In the next month, Cox will deploy SDV in neighboring Fairfax (VA) county. Multichannel News writes:
In Northern Virginia, where Cox has about 240,000 subscribers, the SDV system will go live systemwide in about 30 days, according to Kelso. Later this year, Cox plans to roll out the system in its Phoenix and Orange County, Calif., systems. Cox is the third major cable operator to publicly acknowledge using BigBand’s SDV.
Obviously the concern for many TiVo customers, and others with commercially available CableCARD set-top boxes or televisions, is that switched channels can’t be viewed. Supposedly folks are at work on this issue, which will only become more prominent as both CableCARD and SDV penetration increases. I hope a solution can be worked out in a timely manner without the FCC stepping in, but I’m not feeling optimistic…
(Thanks, Alexi!)
The article isn’t specific about what channels they’ll be offering via SDV. Obviously for a while you may be able to receive almost all of the channels with a cablecard unidirectional box like a Tivo S3 or HD. In some areas MSOs are offering a number of ethnic channels, and maybe you wouldn’t care about these. But Cox seems to be talking about offering a lot of HD channels this way, which would mean that Tivo S3/HD viewers would be SOL…
Yah, it depends on the channels. I believe Ben D (EngadgetHD) in Tampa could no longer access the Golf Channel when they (BrightHouse) went SDV. No big loss for me! But Cox did state in the article 50 channels by year end and up to 100 next year – so I’m guessing the impact will eventually be felt.
Bah, while Fairfax is happily enjoying SDV and FiOS, we’re still putting up with Comcrap and Directv in neighboring Prince William County.
I need to move…
As a Series 3 Tivo owner, and subscriber to Cox (in RI), this has me concerned.
I do truly hope someone (Tivo) is working on a solution for SDV and CableCards to get along.
A SDV USB dongle is looking more and more likely. Check out this article (http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/HD-TiVo-Incompatible-with-SDV-86975?nocomment=1) and the one it links to (http://ibc.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=175784). Apparently the NCTA (National Cable & Telecommunications Association) submitted a filing with the FCC on Friday saying that they have “offered to develop a small ‘tuning resolver’ to allow consumer-electronics devices to receive switched linear channels”.