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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."
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It looks like a black box with "VAIO" on it.
Damnit man lets give them an award!
Get paid to code OSS
But they're all analog... you can optionally buy a single digital tuner. But, really... why? How is someone ever going to find seven shows they want to watch at once in general, little yet if they're limited to the analog band?
And, obviously, no HD capabilities either.
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Isn't this overkill? What consumer would honsestly need this! When have there ever been seven TV programs worth watching on at the same time?
~c
Sony held a meeting in Tokyo on the 10th to present their new "VAIO" products. Among them was the "type X," a HD recorder on a PC base.
The device features 7 above ground analog TV tuners, as well as more than 1TB of HD space, and a maximum of 7 channels can be recorded at the same time. one can store about one week's worth of programming from seven different channels, and Sony has said that it is "to keep in touch with past and present programs like a time machine, one can choose their favorite program and watch it."
Sony plans on releasing the machine before the end of 2004, and since it is currently under planning/development, concrete specifications have not yet been finalized.
The device has been placed in the "next generation recorder with a PC base" category, and unifies AV and PC functions. It can also be used as a normal PC with a wireless keyboard/mouse and remote controller. Also, using the D4 output, it can output to flat panel TVs such as the "Wega" series.
Furthermore, Sony also plans on selling an optional terrestrial/BS/110 CS digital tuner. There is currently no PC supporting digital transmissions besides NEC's "VALUESTAR TX/TZ." The VALUESTAR also has limitations such as only being able to output up to 480p, so much attention is being paid to what the type X will support, since the current specifications are not final.
At the announcement event, there was also a demonstration from Sony's IT & Mobile Solutions Network Company NC President, Keiji Kimura, involving the type X and a portable video player currently in development. He introduced the company's next generation AV concept by wirelessly outputting video to a Wega from the video player, whose video data was transferred from the type X.
From May 14th until the 16, there will be reference models of the "type X" on display at Sony's Mediage in Odaiba, in the "Do VAIO World 2004" event.
Wait, hold up. We at /. are complaining about overkill on a cool new tech toy.
And when has it been said you need all that you buy it for. We buy SUVs and only like 1% of people can use them for what they are for. Overkill has bragging rights.
Evolution or ID?
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.
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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
Analog = RIP. And dedicated separate digital tuners/descramblers = teh suck for timeshifting etc.
:(
What I need is a 1TB box with 2-3 *digital* (DVB-C or DVB-T for us euros) tuners, and with a Conax descrambler smartcard support. So I could record at least one channel while watching another (or maybe 2 channels while watching third). In full digital glory. HDTV support would be a bonus, but that is not happening in europe at such a fast rate - I think broadcasters first want to move to digital, and then its easier to reuse the spare frequencies for HDTV signals once analog is dead and buried.
But no. Sony is designing an obsolete analog tuner box with a ridiculous pricetag...
One of the great things about tiVo is how it buffers the show you're watching so you can pause rewind and skip commercials. When you change channels the buffer is gone and you can't rewind the new channel etc.
With this device you could (presumably) set it up to buffer your favorite channels as well as the one you're watching. You could watch one show and then jump over to CNN (or whatever) and rewind to watch the start of the news broadcast, then jump over to ESPN and watch the baseball game etc.
For those of you interested about the user interface:
Here& Here
More picture of "Type X":
Link
Link 2
Thing also seems to have a DVD-burner: Pictured Here
More links (in Japanese)
Watch Impress Japan
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.