Cable boxes have been around for decades and the manufacturers are just now getting them right. Cable cards were practically forced on the cable companies by the FCC and cable companies don't respond well to being forced. Their answer to the FCC's demand is to have Motorola (in my area of the Mid-West anyway) produce the first-generation of ONE-WAY cable cards. Read that last sentence carefully, three things should scare you about it: Motorola, first-generation, & ONE-WAY.
Motorola makes plenty of great products, but they have also produced some doozies along the way, like the first-generation high-def cable boxes, man they SUCKED! And even though they have worked most of the bugs out of them, always add a back-up U.P.S. to them to ensure top reliability.
First-generation, simply stated, means good for problems. Think about the first generation of any technology, its rarely works as planned.
And the third thing is a big problem; one-way cards can not receive video-on-demand, interactive program guides and other services that require two-way signals. These are features that people want and cable boxes have finally come around to deliver these services properly.
Heck, I failed to mention DVR services. Can't get that from card, at least not for a long time. DVR is the only reason I even use a cable box, it frees me from worrying about when my favorite shows come on.
Finally, I find it hard to believe that there is no way for you to hide the cable box in a remote location and feed the signals to the set. Are there any other components hooked up to this set, DVD player, VCR, computer, etc…; where are they hidden? No offense, but if you had a custom-built cabinet for the TV set but failed to pre-wire or plan for future equipment upgrades, you may want to re-evaluate the way you set up systems.
The conclusion I have been telling dealers ever since cable cards came out is simple. Cable cards are a great idea, with not-so-great execution. There are many bugs to be worked out, and it will take some time. Don’t promise your customers that this is a great solution, unless you like crying yourself to sleep at night. The cable companies don’t like the cards, and as long as they offer them, even if they don’t work properly, they claim that they are in compliance. They will gladly offer your client a cable box, which will give the customer more options and it will probably work.
