In what comes as no surprise at all MS have verified that CableCARD functionality within the Vista version of MCE will require ‘certification’ by CableLabs. The certification process is expensive and time-consuming which will limit it to deep-pocket, mass market OEMs such as Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. Time will tell if the high-end MCE builders, such as Niveus will have the resources to get the certification. It most certainly eliminates the cottage industry that has sprung up supporting folks building their own MCEs. Joe Geek will certainly not be able to buy a CableCARD receiver card and install it into an MCE of their own creation. Sigh.

At issue here is the ‘protected video path’ that is required by CableCARD for certification. This effectively locks out all of the ‘analog holes’ between the content delivery (cable system) and the display. Vista ensures this by requiring that all drivers that touch the content be ‘signed’. These digital signatures, roughly equivalent to the SSL certificates that protect web sites, ensure that the creator of the software is known and trusted. It also locks out all ISVs and open-source developers from the platform. Nice.

It such a sad, old story… early adopters create the buzz, build the foundation and then when things become mainstream the established players rush in and squash all the innovation in a futile effort to protect their anachronistic business models. Pathetic.

CableCARD HDTV tuners, such as this one from ATI, allow you to receive and record HD content delivered over your cable system without the need for a settop-box (aka ‘dust magnet’). This version (v1.0) is ‘uni-directional’ which means that it will get you the HD version of The Sopranos on HBO but not pay-per-view content. Version 2.0 brings ‘bi-directional’ communications required for PPV content.

CableCARD on Vista to require CableLabs certification – Engadget

So imagine if turnpikes charged when you got on the road, and then again when you got off. This is exactly what some of the telcos are trying to do with internet access. They see that internet access is a commodity and decreasing revenue from the cash-cow that is circuit based voice service and are looking for new sources of revenue. The increasing usage of VoIP is directly eroding their circuit based voice service income and it’s only going to get worse as Vonage/Skype/FWD/Gizmo/PhoneGnome reach into the main stream.

Jeff Pulver, who has been a thought and action leader in VoIP for years, writes at some length about it.

The Journal story warns of a looming battle between Internet companies, who create the valuable things we do with the Internet, and the phone companies who want to control access to it. The phone companies, who continually seek new ways to apply telephone access charges to Internet communications, apparently now want to take the next step by creating and applying access charges to all forms of Internet traffic (not just voice anymore).

This idea is BAD, BAD, BAD! There already exists ‘tiers’ of internet access; you can buy your bandwidth from a backbone provider, or from someone that connects to a backbone provider, or from someone who connects to someone that connects to a backbone provider or.. you get the idea. The closer you get to the backbone providers, and, in turn, better throughput to your customers, the higher the cost of bandwidth. In essence, the ‘fast lane’ for commercial traffic already exists.

There is no logic behind this idea, only greed.

The Jeff Pulver Blog: My reaction to WSJ’s “Phone Companies Set Off A Battle Over Internet Fees”