Abstract :
Standards committee progress is often painfully slow. To a newcomer, especially someone accustomed to the "fast lane," this activity can be quite frustrating. There are several points to be made about this. Firstly, if cable interface and decoder interface standards were easy to achieve, they\´d have been agreed to a long time ago. There\´s been pressure for an extended period of time. Secondly, the issues being settled are delicate points involving trade-offs which Impact the economics and performance of two industries. These two industries have a history short on cooperation and long on confrontation. Fortunately, the trend toward cooperation is on the up swing.
