Samsung Shows Bidirectional CableCARD DVR
By Mark Fleischmann May 22, 2008 — The Samsung SMT-3090, recently shown at the CableNET show, is the first DVR with Tru2way, or bidirectional CableCARD. Unlike the existing five-year-old CableCARD standard, which is unidirectional, the new one can support video on demand and pay per view cable programming, addressing a longtime cable-industry complaint.

The DVR has two high-def tuners and a 160GB hard drive. It also supports Multistream CableCARD, which can decode two simultaneous cable program streams. Pricing and availability are not yet known.

It's important to note that the unidirectional CableCARD was widely adopted thanks to an FCC-brokered agreement that included most of the major TV makers as well as most of the major cable companies. Though also developed by CableLabs, the cable industry's R&D arm, the new bidirectional technology has not been officially endorsed by most major TV makers.

However, Samsung, LG, and Panasonic are developing Tru2way TVs. TiVo is also believed to be developing a Tru2way DVR.

The next step for Tru2way may be download conditional access security (DCAS) which would enable the encryption to be downloaded to a secure chip which would then decrypt the signal with a key. This cardless technology is not yet available in any products.

See TWICE coverage on DVR and agreement.