Rich Fiscus
14 Jun 2008 3:27
After reports of supposed problems with the certification of Panasonic's new Tru2Way TVs hit the internet earlier this week Panasonic there has been growing discussion about whether the company will be able to get them on store shelves before the end of this year. In a statement sent by email to CNet the company indicates they still expect to be selling them this Christmas season.
The statement said "Panasonic's Tru2way-enabled VIERA HDTV is in the certification process at CableLabs. Panasonic expects to deliver Tru2way-enabled VIERA HDTVs to the market in time for the holiday season."
Of course saying they expect it isn't the same as actually delivering. But even if the number of problems reported on June 10 by a blogger at IP Democracy is accurate it also doesn't necessarily mean it won't be available later this year either. Of course they apparently didn't say they were expecting it for this year's holiday season.
Tru2Way is the successor to CableCard which allows interactive features like Video On Demand to work. CableCard works fine for simply tuning and decrypting channels, but doesn't work with interactive features that require information to be sent to the cable company's head end.