Anyone here using a cable card in their HD set?

[royaldank]

Sounds like you can replace your cable box with just a card. Anyone using one of these? Just curious if I should look for a TV that has one since I'm sort of looking right now.

I'm on Comcast and have no idea if they support it currently.

 

[woowoo]

Call them....

 

[Fausto]

Huh? Link to card thingy info?

 

[Queasy]

Engadget on Cable Cards

 

[royaldank]

I don't really care if Comcast has them now. Just wondering if they are in use somewhere and how/if they work. Just trying to plan better for the future.

 

[Queasy]

I don't think they are very available at the moment.

 

[rahvin]

It's not in wide use because you can't get the guide or anything else with cablecard 1.0. Version 2 should be out late this year that will give you all the same features (access to on demand, pay per view etc) as your cable box.

 

[royaldank]

Originally posted by: rahvin
It's not in wide use because you can't get the guide or anything else with cablecard 1.0. Version 2 should be out late this year that will give you all the same features (access to on demand, pay per view etc) as your cable box.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like a great concept.

 

[kyparrish]

TW Carolina here in Charlotte has them available. A coworker says if your set is a true HDTV, not just a monitor, that it will allow you to watch all the HD channels and all the digital channels on your TV w/o the box

 

[anxi80]

i use one. space saver to not have a box, but it comes with a few sacrafices. no channel guide (could use one of those tvguide channel scrolling guides though), and no in-demand (ppv). the good thing is though my tv has channel preview (can watch another show in a little box and decide to switch over) and some channels are labeled with what the name of the show/movie is. but yeah, cant wait for that v2 card.

edit: btw, the cards are very picky on what tv they can work with. this is according to the installer, he said its dicey on certain brands/models.

 

[Slacker]

I would like to have one, not for space saving but because integrating a cable box into a complex home theater is a pain in the ass!

Would be nice if there was a cable card to coax module that would accomplish the same thing so people with tvs that dont have the slot could benefit from the newer tech.

 

[TeeJay1952]

Sony XBR960 in Metro Detroit. (Comcast)
No charge. (I complained about VOD from folks downstream from me leaking into my set)
Works well.

 

[EvilYoda]

Didn't always work so well around Detroit, Comcast had a very low success rate when they first started offering the cards, as their sh!t-for-brains techs didn't know how to set them up. But other than that, it's convinient to not have a box as long as you're okay with the one-way system.