We'll go ahead and hurt the feelings of those in Asia, North America and the Cook Islands: this here set is bound for the European market only (for now, anyway), but hey, at least we know the technology is here. Over in the UK, one Cello Electronics has issued the first
HDTV that records OTA (Freeview) content directly to an SD card, giving users an easy option for shuffling recorded content to portable players. The set itself boasts twin TV tuners, a built-in EPG, split-screen functionality and an integrated DVD player; as for sizes, you'll find it in 22-, 26- and 32-inch flavors. Sadly, you'll be stuck with "just" 1,440 x 900 pixels and no HDMI socket, but those who couldn't care less can take ownership starting next month for TBD, £399.99 ($661) or £469.99 ($777) in order of mention.
Update: Cello pinged us to say that all three models do indeed have HDMI sockets. The larger two have a pair, while the 22-incher has one.
posted June 24th 2009 8:59AM
why does that picture look so wrong...
Because they ripped of Samsung's design and added a soundbar?
the TV resolution broke her neck.
It's about time somebody came out with that, it's way better than just recording it and watching it later on your T.V. but now you can take it anywhere with you? Awesome!!
Why on earth would you make a television these days that doesn't have HDMI?
Doesn't really mean that much to me, since where I live, there are no HD broadcasts, no HD cable/sat, and there are no plans for it in the foreseeable future, so nothing HD to record, really. Oh well, the quality of the SD broadcast/cable signal here is so bad that our eyes are permanently damaged anyways.
I wonder how many countries are as backwards as the one I live in? The US has *ceased* analog broadcasts... and here we haven't even *begun* digital.
In Cuba we have a grand total of 3 channels, and they only broadcast at peak hours in the evening, no daytime TV at all. All this in OTA channels, cable doesn't exist here. Beat that!! :D
Yeah, but you get to enjoy the warm sun, cool breeze, sunset, beaches and hot latin women. (who needs tv with all that?)
The modern successor to the 14-inch-TV-VHS-recorder combo unit?
I won't be satisfied unless I can attach a toaster and fridge to it.
They're working on it. They're also trying to find a way to implement Android on it. I heard some rumor of their adding a chin. Will keep you posted.
This idea blows...
SD cards are expensive (a 32GB SDHC will set you back more than $70). Recorded TV in a decent non-compressed format occupies at least 1GB for 10 minutes. Thus, about $12 per hour for recording media! And for those of us with kids, the idea of a bunch of small edible bits of plastic littering the floor around the TV is just not even funny.
So don't put your SD cards on the floor then - problem solved.
The SD cards are really meant for recording to so you can watch the recordings on the go. 1GB for a 10min film is a little overkill for a small screen. Also as the person above said, leaving all your sd cards on the floor is never a good thing with or without kids...........
Come to think of it my DVR compresses an hour of standard def into 2GB and that looks great on my 40inch tv.
SD cards are expensive? Since when? If not the absolute cheapest, it's definitely amongst the most inexpensive memory card formats out there. And if 32GB is too expensive, get a cheaper one. And if you're shelling out $600+ for a TV, I don't see a $70 SD card being an issue.
I don't quite get your $12/hr figure. I see that it combines the 1GB/10min stat with the $70 per 32GB price but that is unbelievably ridiculous to me. Most glaringly, according to your logic, the more your record, the lower the figure becomes. Furthermore, who thinks of electronics usage in the manner. I could see it leading to the following figure: Buying a $660 TV and watching it for an hour costs you $660 for viewing a one hour show.
And I don't see why there are plastic bits on the floor. The card belongs in either the TV or a computer (or some other SD card accepting device).
Almost everything I get from my http://www.silicondust.com/products/hdhomerun_atsc is 1GB/30 minute show. It's not like a 1080p camcorder. These things are just writing the transport stream to disk (or ethernet in the case of the HDHomeRun).
so it can't record what is coming in over the component sources? Lame. I mean if they went to all the trouble to exclude HDMI so you don't have to worry about content protection you'd think they would allow recording over component.
Considering Cox only does 1080i/720p, I'd take SD recording of anything they throw out.
What you propose would require and A/D converter and compression hardware. You should price devices capable of converting component input to H.264 or MPEG2/4. Last time I looked they were more than $10k, but I'm sure they are a little cheaper now.
Integrated DVD player, huh? Yay, extra dead weight... Pass...
I think that is a kickass functionality, just not ready for primetime yet. However once the more spacious SD cards get cheaper, this could really take off.
I know this technology (it is embedded in the decoder). I went to China to see a demo of it and, at least for most of markets. The chip transcodes the signal both onto the lcd and to a file, that can either be SD, HDD, USD flash drive, etc... for most SD cards and USB flash drives, you won't be able to record Full HD signal because they are not fast enough. After you plug it in, the chip will test it's speed and will tell you what kind of format you can record.
I asked about recording from analog sources and their answer was simply "can't". Then I lost interest in the product. Most people have to use STB's on their homes, and then the signal is sent to TV either by HDMI, or by SCART, RCA, composite... If it only records signal directly from the Digital signal, it is somewhat of just a gimmick.
I'd record it.
Put a DVD recorder in it, and let me install Linux MCE on it, and we're onto something.
It really blows my mind when vendors don't make things hacker friendly. At first Linksys hated that they last control over their WRT routers. That was, of course, before the money started pouring in. Years later, after they were able to save money by using cheaper hardware, they maintained the beefier model in their portfolio and gave it an L at the end... Hmmm.
Is that a guy with long hair?
Kudos to the author for properly stating, "couldn't care less"! It drives me crazy when people say "I could care less". If you are wondering, "what's the difference", I've gone into it in detail here: http://www.bronosky.com/?p=37
Not sure why Engadget his hating on the Cook Islands - but they're part of the British Commonwealth so they just might get this T.V.
Hi. My name's Rob Smith and I work for Cello. Our new PVR TVs with SD cards do have HDMI sockets! As HD ready TVs the 26” and 32” models have two, whilst the 22” model has one.