Here's the scoop: CableCard is literally a card that you pop into the back of your TV set so that you can get rid of your digital cable box and plug that coax directly into your digital TV (it's sort of like how you can use analog cable on a cable-ready analog TV without a cable box).
"This includes wire for video, which is the coax wire, and that runs the cable television on it. (And) a data line, which runs data to the upstairs as well as the telephone, " home technology consultant George Ide said.