Monday October 19, 2009 – Antonette Goroch
Back when the conventional wisdom was that lots of HDTVs would include speedy FireWire connections the consumer electronics and cable industries hammered out an agreement (that the FCC formalized) that all digital HD cable STBs for distribution in U.S. must have a FireWire connector.
Since FireWire, for a variety of reasons, lost the TV popularity contest to HDMI, the cable industry wants to permanently kick it out of its clubhouse. In what will certainly be only the first of several similar filings, Intel petitioned the FCC last week for a waiver of the 1394 (FireWire) requirement in its planned HD cable STB chip design. The FireWire rule was writ in 2005 and FireWire has failed to gain traction as a usable interface for transfer of signals from STB to TV or for in-home networking. HANA (HD Audio Video Network Association), the most significant home networking initiative to utilize FireWire, disbanded late last year, leaving the interface all but dead in the cable context. Shipments of 1394 cable STBs have held steady in the U.S., but in other parts of the world where cable players don’t have to make nice with the interface, FireWire for TVs pretty much evaporated by 2008.
With this backdrop, it’s no surprise that vendors and operators alike will begin to take action to eliminate the FireWire requirement in the U.S. in coming months. Its inclusion costs the manufacturer about $5 per unit, which Intel says in its filing makes a system-on-a-chip design cost prohibitive—especially for a little used interface. Texas Instruments has countered that this is a small percentage of the overall STB costs, but operators, eager to cut costs in any way possible, aren’t likely to agree. The FCC, meanwhile, has shown great willingness to offer similar waivers in recent months, such as the waivers regarding separable security granted over the summer. Should the waiver be granted, it’s likely FireWire will be out of cable STBs entirely by 2009.
