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Terabyte DVD Recorder Available Next Month
It doesn't come easy writes "Japan's Hitachi Ltd. on Wednesday unveiled the world's first hard disk drive/DVD recorder that can store one terabyte of data, or enough to record about 128 hours of high-definition digital broadcasting."
We just need to get some high-definition digital broadcasting that's worth watching.
Note to mods: I'm probably being sarcastic.
It's an ordinary DVD recorder with a largish amount of disk in it.
And here I was thinking that it can write a terabyte to a optical disk. Oh well...
What is the price of media for these things?
The article pointed out that the US market seems more interested in DVRs, than DVD Recorders and I agree with that assessment. Most of the TV I record is throw-away stuff that I want to watch for a couple times and then delete.
It definitely should be enough for anyone.
I use my 6 hour VHS recorder to record the one or two shows per week that I bother to watch (when I have the time) and that's plenty.
If it isn't enough space (or time) for the user, then I suspect it's because the user is lazy and spoiled.
Ignore Alien Orders
We all know that you could make your own box with it for much cheaper, but in general, the real top of the line models for consumer electronics still sell well, simply for being top of the line. That, and it may push the other companies to boost their hard disk sizes. So why all the negativity here?
Extra competition is good...
Not only does it not write 1TB to a DVD recorder, it doesn't even write it to a hard drive:
So what are we talking about here, two hard drives plus a standard DVD recorder all integrated into one unit for a little over US$2,000!? Jesus, I think I'd rather just buy two hard drives and a DVD recorder (dual-layer, of course) for less than US$800.
Sure, I'd need a slightly bigger case, but to save an extra $1,200, I think I can live with that.
What's even less special is that it's only 2 hard drives.
Hmmm witty sig or funny sig? Maybe elitest techy sig!
"bother to watch"
Isn't entertainment so troublesome? I mean, we could have such fulfilling lives if civilization wasn't being constantly rammed down our throats.
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.
As great as this device may or may not be, all the details I've seen surounding it still leave out on crucial piece of infomation:
Point: It will be available next month.
Counter-point: How soon will it be replacing normal DVD recorders at Walmart?
In other words, until it becomes widely marketed and distributed, it could (keyword: could) become just another niche device to die out in another year or so due to overwhelming cost of media.
Perfecting Discordia
www.stevenvansickle.com
It's actually worse than that. They bill this as a way to store "HD" broadcasts. That means 720p or 1080i/p broadcats. That's great, but if you actually burn these to DVD you're stuck with the maximum DVD resolution of 480p!
Why would anybody buy this for "HD" content when they can't take the HD content off of the device without downscaling it out of HD? Now if this came with a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD burner, it would make sense. Guaranteed they'll have a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD model of this out within 6-8 months.
The problem I have is that we need 5c to be able to easily record off of cable boxes. (or cablecard) Both of those restrict us away from like MythTV and force people to use 'set top boxes'. So yeah, 2 500gb disks and a comptuer may be far less than $2k, but hey, you can't actually record with anything else!
Nothing like fake markets with controlled entry!
-- dieman - Scott Dier
See that? "News for Nerds." That pretty much rules out "people don't know anything about putting together DVD recorders or computers"
But it doesn't say "news for petty insecure nerds." This is a cool toy. It is being mass marketed. That is news for nerds. Whether you can or can not build your own for less is irrelevant to the fact that someone is finally marketing it. If you can build your own for less than half the price and just as usable, then you are a complete moron. You should be out there building them and selling them, and you'd be a millionaire soon. Instead, you are either too lazy or too incompetent to be able to make a business out of it, so you just boast about how easy it would be for you to do it, not that you ever have or will do it.
Learn to love Alaska
Here's a guess--to record HD content onto their DVR. Since the box will be hooked up to their HD player, why would they want to record to media anyway?