Intel Seeks Consensus to Add IP Hook-up to Cable Boxes
Intel seeks consensus among cable operators and consumer electronics companies in favor of a proposal it recently revived (CD July 23 p10) for the FCC to require that HD set- top boxes have Internet Protocol connections, an executive said. Company executives have recently spoken with counterparts in the two industries to see if common ground can be reached, said Intel Content Policy Director Jeffrey Lawrence. He said officials from both industries have shown “some interest” in Intel’s plan, talked up in recent FCC meetings and at the commission’s Monday hearing on broadband.
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Intel thinks it has an inexpensive, efficient and open- standards way to allow set-top boxes to link to DVRs, PCs and other networked devices in residences, Lawrence said in an interview. The company thinks using an RJ 45 jack as an Ethernet connection on the back of set tops would “create more demand for home networking that will stimulate demand for more devices,” he said. The IP connector would use the CableLabs-approved DTCP IP standard for encryption and Digital Living Network Alliance-approved open standards for devices to link to each other and other features, he said. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin talked up the idea at the hearing, at which Lawrence was added as a guest the same day. “This is a great opportunity for the chairman to lead” and “provide new innovation in a complicated space,” Lawrence said.
Intel’s “next step” is to file a detailed proposal with the FCC, hopefully by Sept. 30, said Lawrence. CE industry officials are eagerly awaiting details beyond Lawrence’s testimony and a one-page ex parte filing with the FCC last week. “We have a responsibility to work with our fellow travelers and come up with something that’s a little more detailed,” said Lawrence, adding that he’s open to changes to Intel’s proposal and doesn’t want to force a technological mandate on the CE and cable industries. “Our goal is to see if there is a common set of things that everyone can agree on,” said Lawrence. An agreement would ideally be part of a more detailed filing by Intel, he added. The company has long promoted the IP connections and decided to step up its lobbying because a 2007 two-way plug and play FCC rulemaking notice has sat dormant, Lawrence said. “We thought the time was right,” he said. “A lot of people might be looking at it with fresh eyes.”
IP connections on the back of set-top boxes would be more “appealing” than the current interfaces under the IEEE 1394 standard the FCC requires on all HD boxes, Lawrence said. 1394 ports are “fairly expensive” and they're “simply not used,” he said. Doing away with them would mean “cable companies would save a tremendous amount of money” and “those costs wouldn’t be passed on to consumers,” Lawrence said. Intel’s IP connector would be cheaper than 1394 connectors, he predicted.
Executives at Texas Instruments, the biggest maker of chips for 1394 ports, disagreed. Although those chips add slightly to the cost of set-top boxes, they're better geared to video and ultimately cheaper for cable subscribers because they don’t have to buy extra routers to set up home networks, two executives said. 1394 “is a superior solution,” said Texas Instruments Government Relations Director Robert Koppel. “There’s nothing preventing set-top box manufacturers from adding an Ethernet port” to the boxes, and indeed many of the devices already have them, he added. 1394 achieves better “video transmission” than IP, he said.
Consumers’ use of 1394 ports has been disappointing, but not because of technology limitations, said Koppel and Daniel Mar, digital interfaces business strategic marketing account manager. Cable operators aren’t allowing for full functionality because they don’t let program guide information be sent from set-tops to other networked devices, Mar said. That makes it hard to record TV shows using DVRs not supplied by the cable operator, he said. Koppel said the commission should “clarify” that the existing 1394 mandate applies to interactive gear. “The technology works great, but the cable set-top boxes are limiting the functionality.”
Motorola and Time Warner Cable said cable subscribers seem not to be avid users of 1394 connectors. All Motorola HD set-tops have the connectors, but “it would appear to us that consumers/users have not taken full advantage of this particular feature,” a company spokeswoman said. Ethernet is “one approach” to home networking, she said. “We principally agree [that] the standardization in this space benefit[s] both consumers as well as vendors.” At Time Warner Cable, 1394 connectors “get no use and are an expense to us and our customers,” a spokesman said. Officials at Comcast, Cox and the NCTA declined to comment right away on Intel’s proposal. An LG official declined to comment, and spokeswomen at CEA and Cisco’s Scientific-Atlanta set-top box unit couldn’t comment right away.
Motorola and Time Warner Cable endorse use of Ethernet connectors, they said. Motorola supports Ethernet connectors, but “it remains to be seen whether people will take advantage of the wired connection such as Ethernet or they would prefer a no-new-wire approach,” the company spokeswoman said. The no-wire methods include 802.11, MoCA and HomePlug, she said. Time Warner Cable thinks such connections could encourage home networking and is in talks about the gear with Intel, said the cable operator’s spokesman. Texas Instruments hasn’t talked with Intel, Koppel said. “TI would very much like to participate in those discussions, but we have not yet been invited to do so.”