Digital Set-Tops Shrink in Size, Cost
By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/12/2006 5:15:00 AM
The days of the large, $300-plus standard-def digital set-top appear to be long gone. Set-top vendors Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta both showed small digital set-top boxes at the NCTA show in Atlanta that will sell to cable operators for less than $100.
The digital-only boxes are targeted at operators deploying “digital simulcast” technology that will convert the existing analog tier to all-digital operations. They are also designed to work in conjunction with high-end “multi-room DVR” set-tops that will record and store programming in the living room and then deliver it over a coax-based home network to multiple televisions in the home.
Motorola’s new Digital Cable Client (DCC) 100 set-top is slightly bigger than a paperback book and was shown at NCTA as part of a Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) network that linked it to a high-def DVR equipped set-top, as well as a mobile phone, to allow content sharing between devices. Motorola spokesman Paul Alfieri says that the company plans to deliver another sub-$100 product, a “MoCA Module,” that would have a coax connection on one side and an Ethernet connection on the other to allow PCs to be easily connected to digital cable set-tops as part of a home network.
Cisco subsidiary Scientific-Atlanta introduced its own sub-$100 digital-only box, the Explorer 940 set-top, that will be ready to ship in July. Scientific-Atlanta Senior Product Manager Richard Talbot says that, while it’s small, the 940 doesn’t skimp on features.
“It’s a standard S-A set-top in a smaller form factor,” he says.
Scientific-Atlanta also showed new high-end set-tops at NCTA, including a high-def model that includes both a DVR and a DVD recorder/player. That box could be used to allow consumers to archive standard network content, i.e. free of copying restrictions, on a DVD, thus freeing up storage space on the DVR. Scientific-Atlanta says its PowerKey encryption software can limit the playback of a DVD to one particular set-top box to eliminate the possibility of bootleg distribution.
The company also thinks there is a compelling business model for operators and studios to deliver movies on-demand that can be purchased and burned onto a DVD for future use, perhaps for $15 or $20 per movie. Adam Meyer, director of strategy and business development for Scientific-Atlanta, says a two-hour standard-def movie could be delivered in about 25 minutes over a 6 megahertz digital cable channel.
“It’s a very efficient distribution method,” he says.
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