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Sony's Linux DVR Can Record Two Weeks of TV
DoctorNo writes "Sony will introduce - in Japan only - a Linux based video recorder in early November which can store 342 hours of content with 500GB of hard drive space. As well as the highend machine, Sony will also offer a cut down version with a 250GB drive. They will be priced at $1380(500GB) and $1035(250GB). More information,
specs
, and pictures
(Japanese). Add another to the list of consumer
Linux devices..."
Please be more careful next time.
Man if I only lived in Japan. They have all the coolest stuff. I guess I'll stick with my Linux powered Freevo machine.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
Excellent, yesterday Dell, now this. Linux is coming into the home.
Sadly, given the major networks' lineups, I'd say that this is likely a feature I'd never use.
57 channels and nothing on...
On the other hand, pushing the envelope further and further makes the lesser powered models come down in price - which makes everyone happier.
Although, I am a Time Warner subscriber and there OnDemand service does quite enough for me IF they expand it to more channels. I can start and stop shows all I want.
I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
Considering that Sony and Philips used to be the manufacturers of TiVo units, and TiVos are Linux-based - Are these just new TiVos with huge hard drives?
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Close to 1500 for a suped up VCR. Ouch.
I have a question, would you all be as excited about yet another PVR, would this be newsworthy, if it ran Windows CE or anything other than linux?
And why does it not bother anyone that the OSS community will get nothing out of this, like improved video capture drivers for your linux box?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
You might as well just pay the extra $245 for the 500GB model.
Why yes I am paranoid! Thanks for asking!
Why leave the house when I have 2 weeks of television available at a moments notice!
Morbid obesity, here I come!
They can have my TiVo when they pry it out of my cold dead .... oooo doughnuts!
I know that I seem to ask this on at least half of the new products posted here...but I just don't get it!
Why in the world would you want 2 weeks of TV? I suppose multiple shows etc...but thats a LOT of shows.
Maybe if I could plug it into my DVD player and copy over the 5 DVDs I rented but forgot to watch before they were due back. Still 2 weeks?
I think it'll be cool when it can store 6 hours and cost $150.
In Soviet Russia, the television watches YOU!
jsut think...two whole weeks of seizure robots, brought to us by our friend, open source software.
xao
xao
http://TheHillforum.hopto.org
Or, after you remove the commercials, about 24 real hours...
In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
You know, there have been several articles on /. regarding the fact that many predictions about the future of technology just haven't come to be.
;)
I really think we have lost sight of what's truly important. Forget about moving sidewalks and flying cars, this device is getting pretty close to my utopian future vision... a video on demand device that will hold every Dr. Who episode.
The future is looking brighter
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
Living in the UK, I would estimate that there is on average around 3 hours of TV per week that I would actually consider worth recording (maybe two, now Six Feet Under stopped on terrestrial). At that rate this thing would last me three years without having to erase anything!
Slick micro-atx case: $59
Athlon and mainboard with integrated sound/video: $160
2x 250GB harddrives: $500
The Sony logo to put on it: priceless
For everything else there's a cheap x86 box.
-AX
^I'm with stupid.^
the media is definitely no going to be happy with it, especially with ability to skip ads, i wonder how they are going to act if it becomes popular.
The IT section color scheme sucks.
The device comes with a mandatory 'automatic purge' feature. Each recording is marked by a timestamp on disk and thirty one days after a recording has been made, it is automatically deleted. This feature fits in with Japanese copyright rules.
Oh great, what next? A 'will not record porn because it's not good for the children' feature? When will consumers get treated like adults? This sucks about as much as the end of Jeepers Creepers 2 where all the people except the hot chick die.
mogorific carpentry experiments
the average consumer doesn't need this, but a business might. Imagine being able to record 2 weeks worth of security footage without having to change a tape.
Image the amount of rain I can record of the US Open!
All errors in this comment are mine. Corrections are considered a derivative work, and punishable under copyright law.
More information, specs , and pictures (Japanese).
I can't make out any of the information or specs but hey, it seems I am fully fluent in looking at Japanese pictures. And I never even took lessons!
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
* Keyword just is registered, gathers favorite program,new "entrust roundly record 2".
* You study the taste, the favorite so being automatic, you videotape program,"the male be completed algorithm".
* Ground wave 2 tuner loading which corresponds to CATV. 2 programs where broadcast is piled up can be recorded simultaneously,"2 program simultaneous video recordings".
* Relay of the baseball and the soccer becoming extension, without letting escape, you can record,"baseball extended corresponding function".
* Without overlapping it can videotape can reserve continual drama and animation"series reservation".
* It can enjoy to seamless also program and the still picture which are video recording program and in the midst of broadcasting"MyCast view".
* The attachment remote control which adheres to ease of use, actualizes comfortableoperativity.
* with cooperating, recording favorite video recordingprogram to DVD.
* Bulk hard disk loading which records favorite program and the program which becomes matter of concern, steadily and is accumulated."
What does "entrust roundly record " mean?
Sounds nice tho'!!
I've had my Sony DVR running Linux for a couple of years now, it's called a DirectTivo. Hooks to the satellite, and I get a bit over an hour per gig of storage.
Yes, it's exciting and cool to have Linux in consumer devices, but it's certainly nothing new, not even the Sony DVR aspect of it. SAT-T60 is the model number, in case anyone wants to google.
Then I could perform relaxing channel surfing on recorded video.
Save the bandwidth. Don't use sigs!
I have a MythTV box which can store about 100 hours on a 120G drive right now. A MythTV box can be built for easily under $500 including the cost of the hardware encoding Hauppauge Wintv PVR 250 card and a 120G harddrive.
Keep your Tivos and your monthly subscription.... MythTV is the best/cheapest PVR out there. I can watch any live or recorded show on any linux box in my house or on the TV in the living room using the TVout of my Linux box in the other room.
I also reencode shows for watching on my Dell Axim PocketPC (they are just Mpeg2 files after all) when I travel. 3 one hours shows fit onto a 256M CF card.
No proprietary formats to mess with either.
What they *really* mean is that it will record two weeks worth of in-your-face infommercials, sliced-and-diced movies that bear little resemblance to the original threatrical release, and the same episodes of inane sitcom reruns over and over ad nauseum.
I am reminded of the observation that "TV is a medium that is rarely well done." Methinks I'll spend the $1380 on a memorable two week vacation instead.
I like the size of the hard disk, but these days we expect more from our tivo-like devices. For example, camcorder input, output onto CD rom or DVD rom, and maybe network access. How well can it control a cable box? What about recording two channels at once? How much does the program guide cost?
The RCA Scenium gets its program guide for free from the TV signal (only 2-3 days ahead though.) The Panansonic DMR-HS2 writes DVD+RW and DVD RAM disks (RAM might be a proprietary format) but it can't control a cable box.
The box doesn't show room for a writable optical drive, and that's what I want most. On the other hand, if we can get the source, maybe we can make a do-it-all box with a decent user interface...
--- Often in error; never in doubt!
You could buy a 500 GB MythTV box, with dual tuners and about 3 xboxen for front ends. You could have the same storage and have time shifting in four rooms of your house, not to memtion all of the plug-ins mythvideo, mythdvd, mythgame, mythmusic, mythweather, and you could ssh into it as well.
This doesn't seem all that innovative to me. They're not actually doing anything except throwing capacity at the problem. And, they're not even utilizing that capacity very efficiently. A TiVo typically stores 1 hour/GB of disk space (at the lowest quality setting). So 500GB of disk in a TiVo would enable 500 hours of recording, not 342. Instead of slightly over 2 wks of programming, a similarly equipped TiVo would record slightly under 3 wks.
Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
Why is it that all the linux geeks Woop and Holler when Linux is used in a consumer product. I got news for them. It is not because its open source, it's not because its politically correct, it's not because its the best OS.
It's because it's FREE! The time and money to develop an embedded OS, or licensing fees for using a pre-existing one used to be a very expensive undertaking. Now with Linux it's free with minimal R&D.
Celebrating price only reflects one thing, price. It has nothing to do with stability, or politics.
+1: asswipe
Great, now I can take a 2 week vacation and catch up on the 2 weeks of TV that I missed while the machine records the current 2 weeks of TV I'm missing while I catch up on the 2 weeks of TV that I missed while on vacation.
/.)
Something tells me that people watch too much TV and should get back to work
(as I sit here at work, posting on
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Comment removed based on user account deletion
684 episodes of Striperella! Oh wait, like it will last that long ...
J3M
Aych tea tea pea colon slash slash slash dot dot org slash
Hey.
:)
yeah you.. all you people out there who are saying well golly why we do we need so much space...
why do you need more then 640k of ram?
The details on the Sony box are a bit thin, but does anybody know why it would cost $1400 for the high end model?
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
Why not use some throw-away media instead of a huge hard drive? Is the 30 day max the problem here?
My HP software already warns me before it lets me remove the media. It would be just as easy to erase the media before allowing it to be removed in order to meet Japan's laws.
No? Then it's crap. We need HD DVRs.
I'll grant that it has neato geek factor, but I only paid $99 for my DirecTivo. For $1,400 I could have DirecTivos in every room of my house and my garage and still have plenty of money left to install mega hard drives in each one to up the capacity. And for the record, Tivos ARE Linux boxen which is why they are so geek-friendly when you want to mod them. So other than having a large hard drive stuffed into it I don't really see what makes this device all that special, and certainly not at that price.
"The bigger the lie, the more they believe." - Det. Bunk
Go for the ...lack of burn, man. Go for the lack of burn!
Build a MythTV box... use the default MPEG-4 encoding, and you'll get an hour of recording for every GB available... you can even store to remote NFS or samba shares, distribute the recordings over your local network, and use your modded XBOX to watch Live TV (streamed over the network from the backend) or recorded shows. 500GB would give you 500 hours :)
.:diatonic:.
I've been wondering why someone doesn't set up a small company to assemble and sell linux machines with freefo or mythtv. I'd buy one. They'd be cheaper than the > $1000 price tag. And they won't have the issues that Tivo has where they don't skip commercials (I think.)
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
Just curious.
What the best Linux-based (of course) software to put on this thing? Last time I looked they were all pretty immature.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Sony's Click-to-DVD stuff is swamped with DRM crud. You can't do anything with the stuff you record other than play it on [a limited selection of] Sony hardware + software. Further, the stuff won't play anything that wasn't recorded and encoded with Sony's tech so forget about watching movies you downloaded off the net on your TV using the recorder's network connection. It's proprietary junk that should be avoided.
If you do the math on the bitrates, the 342 hours on 500 gigabytes works out to 3.3 Mbits/sec and that's supposed to be the 'low quality' mode. The 'high quality mode' is close to 10 Mbits/sec which means it's almost certainly yesterday's MPEG2 technology.
I'll wait and get a MPEG4 harddisk recorder, thank you all the same. It doesn't even need a DVD burner. On the same harddisk capacity I'd expect to have at least 600 hours of content. My money goes to the first supplier of a device recording MPEG4 encoded content from television, or any video source, onto a networked harddisk recorder in which a recorded show receives a garden variety DivX/AVI wrapper you can later watch on your PC or burn to a CD if you wanna keep the show.
Two weeks of TV? Bah... this would be much better suited to recording HDTV signals. Speaking of which, wasn't Tivo working on an HD-capable unit?
Come on troops you can Build this yourself. Cheap as Chips! VDR serves as a user interface for those who want to build their own digital satellite-TV receiver and recorder box running under Linux. http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/08/29 /howardwen.html
It is based mainly on the DVB-S digital satellite TV receiver card from Fujitsu Siemens, and upon drivers developed by the LinuxTV project. Essentially, VDR ties together this hardware and software with Linux so you can have your own TiVo-like box, but with the extras that TV network executives don't want you to have: on-screen removal of commercials and the ability to burn TV programming you've recorded to CD-Rs in the VCD format.
http://linuxtv.org/
Many Yes lyrics are strangely poetic. Things like "spellbound roundly good for sunshine". Maybe they were somehow able to channel the 'fish back into the past.
This is pop culture, culture that is not trash, but kleenex. Use and remove.
Dark Ages of information? some people think this way and try to save info as posible.
-Woof woof woof!
15 years from now PVRs will hold more information than we could watch in a lifetime
It is not because its open source, it's not because its politically correct, it's not because its the best OS. It's because it's FREE!
You say that like it's a bad thing. Must be because your Microsoft stock options are not going to be worth as much, because this free OS is forcing your employer to lower the prices on it's buggy, expensive OS's.
The funny thing is, it won't be too long before these specs are considered run-o'the-mill for DVR's!
Half a terabyte in a box you put on your TV, geez...
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
An associate was saying this is basically a rebadged tivo...and if it's not tivo hardware, they are licensing TiVos technology.
Now...put a "save to DVD" option on one of these..and I'm sold.
-Rob
for anyone saying that, give it a try. I doubt it will last past the novelty phase, and will NOT pass the girlfriend test... It simply is way too cumbersome to be a usable solution.
Since it's being used to record TV, SCO will now claim that they have a copyright on TVs since it's part of the system, and therefore a derivative work. They will proceed to sue every household and business that has a TV. (probably 99% of Japanese businesses and households)
is everything that American's would truly want to have is only ever released in Japan? What is wrong with those fools, don't they realise that we want this kind of thing here? Sure they're overly priced for what it does, but come on, at least they could do is sell them here as well.
As you probably can tell, I'm not a big fan of things like DVD regions as well.
I can leave the house and take 2 weeks of vacation!
-- No sig for you!
Note that he mentioned a DirecTiVo
These are financed in the same way as cell phones - Dirt-cheap if you commit to a 1-2 year contract. (In this case, a contract for DirecTV satellite service.)
Also, it's a 35-hour unit, which means (approximately) 30-40 gigs of storage as opposed to the 250 or 500 gigs of these new Sonys.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The feature list details some of MythTV's features, including:
It's a box! Knowing Sony, it'll be a very nice box, and I wouldn't mind having one.
But it's a box!!!
Why the hell does ANYONE care what operating system it's running? It's a box!!!
"Information wants to be paid"
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/030625/law044_1.html
Coming in fall....can't wait.
You want a hardware MPEG encoder.
Which means $150 for a capture card. (WinTV-PVR 250)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
In addition, most security systems can get away with low framerates (1-5 fps vs. 30), which REALLY reduces HD space.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
recorded a bunch of shows one after another and then waited 31 days, would that be "binge and purge"?
Who need TV? Its crap. For eons I only nav the web and read some docs. This /. post is about crap for dummies, only a way to store more crap in a tiny device. And about Linux, hardware vendors will hate to provide source code that will help some people to reverse ingeniere is hardware
I mean they are giving things back to the community right ? or is this a free for all land grab ?
I wanted to take a look at the picture, but the summary says:
"More information, specs , and pictures (Japanese)."
I can read the info and specs, but how can I see the pictures if they're in Japenese?!?!
1800$! i could wait along time for that much money.
sounds like the panasonic modles available now! cept without the tivotax.
Some minor corrections. The DMR-HS2 has for the most part been replaced by the DMR-E80 and the E-100/120. All have HDDs, the the much higher priced E100 series have firewire for camcorders. Panny always supported DVD-R and -RAM, but never the + format or the -RW format.
What I want/expect is DVD writing ability, but not just basic 1x real-time copy:
1) High-speed copies to removable media to HDD
2) Multi-program batch saving
3) Selectable downsampling to lower bitrates for maximum programs/disc (good for trips or where quality is less important).
4) DVD to HDD copying for region 0 and unencrypted discs (the panny's with HDDs will copy DVD-RAM to HDD, but not DVD-R). Yes, CSS and region locked discs should be copyable, but I'll give the MPAA a freebie here.
5) Basic editing for unwanted portion deletion. I collect music clips from TV shows, and I don't want or need the whole fsckin' Leno show for one 5 minute music spot. Commercial deletion would be nice, too.
And this of course is above and beyond the usual requirements of Tivo features, good UI, and "just plug it in" appliance-like setup.
Shills for Myth TV may claim all of this, but until someone releases a bootable Myth TV distribution that installs and configs in an hour or less, I'm too busy enjoying my Tivo and Panny to do Myth TV. My time is worth more than the money at this point.
The stock TiVo kernel doesn't support anything better than LBA28 but with a custom kernel you can do better (I have a 300GB maxtor in mine). Currently Series1 only but now that people are hacking Series2 TiVo proms it would be trivial to add LBA48 support to the 2.4 kernel on those boxes.
it implements copyright rules! i'm quite sure sony wouldn't put this feature in if the law didn't exist. so we can't neccessarily blame manufacturers...
Yeah, like the Jukebox software they provide with their MP3 players that only let you "check out" tracks on 2 different devices at one time. You can't delete such a track from the standalone player (away from your computer); you must check it back into the computer.
Nor can you download such a track from your MP3 player to a friend's Jukebox to use on his Sony MP3 player.
Face it. Sony are now a content company as much as they are an electronics company.
to quote Archie Bunker: "Would you feel better if we pushed them out of windows?"
Get a FREE Sony PS3
- Company cleverly circumvents GPL to have its software development subsidized. No source code to community.
- No average end-user will ever know what the underlying operating system is.
- The OS licensing bit is less than 2% of the final cost of the product - in other words, the price savings will not appreciably passed along.
In other words, to parahprase that cleverIt seems like in order to get the best use out of this unit, you would need more than just two tuners. I have DSR7000 DirecTivo and it has two tuners, and I still get conflicts with trying to record more than two shows at a given time. I wonder what kind of issues you would run into with this unit. You have all of this storage space, but not enough tuners to record with if you have multiple shows playing at the same time. I know there are quite a few times when there are movies playing on other channels that I don't want to watch right now, but would love to record them if only I had more tv tuners to allocate.
Here a Sig There a Sig Everywhere a Sig Sig...
Consider this:
You're going away for a couple of weeks for whatever reason.
1. Choose a channel with decent adult material
2. Press 'record' on your Sony 2WEEK-Linux-Video.
3. Come home after 2 weeks
Now, given that there is about 2 hours worth of good pr0n every night on the selected channel, when you come back home you will have a HD with 28.5 hours of quality pr0n! Do i need to continue this equation? Do I need to spell out point #4?
My Sony Tivo has been capable of holding over 300 hours with a simple drive upgrade for ages. The design's been around for years and it runs linux.
So they've just taken same old tech and scaled it up.
What *WOULD* impress me is if you could have this thing in your home for a while, and it would learn about what types of shows you like to watch, and it would find shows that most closely match the criteria from the available TV listings and record them for you while you aren't watching. I would be even more impressed if it was able to record two or more (ie, any number of) shows being broadcast simultaneously!
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Ah, I don't work for microsoft, sorry. Plus, I didn't say it was a bad thing. I only meant it was not a reason to celebrate. All these embedded Linux announcements just sound like celebrating the fact that it's free, not that it's good, or better.
FREE != Better. Right tool for the right job at the right price.
BTW RedHat Linux Server OS Standard Price($1500) > MS 2003 Server Standard($940). And the support is just as readily avaiable for each. I know you can grab a version of Linux for free, but you don't get the suppurt, ease of installation, and enterprise tools.
Apparently, TiVo Inc., doesn't see a market for such high-end PVRs. But the secondary market has picked up the slack. Weakknees.com sells a 320 GB TiVo for $660 (but remember that it's another $300 for lifetime service; the article doesn't state whether Sony's prices include service). The one big advantage of the Sony unit over TiVo is that it provides a save-to-DVR option--but only if you link it to a Sony-brand computer.
From the pictures page:
* The new "Omakase Maruen 2" feature will automatically record programs you might like, just by registering a keyword.
* The "Osusume Algorithm" will learn your preferences and automatically record programs.
* Two cable-tv compatible tuners, so you can record two programs at the same time.
* The "Baseball Overtime Function" will automatically keep recording for when baseball or soccer games go into overtime.
* Can automatically record SkyPerfectTV drama and anime series without recording the same episode twice with the "Series Reservation" function.
* Seamlessly view programs on the air, recorded programs, and stills with the "MyCast View"
* An included remote control designed for maximum usability and comfort.
* Programs can be recorded to DVDs by connecting a VAIO computer.
* A large hard drive, so you can record all the programs you like, and ones you are just curious about.
In otherwords, they are locking users into their own propitary products (just like Sony tried with memory-stick, MiniDisc, SACD, etc) and their systems all ship with Windows, so you are screwed over anyhow.
You know, I would think that, a company that hates Microsoft so much would at least make it possible to use their products on something other than Windows. Most manufacturers will at least include Mac OS compatibility, but Sony seems to be pusing Windows hard. Wonder if they will continue with this trend if the next version of the X-Box out-sells the Sony Playstation.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
I'll call bull
Free is a factor but not like you claim. You could get free automotive advice from a bum on the corner or your brother-in-law. That does not mean it will work or be good advice.
Linux, Windows, or any other system is chosen because of the combination of price, flexibility, and stability. Other factors that should play a smaller role and are less technical reasons are past experience (or Staus Quo) and political pressure. When the non technical reasons play a major role in your decision, you have an increased risk.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Hmmmmm.. a Linux-based DVR by Sony? Where have I heard of that before? Oh yea, here. Available in the US, too.
i dont know, they can keep that "the male be completed algorithm" all to themselves, i dont want any women getting a hold of that
i sell illegal drugs
You forgot to call the original poster an idiot. Are you new to the internet or something?
so? i dont care why linux is one step closer to killing m$ so long as it is...
i sell illegal drugs
Before you know it, it won't just be you deciding what you want to record, but the PVR dictating what you can and can't.
Avantslash - View Slashdot cleanly on your mobile phone.
I'm seriously looking for a replacement for my vcr's, I'm disgusted by the fact that the heads on my Sony have worn out after less than two years. It seems to me that all the hardware nessesary: video capture / DVD-rw / computer w/ 250gb+ hard drive to build a generic tivo (just program it ahead of time with what you want to record) is available and only the software is missing (though how the computer would switch channels on the cable box is beyond me) doesn't anyone make something like this or does the riaa etc. have everyone scared?
A lot of the improvements that Tivo had to make (which were branched from an old development kernel) were actually folded back into the present kernel that everyone uses when Tivo posted their modified kernel as they are required to ("Linus' kernel"). They do have a lot of their own proprietary software on tivo though, but that is allowed, obviously.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I am talking embedded systems. Windows is not an Embedded OS. I am talking about embedded OS's that companies like WindRiver and Radisys and a lot more.
I used to do embedded systems for industrial controls. If I went to my boss and said I could save him all software licensing fees, and I didn't have to right everything from scartch he would have me do it. Unless a client requested a particular OS, or needed an RTOS.
My point is that these "Victories" are not victories against the big evil MS. They don't prove Linux is the best. They are actually stealing money from companies that produce "maybe" a better product. And that Linux is free.
Here some other Linux based Sony products (which they call Cocoon).
Sony's Linux initiative seems to be based on broadband content delivery.
CSV-E77 is basically the older version of currently discussed machine. It offers PVR capabilities on 320GB storage(on two 160GB drives), but is only around $500
NDR-XR1 is also a standard PVR, but it comes with built in DVD burner for backing up the videos you took.
CSV-P500 is what Sony calls a "Channel Server" it's a standard PVR, but it comes with an interesting feature where you can call home and program your PVR via a telephone line.
NAV-E900 is an interenet enabled home sound system, it allows you to download content from online and play them on your system. Also it can communicate with NetMD. It will also rip all your CDs for you and store on it's internal 160GB Harddrive so you don't have to put it in again. You can view all your stored content through a menu driven interface that is outputed to your TV.
Thanks, Mr. Ruin-The-Big-Ending-For-Me!
340+ hours of recorded video is cool and all, but what I could REALLY use is to record two channels at the same time.
It's fine when you're at home and you can watch one show, while recording the other. But when I'm out, there have been many times where I want to record two shows at the same time.
I suppose you could get a VCR (or two) to supplement your recording needs. They are cheap enough, but seeing as one benefit of PVRs is so you dont have to use tapes anymore, it's an inelegant solution...
I already own the Panasonic PVR/DVD-R unit that _doesn't_ have the TiVO service, and I can't say that I miss it one whit. (Panasonic DMR-E80H) It can record 40 hours of programming at current HD levels (you could probably upgrade that yourself with a bigger HD and a bit of know-how), and lets you edit out the commercials (by hand, admittedly) before burning your programs to DVD. Quite a nice way to build a collection, so far. I don't mind having to program record times, like with a VCR - that's a minor hassle at best.
Recent bankruptcy and current product line notwithstanding, ReplayTV had a 320 hour unit a year or two ago.
------
There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.
DirecTiVo: $249
Usage: $4.95/mo
Upgrade to 120 GB HD: $120
Add another 120 a few months later: $90
Total recording time: about 220 hours (reported by info screen)
Seeing someone post a list of prices without a "priceless" joke at the end: priceless. (doh!)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Never trust a man wearing a coat and tie!
great .. now the japanese people can become Obese.
So why would Japanese law have such a requirement? It can't apply to VCRs, so what makes PVRs legally different?
I don't know the first thing about Japanese law, but are you sure that the law doesn't apply? The fact that VHS has no timestamp, and that there is no way to enforce such a provision doesn't mean that the law doesn't exist. There are certainly other laws that are equally unenforcable...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Imagine that you can stream more information than you can consume. Already today my 1Mbit line could in theory stream a 1Mbit DivX stream, all day, everyday.
I think that would truly change the world, maybe even moreso than the Internet already has. If you could have it all, what would you choose? If there was bandwidth to let you compose whatever mix of content you could want or afford? It's a most interesting future...
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I'm still waiting for those...
If my call is important, why am I talking to a recording?
So no one around you or where you worked ever thought of anything but money when making a product? There was no R&D or any type of testing to see if a product met your needs?
Windows is not an Embedded OS
I don't know crap about embedded systems so I may be wrong here but it appears MS thinks they have an embedded solution.
I used to do embedded systems for industrial controls.
I think I know why.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
Agree. the large HDD space is to replace all your video tapes.
And, actually, I think it will be very useful for sports writers, coachs, etc.... they can record many games and do scouting and analysis. they will find this Cocoon very useful.
Similarly, I'd like to record all horse racing matches for review/analysis in summer.
An associate was saying this is basically a rebadged tivo...and if it's not tivo hardware, they are licensing TiVos technology.
AFAIK there is no such thing as TiVo hardware: their business model is to license the software. I don't own a TiVo: I own a "Thompson Scenium", although the TiVo brand is all over the UI, so everyone will always refer to it as TiVo.
Let me break it down into kindergarten terms so maybe you will understand the point.
- Product A works and is Free.
- Product B works and costs a bunch of money, and requires licencing.
Which product do you use? Unless Product B has functionality that the client requests that Product A does not have, you always go with product A. Not because its better, but because its FREE!I used to do embedded systems for industrial controls. I think I know why. Really? It was because the manufacturing market pays squat. Because there cocerns are deliverying a products that works, will be low maintenance, meets there customer needs, and does so FOR THE LOWEST COST.
Why Rewritable Atomic Holographic Storage ?
6,840 raw uncompressed TV hours on 10 terabyte 3.5 in. removable disc.
- highest analog / digital capacity available
- lowest cost per gigabyte
- longest archive shelf life of any data storage media
- widest environmental conditions and tolerances
- only technology that scales from nano to macro solutions
- most reliable media available
- highest bandwidth data transfer potential
- direct replacement for hard disk drives