FLat screen TV with Card slot question.

[MAKmom]

We just switched to Verizon FIOS. I have 1 TV that I can not use with a cable box. The tech said I need a Flat screen with a card slot to skip the box. Best Buys has stopped selling them. Does anyone know where I can buy one.

Most places I call have no idea what I'm talking about...maybe I am saying the wrong thing.

 

[bicker]

A bunch were available for purchase in 2005 and 2006, but too few consumers were willing to pay extra to do without a cable box. They're reintroducing them this fall, at least Panasonic is, trying again to see if consumers are going to be willing to carry their side of the bargain. Panasonic is offering a 42" and a 50" with a tru2way (which is a newer technology that rides on top of CableCARD) CableCARD slot available in Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta (only).

Wait for after CES (which is in January). That's probably when the television manufacturers will announce their 2010 plans, and there will likely be some more CableCARD options available after that.

 

[asta]

I call it a cable card. I have one in my Pioneer Plasma set. I think that Pioneer may have stopped making tv sets but it would be worth buying one if you can still find them. (I have several other TV's that are LCD but none of them can even hold a candle to the Pioneer.)

The thing with the cable cards is that the cable companies don't really like to install them. I have Comcast service and it took three visits by their installers to find an installer that had ever heard of a cable card and knew how to install it. It involves the installer working together with someone back in their office to get the thing to work. Before going through all of this, I was warned on a tech message board that the cable company would be hard to deal with. Their advice was that the cable company would probable deny any knowledge of how to use the cable cards but that they are under a legislative mandate to provide them if a customer requests them. I wanted one because I don't have to pay rental for a cable box and, the best reason, I wanted to use the remote that came with the set instead of the lousy Comcast remote. The only drawback is that you can't use on demand services with a cable card.

 

[dakcp2001]

Verizon can explain this to you, the cable card does not give you access to all of the features that the box has, but it does allow you to skip the box. You would still need a box for a DVR or to do anything interactive, such as pay per view etc or program guide. SO you have to decide if you just want programming, or if you want to use all of the features that you are paying for. The card is limited.

You can get a cable card with Fios, it just doesn't allow you to use all of the fios features. It is less expensive per month then the box. We ended up getting the box cuz we want the DVR.

 

[MAKmom]

A bunch were available for purchase in 2005 and 2006, but too few consumers were willing to pay extra to do without a cable box. They're reintroducing them this fall, at least Panasonic is, trying again to see if consumers are going to be willing to carry their side of the bargain. Panasonic is offering a 42" and a 50" with a tru2way (which is a newer technology that rides on top of CableCARD) CableCARD slot available in Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta (only).

Wait for after CES (which is in January). That's probably when the television manufacturers will announce their 2010 plans, and there will likely be some more CableCARD options available after that.

Thank You! I knew you would know the answer to this. I'm hoping to find a 29" to 32" for this TV it is for the kitchen & I can not have a box.

 

[MAKmom]

I call it a cable card. I have one in my Pioneer Plasma set. I think that Pioneer may have stopped making tv sets but it would be worth buying one if you can still find them. (I have several other TV's that are LCD but none of them can even hold a candle to the Pioneer.)

The thing with the cable cards is that the cable companies don't really like to install them. I have Comcast service and it took three visits by their installers to find an installer that had ever heard of a cable card and knew how to install it. It involves the installer working together with someone back in their office to get the thing to work. Before going through all of this, I was warned on a tech message board that the cable company would be hard to deal with. Their advice was that the cable company would probable deny any knowledge of how to use the cable cards but that they are under a legislative mandate to provide them if a customer requests them. I wanted one because I don't have to pay rental for a cable box and, the best reason, I wanted to use the remote that came with the set instead of the lousy Comcast remote. The only drawback is that you can't use on demand services with a cable card.

The Version tech came with 3 cards but none of our TVs have the slot.

Verizon can explain this to you, the cable card does not give you access to all of the features that the box has, but it does allow you to skip the box. You would still need a box for a DVR or to do anything interactive, such as pay per view etc or program guide. SO you have to decide if you just want programming, or if you want to use all of the features that you are paying for. The card is limited.

You can get a cable card with Fios, it just doesn't allow you to use all of the fios features. It is less expensive per month then the box. We ended up getting the box cuz we want the DVR.

I have 5 boxes in the house now but this TV is on a granite wall & we do not want any wires showing. I also do not want to give up cabinet space for the box.

Thank for the help.

 

[Silent1CB]

Thank You! I knew you would know the answer to this. I'm hoping to find a 29" to 32" for this TV it is for the kitchen & I can not have a box.

Obviously something we haven't looked into at all, but DH keeps saying he wants VIOS when it finally gets to our area.

I'm seeing this as a problem now. We have 5 TVs. One in the kitchen hanging under a cabinet. And I have no room for, nor do I want a box in the kitchen.

We have a box now, only on the 2 TVs that receive the digital packages & more channels. The other TVs are just regular cable on cable-ready TVs.

 

[bicker]

A bunch were available for purchase in 2005 and 2006, but too few consumers were willing to pay extra to do without a cable box. They're reintroducing them this fall, at least Panasonic is, trying again to see if consumers are going to be willing to carry their side of the bargain. Panasonic is offering a 42" and a 50" with a tru2way (which is a newer technology that rides on top of CableCARD) CableCARD slot available in Chicago, Denver, and Atlanta (only).

And update on this issue.

Panasonic has now ceased production of tru2way displays. What they found over the last year or so is the same as what they found back in 2005 and 2006 - there is still not a viable market for televisions that come equipped to work with digital cable without a box.

The next attempt may come in 2012 or 2013. The FCC is working on an idea called AllVid, which would be a new standard for subscription television. It would involve a gateway of some sort, with a standard interface that new televisions shall be able to use to obtain video content to display. The gateway may be just the "back half" of a new type of set-top box, so effectively wouldn't represent much of an advantage for consumers, except that the requirement that all subscription television services (including satellite services, and including the burgeoning Internet television sector) will be required to use it (instead of satellite service providers getting away with closing their services off to just the equipment they want to sell/rent). The real big advantages for consumers, though, come from the ability for service providers to offer whole-house gateways, if they wish to (for a healthy monthly fee, of course), feeding four or perhaps six tuners around the house (i.e., some televisions and a dual-tuner DVR, for example). With this arrangement, you essentially won't need a set-top box. The AllVid televisions and DVRs can plug directly into the home network, and access content that way, from the gateway.

Of course, this means that, if AllVid becomes a reality, we'll all need new televisions and DVRs to take full advantage of it.