One of the main purposes of CES is for major business alliances to either be started or finalized, One such alliance was announced between Samsung and DirecTV involving multiple set-top boxes. A major irritation with having a multi TV home is it requires you to have a box either cable or satellite for each TV, well if you are a Samsung owner and DirectTV subscriber this problem maybe coming to an end. At CES 2011 Samsung and DirecTV announce an alliance which will allow a consumer to have one central server for multiple TV in a home. This is done by using the RVU protocol this protocol uses the combination of DLNA and [UPnP]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UPnPAVmedia_server) both industry standards. No longer will you need a separate box for each TV.
This will be first available on certain Samsung smart TVs, the LED D6000, LED D6400 and LED 6420 series which should ship to stores in March. The central server will allow each TV to receive separate live programing. You can also record and play recorded program from it on to any connected TV. You can also use it to access content on any personal media player or computer that is on the same local network. It can be updated at anytime thru software update. Meaning that additional services can be added over time. It allows secure access of copyright material by the use of DTCP-IP (Digital Transmission Content Protection over Internet Protocol.) The RVU protocol can even work with 3D TV.
There is no reason this same protocol could not be used with any smart TV and service provider whether they are satellite or cable. Of course that would mean that they couldn’t charge you five dollars a month of each box, but I am sure they will find a way around that problem. I look forward to a time when this is available through my cable provider, there are several boxes I would like to return.