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New Sony PVR/DVR and DVD Recorder
i4u writes "Sony announces in Japan a new digital recorder NDR-XR1 equipped with the 80GB hard drive and a DVD recorder.
The unit features a broadband connection to retrieve a programming guide. The system can record up to 90 hours of programming on the 80GB Hard drive.
Recorded shows can be directly burned on DVDs with the built-in DVD writer.
This is the dream machine! Wonder if it will be available on the US market, This baby is poised to 'piss-off' Hollywood. This would be a nice alternative to the ReplayTV box.
The Digital Recorder NDR-XR1 will go on sale April 12th in Japan."
Sony already makes a DVR built with Tivo technology. I imagine they will still use Tivo technology for a US release of the new product.
Adding a DVD burner is definitely a cool addition.
I'm a Tasty-vore. If it's Tasty, I'll eat it.
"DMR-HS2
Progressive-Scan DVD Video Recorder with 40GB Hard Disk & Time Slip Playback records to DVD-RAM and DVD-R discs
MSRP $999.95 "
Straight from the relevant page of the Panasonic site (which I'm having problems giving a direct link to, sorry).
The drive is only 40Gb in this case, but thats easily enough if you're backing up to DVD regularly.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
Or rather, the product will be crippled to hell by DRM systems to be nearly impossible to use properly.
This has been done before with the NetMD minidisc players, which don't allow to extract the pieces recorded with the microphone.
I wouldn't be surprices, if those burned DVD can only be played back on the same unit, that DVD commercial DVD can't be copied or some other copyright protection idiocy.
Actually, odds are, the Sony unit is a Tivo as well.
Ok let's step into relaity.
freevo is the lowest processor/ram hungry of all the free-pvr projects.
cheapest Computer that can do it as good as a Tivo is a Athalon 1800+ with 256 meg of ram. The mobo,processor,fan,case,powersupply in super cheap form (I.E. really crappy and ugly case) is around $400.00 now you need a video card that can handle tv out correctly... $50.00-$100.00 WinTV-D card to do the HDTV you mention $200.00 Pioneer A05 (anything else is utter crap for DVD burning) $250.00 Hard drive $150.00 - $300.00 depending on size/speed/quality.
now how about an IR remote? $30.00 for a ir reciever or build it yourself for $15.00 in parts and a good knowlege of electronics.
$1000.00 is the actual REAL price for a working freevo box done in economy mode. More if you buy a real AV case that looks like a stereo component.. MythTV requires a XP2600+ to do the same job because it requires X and really is no competition for freevo right now.
so you are off by a large amount because you left out most of the hardware needed. and you STILL need to hack together lots of pre-alpha software to get it to work.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Tivo no longer subsidizes hardware. Series 1 hardware was subsidized, but Series 2 is not.
"With the Series2, we're out of the subsidy business," Ramsay said.
That's TiVo Chief Executive Mike Ramsay as quoted at news.com