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Sony PC/DVR Incorporates 7 Tuners & 1TB HD

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the thats-a-helluva-pvr dept.

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."

8 of 341 comments (clear)

  1. 7 tuners? by chubbymidget · · Score: 3, Interesting

    So does that mean I need 7 boxes from my SAT or cable company? Do they offer some kind of bulk discount for that?

  2. 7 Tuners? by telstar · · Score: 3, Interesting
    7 Tuners ... allowing the recording of 7 shows at the same time.
    • Except that means since I live in a part of the country where virtually every channel is scrambled without a box, I'd need 7 cable-boxes. While it's great that this box would allow me to catch all of the episodes of Law & Order airing at the same time ... something tells me there's not enough content, nor hours in the day to watch recorded content, to justify the extra $50 in cable-box rental fees.
  3. 7 shows at once by Woogiemonger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, while 7 shows at once might initially seem like overkill, what if you're a talk show host or a journalist and you have to do your research on something going on in the news, or perhaps keep track of different sports games, and yeah, I think the Olympics got mentioned here already which is an easy example.

  4. Time Shifting! by WushuJim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    As an owner of a ReplayTV, I can think of one great use for 7 tuners. Time shifting! Buffer the last seven watched channels or however many tuners available. That way if you switch to a channel and see something you want to go back and watch, it is buffered.

  5. Re:Sure, it has seven tuners... by mjh · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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.
    Not me. I prefer to have the DVR at my house. Mainly because it allows me complete control. DVRs are a distributed problem; everyone has their own set of preferences that don't necessarily align with anyone elses. Consequently, distributed preference implies distributed control. So it makes sense to me that the solution also be distributed:
    • I can manage my own data space without having to rely on the cable company's shared data space.
    • I can decide that I want to keep a program for 7 months instead of relying on the cable co. to automatically delete everything after 7 days.
    • I can decide which shows I want to record instead of relying on the cable co. to decide for me.
    • I don't have to deal with latency associated with sending the command to do something accross the internet, and then be responded to by a machine that's trying to handle a gazillion of these types of requests simultaneously.

    IMHO, DVR is a distributed problem. In the long run a distributed solution works better for everyone.

    $.02

    --
    Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
  6. Re: I'll even pay extra by mjh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, (et al) all care about which shows people watch and whether or not people like them. And in exchange for people paying extra, there are no commercials.

    The type of programming that the OP was talking about exists today in the premium channel systems.

    --
    Key to financial independence: Spend less than you earn. Save and invest the difference. Do it for a long time.
  7. Doing the math by azadrozny · · Score: 4, Interesting
    My "small" 40GB Tivo can record about 35hrs of programming. Thats about 1.15GB/hr. Base on that figure a 1TB (1024GB) DVR would be able to record for about 890hrs. That's a shade more than 37 days of continuous programming. That's what I call a couch potato.

    Now that may sound like a lot, but what if in addition to the 7 input tuners, it had multiple outputs. If you could tie it into some kind of distribution system for your house, throw in Tivo's ability to predict what your family likes, you have a very cool system. Every member of your family could be watching a different program at one time. $9k is a bit pricey, but the price is bound to come down.

  8. 7 tuners is great, but more are needed! 50 tuners by JGski · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The folks pooh-pooh-ing 7 tuners don't get the use model. Imagine a combo of channel surfing, instant record PVR and pictures-in-picture. I really miss picture-in-picture with my DirecTV Tivo, and even then having only 2 tuners on my TV in the pre-Tivo days was *way too few*. I'd want to be able to mark a set of "surfable channels" as PiP with PVR available to be running on them while I'm surfing on the others.

    The other serious flaw with most set-tops and tv channel UIs (Tivo almost gets it right) is not having dynamic filtering and style sheets for the schedule and channels attached to the up/down channel buttons. E.g. there are some channels I absolutely never want: fine I lock them out now. But then there is the gray area which is content dependent: I'm not a big basketball fan so I should be able to make channels disappear completely during the time that basketball is on - if I up-channel through it, it just skips and if I chose it's even gone from the schedule. When other "desired" programming is on those channels re-appear again.

    Now combine that kind of "editing/filtering" to 50 tuners with PVR and PiP: now you have television usability!!

    A serious, serious bone-head UI gaffe on the DirecTV Tivo: you ascend channels up-screen with the channel up/down buttons but the program guide the channels ascend down-screen! Who was the moron...?! Oh yeah, Huge Air Crash idiots own DirecTV.