“Cable-Compatible” Digital Television Receivers and “Receiver-Compatible” Digital Cable Television Systems

In February, 2000, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) and the National Cable Television Association (NCTA) reached agreement on a set of network interface specifications that, when adhered to for digital transmission by “Receiver-Compatible” digital cable television systems, will allow “Cable-Compatible” digital consumer electronics products to be connected directly to the cable television system. Such “Cable-Compatible” products will allow consumers to view and record digital programs transmitted by the cable television system in the clear, including terrestrial broadcast programs. When equipped with a Pont-of-Deployment (POD) replaceable security module, “Cable-Compatible” digital receivers and VCR's will also be able to receive subscription programs such as HBO and Showtime as well as pay-per-view programming that is ordered by placing an 800-number phone call. — The agreement between CEA and NCTA also addresses the specification of the POD module interface and the carriage of Program and System Information Protocol (PSIP) data to support the navigation function in the receiver. Future efforts by CEA and NCTA will extend the network and POD interface specifications to include reverse data channel parameters for use on two-way cable television systems. This will allow “Cable-Compatible Two-Way” digital receivers to provide interactive cable services such as impulse-pay-per-view and video-on-demand.

Published

2000-10

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00143

ISBN

978-1-61482-933-1