Re: DVRs and PVRs around the world (was: File fragmentation)

Bill's News wrote:

I'm in the U.S. so take my comments with a grain.

Some of the PVR hardware here has finally enabled external USB2
drives. [...] Since I began HDVR usage, disc space has become a real issue because my cable provider has opted to use HDVRs with
a max of 120 GB drives. That's about 12 hours of HD capture.
The older ones installed here are 80 GB, or about 8 hours of
recording.

Have you tried changing the HDD inside the HDVR to a larger capacity one yourself? If you're lucky, the device might just support formatting a larger HDD, as an undocumented feature, even if it is supplied with a smaller HDD by default. (At least that's the way how it works for some European HDD-based recorders.)

Being able to record to an external USB HDD is nice, but networking is even nicer. There is a handful of European HDD-based DVRs that can be connected directly to a home network. In other words, these devices have a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet (RJ-45) connector on the back:

<http://www.saunalahti.fi/~znark/dreambox/dm7025/picture_gal
lery/case/backside.jpg>

These kind of devices typically allow transferring recordings back and forth between the set-top box HDD and your PC and even recording directly to network shares, instead of using the local HDD at all. Some of these devices also support sharing the recorded shows to the home network via standard Windows or NFS network shares (i.e. no need for special file transfer programs - you can watch the recorded shows on your PC directly over the network.) Examples of these kind of devices include the Dreambox DM 7025, the Dreambox DM 600 PVR, Maximum 8000, and Reelbox. The various Dreambox models can even be networked with each other so that you can record the shows with one Dreambox and watch the recordings from other locations in your house with the others, over the home network. The Dreamboxes (and presumably the Reelbox as well) even have a web interface where you can view the EPG, set up timers, etc.

Then there are DVRs that allow file transfer to/from the internal HDD via USB cable, such as Topfield 5xxx. These are a bit less versatile as far as connectivity goes, and the transfer speed might not be all that fast, but they're still nice.

The individual cable/satellite vendors may or may not
support these devices.

In Finland, where I hail from, the cable tv providers do not have a monopoly nor any kind of lock-in to the devices you can connect to their network. You can buy your (digital, DVB-C) cable tv set-top box (or even a tv set with an integrated digital cable tv tuner) from an ordinary electronics store, supermarket, via online shopping, etc. Manufacturers and importers are free to market all kinds of PVR/DVR solutions to both terrestrial and cable viewers, with any features and HDD capacities they want to.

I'm not sure how the cable tv operators in the UK handle these things, and whether there is a similar open, standardized market for digital cable tv set-top boxes there.

--
znark

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: DVRs and PVRs around the world (was: File fragmentation)
    ... Have you tried changing the HDD inside the HDVR to a larger ... connected directly to a home network. ... even recording directly to network shares, ...
    (uk.tech.tv.video.pvr)
  • Re: PVR standby
    ... Mine also keeps a cached copy of the EPG data on the HDD, or stored in a network share. ... If you set up timed recordings and then switch the device into the deep standby mode, it will wake up a couple of minutes before the next timed recording should start. ... My PVR can also record to a network share, which means that a local HDD isn't necessarily needed - although it's a supported option, of course. ...
    (uk.tech.digital-tv)
  • Re: CPU Utilization - Xbox 360 Extender Vista Media Center
    ... I'm surprised since network utilization was never over 5% ... end of the switch and 100 Mbit out the other end). ... while also recording, the high CPU utilization causes choppy ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: CPU Utilization - Xbox 360 Extender Vista Media Center
    ... I see the spikes Dan mentioned but I don't see any ... obviously they only go at 100 mbps but network bandwith isn't an issue - ... This system runs on DDR memory which are in pairs. ... while also recording, the high CPU utilization causes choppy ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: CPU Utilization - Xbox 360 Extender Vista Media Center
    ... obviously they only go at 100 mbps but network bandwith isn't an issue - ... This system runs on DDR memory which are in pairs. ... But, when I playback HDTV on the Xbox, CPU utilization is not low ... while also recording, the high CPU utilization causes choppy ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)