zodi

July 22, 2008 at 6:34pm

Most cable DT already have a million ports on them but cable companies don't use them.  Most DCT's from motorola have the ability to double as a cable modem, yet I still have two cable modems (one for phone and one for Inet) and one DCT for watching TV.  MY motorola DCT already has a ethernet connection but as most of the open holes in the DCT it collects dust and debris.

 Lets get the cable companies using what they got before we tell DCT companies to add more bells and whistles.

Avery

July 22, 2008 at 6:22pm

It is not up to the Cable Companies but the Manufacturers, like Motorola and Pace for example. They disable current ports, they also pass firmware upgrades on to whether activate, deactivated hardware on the machines. Cable companies just provision certain makes and model DCT's to work on their network, they wont make and software to activate things. Take the company PACE for example, their new DCT the TAHOE can add on extra external HD's but you can only copy media between the two and not your PC. Obviously due to copyright laws. Thats software put there by the maker with that limitation.

Add up the beneifts of networking one DCT to a household having more than one and thats lost revenue in DCT sales.

If you can stream stuff to your PC thats a potential sale of a DCT lost there.

PhynaeusClaw

July 22, 2008 at 5:52pm

It might be nice to have ethernet in my set-top DVR. I could stream saved video to my PC, or to a mobile device. I could possibly use a nicer web service to provide me with my guide information. I'm sure that there are a million things that could be done with it...

 Unfortunately, the USB, FireWire, and even the auxiliay A/V jacks are all disabled on my DVR. An added ethernet port would probably go the same way, jacking up production costs, which the cable company will all too happily pass on to me in the DVR rental fees.

nsvander

July 22, 2008 at 5:43pm

You already have setup boxes that have serial ports, firewire and usb that are turned off depending on the model or source you get them from.  This would just be one more port that would be installed but not able to use.  I really dont see the need for ethernet, and a private company (one that doesnt even sell cable TV) telling the FCC to mandate it is not the way to get it on there.  I think the government needs to stay out of a lot of things but that is for a different dicussion, Is there really any demand for ethernet on set top boxes?

AndyYankee17

July 22, 2008 at 3:11pm

ok so what will this do? you can't force cable companies to do anything with that ethernet port