Audio Video News

Competition to dominate the market in providing high-speed data connections to the home keeps heating up. In an effort to make cable modems broadly available, the cable industry has recognized the need for the modems to use a common interface. Thus was born the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) process. Just as computer owners today know they can buy a modem that will work on any phone line, cable-industry leaders want their subscribers to be able to buy a "CableLabs Certified" modem at a retail outlet and know it will work with any cable system that uses the DOCSIS platform.

Last week, <A HREF="http://www.cablelabs.com">Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.</A> specified an existing high-speed serial protocol called IEEE 1394 (also known as FireWire) as the link between OpenCable digital set-top boxes and devices such as television sets and DVD players. <A HREF="http://www.opencable.com">OpenCable</A> is a CableLabs-sponsored initiative aimed at developing key interface specifications in order to foster interoperability among digital set-top boxes built by multiple vendors and used in broadband, two-way cable networks.

<A HREF="http://www.cablevision.com">Cablevision Systems Corporation</A> is the latest television provider to jump on the HDTV bandwagon. The twist here? Cablevision will deliver HD from a geosynchonous orbit.

Comcast has its own portable device app. Time Warner Cable is "working on its own app. Now, Cablevision has released its own app for iOS and Android.

Cable rates are rising again, at least for subscribers to <A HREF="http://www.cablevision.com">Cablevision Systems</A>. On Friday, November 21, the New York-based cable provider announced that 2004 rates would go up an average of 3.2%, approximately 50% higher than the current rate of inflation.