After a pretty big splash at CES 2008, there’s been relatively little movement on the tru2way retail front (other than a limited release of Panasonic’s tru2way-capable HDTVs in Comcast’s Chicago and Denver markets last fall). As a refresher, tru2way is the evolution of OCAP and designed to provide a common framework (middleware) for MSOs, their partners, and retail manufacturers alike to efficiently develop and deploy cable products.
From a general consumer’s standpoint, it’s the retail angle that makes tru2way interesting. While the current crop of retail CableCARD devices enable access to digital cable tuning, any services that require two-way communication, such as video-on-demand and switched digital video (SDV) access, has been out of reach. Enter tru2way. It’s best to think of CableCARD as an authentication mechanism (separable security hardware) and tru2way as an operating system that interfaces with the cable company mothership (head end).
In fact, the current implementation essentially channels the cable company interface. Walking around The Cable Show, all sorts of tru2way hardware was running the same guides/interfaces. However, I did see a few DVRs with compelling applications riding shotgun… including Motorola’s Pandora app and Intel/Samsung with Yahoo’s Widget bar.
The Cable Show runs through the end of the week. And while Mari’s riding it out, I’ve seen what I need to. I’ve got at least two more posts in me, maybe more, that I hope to get up… starting tomorrow. For those of you who haven’t yet picked up the Twitter habit, here’s a compilation of our event tweets today. Below that, some random pics.