sdv

Motorola and Cisco are showing off Switched Digital Video tuning adapters at the Cable Show. Basically Switched Digital Video is a next generation content delivery system that will allow cable networks to send you more high quality video. But current generation CableCARD equipped boxes like the TiVo HD can't handle SDV. That's where these tuning adapters come in.

EngadgetHD snapped a few photos of a Motorola adapter hanging out with a TiVo HD set top box if the press shot above isn't doing it for you. Cable companies should be able to get their hands on the boxes in July, and at some point down the road your local cable provider might make the box available to you.

TiVo has already modified its software to support the Motorola and Cisco boxes. But I'm assuming that the next generation TiVo set top box will included integrated support for SDV so you won't need an external box at all.

Update: EngadgetHD also has a "hands on" with a non-working prototype of the new Cisco box.

[via EngadgetHD and Zatz Not Funny]

TiVo released its quarterly financial results yesterday and the company reports narrower than expected losses. And buried in CEO Tom Rogers' statement was this little nugget: TiVo is working on a standalone set top box that will support Tru2Way, the standard once known as OCAP.

What that means is that one day you'll be able to buy a TiVo box that has support for advanced digital cable functions like switched digital video, video on demand, and pay per view. Right now, the closest you can get is a Motorola box from Comcast that runs TiVo software. If you happen to live in the Boston area, that is. For folks in the rest of the country, you have a choice: TiVo, or video on demand. You can't have both on the same set top box.

Of course, by the time TiVo gets this new box to market, Comcast and Cox may have already rolled out TiVo software outside of New England.

[via TiVo Lovers]