Funai Introducing Dual-Tuner DVR With Tru2way

By Doug Lung
published

Remember CableCards? They were to allow cable subscribers to enjoy encrypted digital cable channels on TV sets or record these channels on DVRs without the need for a set-top box.

Shopping for a new DTV set, I found none of the new models included CableCard capability, although TiVO still offers a DVR that uses CableCards.

Interest in CableCards may be revived by a new technology, tru2way, which offers interactivity using a Java based software platform. Tru2way uses the CableCard to provide security, but goes much further in providing interactive content not available with the original one-way CableCard. The CableCard and tru2way technology were developed by CableLabs.

Funai has beaten TiVO in introducing a tru2way integrated dual-tuner set-top DVR. Its STB platform allows viewers to receive and record not only digital cable but NTSC and ATSC signals as well. The box was announced in May and shown at the Cable Show in New Orleans. Funai this week said it intends to mass-produce the tru2way box in the third quarter of 2009, assuming timely approval by CableLabs. Funai will be showing its tru2way box at CES in Las Vegas next month.

Read more of Doug Lung's RF Reporthere.

Doug Lung
Doug Lung

Doug Lung is one of America's foremost authorities on broadcast RF technology. As vice president of Broadcast Technology for NBCUniversal Local, H. Douglas Lung leads NBC and Telemundo-owned stations’ RF and transmission affairs, including microwave, radars, satellite uplinks, and FCC technical filings. Beginning his career in 1976 at KSCI in Los Angeles, Lung has nearly 50 years of experience in broadcast television engineering. Beginning in 1985, he led the engineering department for what was to become the Telemundo network and station group, assisting in the design, construction and installation of the company’s broadcast and cable facilities. Other projects include work on the launch of Hawaii’s first UHF TV station, the rollout and testing of the ATSC mobile-handheld standard, and software development related to the incentive auction TV spectrum repack.
A longtime columnist for TV Technology, Doug is also a regular contributor to IEEE Broadcast Technology. He is the recipient of the 2023 NAB Television Engineering Award. He also received a Tech Leadership Award from TV Tech publisher Future plc in 2021 and is a member of the IEEE Broadcast Technology Society and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.