All PVR

On August 31, 2007, I posted an article about a DirecTV secret-weapon. It seemed there was a product leak, featured in a CEDIA color-supplement, about a powerful new “Super-DVR”. A DVR capable of recording 100 hours of HD programming… Well, they’ve finally revealed it’s true identity.

The HR21 Pro is a rack-mountable rig that sports optical HDMI output and supports 1080p. It contains 2 HD tuners (for recording and watching at the same time), and not only records 100 hours of Hi-Def, but records 400 hours of Standard-Def programming.

Superhero of HDTV? Maybe.

The Stinger (above) may be “old-school gamer” on the outside, but it’s all modern-tech on the inside.

David Flagg, President of Game Cabinets Inc., describes it like this:
“Anything you can do on your home computer you can do through this joystick on your TV.â€? That includes surfing the Internet and having fun with online gambling, using Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition, loading in PC games and using its DVR function, he says, adding that it also has a DVD drive.”

Upgrade to The Stinger Plus, and it includes about a trillion old arcade games. It’s like a Video Game conjuring genie, magically producing games like Dragon’s Lair (1 &2), EA Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Pacman, Toobin’, and Dig Dug (click here for entire list of games).

It’s geared toward home theaters, but it’s also a fairly portable video game/entertainment system. With dimensions of 28.5w x 13.75d x 5h inches, you can easily take it to a buddy’s house.

Flagg says it successfully unites nostalgia and modern technology: “It wraps everything into one. The functionality is cool because there is so much you can do with it.�

You can even get a Xbox and PSX adapter, which converts the output from the Stinger Controller into X-Box or PSX commands.

Think it’s expensive? Starts at $499 (’nuff said).

From Spycatcher of Knightsbridge, comes a pair of sunglasses befitting of “007″. As if from the dusty journals of “Q”, these sunglasses are not what they appear. Hidden inside the frame is a color video camera, PVR, and microphone (to film everything the wearer sees). And, that’s not all:

“The personal video recorder includes a built-in colour monitor and speaker, 32MB internal memory, which can be expanded by inserting a more powerful SD/MMC card and the ability to time and date stamp all video recordings.”

“Video system: NTSC/PAL
Resolution: 350 lines
Number of effective Pixels: 510×492 (NTSC) 500×582(PAL)”

Being like James Bond, will of coarse, cost you. In this case, (minus the Martini’s) the price is £816 or $1650.

It’s alive…ALIVE! A report from Gizmodo has uncovered a creature so fierce, that Dr. Frankenstein himself would weep with jealousy. From the bowels of Harmon Kardon’s laboratory comes “the DVC600″ (insert scary voice here). All we know about this Unix-based media center is:

-It records up to eight high-definition TV shows simultaneously.
-It’ll record and playback Blu-Ray.
-It may, or may not be unleashed upon America (by the year’s end) Yet, it will most certainly flog Europe.
-It’s going to cost as much as Dr. Frankenstein’s electric bill, $3000 to $4000 Euros ($4092 to $5456 US Dollars).

Godzilla has been unleashed upon Japan…only…much smaller. The new Qosmio G40 from Toshiba is set to trample much of Nippon into a pulpy mess. It’s jam-packed with powerful guts, DUAL DIGITAL TV TUNERS, and a heavy price tag (did I mention dual digital TV tuners?).

Here’s a few specs:
-Watch one program, record another (contains CyberLink SoftDMA and HDMI-CEC compatible with new Regza TV’s).
-HD-DVD drive.
-NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics, 256MB.
-17-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display.
-2 megapixel webcam.
-2GHz, T7300 Core 2 Duo processor.
-2GB memory, upgradable to 4GB.
-320GB of HD space.

And so, the “thunder-lizard” stampedes on, cutting a swath through Japanese cities the size of the Amazon river basin. To tame the beast it’ll cost you Â¥400,000 or $3252.29 USD.

Engadget.com

It may not be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, but it is capable of recording 100 hours of HD programming. It’s the HR21 PRO by DirecTV. This information was leaked from a CEDIA advertisement (shown above).

Here’s the mild-mannered list of known specs:

1. Faster than a speeding bullet! It’s equipped with “Optical HDMI Output (DLI)”. This means you’ll be able to have longer runs of cable, due the the use of fiber optics instead of the regular [short] HDMI cables.

2. More powerful than a locomotive! It’ll be the first DirecTV DVR to support 1080p.

3. It’s the Brand-Of-Steel! It’s rack-mountable, for those who have home theater rigs.

There’s no pricing yet available, and supposedly, it’s due for flight in November. So keep an eye out for this friendly neighborhood DVR (it felt wrong not to include at least one Marvel reference).

Originated at technabob.com, discovered on engadget.com.

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 Vistaâ„¢ Ultimate (or Home Premium) with Media Center functionality, a remote control, and an optional external cable TV tuner that works with a CableCARDâ„¢ 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-HiColorâ„¢ 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 Discâ„¢ 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® Coreâ„¢ 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.

For a one-time activation fee of $40.00, you can utilize an external hard drive with your Dish Network setup. Connect your HDD to your DN receiver via USB and voila, endless storage for your favorite shows.

Zatz Not Funny! Archive.

NewTeeVee is asking an excellent question: Can Closed Set Top Boxes survive the upcoming sweeping changes in Entertainment distribution industry?

Tivo is very programmable and has extensive set of APIs in HME and other areas. Still, the content on Tivo remains encrypted, in addition to potential watermarking. This makes media flow around connected home a seriously limiting factor.

Make sure to also click through to first impressions of LinkSys/Cisco vision of connected entertainment.

via NewTeeVee

cisco, newteevee, tivo

ReplayTV announced a deal for its ReplayTV PC Edition, its newly released DVR software (sorry Macs, PC only). Originally $99.99, ReplayTV is offering the software for 20% by February 27th. Simply use the coupon code RTVJAN0720 at checkout.

The bad news? You must pay an annual fee of $19.95 for the electronic program guide service (the first year is included in the price). Doesn’t that seem kind of lame? Especially when you can get rival software, like BeyondTV without the annual fee.

It also comes with a 30-day free trial, if you’d just like to sample it before buying.

And if you need a tuner card, there’s also a rebate for $20 from Hauppauge–the WinTV-PVR 150 or WinTV-PVR USB2. Just buy either model by January 31st and get a $20 rebate direct from Hauppauge.

DVRPlayground reviewed the Pinnacle PCTV To Go and said the remote control interface was “unfinished” and that it needs support for more devices using the IR Blaster.

Shawn Kent wrote a pretty detailed article about his quest to build his own DVR. He describes all the prices, has great links and plenty of pictures. So if you’re interested in (or are thinking about) building your own DVR, this is yet another great take.

He uses an old Pentium 3 computer, a 250 GB hard drive, a DVD-RW drive, Windows XP and Beyond TV.

Overall, he said he spent $800, which is kind of pricey. But then again he won’t have to pay monthly fees, like with cable or Tivo, so it can pay for itself after a few months. Still, $800 for a Series 3 Tivo will give lots more space and HD capability.

Tivo, DIY, DVR, PVR, digital video recorder, personal video recoder, BeyondTV

A NY Times writer tries his hand at building a DIY home media network after being inspired by a top-of-the-line set-up from Seagate’s CEO who has 7 terabytes of storage. That means “600,000 songs, 584,000 photographs and 1,000 hours of TV shows.”

So on a quest, the Times writer tried building his own under $1,000. While doing research he spoke to a Tivo product manager who spoke about Tivo’s desire not to be a media hub.

James Denney, vice president for product marketing at TiVo, said the company had not set out to be the center of everything. “Our approach is that there isn’t one hub in the house,” he said. “Our role is a display device near the TV.”

The overall result? His media network cost just about $850. and whole lot of effort.

PVR, DVR, digital video recorder, personal video recorder, home media, media server, DIY

Macworld published a review of the EyeTV 250, which is a hardware MPEG encoder that allows you to watch TV on your Mac much like a PVR. Elegato sells it for $200.

You can archive shows onto DVDs or onto your video iPod. The good news is that because the EyeTV 250 is an external hardware MPEG encoder, it can run on older Macs.

Overall, Macworld says that the EyeTV 250 is a “great personal video recorder for Mac users.”

Pros: Analog tuner; strong scheduling software; remote scheduling; one-click iPod video export; option to turn off hardware encoder for zero latency video gaming.

Cons: Requires external power adapter.

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.