All PVR

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).

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.

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.

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!

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

Hitachi announced it will release a 1 terabyte (TB) hard drive that can be used for video-intensive applications like PVRs.

Broadcasting and Cable pointed out that this can be great news for HD digital video recorders since they can hold even more hours of programming:

A terabyte could store about 125 hours of high-definition television using MPEG-2 compression at 18 megabits per second (Mbps) or almost 250 hours of HD programming using advanced MPEG-4 compression (at 9 Mbps).

A professional version of the drive will be marketed to set-top manufacturers for use in PVRs. Hitachi said it has also developed software for PVRs that manages various simultaneous disk operations, such as downloading shows and managing the electronic program guide.

Hitachi says the drive will be available in the 1st quarter of 2007 for about $399 MSRP (which equals 40 cents per GB).

[From Engadget and Hitachi's press release #1 and press release #2.]