CableCard has a lengthy &#x2F; costly certification process for device manufacturers, and has always had this problem where the cable companies technically support it, but it can be pretty arduous for the average consumer to get proper support from their provider to get their devices online.  The first part really thinned out the herd in terms of offerings, and the second part made sure to limit the audience of people who actually went for those devices.  I rocked a windows htpc with a cablecard adapter for a while, and I&#x27;m on tivo now, but I&#x27;m not sure that would have happened if I wasn&#x27;t persistent and had done a bunch of the research on my own.