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Just as the consumer electronics and cable industries had to set specifications to make TV sets "cable-ready" for analog systems, the OpenCable specification aims to create a mass retail market for the sets and set-top boxes used for two-way, digital service.
A significant aspect of OpenCable is its specifications for interoperable hardware interfaces for retail set-tops and TVs with those functions integrated into the set. A certified OpenCable box sold anywhere in America is supposed to work with any OpenCable-compliant headend elsewhere in the land.
Cable gear makers also follow the standard in designing equipment that meets the federal government's requirements not only that boxes be available at retail-instead of requiring customers to buy or lease them from their local cable operator-but also that their program security functions be separable via a PCMCIA-like point of deployment card, or POD.
Another critical step toward national cable standardization is the OpenCable Applications Platform (OCAP), the U.S. cable standard for interactive TV (iTV) middleware, slated for release by the end of this month.
Once adopted by iTV middleware vendors such as Canal Plus, Microsoft, OpenTV, PowerTV, Liberate Technologies and Worldgate, iTV content authored by or for one cable operator should play equally well on the cable system of any other OCAP-compliant system operator nationwide.
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