wide variety of devices including televisions, tablets, phones, Blu-ray players, set top boxes (STBs), personal computers (PCs) and game consoles without any additional intermediate devices from the service provider. Consumer Electronics (CE) products that are certified to the VidiPath Guidelines can directly support the full range of subscriber HD programs, movies, DVR content, channel guides, and other premium features, all with a consistent user interface (UI) from their service provider.

References

  1. 1 2 September 2020, Gary Arlen 10 (2020-09-10). "FCC Abandons CableCARD, Navigation Devices Rule Review". Multichannel News. Retrieved 2021-07-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  2. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2005-01-19. Retrieved 2006-12-28.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ↑ "FCC News Report No. CS 98-11" (PDF). FCC. 2006-08-18. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
  4. ↑ "First FCC Report and Order:Commercial Availability of Navigation Devices" (PDF). FCC. 1998-06-24. Retrieved 2006-12-26.
  5. ↑ "Set-top shakeup is in the cards". CNET News.com. 2007-07-01. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  6. ↑ "Fold 'Em: CableCARD Mandate Ends This Week". Cablefax. 2 December 2015. Retrieved 27 January 2017.
  7. 1 2 "CableCARD Primer". OpenCable. Archived from the original on 2009-09-29. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  8. ↑ "Testing Platform for OpenCable Specs Launched". TVtechnlogy.com. 2003-05-22. Archived from the original on 2011-06-09. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
  9. ↑ "CableLabs Awards Qualification to Scientific Atlanta for Multi-Stream CableCARD". Cablelabs.com. 2006-04-06. Archived from the original on October 11, 2013. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  10. ↑ "M-UDCP Device Acceptance Test Plan TP-ATP-M-UDCP-I02-20070105" (PDF). Cablelabs.com. 2007-01-05. Archived from the original (PDF) on August 7, 2011. Retrieved 2015-06-14.
  11. ↑ Chris Kohler (2008-08-28). "CableCard Swipes at Set-Top Boxes". Wired.com. Retrieved 2009-09-16.
  12. ↑ "TiVo Service from Cogeco ® Quick Guide" (PDF). 2015-08-18. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  13. ↑ "CableCARD Not Validated". 2016-03-08. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  14. ↑ "CableCARD - Light Reading". lightreading.com. Retrieved 11 April 2018.
  15. ↑ National Cable & Telecommunications Association (27 April 2016). "Re: CS Docket No. 97-80 (Commercial Availability of Navigation Devices)" (PDF). FCC.gov. Archived from the original on 14 March 2020. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  16. ↑ Silbey, Mari. "Obama Signs CableCARD Death Warrant". Light Reading. Retrieved 2021-07-31.
  17. ↑ "Products - CableCARD". SmarDTV S.A. (Kudelski Group). Archived from the original on 2012-04-24. Retrieved 2021-11-26.
  18. ↑ AllVid Notice of Inquiry Archived 2015-03-12 at the Wayback Machine , 25 FCC Rcd 4275 Archived 2017-12-08 at the Wayback Machine (adopted April 21, 2010)
  19. ↑ Lasar, Matthew (February 19, 2011). "AllVid Battle Lines: Google, Best Buy, Sony Ally Against Big Cable" . Wired .
  20. ↑ Baumgartner, Jeff (August 26, 2024). "CableCARD era at Comcast is drawing to a close". www.lightreading.com/.

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