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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..."

21 of 311 comments (clear)

  1. You're forgetting ... by burgburgburg · · Score: 5, Funny
    the $699 US to SCO.

    Please be more careful next time.

  2. Two Weeks of TV... by mopslik · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Sadly, given the major networks' lineups, I'd say that this is likely a feature I'd never use.

    57 channels and nothing on...

  3. Well... by Acidic_Diarrhea · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I hate to be the horse and buggy guy BUT I don't need 2 weeks of television recorded. There are very few shows which I actually enjoy and would like to watch. Furthermore, once I've seen a show, I don't often want to go back and watch it over again.

    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.
    1. Re:Well... by pubjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I hate to be the horse and buggy guy BUT I don't need 2 weeks of television recorded.

      Perhaps your thinking about it in the wrong way. Imagine stitting down in the evening and wondering - "I wonder if there was anything good on the movie channel* today that I might like to watch" rather than "I wonder if there is anything on right now that I might like to watch".

      It sounds cool to me, even more so if you are fussy about what you watch on TV.

      (* or BBC One or whatever is your preferred channel.)

    2. Re:Well... by jimsum · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It depends how you are trying to use this box. If it is a true VCR replacement, it has to replace the tapes too. How many tapes does the average person have? I have about 60 hours of Simpsons episodes on tape, and about 20 tapes total. One of these boxes could let me get rid of those tapes and probably never buy another one.

      Don't think of this box as a VCR with a big non-removable cassette; think of it as a video jukebox. Hard drive capacity is pretty cheap, and I'd rather have too much capacity since these things are probably not upgradeable when you fill the disk.

      Now, having said that, I understand this model deletes shows after 31 days; so never mind, the capacity is useless :-)

      --
      -- Pot is safer than Beer
  4. Are these TiVos? by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?
  5. Thats a lot of bananas by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!!!!
    1. Re:Thats a lot of bananas by wilper · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Looks like a 500GB fileserver to me. :-)

      Not very big, propably rather silent, has 100Mbit ethernet, now all we need is someone that hacks it.

    2. Re:Thats a lot of bananas by mark_lybarger · · Score: 5, Insightful

      first off, how do you know they're not providing patches back?

      secondly, it is good for the community. it shows that the cost of using a linux implementation is more effective than using another (windows) implementation. these companies don't have to pay licensing fees (go to hell SCO) for every box they sell, or some huge development licensing fee.

      sure the TCO's have different aspects with the different os's. the TCO of a .NET .vs. a j2ee implementation also has different aspects and depending on the project requirements (longjevity .vs. quick to market perhaps), the technologies will fall into place.

      linux makes sense for consumer devices.

  6. 2 weeks of tv... by cetan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or, after you remove the commercials, about 24 real hours...

    --
    In Soviet Russia...michael would be rotting in Siberia!
  7. Priceless... by MrLizardo · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.^
  8. Warning.. DRM trap ahead. by wackybrit · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Warning.. DRM trap ahead. by crow · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Something like that would totally change how I use my ReplayTV. The whole point of these things is to let you control when you watch things. I like getting several weeks behind in my favorite shows so that I can watch several episodes together. I didn't even start Firefly or Birds of Prey until after they had aired the last episodes. If I had to worry about shows expiring, it would change my use to be much more like one of those old video tape systems.

      So why would Japanese law have such a requirement? It can't apply to VCRs, so what makes PVRs legally different? Sure, I could understanding having a timeout built into something like the ReplayTV show sharing feature (which is being dropped in new models due to lawsuits), but for stuff that isn't leaving the system you recorded it on, it's already more restricted than video tape that you can loan to a friend.

    2. Re:Warning.. DRM trap ahead. by gfxguy · · Score: 3, Funny

      If he really cared he would have text-messaged me on my phone!

      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
  9. Re:2 weeks?! But but....why? by stratjakt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Why in the world would you want 2 weeks of TV?

    Because Comcast screwed up and gave you the Spice Channel. You want to capture as much as possible before they realize their mistake.

    --
    I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
  10. a possible market by Savatte · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  11. My Japanese is be getting better. by twoslice · · Score: 4, Funny

    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...
  12. Ahh the beauty of the 'fish by trellick · · Score: 5, Funny
    this is what babelfish kindly gave to me

    * 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'!!

  13. MythTV can do it today... by JeffVolc · · Score: 3, Informative

    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.

  14. Moore's Law by cyber_rigger · · Score: 4, Funny

    15 years from now PVRs will hold more information than we could watch in a lifetime

  15. Re:Thanks Sony by karmawarrior · · Score: 4, Insightful
    You actually raise quite a serious point. Technical advantages in various countries are often limited to the people who live in those countries, and it's hard for both insiders and outsiders to share in those benefits. In Sony's case, this hardware requires a huge amount of investment for each market they intend to serve. Even Sony has to look at the bottom line and the immediate short-term future and determine whether a massive, cashflow squeezing, expansion is worth doing in the short term.

    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?)