All PVR

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 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.

Here’s the skinny, rumor has it Tivo will be offering $200 rebate on their Series 3 HD DVR for Fathers Day shoppers.

The rebate actually scheduled to run from May 27th to June 16th, plenty of time to find the lowest priced Series 3 and then get an extra $200 rebate on it.

Maybe I am just full of conspiracy theories, but this yet again shows that Tivo are prepping to hit $300 price mark in the near future (holiday season perhaps?). They will do it either by lowering Series3 cost (via Rebates or otherwise), or maybe by releasing a scaled down version of Tivo HD. But, whichever way it comes, I think we’ll all just be happy if it materializes!

[via EngadgetHD]

Not ready for HD just yet? Hop over to CircuitCity.com and pick up the popular Hauppauge PVR150, for under $70. It comes with Remote Control also, and 100% compatible with most Open Source PVR platforms, such as MythTV.

Tivo, Series3, HD-DVR, deals

Apparently right after I posted that Series3 is too expensive, rumors start circulating on the net that Tivo is working on cheaper version of HD Tivo.

Will it have to make serious sacrifices to reach the $300 price mark? I think that with technology rapidly evolving, by the time it’s released this fall, $300 should be able to buy a lot of functionality and storage.

Or lets all hope so, at least

[via Gizmodo]

Tivo, Series3, Rumor

Ok, second Friday deal, but much better one.

You can get Tivo Series3, which has HDTV and CableCARD support, for only $499.

You even get free Wireless card with it, and free shipping!

Also check out $299 prepaid 3 years subscription, which works out to only $8.31 per month.

What, $800 is still too much? Of course it is!!

Tivo, Series3, Deal

Comcast is reporting a 72% jump in HDTV and DVR subscriptions. I think doesn’t surprise anyone, and with continued fall of HDTV sets the trend will no-doubt continue.

For some odd reason, Comcast doesn’t count non-DVR HD subscribers versus HD-DVR subscribers, but I am sure people moving to HD are most likely getting HD-DVR receiver and not just any old HD cable box.

The transition to Digital TV is only likely to accelerate, now that Analog over the Air transmissions end is fast approaching.

[via TVPredictions.com]

comcast, hd-dvr

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

Our household had HDTV for several years now. I am talking about on-the-wall kind, not just small high-resolution LCDs. And I am not even one of those folks who would consider buying $10k plasma, ever. So I feel like mainstream in that regard.

So, is there HDTV signal yet? Better still, is there HDTV Tivo yet?

The fact is, I have to agree with PC Magazine article on this, Series3 is totally overpriced. It’s not so much that the technology in there isn’t expensive, I know it is. But Tivo always had in their business model the monthly fees as part of the long-term revenue!

And with rollout of Tivo on Comcast HD DVRs fast approaching, why would you ever consider such a pricey Series3 as an option?

Oh, and don’t forget that DishNetwork is giving away their superior HD-DVR for free and DirecTV charges a fraction of Series3 cost for theirs.

Tivo, HD DVR

No, you don’t need 3 expensive HDTV DVRs to do this, in fact, you only need One amazing one.

Which one? The excellent ViP622 from Dish Network.

It is capable of recording 2 HDTV broadcasts off the satellite along with 1 over-the-air HDTV broadcast.

Too good to be true? A friend of mine confirmed that his ViP622 had no troubles recording all 3 of those, while they watched 1 of the shows being recorded (with time delay, of course).

This is really amazing, considering how much data needs to be stored for each HD quality show, and to store it concurrently is quiet an achievement.

But, should you worry about getting Dish Network due to problematic Tivo lawsuit? I myself think the patent system is broken and we really should rethink the whole thing.

As always, comments about your experiences or thoughts on lawsuit are welcome.

All you sport lovers out there — Check out this exciting announcement from Dish Network.

LG released the next version of its HDTV with an integrated HD HDVR in Korea, and I hope it comes to the U.S. soon. Having an built-in DVR helps to avoid the problems of having a separate cable/DVR box, since the LG units can accept CableCards.

LG’s new LCD TVs have dual HD tuners so you can record two channels at once. But apparently they skimp out on the hard drive storage space. There are various sizes (from 37″ to 60″)

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.

If you just bought a new HDTV this holiday season, you may be in the market for an HD DVR. After all, you probably want to record what you watch, especially in HD format.

But is it better to do-it-yourself and build your own HD DVR or suck it up and buy a Tivo Series 3 DVR for $800? Tim Coyle compares the two. He prices out a DIY system from Dell for $700, which is pretty comparable to Tivo.

He also lists out the Advantages and Disadvantages to buying vs. building. His conclusion? Build it yourself, since you can upgrade and fine-tune your own DVR.

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

Looking for an HD DVR with lots of storage? DVRUpgrade is selling the Tivo Series 3, with an upgraded hard drive. It’s the largest capacity I’ve seen: 98-hours of HD recording and over 900 hours of standard recording.

That’s three times what Tivo gets you for just $500 more. Tivo’s storage is just 300 hours of standard TV and 32 hours of HD.

Plus, if you already bought a Series 3, DVR Upgrade sells upgrade kits. DVRUpgrade is in the business of selling upgraded Tivos and other DVRs. For this monster, DVRUpgrade installs a Seagate DB35 750GB hard drive. And it comes with DVRUpgrade’s warranty.

Some other options are a 32-hour ($699), 51-hour ($899), 65-hours ($1,149) and the big one, 98 hours.

But I wonder…Is 98 hours of HD content enough?

Techbargains has a link to OneCall for a Tivo Series 3 HD DVR for $599.97. That’s a great price for a box that usually costs about $800.

The Tivo Series 3 still needs to be about $200 cheaper. I think $399 would be much more reasonable.

I just clicked over to OneCall and found the price is still the same. I’ve never shopped at OneCall, so I don’t know how reliable they are.

tivo, dvr, pvr, series 3, deal