CableLabs® Awards Qualification to
Motorola Multi-Stream CableCARD™

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CableLabs® recently awarded qualified status to Motorola for its multi-stream CableCARD™ (M-Card™). The M-Card enables consumers of retail set-top boxes and integrated digital television sets to watch and/or record their programming from multiple simultaneous tuners using a single CableCARD (e.g., handling picture-in-picture or simultaneous watch-and-record of multiple digital video channels).

The M-Card device is a key component in the security system between cable operator networks and retail consumer electronics devices. The “M-Card” will operate in a backwards-compatible, single-stream manner when paired with a single-stream device (for example, in a Plug & Play unidirectional device); or in a multi-stream manner when paired with a multi-stream device.

It is expected that M-Cards will be available from major MSOs within the next few months. In addition to developing the specification for the M-Card interface, CableLabs has worked jointly with Digital Keystone, Inc. of Mountain View, California, to create a test tool for testing the M-Card interface on host devices. This host test tool, known as the HPNx PRO™, facilitates the work needed by a CE manufacturer to develop and test the multi-stream interface. The HPNx PRO is commercially available from Digital Keystone, and will be utilized by CableLabs for host testing planned for this year.

CableLabs Certified™ or CableLabs Qualified means that the device has passed a series of tests for compliance with the indicated version of a CableLabs specification and has thus demonstrated interoperable functionality with any other CableLabs Certified or Qualified device. Many of these devices provide other functions or are designed to comply with other specifications, in each case tailored by the manufacturer to meet the growing needs of consumers or cable operators in an evolving communication sector. While CableLabs encourages such innovation and diversity, the phrase CableLabs Certified or Qualified should not be understood as an endorsement of these other attributes (or that the product is certified to other specifications or versions), which are solely the responsibility of the company making the additional claims.

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