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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..."
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.
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!
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.
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.
Technology needs to become more universal, but its expense in implementation costs makes that hard to do. If you, in the US, are having problems enough getting hold of this kind of thing, can you imagine how hard it is for someone in, say, Russia, Egypt, or Australia, to gain access? And yet there's no technical reason why they shouldn't, and there are people within those nations who can afford such equipment and see it as worth while. But we limit the marketing of technologies, slavishly obeying arbitrary national borders, because of the difficulties associated with expansion.
Expanding means creating new marketing networks and providing the means of transporting this equipment to other countries. This is expensive, though if done with a shared spirit of cooperation and determination, there's no reason why, say, an open distribution network shared by any number of vendors, might not make such things possible. Such a network is, for all intents and purposes, impossible, because it relies upon there already being a large enough momentum towards unfettered distribution to work.
This quagmire of national boundaries restricting the flow of goods and services will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.
You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Write also to Jack Valenti, the CEO and chair of the MPAA, whose address and telephone number can be found at the About the MPAA page. Write too to Bill Gates, Chief of Technologies and thus in overall charge of systems like Windows NT, at Microsoft. Tell them that technologies and spreading the good they do to everyone, not just those in the very largest first world countries, is important to you. Tell them that open, standardized, distribution networks would help open up the free export of technologies across the world, bettering mankind. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done by individual manufacturers and individual store chains to try and provide some of this functionality but that if the insistance of exclusivity and the lack of standardization in business practices are not dealt with you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how a lack of a free and open technology distribution network harms all three. Let your legislators know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their policies concerning the distribution of technologies to everyone.
You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.
KMSMA (WWBD?)