Gizmo Lovers Blog » Sound and Vision Magazine http://www.gizmolovers.com TiVo, Slingbox, Android, Blu-ray Disc, and whatever other tech I feel like blogging about... Fri, 20 Jul 2012 09:16:12 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Looking For an M-Card CableCARD? Read This!http://www.gizmolovers.com/2008/02/21/looking-for-an-m-card-cablecard-read-this/ http://www.gizmolovers.com/2008/02/21/looking-for-an-m-card-cablecard-read-this/#comments Thu, 21 Feb 2008 07:21:47 +0000 MegaZone http://www.tivolovers.com/2008/02/21/looking-for-an-m-card-cablecard-read-this/ Continue reading →]]> If you’re looking for a multi-stream CableCARD, aka an M-Card, for your TiVo HD (and, really, what other major consumer product uses M-Card today?), then this is for you. Sound and Vision Magazine has written a great article which includes their ‘Official M-Card Guide‘.

It is worth a read. The author makes one (common) error though:

Cable Guy No. 2 came by. He removed the old CableCARD from my TiVo (which turned out to be a regular CableCARD — it didn’t say “M-Card” on it) and popped in a real M-Card. He thought the M-Card had the ability for two-way interactivity, so I could order pay-per-view, on-demand, that kind of thing. I explained to him that two-way CableCARDs weren’t on the market yet. He wouldn’t believe me.

I used to be confused about this myself, so I really have to cut him some slack. All CableCARDs are ‘two-way’. I used to be confused because two-way functionality was generally lumped in as a ‘CableCARD 2.0′ feature, along with multi-stream. But that was incorrect. All cards, from day one, are two-way. What wasn’t finalized was the spec for hosts to support two-way. So the cards are two-way, but there haven’t been any two-way consumer devices available. Those are just appearing, as ‘Tru2Way’ devices – the system formerly known as OCAP.

I spotted this via EngadgetHD.

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