In addition, the press release which announced this

belle swing site de rencontre CableCARD Becomes Available for Any PC

Closing the Analog Hole

As many readers are likely aware, canada goose outlet jackets there has been a strong push across the globe to end unencrypted TV broadcasting. this has manifested canada goose outlet canada itself in a congressional mandate forcing the situation to digital television. Although digital canada goose outlet black friday television ostensibly offers a better picture and stronger single, it is a problem for HTPCs used to record video cable television. New digital encryption has canada goose outlet shop threated to make it impossible for HTPCs to record digital cable.

But there is a new hope in the form of an old standard CableCARD. CableCARD has never been a hugely popular standard, as most cable companies Canada Goose Online prefer to use their own boxes for controlling cable access, but it does offer a standard for encryption and decryption of digital television.

CableCARD is both a standard and a physical item. The cheap Canada Goose standard, currently known as CableCARD 2.0, was developed by a group called Cablelabs. Cablelabs itself canada goose store is run by major cable companies, which is hardly surprising. Normally a cable company making use of CableCARD would require a technician to install the canada goose outlet online CableCARD at the initial setup of cable service in the home. It should be noted, however, that devices capable of decrypting the CableCARD standard can take any form, canada goose outlet toronto factory so the «card» portion canada goose clearance sale of the name is somewhat misleading.

What’s the Big Deal?

Since cheap canada goose the creation of CableCARD its inventor, Cablelabs, has been extremely stringent about how the standard was canadian goose jacket used. While CableCARD always has promise as a method canada goose outlet sale for decrypting cable television on a PC, Cablelabs would not allow canada goose factory outlet CableCARD to be used on computers they did not specifically approve. As with most things in the open format world of the PC, Cablelab’s tight Canada Goose sale clamp on usage meant that CableCARD never picked up steam.

However, Microsoft has somehow made a deal with Cablelabs to let go of that restriction. Cablelabs will instead allow CableCARD to function on any computer which meets certain requirements. Those requirements will be checked by a CableCARD compatibility tool that will be developed by Microsoft. In addition, CableCARDs for PCs will be able to use the Copy Freely flag, a DRM flag canada goose outlet uk which was not previously enabled, thus disallowing users to copy programs decrypted by CableCARD.

What this means is that it should soon be possible to rent and/or buy canada goose outlet uk sale CableCARD products which can be placed inside canada goose outlet a TV and used to record encrypted digital television. This is significant, canada goose outlet store uk as it was until now unclear how HTPC users would be canada goose able to record cable television as unencrypted sources continue to disappear.

The Bad News

The fact that CableCARD will lose many of its restrictions is great, but there are a few downsides. The most obvious is that a CableCARD will obviously be an additional piece of hardware which must be dealt with. This will add another cost onto an HTPC. It would also be good to have a standard which did not require physical hardware, but at this point it https://www.outletmoncler.de seems that CableCARD will only be available as a physical device.

The other bit of bad news is that all of this is still a little muddled. It isn’t quite clear when CableCARD devices will become available. In addition, the press release which announced this development indicated this is a Windows 7 only feature, and there has been nothing said to the contrary. Lastly, it isn’t clear what requirements a PC will need to meet in order to allow CableCARD to function on it.

Coming Soon

Despite the foggy outlook, CableCARD for HTPC should be widely available in short order. The fact that Microsoft canada goose factory sale has announced this as a Windows 7 feature at least indicates that Microsoft would like this to debut in step with the release of Windows 7. The release of CableCARD openly to PCs is a major development, and one that any HTPC should keep an eye on.