Replacing Your Tired Old DVR

An anonymous reader wrote to mention a C|Net article about a possible replacement for the DVR. Called RS-DVR, it allows customers to record shows on centrally located business-owned servers. From the article: "One uncertainty is reaction to Cablevision's service by programming networks, which have bristled at some of the cable industry's previous attempts to record shows on their systems before negotiating new broadcasting rights. Cablevision argues nothing will be recorded on its network unless the viewer orders it from the remote control--an important difference from other failed experiments. Earlier controversies had centered on Time Warner Cable's aborted Maestro service, which had proposed to automatically store programs on its network so viewers could order up just about any show that had been previously broadcasted." There are a number of possible media ownership issues here, I think. Personally, I'm happy having the shows right here on a hard drive in my home.

Comments

Very strange

[endrue]

I was looking for "Google" in that post and didn't see it anywhere!

- Andrew

No way

[timeOday]

I already pay a monthly fee to the cable company for the programming. No more monthly fees. I'm perfectly happy to record it myself and not get jerked around by another 'service provider.'

Re:No way

[bondsbw]

Agreed. If I move or my service otherwise expires, I should be able to pull up previously recorded programs any time I wish. I doubt any cable provider will let me plug up to their service after I disconnect and freely watch my recorded movies or shows.

'Tired Old DVR'

[MattGWU]

"This is better! NO! Trust us...it's better!"

Re:'Tired Old DVR'

[1u3hr]

I'm still using a "tired old VCR", you insensitive clod.

My DVR is MythTV

[drewzhrodague]

My DVR is KnopMyth, a MythTV Knoppix distro. Why would I want to replace it? No DRM, works great, and I can burn shows I like onto DVD. I recommend this to everyone interested in a DVR.

Re:My DVR is MythTV

[Quarters]

You do understand that the set of people containing the target audience for Cablevision's service and the set of people that know what KnopMyth is, let alone have the desire to build a box and set it up, have no union, right?

Privacy

[Kohath]

And if the cable company has your shows, they can be subpeonaed (by the Department of Education, for a stupidity law case). And then everyone will know you stored 10 episodes of Ricki Lake. Scary.

Re:Privacy

[jratcliffe]

Frankly, if you're storing 10 episodes of Ricki Lake, I think a trip to Gitmo is reasonable and appropriate. I'm all for free speech, but there's some conduct so reprehensible that we've just got to draw the line. :)

DRM? No Way!

[mac123]

Right...and have Comcast enforce content DRM by deciding how, when and how many times I get to watch something I 'recorded'?

No thanks!

On my own hard drive - exactly...

[maillemaker]

>Personally, I'm happy having the shows right here on a hard drive in my home.

Exactly. As I've said before, I've never cottoned to having my email stored on someone else's server, either.

Just give me the PIPE, man! I don't need, want, or trust any of your "services" to manage the data for me. I can do that myself, thank you very much.

Steve

Questions:

[Opportunist]

1. Can you skip ads?
2. Will it still be there when the network loses the "right" to broadcast it?
3. Will it still be there in case government (or someone else) doesn't like the idea of its existance?
4. Will it be free of extra charge?
5. Will it allow "unlimited" recordings?
6. Will I be able to make local copies?

If one of those queries return "no", my answer is "no" as well and I stay with my means of recording.

Re:Good for them, bad for us.

[geoffspear]

"the industry" is not a monolithic figure.

The cable company doesn't care if you record and redistribute content. It's not hypocritical for them to do it themselves.

On the other hand, you can bet the owners of the content are going to have a problem with the cable companies time-shifting their content and getting paid for it, unless they're getting a cut of the fees and they're convinced it will make it more difficult for the end users to record, redistribute, and skip commercials. I'm sure they'd love to see the cable companies take as much DVR functionality away from the customers as they can get away with.

Re:What about my Betamax?

[mspohr]

Wow... I used to actually have one of those colored plastic sheet things to put on our BW TV! My dad was always waiting for color TV to be "perfected" so we had BW for a long time. IIRC, it had a warm flesh tone area in the center (only white people were on TV in those days)... it worked amazingly well.

Replace? they mean downgrade.

[Lumpy]

Let's see between a mythTV box or a ReplayTV or a hacked or paying the additional fees for your Tivo you can extract the recording to other machines for use on portable video devices. What they are talking about will downgrade me to no longer have that ability.

and that is only the start, I can not see ANY advantages of their proposed setup. Right now I can record and play back perfectly without my internet connection, theirs CANT.

unless it is going to be $1.25 a month it cant even begin to offset the loss in features (30 second skip is missing from the Comcast PVR and that is why I will not touch it.)