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Time Warner to Allow Digital Recording
platypussrex writes "CNN is reporting that some Time Warner cable customers will be offered the ability to use digital recording. The article says they will not have a commercial zapping feature but even the use of digital recording seems a major turn-around from what the entertainment industry has been saying so far. I wonder if this will help TiVo and ReplyTV gain 'legitimacy'?"
There's no such thing as HD S-video. Your choices in HD video are component analog (YUV or RGB), DVI, or FireWire. Digital is superior, of course, but with consumer equipment it's really, really hard to tell the difference between digital and YUV component analog.
S-video, or YC, isn't an option for HDTV signals.
Imagine you just sat down to find your favorite program.
Now imagine you power up your digi-TV-recorder from Time Warner.
You slowly hit the "Guide" button to scan for your favorite program.
All of the sudden, it's there, right in front of you, an AD brought to you by Time Warner!! Sitting right there, next to your channel choices! As you scroll through the list, you can't help but want to run out and buy a Big Mac....large fries.....super-size coke.... They aren't doing this to compete with satellite...they're doing it to integrate advertising into the overlay screens.
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
I am a TW cable employee (don't throw anything I am just an intern), and will be attending a session (4 hours for some reason) on this really soon.
I will say that they do know what the pricing is, and it will be rolled out in Greensboro, NC soon.
In addition, in case anyone cares. The whole system runs off a full rack of about 10 Sun servers... I can find out more info on those if anyone wants...
Tibbon
tibbon.com
No, S-vid doesn't do HD. When I say antenna I mean HD over the air, not normal crappy antenna signal. Most people get HD content via antenna, but Time Warner carries it in some markets via digital cable. It's much easier than dealing with the antenna and I don't need to buy the $500 receiver box to sit between the TV and antenna.
Well, for one thing, you get digital cable without the IR repeater that TiVo has to use. For my setup (digital cable + TiVo), the video signal goes through the digital decoder and then into TiVo. To change channels, the TiVo has little LEDs that you place over the remote sensor for the digital cable box. TiVo emulates the digital cable remote to change the channels, and is successful about 95% of the time. The rest of the time, TiVo almost changes the channel, and you get the wrong thing.
There are ways to lessen the effect, such as building an IR cage around the IR repeater/IR receiver portion. There are other options, such as going satelite (TiVo's ReplayTV box is a satelite decoder as well, so it has no problem changing channels) or basic cable (TiVo works fine as a basic cable box). But, since digital cable decoding is non-standard, the only way is to get the cable provider to offer a PVR box.
They probably won't go the TiVo route - TiVo would rather see a standard digital cable descrambler, usable in many cable systems, then one for each market. If a cable provider wants to make one for each market, TiVo will do it, but expect the cable provider to pay for the work needed to make the box. SonicBlue, who is behind the Time Warner box, is more willing to burnn their own money and work with the cable providers.
The real solution is a single, HD-enable digital cable standard, so that any manufacturer can make a box that works on all the networks, including TiVo. I imagine the cable providers get a bit of revenue renting out the digital cable decoders, so I don't expect this any time soon. Also, I'll have to see the pricing details to determine whether Time Warner is serious about this as a mainstream product, or only selling it to the rich folks that might have gone the SonicBlue route anyway.
I can find out more info on those if anyone wants...
The following would be truly appreciated:
1. What operating system does it run?
2. What kind of a HD and partition does it use? (Standard or propietary)
3. What other "special" devices are in it?
4. What specifically is propietary and what is standard parts?
5. What DRM management software is in it?
6. Is it automagically updatable?
7. What user usage data does it record?
and any other pertinent info too would be useful, I'm sure.
Actually, if you could just sneak out the information details, and scan them in, or get a monkey to type in, and submit a story to \., that would be truly appreciated.
Of course, I am in no way, shape, or form, encouraging a company IP theft. [Enter further appropriate disclaimer here.]
Envy my 5 digit Slashdot User ID!
You might want to check to see if your data cable is working and supported now. A nice surprise with version 3.0 was that I now have the serial cable going directly into my digital cable box -- no more ir mistakes! And it's faster too.