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Karen Brown
A fresh crop of digital set-top box rollouts was announced at the National Show in Chicago last week, and almost all were variations on the same theme: expanded features and interactivity to make them look more like a PC.
Scientific Atlanta announced plans to spin its Explorer 2000 set-top box into a family of products.
Robert Van Orden, VP-product marketing for digital subscriber networks, said the entire Explorer family is designed using IP data and can provide interactive two-way applications including video-on-demand and e-commerce.
An economy version of the 2000 series is aimed at the entry-level digital customer. Available now, the new Explorer 2000S provides the basic broadcast and interactive features at a lower price by cutting out the Ethernet connector and the S/PDIF digital interface.
In January 2000, SA plans to unveil the Explorer 3000, which promises to double the CPU bandwidth and memory of the standard 2000. Able to process more than 100 million instructions per second (MIP) with a local storage feature, the 3000 is ideal for operators who want to offer new multimedia and Internet applications, Van Orden said.
The top of the line for SA will be the 6000 series set for rollout in the second quarter of 2000. Both DOCSIS and DAVIC compliant, the 6000 can store music CDs and will be able to support MPEG video through a third tuner. It can deliver more than 300 MIPs, supports Open Cable through a point of deployment (POD) interface, supports HDTV and can be used with the PowerTV or Microsoft TV software.
Trials for set-top boxes able to process e-mail are set for June, while Internet access trials are scheduled for October.
SA rival General Instruments, meanwhile, previewed its new DTC-5000+ which will bring digital set-top boxes with software provided by Microsoft.
The unit will be Open Cable compliant, capable of running the Microsoft TV platform to boost the unit's interactive potential. Boasting a 347 MIPs capability, a 32-bit 3D graphics, more than 14 megabytes of memory, an optional hard drive and a large memory cache, the unit can support Internet access, e-mail, a Smart Card port for e-commerce, enhanced interactive program guides, video on demand and, in the future, IP telephony.
The DTC-5000+ uses a cable modem that is DOCSIS-compliant but hasn't been certified. GI will begin shipping the DTC-5000+ in the third quarter of this year.
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