• Is Miracle Box Legitimate

The future of a world where television and the Internet become fully integrated rests upon the once-humble, no-frills cable TV set-top box.Formerly relegated to just switching channels, it will be endowed with the potential to control an entire network of devices in the home ranging from PCs to VCRs, as well as serve as a communications device for phone and videoconferencing service.' As we move forward, we're going to see less and lessdistinction between a set-top box and a PC,' noted Bill Wal, chiefscientist and technical director for, which manufactures many of the cable set-top boxes in use today. Drive booster 6.2.1.263 seriale. 'There are a number of PC manufacturers looking towards low-end PCs that are TV-centric, but we see a blurring of those distinctions.' It is significant thatmuch of this blurring is taking place within a device oriented toward television, not the personal computer.

Only a few years ago, many computer companies were hoping to expand their businesses by incorporating TV features within their devices, not the other way around.As many had predicted, however, the mass consumer market is far moreaware of television-based technologies than PCs and other Internet devices, according to research. People are apparently willing to expand their surfing from TV channels to the Web, but they don't want to move from the living-room couch to the den to do it.The trend is most evident in plans by cable companies to offer advanced digital services such as email, telephony, Web access, digitaltelevision, and video on demand. Already cable companies are seeing that set-top boxes are a hotly contested battleground for the deployment of powerful software and chips once formerly reserved for personal computers.'

Is Miracle Box Legitimate

The set-top box is an interesting product to cable operators,'said Steve Guggenheimer, product manager for digitaltelevision group. 'They are the gateway to the rest of the world and other potential forms of revenue for them.'