"CableLabs is moving too slowly, " says Tony Aoki, the director of Sony's set-top-box division.
Forget CableCARD, OEM's will need a Platinum Corporate Card to afford the CableLabs certification fees for CableCARD 2.0 computers.
Critics say that CableLabs is dictating the terms of the license.
Not only is Cablevision conspicuously not a member of the CableLabs consortium, it also owns the Wiz electronics chain, which would presumably benefit from sales of set-top boxes.
Their joint research and development body, CableLabs, has written specifications for an operating system and chosen a number of software languages in which applications software for the boxes may be written.
Software shouldn't require the same CableLabs certification hardware does.
ENGADGET: FCC to bring down new CableCARD rules in October 14th meeting
CableLabs recently announced that Motorola's "M-Card" has joined Scientific Atlanta's offering in finally earning the organization's coveted "qualified" status, paving the way for such great functionality as picture-in-picture on compatible TVs and multi-channel recording for properly-equipped DVRs.
ENGADGET: CableLabs approves Motorola's multi-stream CableCARD
The truth is that CableCARDs have been capable of authorizing two-way communications for some time, but there wasn't a way for 3rd party cable devices to be certified by CableLabs -- like the latest cable deployed STBs -- for two-way communication.
ENGADGET: Time Warner Cable deploys 150k OpenCable STBs, aka CableCARD 2.0
As we all found out, however, users who prefer to roll their own Media Center box (like yours truly) will be left out of the option entirely -- support will only be available for CableLabs certified boxen, which home-rolled are, of course, not.
In a blistering letter in February to Michael Powell, the new chairman of the FCC, RadioShack, Circuit City and Sears argued that the encryption license is a self-preservation device that creates a double standard: one for the cable companies that own CableLabs and one for everyone else.
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