All PVR

Could this be the solution to our home entertainment nightmares? It’s certainly a step in the right direction. The Sony VAIO LT is an “All-In-One” 22″ Widescreen TV/PC with a DVR (and BluRay). Here’s what Sony has to say about it:

“Watch and record TV - including premium HD cable.
The high performance VAIO® LT PC/TV lets you watch and record analog, digital and cable TV (including premium HD channels2) on a stunning flat screen display. Featuring Windows Vista™ Ultimate (or Home Premium) with Media Center functionality, a remote control, and an optional external cable TV tuner that works with a CableCARD™ from your local cable provider, the VAIO® LT PC/TV lets you watch and record your favorite cable TV broadcasts, including premium HD channels, right from the box.”

“The VAIO® LT PC/TV can serve as your entire entertainment center – it’s all-in-one. The 22″ LCD display2 with XBRITE-HiColor™ technology acts as your HD flat panel TV while the cable TV tuner works in conjunction with Windows Media Center to act as your cable set top box with DVR. And since the VAIO® LT PC/TV features an available Blu-ray Disc™ optical drive, you can enjoy a movie in Blu-ray Disc® format and experience incredible picture and stunning clarity.”
“The VAIO® LT HD PC is sleek, slim and beautiful, but it can also rock some serious power. With an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and an easily expandable roomy hard drive, the VAIO LT HD PC/TV is super-fast and can run multiple demanding applications simultaneously - such as graphics-intensive games and high-quality TV and movies - while downloading music or running virus-scanning security programs in the background.”

It also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, built in camera and microphone, wireless LAN technology (802.11 b/g/n), and wall-mounting system.

To make the purchase of this small wonder, you’ll have to shell out $2900 clams. (there’s also a no-frills standard model, without the BluRay drive for $1900).

Visit Sony.

Shinco, a company based in Hong Kong, has successfully spliced a LCD TV with a PVR (insert diabolical laugh here). I know what you’re saying…YEAH!!! Well, hold your mutant man-horses. It has limitations. At the moment, there are no specifications on storage capacity (if any). And, there’s no second tuner, so you can’t record Robot Chicken and watch Flash Gordon at the same time.
However, there is some good in it. First, it is equipped with a USB port. So, regardless of built-in storage size, you’ll be able to attach a external drive of any size to store movies. Second, it’s equipped with a decoder for MPEG-4 video playback. Third (drum roll please)…the price. A 32 inch LCD will run you $805 USD.
This mutation has potential.

Everything USB

According to the New York Times today, Time Warner Cable will offer a free “DVR-like” service to it’s customers, called Look Back.

The good news? There’s no extra monthly fee.
The bad news? You can’t fast-forward commercials. And…you can’t save the shows, and, you have to watch the programs on the same day, before midnight (almost sounds like a Time Warner “Gremlin”).

Starting in October, in South Carolina, and working it’s way across the country, Look Back will be a tested in different markets to see if it takes flight. At the moment they’re still shopping around for channels that will take part.

The reason Time Warner created this service is because they believe that advertisers and consumers have similar interests. Peter Stern, executive VP for new product development said “Many customers do fast-forward through commercials when given the choice, and that is an obvious and undeniable benefit of a digital video recorder. But the digital video recorder is principally about enabling customers to watch what they want, when they want. It returns control to customers over the television schedule.�? Basically, you’ll watch commercials if you have control over what you watch.

Well…it is free “time-shift viewing”. It’s genuine competition for companies like TiVo and Comcast. Jeffrey L. Bewkes (president of Time Warner Inc.) said in July, “People are used to advertising. A good number of people like the advertising. Our research and our in-market tests show people would rather have free everything you want, when you want.�?

Maybe they’re right, maybe they’re wrong. It’s all up to you, Americans!

Having troubles with that Motorola DVR from your local Cable company?

Check out this excellent Wikibooks guide for the Motorola DVR.

Pay special attention to the Remote Control Programming chapter. It covers all the basics to let you search for appropriate device codes and set things like Global volume control.

motorola DVR

Woke up on this wonderful (albeit cold, 35 Fahrenheit in Georgia in April?!) Saturday morning to the news that Comcast has added Advertisements to their DVR boxes.

Disregard for a moment that it took more precious real-estate room from already overcrowded guide screen, and lets not worry about aprox. 1/8th of that precious hard-drive space on the device that got used up… I think we all should be happy to put up with advertisements. After all, they pay for majority of shows that we all enjoy, especially on excellent Over-the-Air channels.

And that got me thinking - Who exactly gets paid for these advertisements?

• Is it the Networks and Channels - Probably not, I don’t see how they could figure out breakdown to which network pay what
• Is it Tivo - Since it’s mentioned as Tivo functionality, maybe… But isn’t Tivo paid enough for their guide services via Dvr Fee and their direct subscribers?
• Is it Comcast - Probably. Those poor folks are hardly getting paid at all by their subscribers, so it’s only fair…;-)

Anyways, just my 2 cents. Let me know in the comments if you have specific details on these business practices.

comcast, HD DVR, tivo

NDS, the maker of DirecTV’s DVR, announced this week
a distributed or peer-to-peer DVR for its IPTV middleware product. NDS is a DVR manufacturer for DirecTV.

NDS’ distributed DVR system doesn’t have a hard drive in the set-top-box, but uses the space on a home network. NDS says that the lack of a hard drive can make for a lower priced STB enabling subscribers to upgrade their storage at any time.

At the same time, NDS’ ShareTV line allows IPTV subscribers to share their stored TV content using peer-to-peer technology using NDS’ Jungo Residential Gateway software. So if someone misses the lastest episode of Lost, for example, they can request it from another user and download it on their home network.

Later editions of the ReplayTV family of DVRs allowed this capabilities, but it did not sit well with content owners and TV studios. However, NDS says that its digital rights management (DRM) technology allows only valid users to share and transfer content to portable devices, for example.

According to Jupiter Research, these products can help telco providers to lower costs while providing innovative DVR features. Hopefully, companies will continue to innovate in the DVR space, and make these standard features.

[Via Engadget]

[Or the Press Release in PDF.]

NDS, Tivo, digital video recorder, PVR, DVR, P2P, News Corp.

NewsChannel 9 in Syracuse (New York) posted a story that said Time Warner had no more HD DVR boxes for customers. Apparently, there’s a shortage of HD DVRs because the company that makes the boxes have been “overwhelmed by requests for them”. Time Warner says that new boxes should arrive in two to three weeks.

NewsChannel 9 says that customers can still watch TV shows–like the upcoming Super Bowl–in HD because they have “plenty of regular high-definition boxes, without the DVR capabilities.”

I believe there are four reasons for this: 1) Super Bowl Sunday 2) a deluge of new HDTV sets purchased during the the holiday season, 3) the increasing popularity of DVRs and 4) the high price of the Tivo Series 3 HD DVR.

Customers that have a choice of HD cable boxes, prefer those with a DVR. That makes sense. Why not upgrade to a DVR after shelling out over $1,000 on a fancy new HDTV?

But buying a Tivo Series 3 for $800 (plus additional monthly fees) is out of the question.

So people want a Tivo but settle for their cable or satellite HD DVR. Something’s gotta give!

Bonus Story: The MercuryNews.com’s Action Line investigative report says readers are frustrated by Comcast’s DVR.

Bonus Story #2: TV Predictions wrote a story that North Carolina Time Warner is running out of HD cable tuners. The story didn’t mention DVRs, however.

Walter Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about high-definition television and using a high-definition compatible DVR. He says that Tivo’s Series 3 HD box is very expensive (about $800 plus $12.95 monthly fee). But Comcast’s HD DVR doesn’t have all the features of Tivo. So what should you get?

Mossberg writes:

I’ve been testing the new TiVo and I like it a lot, but it’s hard to swallow that huge price, especially since the new Series3 model doesn’t include some nice features available on the much cheaper Series2 version, which doesn’t record in high definition.

He goes on to say that Comcat’s high-definition DVR is “just awful�?.

If cable boxes were sold at retail like consumer-electronics devices, the Comcast DVR I tested, built by Motorola, would get creamed by better competitors.

Mossberg says the user interface in Comast’s DVR isn’t as good as Tivos, plus notes that there’s a latency issue when issuing commands from the remote control.

He sums it up by saying “The Comcast high-definition DVR is a cheaper, but flawed product and the TiVo Series3 is an excellent, but overpriced one.�?

Bonus: See Mossberg’s video as he compares Tivo vs. Comcast’s DVR.

The Minneapolis Star-Tribune gives a short but interesting overview of all the different options you have for getting a DVR. Steve Woodward writes that although Tivo is the “gold standard�? for DVRs, it isn’t the only show in town. Companies are now offering consumers excellent alternatives to Tivo such as:

Cable TV: (Like Comcast). These are great ways of getting introduced to DVRs since they have many of the same features as Tivo.

Satellite TV: (Like DirecTV). Another great option, but they don’t offer advanced features such as TivoToGo.

Freestanding DVRs: (Manufacturers like Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony and Phillips). The main differences will be the user-interface, and the electronic program guides. But oftentimes these freestanding devices come with extras like a DVD recorder for archiving shows. They can be more expensive, however, than other options.

PCs with DVR software: (Like Windows Media Center).Although a great feature, it’s not going to be popular for those not willing to use a PC as their method of watching TV. Great for geeks and other technies, however.

And the last one he mentions are DVR-capable TVs . These are TVs that can connect directly to external hard drives so you avoid buying a separate box altogether. They use the fancy new CableCARDs, as well. I’m not sure how handy these might be since they will likely not have an easy-to-use interface and you’ll still need to connect a hard drive close to the TV. But it’s still technology to keep an eye on.

Yet another category are the build your own or DIY personal video recorders, such as those powered by MythTV open source software. Anyone can now use a spare computer and build their own PC-based PVR, or buy a pre-built one such as the Monolith using MythTV.

Again, this is best for techies that are comfortable tinkering with PCs and Linux, but it’s yet another way people are looking for an all-in-one digital media experience with no monthly Tivo service fees.

The folks at Pocket Lint point out that Hauppauge released a triple tuner TV card, the WinTV HVR-3000. It can receive analog TV signals, satellite and Freeview, a digital terrestrial TV system in the United Kingdom. The HVR-3000 costs about £100.

So, yes, it’s only available in the U.K. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a Tivo with three tuners. I think my TV viewing would probably triple.

Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes that he has a love/hate relationship with his Comcast DVR. Why? For starters, it failed to record TV shows and claimed to be 100% full when it really wasn’t.

According to complaints that Owen received from readers is that shows are not recording consistently, not recording a show all the way, sluggish responses to commands using the remote, recording every episode of a series rather than just new ones, and well, lots more.

Owen says Comcast’s DVR is still very new and is experiencing these annoying hiccups which angers viewers. The response from Comcast?

“Tens of thousands of Comcast customers in the Pittsburgh area are currently enjoying their DVR services,” wrote Jody Doherty, vice president of public relations and community affairs for Comcast’s Three Rivers Region systems, in an e-mail. “With the ability to record shows and watch them whenever they want, DVR is quickly becoming one of our most popular product offerings. The issues the Post-Gazette has raised are isolated incidents. We are happy to reach out to the customers who contacted the Post-Gazette to address their individual needs.”

Where I live, I have Comcast, but they don’t offer a DVR. I would have liked to try Comcast’s DVR, but I guess I may have to wait.

If Comcast is serious about being a DVR contender, it must fix these problems and placate their customers quickly. It’s very easy to defect to more mature technologies like Tivo or satellite PVRs.

According to an interview by MacObserver with Nick Chakalos, Motorola’s Senior Director of the Software Product Management Group, Motorola licensed technology from ReplayTV not Tivo. Chakalos says that multi-room viewing is OK with Hollywood, but Slingbox is a different story.

The article also states that Motorola is looking to use Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices to add more capacity.

Motorola is perhaps best known for building a PVR for Comast. Time Warner and other cable providers.

From: PVR Wire.