Slashdot Mirror
Sony PC/DVR Incorporates 7 Tuners & 1TB HD
GFD writes "TechJapan has an article on the 'Type X' Viao PC/DVR that will have 1TB and 7 tuners - allowing the recording of 7 shows at the same time. It also has a very cool look."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
it will look sexy, but will be crippled by some DRM, I'm afraid.
The article is slashdotted already, but what DRM will it have? Sony has too much to protect (Sony Music) to allow people to enjoy their hardware fully.
I've had a Sony MD, you could transfer from your PC to the MD with the USB cable, but what you recorded on the MD (even if recorded with an analog device, you couldn't transfer it back to your PC...)
I hope they haven't done the same kind of mistake: making a great hardware, with functionalities crippled by some DRM.
-- No signature yet.
In a non-home setting, this device could work really well as a video surveilance setup. I mean B&W vid @ low res, you could channel 7-sources into it, and keep a great deal of informatio stored. Now I am sure thats not the purpose of this, but that is the only thing I can think of, for seven tuners at one time. Unless you really want to watch every station's take on a presidential message, im sure the slight camera angles make all the difference in the world ;)
je suis parce que j'aime
I'd have to agree. Before I buy a PVR its going to have to be able to handle at least two digital streams at once, preferably by directly storing the compressed video data without reencoding, ala DirecTivo.
Frankly, I'd prefer if the cable company would just store all this stuff at THEIR end, dump all the broadcast channels, and use the bandwidth to feed the cable modem system so I can watch anything I want, whenever I want, without having to make copies at my end. I'll even pay extra so I don't have to watch commercials, and I'll be happy to tell the networks which shows I watch, when I watch them, and if I thought they sucked or not.
They can even set up 'suggested lineups' for different viewing preferences so it works kind of like regular TV where shows come on at regular times, but they can talior the steams for more groups. This would let them take advantage of multicast capabilities and let them hit viewers with highly directed programming (ie, I want the sci-fi and technology stream, no chick flicks, and no horror-pretending-to-be-sci-fi, but my wife might want the cooking, home-improvement, and drama stream).
It would be nice to still have the stream cached locally so I can pause whatever I'm watching, but I don't really want to have to keep a terrabyte system sitting around so I can watch older stuff, that should be provided by the cable company.
Come on networks, use your imagination, this stuff shouldn't be too hard! I've already got purchase on demand, streaming, pause-able, rewindable digital movies, start doing it with regular TV too!
What good is 7 tuners if I have digital cable or sattelite?
They need to come up with a standardized way to interface tuner cards in TVs or generic set top boxes.
Keep the Classic Slashdot.