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


"Jukka Aho" <jukka.aho@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:SaHCi.217261$HL.75886@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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?

These are not my property, they are cable company HDVR for which
I pay a modest monthly fee. Otherwise, a great suggestion -
which I'd eagerly pursue.

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,

What's nice about this capability, on those devices offered by
cable/satellite providers, is that it is a supported interface
with a recommended list of attachable devices. Add to that,
that one can simply plug in a different drive when more space is
needed.

Sadly, my cable provider does not offer such a device.

but networking is even nicer.

Yes, especially if it's wireless and has the bandwidth to
support multiple users.

Even with my networked PC, HDTV capture equipment, I prefer
external dives (I'm presently using hot-swappable 750 GB eSATAs)
which can be relocated easily to another room, even though it be
in another home! Hundreds, or even thousands, of gigabytes
transferred as quickly as I can unplug and plug in again;-0)

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:


For a while I owned a Buffalo LT DVD player which was equipped
with wireless network; it was a joke. Its wired 10/100 Ethernet
connection was better, but nothing so far has surpassed simply
using networked PCs with HD monitors (I'm using 42" 1920x1080
screens here). No special software is required to get the
network going nor "streaming" a/v among the PCs.

<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.)

Once, the U.S. was a technology leader. Now we're not!
Citizens have to devise their own strategies for something as
simple as recording TV shows to be watched at a later time. If
a business devises such a strategy they are tied up in
litigation for as long as cable-labs and mpaa want to toss money
at the problem without devising a solution.

Examples of these kind of devices include the Dreambox DM
7025, the Dreambox DM 600 PVR, Maximum 8000, and Reelbox.

Examples of these kinds of devices in the U.S. - none. Once
TiVo was headed in the right direction. HDTV created a new
playing field and TiVo has been crippled by the paranoid media
sources.

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.

Our supposed solution is cable card. Cable card is not keeping
up with changes in the cable delivery system nor does it seem
(rumor has it) that backward compatibility will be offered when
issuing a new generation of cards. Does this spell doom for
cable cards? Time will tell.

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)
    ... 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. ... 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 Examples of these kind of devices include the Dreambox DM 7025, the Dreambox DM 600 PVR, Maximum 8000, and Reelbox. ...
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