Nokia Enters PVR Market

Daaelar writes "Nokia has just recently announced their entrance into the PVR market with the realease of their Mediamaster 260 S. It apparently has PVR capabilities as well as the ability to receive small images via Bluetooth for viewing on a larger screen, i.e. your television. It also includes some built-in games, as well as a feature to record from a digital camera or camcorder."

Comments

Link to non-flash and much more informative page-

[ultrapenguin]

here. The flash intro linked in the article doesnt even provide any specifications.

I hope this is better than their firewall offering

[General_Corto]

The company I work for ordered several Nokia firewall devices. They list for about $35,000 US.

Not one of them worked.

We ended up having their top tech staff in the country give us a visit, with everyone wondering why a six figure purchase should be quite so DOA. At first, there was a lot of head scratching, but it turned out that the machines had a variety of hardware and some software problems.

Allegedly these systems are well tested prior to shipping. At that price, you'd hope so! I hope they test these PVRs well, otherwise they're in for a world of support pain.

Re:The corporate PVR killer, a MythTV distro

[The Irish Jew]

Have a look at KnoppMyth Haven't tried it yet as I didn't have any trouble getting MythTV working, but it might be what you're looking for.

DTV set-top boxes

[Nexus Seven]

Actually, Nokia has been making Digital TV decoder set-top boxes for a while in the UK - probably Europe, too.

I can't imagine it's much of a stretch, therefore, to move into the PVR market.

Intended for European Users

[-tji]

The information on TV reception mentions Analog and Digital reception. For Digital, they talk about DVB digital Satellite TV, which is used in Europe. In the US, we use a terrestrial broadcast mechanism (ATSC).

Zenith/LG has an . But it doesn't do satellite..

Tivo has been rumored to have an HD/ATSC DirecTivo for forever. Who knows if it will ever come out.

European TV rules.

[JonMartin]

Not what is on TV, but how you get it. In Europe there is a standard that all digital (cable and satellite) signals use. There is a standard for decryption units/cards. When you sign up for service with FooTelly(tm) they give you a card. You can then stick that card in any third party decoder box (like this Nokia) and it will work. Great for competition and do-it-yourself-ers (check this project out).

But not here in North America. Nope, everything here has to be proprietary. We have to "let the market decide" (translation: "let the corps screw us over"). The result less competition and little innovation. I am guessing Europe is at least three years ahead on TV tech and they are pulling away because they picked ONE standard and ran with it.

Re:Do one thing, do it well

[Anonymous Coward]

Right.. get clue:

The roots of Nokia go back to the year 1865 with the establishment of a forest industry enterprise in South-Western Finland by mining engineer Fredrik Idestam. Elsewhere, the year 1898 witnessed the foundation of Finnish Rubber Works Ltd, and in 1912 Finnish Cable Works began operations. Gradually, the ownership of these two companies and Nokia began to shift into hands of just a few owners. Finally in 1967 the three companies were merged to form Nokia Corporation.

At the beginning of the 1980s, Nokia strengthened its position in the telecommunications and consumer electronics markets through the acquisitions of Mobira, Salora, Televa and Luxor of Sweden. In 1987, Nokia acquired the consumer electronics operations and part of the component business of the German Standard Elektrik Lorenz, as well as the French consumer electronics company Oceanic. In 1987, Nokia also purchased the Swiss cable machinery company Maillefer.

In the late 1980s, Nokia became the largest Scandinavian information technology company through the acquisition of Ericsson's data systems division. In 1989, Nokia conducted a significant expansion of its cable industry into Continental Europe by acquiring the Dutch cable company NKF.

Since the beginning of the 1990's, Nokia has concentrated on its core business, telecommunications, by divesting its information technology and basic industry operations.

(More at http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,1125,00.html)

Re:Convergance again?

[evilandi]

stay out of markets for which they are not suited

Er, mate, Nokia have been making superb digital TV set-top-boxes for the European market for donkey's years. Mobile phones are the new market for them, they've been making STBs for longer than that.

Ask anyone about the UK's digital terrestrial system (multi-channel digital TV through an aerial- no subscription, no cable, no dish required) and everyone will tell you that Nokia is one of the top three brands- faster channel switching, faster menus, faster multimedia content, and it doesn't crash.