Indianapolis is My Home

07
Jan

Comcast Continues Move to More Open Market

Author: Jason Bean, Category: Areas, Business, Local Media, News

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Most of the people in the Indianapolis area are using Comcast for their cable providing company. Insight is another company that’s got some penetration in a variety of areas, but since Comcast recently purchased Insight, it’s all the same now.

I’m getting more and more irritated with the Comcast DVR we’ve been using and if I had the available funds right now I’d dump it and move to the TiVo Series 3 almost immediately.

My wife was particularly ticked last night when her new episode of Desperate Housewives had all the audio recorded except for the actual actors speaking parts.

News in the cable industry may be opening things up a little more for Comcast and other major cable networks to begin working with other hardware devices so you don’t have to rely on a "cable box" to get all the goodies coming through the pipe. You would still pay for the service, just not their provided hardware.

This would allow companies like TiVo and even television sets themselves to use a CableCARD to get all the content off the coaxial directly.

Comcast made this announcement at CES:

An industry initiative, to be renamed "tru2way" after a decade in the works, is expected to allow electronics manufacturers to make TVs and other gear that will work regardless of cable provider. By making devices compatible, the standard also could encourage the development of new services and features that rely on two-way communication over the cable network.

Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable provider, will roll out the platform in all its markets by the end of 2008, Chief Executive Brian Roberts said in an interview with The Associated Press ahead of a speech Tuesday at the International Consumer Electronics Show.

Comcast is supposed to be rolling out TiVo powered DVR’s but I’ve yet to hear anything about them being available in the Indianapolis market. I’m waiting for AT&T’s UVerse to be available in my neighborhood, I’ll dump Comcast and try that when it’s an option for me.

Story Source: Comcast: Cable to standardize technology
Image Source: Thomas Hawk