Cable Clearly Culprit in CableCARD Snafus, CE Tells FCC

Woes include ill-configured authorization and billing methods at local cable systems, poor troubleshooting training for service workers, use of unstable firmware by CableCARD vendors Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta, and out-of-spec implementations at the cable plant, said representatives of CEA and Hitachi, JVC, LG, Philips, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba and TTE. In resulting snafus -- CableCARD-ready DTVs have crashed or worked intermittently soon after purchase -- CE makers “have been required at great time and expense,” including on-site visits to customers’ homes, “to identify, diagnose and initiate resolution of consumer problems” caused by cable’s irresponsibility, they said. They presented the FCC 41 pages of anecdotal evidence about problems.

The CE delegation’s members “shared the strong view” that glitches wouldn’t occur “with such frequency and severity” if the FCC would impose a “common reliance” regime requiring that leased cable set-tops use the same CableCARD infrastructure as digital-cable-ready DTVs, the filing said. Such rules exist, but the FCC twice has held off carrying them out -- most recently a year ago, to let cable develop a downloadable security proposal (CED March 18/05 p1) for future digital set-tops. “Under a common reliance regime, local MSOs would exercise greater care to avoid technical incompatibilities, and greater diligence in diagnosing and resolving problems of their own origin, rather than requiring intervention from television manufacturers seeking to protect customer relationships and brand reputations,” the filing said.

But NCTA blamed “CE manufacturing problems,” not lack of a common reliance regime, for many customer frustrations with CableCARD-equipped DTV sets. Lack of common reliance can’t be blamed when “one manufacturer’s CableCARD-enabled DTV does not work properly with a CableCARD when the DTVs from other manufacturers work perfectly using the same CableCARD on the same cable system,” NCTA told us in a statement. “Many of the problems experienced with CableCARD-enabled sets have nothing to do with, and cannot be fixed by, common reliance. More than likely they are due to the process of ’self- verification,’ under which most models of CableCARD-enabled DTVs are not tested at CableLabs.”

A spokesman said NCTA’s next progress report to the FCC will say 140,000 CableCARDs were deployed Feb. 28. In a previous report NCTA had said 100,000 would be installed by year-end 2005. “The large and continually growing number of CableCARDs and CableCARD-enabled devices that have been deployed reflects the burgeoning success of this technology,” the NCTA statement said: “As with the deployment of any new technology, challenges do exist. This is particularly true in the instant case, since a variety of manufacturers have made a number of CableCARD-enabled ‘host’ devices -- each with their unique functionalities and different implementation choices -- that must work seamlessly with CableCARDs to satisfy consumer expectations. As a result, the complexities of making these devices work correctly right out of the box are multiplied several fold.”

NCTA said its intelligence suggests problems have cropped up both with host devices built by CE makers and CableCARDs that must work with those devices. Contrary to CEA’s recent ex parte filings, “there have been significantly more problems with host devices than with CableCARDs or the operators’ networks,” NCTA said: “In future reports, we will list such manufacturers by name rather than by an identifying number or letter, in the hope that will give those manufacturers an incentive to resolve some of these issues more promptly.”

CableCARD war stories cited by CE makers included one from David Kline, gen. mgr.-strategic planning at JVC in N.J. He told the tale of “James S.,” a supervisor at JVC’s service center in Lawrenceville, Ga., whom Kline called “our first bad omen.” James, an “avid” cable viewer, agreed to be the first participant in JVC’s internal prelaunch field test of its CableCARD-ready DTVs.

In late Nov. 2004, James took delivery of a 42W plasma set, one of 2 models for which JVC got CableLabs certification earlier that fall, Kline said. In early Dec., James contacted his local MSO, Charter Cable in Smyrna, Ga., for a CableCARD. None were available, he was told. Only after Kline stepped in 2 months later, contacting top Charter executives, did a CableCARD “suddenly” appear for James, Kline said. But the CableCARD couldn’t authorize premium channels -- in contrast to another set in the house connected to a Charter cable box that flawlessly delivered premium channels, Kline said: “In May 2005, after 7 visits from cable technicians totaling over 20 hours in his home, he still could not receive premium channels on a set that had received CableLabs certification. Frustrated, and questioning the value of the CableLabs certification, and still without premium channels, he asked to be removed from the field test and returned the set to JVC hq.”