Trouble with tru2way?

Tru2way is not all sunshine, moonbeams and butterflies, according to a blogger who posted that Panasonic’s tru2way TVs have hit major stumbling blocks in garnering CableLabs’ certification.

Cynthia Brumfield wrote in her IP Democracy blog on Tuesday that Panasonic’s tru2way TV sets have run into “dozens and dozens of bugs” during certification by CableLabs. Panasonic had hoped to have 42-inch and 50-inch tru2way TVs on the market by this fall, but Brumfield wrote that the company will be lucky to have any ready for the holiday shopping season.

According to Brumfield’s unnamed sources, the lack of tru2way certification has effectively torpedoed Comcast’s plans for deploying tru2way TVs, which don’t need set-top boxes, in Denver and Chicago in August.

Predictably, CableLabs issued a statement yesterday that said problems during certification were to be expected, which can be borne out by the DOCSIS 3.0 certification waves for cable modems that took several tries because everyone involved wanted to make sure the products were ready for deployment.

“Certification test results are not published by CableLabs,” according to the statement. “While we cannot address speculation made in the media about specific tests results, it is important to understand that it is common for devices to require multiple test runs before achieving CableLabs Certification. Manufacturers generally account for such timing in their product plans.

“CableLabs conducts multiple test waves throughout the year in order to accommodate additional testing. Panasonic has entered an upcoming certification wave, which provides ample time for products to reach the marketplace to meet the company’s rollout schedule. Other tru2way products, including products from Samsung and ADB, have already been certified by CableLabs.”

Earlier this week, CableLabs trumpeted the news that five more manufacturers had signed binding memorandums of understanding for tru2way with the top-six cable operators in the U.S. (story here). Panasonic, Samsung, Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB), Intel and Digeo have signed on for the new memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Sony inked several weeks ago (story here).