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New Linux-based PVR from Sony: Cocoon
jivany writes "Linux based set-top box being offered by Sony that has a broadband internet connection and may offer the option of being programmed from a cell phone." Japan-only for now. There's an article in Japanese with assorted photos and screenshots.
who cares about pictures of a STB dont they look like a box....
what matters is what running inside is it a shoddy x86 or a nice MIPS/ARM chip
regards
John Jones
The US market will not accept this. It is great for us geeks, but the average Joe off the street won't buy it. If they did, then thinkgeek would be rolling in the money, and microsoft's PVR/webtv crap would be selling.
Just because it has linux as it's OS doesn't mean it will do well, especially in the US, where there isn't a market for it.
---
Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
its the ATI Xillion a STB on a chip, nice pice of kit
so sony didnt do anything to produce this except rejig the opening sceen and maybe some other fairly easy things
what I would like to know is can I have the sound server source and does it work (-;
(because the ATI supplied stuff sure does not)
regards
John Jones
I could have sworn I've used a PVR that does most of this and also connects to a broadband connection, as well.
A Linux (good) PVR made by Sony (evil)? I haven't been this ambivalent about liking or hating something since Jean Luc Picard became a Borg.
I think I need to lie down for a while.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
who cares about pictures of a STB dont they look like a box....
what matters is what running inside is it a shoddy x86 or a nice MIPS/ARM chip
"Cocoon uses the freely available Linux operating system and a microprocessor based on reduced instruction-set computing technology developed by MIPS Technology Inc"
www.matthewmiller.net
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Everyone seems to be forgetting the fact that this means that Sony does not condone PVRs.
I think that is a big step for a company that has a huge stake in the 'entertainment' industry (recording, producing, whatever).
They are sending a clear message that its ok with someone as big as them for the business to change. Its a good thing.
my 2 cents
Try this article from Reuters instead!
This box is actually based on the TiVo software, it just doesn't use the TiVo service. TiVoPony has said that there is a possibility this box could be released in the States, where TiVo service is available.
Here is a link to a discussion of this box on the TiVo Community Forum.
"The guide is definitive, reality is frequently inaccurate."
Sony, of course, are in the interesting position of potentially making a profit from "copyright" sales and from devices that enable users to do things that rights holders don't like.
Last year they made profits on music film and games and losses on technology.
However the market size for the latter is at least an Order of Magnitude bigger. Sony can't be unaware that DRM technologies are likely to stifle the growth of these devices (and could lead to lower revenues on sales of film and music in the bargain).
How they try to resolve the problem, economically and organisationally, is going to be interesting to watch.
I can't wait to see the fine print on this and other future Sony PVRs.
"Sony retains the right to update firmware automaticaly, replace it with Windows without disclosure if it so pleases, track your information for Sony's marketing departments, and limit number of downloads that are not paid purchases of Sony digital media. If Sony wishes to change this agreement in any way, you are to praise them for protecting you from the true axis of evil: yourself."
I fail to see the benefit in buying PCs from media moguls.
"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards." -Aldous Huxley
linux: nice cuddley penguins.. symbol of all that is good.
.. evil incarnate
sony: major proponent of the **aa's
owwww my head hurts now!
The Dish Network PVR is exactly what I was looking for. The DirectTiVo does a D/A conversion of the signal coming from the receiver, then a A/D conversion to store the picture on the hard disk. Sure that lets you select different quality levels, but with the size of drives these days...
On the other hand the Dish Network PVRs (which also run Linux) store the raw encrypted satalite stream to disk, then pass it to the decoder when you go to watch it just like it was coming off the air. The two units I've seen offered by Dish also have a 30 second skip button right on the remote. Sure they don't have all the features of the ReplayTV, but there are USB ports on the Dish box, and people have gotten USB-to-Ethernet adaptors to work on them with a hacked box.
It is time to start porting windows on it!
Just imagine, we will able to run your favorite Windows application on it and use it as expensive PC!
I'm quite sure that if we buy many Cocoons and then don't run their linux software, they have lost money!!!
That will surely be the cruel punishment for evil Sony corporation!
I keep struggling with the cost of Tivo+Service since I don't watch much TV and am generally disgusted with what I see when I channel surf.
However, I'm drawn to the idea that 10% or so of what's on TV is actually worth watching or is worth watching with the ability to FF through idiotic content or commercials.
Having some of that 10% available to me when the idea of watching TV is appealing intrigues me enough that I might actually get one when my coin can gets full.
It apologises if the user rejects its selections.
I really dunno if I could deal with this. Part of the reason I live away from my family/parents is so that I don't have to deal with them causing guilt trips for things they've done/bought for me. And anyway, I end up dealing with it every christmas, birthday, et cetera.
"I'm sorry you didn't like the Britney Spears revue Dave. But what has the DVD player ever done for you?"
What? Just a story about a new Tivo? Old news.
:)
The headline being Japan, I figured it would be about a Tivo that would pipe recorded video to your cell phone so you could watch on the subway while going to work! Aren't they supposed to be years ahead of us?
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
It's called a T*I*V*O. They've been out for a few years now.
What is the news story here?
Would it be absurd to imagine broadcast companies cushioning the blow of hdtv recording equip by inserting ads on the sides of the screen for 16:9 viewers on a 4:3 program?
That's actually a pretty good idea (good in the sense of creative and neat, not good in the sense of, well, good), but it'd be absurdly expensive. Wanna know why?
Regular old analog SDTV programs get upconverted to HDTV with a box that takes SDI* in and outputs HD-SDI at 1080i (or 720p). It's a fairly simple box, usually one rack unit high. Snell & Wilcox makes several models.
To upconvert a composited picture, though, would be a much more complex task. The device would have to take in SDI for the main picture, like it does now, and also a number of additional SDI inputs for the ad windows. The upconverter would have to scale and position the ad windows on the unused part of a 704 x 480 raster, then upconvert the whole thing. That's a much harder job than just upconverting 640 x 480 to 1920 x 1080, meaning the upconverters would have to be much more expensive, offsetting any revenue gains to be had from selling the new ads.
So I wouldn't worry about it too much.
*SDI = Serial Digital Interface, a digital signal standard for SDTV. HD-SDI is the same thing, basically, but for HD. Both are uncompressed and run over coaxial cables.
Wish I had known that. The person I talked to was saying exactly what I repeated. Seemed right as I knew the Tivo encoded MPEG2 from the cable tuner.
How about this, do you have to pay for the Tivo service on top of the satalite service?
That is one thing the DishPVR stores the normal program guide that comes from the sat service. But it isn't limited to being stored in RAM like most sat tuners (I know the Tivo stores it's guide on disk), so there is always 7 days of data available.
The DishPVR 721 has two tuners, so can do the same thing, record two shows, while watching another from the disk. I think the drive is 120MB, it is about 90 hours of total recording time.
As someone else said, the DishPVR doesn't have an encoder at all, so no recording of off-the-air, or cable. But there are no off-the-air stations around me, and I got the dish so I wouldn't have to deal with the horrid cable company (who's service goes down each month, as the price goes up). So I didn't even consider that feature.
Also the DishPVR has a feature to control a VCR to automaticly dump recorded programs to tape. I also don't have a VCR so I didn't care about that feature.
They seem to be about the same. All in all, I'm happy so I guess it doesn't matter.
1) Great disincentive for anyone to buy a 16:9 TV.
2) You think that once they started, they'd ever stop?
3) The slow adoption of 16:9 would even give them an excuse to continue broadcasting 4:3 with ads forever. "Well, we can't leave all those 4:3 folks in the dirt by broadcasting in 16:9 - better to broadcast in 4:3 for another 20 years and sell more sidebanner-ads!"
Creative idea, yes. Horrible and intruive for the conumer, yes. Probability of it happening: E_UNDEFINED.
(Media executives are unlikely to come up with creative solutions, but highly likely to come up with horrible intrusive ones. Probability is therefore, umm, divide-by-fish and carry the fnord?)
Sony isn't selling you a PC. They're selling a set top box. They didn't choose Linux because they hate MS (what OS comes preinstalled on VAIO?) they chose Linux because of technical and financial considerations. If they sold you a box and said, "Ok, now go install your OS and your PVR software," then no one would buy it.
Obviously you can hack the device and put on whatever OS you want. But that's not Sony's concern.
Right, but isn't the interest in the story the fact that it uses Linux? It's even mentioned specifically in the article that Sony chose Linux/MIPS over WinTel, that what makes it /. worthy, not necessarily that it's YAPVR.
This makes it sound like Cocoon is the first Linux based PVR
Never got that impression from the snippet. After all, it is new, and it's Linux based, and it's from Sony. How else would you word it?
If it runs linux, isn't it generally assumed it's programmable in by any conceivable method?
The great thing about this one is support for HDTV. There are severl "roll your own" options for HDTV PVR's. But, this will be the first off the shelf version (assuming it beats The Dish Network's HD PVR to market in the U.S.).
If it supports satellite TV reception, I will be first in line for one of these things.
If not, I will probably stick with my HDTV PCI card, homebrew PVR. Even though it's Windows based, it is an open usage system, which allows more flexibility than a closed system that I assume Sony would provide.
It's based on existing Tivo hardware.
I've got a Tivo at home, and replaced the drive inside with a larger one, and added a second large drive. (both Western Digital 5400RPM drives.)
By design, Tivo is always recording *something* so both drives are always going, and there's a 3" fan in the back.
I.
Can't.
Hear.
It.
The fan in the back spins slowly, so you don't get the "whirr" like you do with a standard PC fan. The brackets for the HDs are pretty well isolated with rubber grommits so the drives' vibrations don't transfer to the chassis.
Seriously, my TV on mute makes more noise than the Tivo does.
This thing is designed for A/V setups. Ambient noise(or vibration) is not a problem.
My Tivo is currentally in my bedroom, and I have no problems sleeping with the thing whirring away. I can't say that about my PC, or even my laptop.
AFAIK nobody uses Wintel for a PVR. ReplayTV uses the VXWorks operating system, on MIPS R3000 if I remember correctly. I agree, it's the "oh my GOD it uses LINUX that's SOO COOOL" angle that made it a headline.
/. culture.
BTW this is quite a parallel to the fact that Linux sucks so utterly as a desktop environment - who cares what the end-user features are or whether anyone would want to use this PVR, it's got Linux in it therefore it must be good. Corollary: if it has Linux in it, everyone should want to use it, full stop - never mind whether it has any worthwhile end-user features. And they wonder why Linux is having such a hard time winning over end-users.
And of course there's the fact that this is Just Another TiVo, which already was Linux-based. What a classic example of sucky
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!