Multi-roomDvr
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Dish Hopper multi-room DVR in action (video)
The show floor opened, so we headed to the Dish booth to check out the Hopper multi-room DVR in action. Like the images from the press event, the UI looks a lot like the VIP 922 but with a few new screens to keep up with what the tuners are doing and for access to Primetime Anytime. We also learned along the way that outside of standard primetime hours, the DVR is limited to recording three shows at once.
Dish Network Hopper DVR and Joey extender hands-on
The 2TB HD DVR, Hopper, that can record up to six shows at once looks like any other set-top box we've ever seen with the regular suspects in back. The Joey extender on the other hand, looks more like a SD digital TV adapter than a HD extender set-top and can easily be mounted to the back of a TV and connect to the Hopper via coax instead of requiring a network drop. The RF remote looks the same as Dish customers are accustomed to, but this one works with ZigBee. The boxes weren't connected but the presentation showed screen shots that reminded us of the VIP 922.
Loewe shows off new Connect LEDs, wallets cringe
Ultra high-end German television maker Loewe revealed at IFA that its 32-inch and 42-inch Connect LED line will be refreshed with 200Hz edge LED backlit panels and improved MediaNet connectivity. Specifically MediaNet has been revamped to feature a new LAN interface for streaming local video or audio content on the TV's integrated DVR as well as from DLNA compatible devices and online sources. A so-called "Follow Me" feature is another handy addition that allows users to easily transfer a program in progress from TV to another display for completion -- which should prove useful to shipping magnates who prefer passing out to Titanic in bed after starting in the jacuzzi. Trusted Reviews also reports that Loewe, along with Sharp and Philips, is promoting web-based services built on CE-HTML that are optimized for TV displays, and even demoed a version of the BBC's iPlayer using the technology behind closed doors. Style-wise, the luxury set will ship in three colors along with a choice of stand and a 2.1 speaker setup when it hits the UK this November. Official pricing however is still unknown, but don't expect to find it at Asda. %Gallery-101499%
CableLabs demos multiroom DVR and DLNA servers
In recent comments to the FCC the NCTA and its members were proud to exclaim how innovative its set-top boxes were, while we still laugh at their pitifully small hard drives, hideous user interfaces and the down right unpleasant experience they provide. But to be fair the cable providers do innovate, it is just 5-10 years behind the retail market. So in the same light, CableLabs held a tech demo recently and showed multi-room DVRs and set-top boxes with DLNA servers built in. Now both of these features should've been old news years ago, but will be welcomed even today since the majority of valuable content is delivered via cable companies. The DLNA aspect is actually an interesting one as we remember how odd it was when that very group issued a press release during CES that included quotes from most of the big cable companies who were sharing their love for DLNA. Of course that was 8 months ago and we are just now seeing a demo, so you can probably expect to see it hit your set-top in about 4 or 5 more years.
Cincinnati Bell rolls out multi-room DVR that can pause live TV
Yep, believe it or not when a cable company deploys a multi-room DVR in 2010 that can pause live TV at every TV in the house, it is news. Sure you might've been doing this with TiVo or Windows Media Center for the last five years or so, but the poor sap with the free cell phone equivalent of a DVR from their cable company is just happy to not have their recordings tied to one TV. We give Motorola a hard time about this but honestly it is just catering to businesses that just do enough to keep their customers from revolting and not a thing more. Of course the real sad news is that the headline says Cincinnati Bell instead of a provider that actually has a decent size footprint. No doubt this'll be enough to warrant a comment to the FCC by the NCTA about how cable providers around the country are innovating. Just awesome.
Motorola releases new HD set-top DCX700
This week at the SCTE Cable-Tec show, Motorola released the latest in its long line of digital cable HD set-top boxes. the DCX700 is an digital only box for those markets that have eliminated all those bandwidth hogging NTSC channels. It supports both H.264 and MPEG-2 as well as Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus. Also included is our new favorite networking protocol, MoCA, which will allow it to act as a multi-room DVR. This low profile box was designed with wall-mounting in mind and should eventually be available through your cable provider.[Via MediaExperiences2go.com]
Pace and Rovi work together to make a standard set-top a true multi-room DVR
There aren't many times where we're caught off guard by a new product enough to think, why didn't we think of that, but this is one of them. The set-top-box manufacture, Pace, has just launched one of the coolest multi-room DVR solutions we've ever heard of. Not only does it over come the limitations of other so called solutions by not being limited to two tuners (for the whole house), a 160 GB hard drive, copy control flags (it streams, not copies) and a scattered recorded TV list; but it doesn't require even a single extra wire to be run in your house -- no, it doesn't use WiFi. What Pace has done is to work with Rovi and load up new software on its standard dual tuner HD set-top, the DC700X. This new software paired with a MoCA 1.1 NAS (pictured above) makes every DC700X set-top in the house a multi-room DVR. If this sounds like what you've been waiting for, then you'll want to click through past the jump to learn all about it -- or just to see another picture.UPDATE - Pace announced deals with Buckeye Cablevision, Mediacom Communications, NCTC and Sunflower Broadband to deploy this.
