TiVo and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association (NCTA) have announced a new external adapter that will bring switched video capabilities to CableCARD devices, such as series 3 TiVos. Due in the second quarter of 2008, this adapter will finally put good use to that spare USB connector found on new TiVos. This might not sound that exciting, but it actually benefits the consumer more than you think.

Because CableCARD devices only have the ability to receive information from the cable company, this new adapter will give devices the ability to send information back. This plays a major role in getting switched video used by the masses. Switched video, more specifically switched digital video (SDV), is a way for cable companies to only feed you the channels you are watching at a single time, which in turn allows for less use of bandwidth. This lowered bandwidth consumption means the cable company can then provide a greater selection of channels, since the the only bandwidth that will be used is for the channel that is currently being watched.

So, this means cable companies will be able to provide a greater selection of channels, not to mention HD content, to their customers, and since TiVo is involved in this adapter, it will make TiVo users the first with the ability to watch this new content, that other CableCARD set-top boxes can not. [PR Newswire]

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