Cablecard

CableCARD is a special-use PCMCIA card (PC card) that allows consumers with digital video components to use digital cable television signals without pieces of equipment, such as a set top boxes (STB), provided by cable television companies. More generally, "CableCARD" can refer to the cable television industry's technology behind their efforts to comply with Federal requirements to allow non-cable-company-provided equipment access to their networks and may use not use a PCMCIA card.http://news.cnet.com/FAQ-CableCARD-Whats-that/2100-1041_3-5542400.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD

CableCARDs work with equipment such as digital video recorders, computers, and televisions, allowing them to decrypt digital cable signals. The physical cards are PCMCIA type II cards like those used in computers. Two types of physical Cable Cards exist, S-Card and M-Card. S-Cards can decode a single channel at a time, while M-Cards can decode up to six channels at once. This allows features such as picture-in-picture and simultaneous recording/viewing of different channels. M-Cards are backwards compatible with prior generation devices. Enhancements to the CableCARD standard, such as multi-stream support and two-way interactivity, have been incorporated into what is known as CableCARD 2.0, even though original CableCARDs may have been technically capable of some of these enhancements.http://news.cnet.com/FAQ-CableCARD-Whats-that/2100-1041_3-5542400.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CableCARD