§ 76.640   Support for unidirectional digital cable products on digital cable
systems.

   (a) The requirements of this section shall apply to digital cable systems.
   For purposes of this section, digital cable systems shall be defined as a
   cable  system  with  one or more channels utilizing QAM modulation for
   transporting programs and services from its headend to receiving devices.
   Cable systems that only pass through 8 VSB broadcast signals shall not be
   considered digital cable systems.

   (b) No later than July 1, 2004, cable operators shall support unidirectional
   digital cable products, as defined in § 15.123 of this chapter, through the
   provisioning of Point of Deployment modules (PODs) and services, as follows:

   (1) Digital cable systems with an activated channel capacity of 750 MHz or
   greater  shall  comply  with  the  following  technical  standards and
   requirements:

   (i)  SCTE 40 2003 (formerly DVS 313): “Digital Cable Network Interface
   Standard” (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602), provided however that
   with respect to Table B.11, the Phase Noise requirement shall be −86 dB/Hz,
   and  also  provided that the “transit delay for most distant customer”
   requirement in Table B.3 is not mandatory.

   (ii) ANSI/SCTE 65 2002 (formerly DVS 234): “Service Information Delivered
   Out-of-Band for Digital Cable Television” (incorporated by reference, see
   § 76.602), provided however that the referenced Source Name Subtable shall be
   provided for Profiles 1, 2, and 3.

   (iii) ANSI/SCTE 54 2003 (formerly DVS 241): “Digital Video Service Multiplex
   and  Transport  System Standard for Cable Television” (incorporated by
   reference, see § 76.602).

   (iv) For each digital transport stream that includes one or more services
   carried in-the-clear, such transport stream shall include virtual channel
   data in-band in the form of ATSC A/65B: “ATSC Standard: Program and System
   Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable (Revision B)”
   (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602), when available from the content
   provider. With respect to in-band transport:

   (A)  The  data shall, at minimum, describe services carried within the
   transport stream carrying the PSIP data itself;

   (B) PSIP data describing a twelve-hour time period shall be carried for each
   service in the transport stream. This twelve-hour period corresponds to
   delivery of the following event information tables: EIT-0, -1, -2 and -3;

   (C) The format of event information data format shall conform to ATSC A/65B:
   “ATSC Standard: Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial
   Broadcast and Cable (Revision B)” (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602);

   (D) Each channel shall be identified by a one- or two-part channel number
   and a textual channel name; and

   (E) The total bandwidth for PSIP data may be limited by the cable system to
   80 kbps for a 27 Mbits multiplex and 115 kbps for a 38.8 Mbits multiplex.

   (v)  When  service  information tables are transmitted out-of-band for
   scrambled services:

   (A)  The  data shall, at minimum, describe services carried within the
   transport stream carrying the PSIP data itself;

   (B) A virtual channel table shall be provided via the extended channel
   interface  from the POD module. Tables to be included shall conform to
   ANSI/SCTE  65  2002 (formerly DVS 234): “Service Information Delivered
   Out-of-Band for Digital Cable Television” (incorporated by reference, see
   § 76.602).

   (C) Event information data when present shall conform to ANSI/SCTE 65 2002
   (formerly DVS 234): “Service Information Delivered Out-of-Band for Digital
   Cable Television” (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602) (profiles 4 or
   higher).

   (D) Each channel shall be identified by a one-or two-part channel number and
   a textual channel name; and

   (E) The channel number identified with out-of-band signaling information
   data should match the channel identified with in-band PSIP data for all
   unscrambled in-the-clear services.

   (2) All digital cable systems shall comply with:

   (i)  SCTE  28  2003  (formerly DVS 295): “Host-POD Interface Standard”
   (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602).

   (ii)  SCTE  41  2003  (formerly DVS 301): “POD Copy Protection System”
   (incorporated by reference, see § 76.602).

   (3)  Cable operators shall ensure, as to all digital cable systems, an
   adequate  supply  of  PODs that comply with the standards specified in
   paragraph (b)(2) of this section to ensure convenient access to such PODS by
   customers. Without limiting the foregoing, cable operators may provide more
   advanced PODs (i.e., PODs that are based on successor standards to those
   specified  in  paragraph  (b)(2)  of  this section) to customers whose
   unidirectional digital cable products are compatible with the more advanced
   PODs.

   (4) Cable operators shall:

   (i) Effective April 1, 2004, upon request of a customer, replace any leased
   high definition set-top box, which does not include a functional IEEE 1394
   interface,  with one that includes a functional IEEE 1394 interface or
   upgrade the customer's set-top box by download or other means to ensure that
   the IEEE 1394 interface is functional.

   (ii) Effective July 1, 2011, include both:

   (A) A DVI or HDMI interface and

   (B) A connection capable of delivering recordable high definition video and
   closed captioning data in an industry standard format on all high definition
   set-top  boxes,  except unidirectional set-top boxes without recording
   functionality, acquired by a cable operator for distribution to customers.

   (iii) Effective December 1, 2012, ensure that the cable-operator-provided
   high definition set-top boxes, except unidirectional set-top boxes without
   recording functionality, shall comply with an open industry standard that
   provides for audiovisual communications including service discovery, video
   transport,  and remote control command pass-through standards for home
   networking.

   [ 68 FR 66734 , Nov. 28, 2003, as amended at  76 FR 40279 , July 8, 2011]

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Subpart L—Cable Television Access

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