Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Filed by Dave Zatz under CableCARD, DVR, Industry, Moxi, Patent, Slingbox, Software

Oct 9 2006

Never enough time…

Orb 2.0 public beta available. (jkOnTheRun)
Dave quizzes Motorola exec on OCAP. (PVRWire)
EvokeTV bites the dust. (GigaOM)
Moxi picks up three DVR UI patents. (Press Release)
DirecTV, HDTV, and the resolution question. (Missing Remote)

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7 Responses for "Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered"

HDTiVo October 9th, 2006 at 11:26 am 1
Regarding the resolution question:

Remember the flap over diagonal measurements of CRTs 20 years ago?

The HD flap is going to be at least an order of magnitude greater.
HDTiVo October 9th, 2006 at 11:54 am 2
Regarding MOT and OCAP…

He sure does “handle” the questions.
Dave Zatz October 9th, 2006 at 11:59 am 3
I tried.
David J October 9th, 2006 at 7:32 pm 4
Orb looks good, but they haven’t put DVR Anywhere back in, have they? It’s the main reason I use Orb!
HDTiVo October 10th, 2006 at 8:39 am 5
Re: MOT

What does Chakalos mean by the new “Host” series of boxes?

“cache-and-carry” approach???

Did he mean a two-way (2.0?) multi-stream CableCard had been certified?

Is Chakalos saying that third parties can develop OCAP products relatively easily with the development tools, but Cable Co’s individually decide whether they get deployed at all, perhaps even system by system?
Dave Zatz October 10th, 2006 at 8:59 am 6
“Host” refers to CableCARD devices and “cache-and-carry” seems to be a slogan they’ve using for moving content off the box and taking it with you (via cell phone or other portable).

He did imply anyone can develop OCAP products using Java. But it is definitely up to the cable company what add-ons/applications they choose to deploy on their boxes. What they choose to deploy would most likely benefit their business in some way…
HDTiVo October 10th, 2006 at 10:30 am 7
That last point effectively closes OCAP development to anyone not approved by an MSO. No point in developing if you can’t get it used/sold.

Suppose I develop an OCAP app that gives an accurate prediction of the weather on Amelia Island four months in advance. Cable Co. decides they don’t want to cut into the Weather Channel, unless of course Cable Co. gets a big chunck of the revenues from my app.