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Over-the-Top Video Now In More Homes Than DVRs
Wed Aug 03, 2011 at 12:00 PM ETTags: DVR, Set-top Boxes, Industry Trends (all tags)
Around 13 million homes have over-the-top video services but no DVRs.
Not long ago, when the TiVo first hit the market, it seemed as if the DVR was going to be a given. If you're watching TV after all, it'd be far better to enjoy it on your time and skip through all the commercials.
Currently DVRs are in 40.5 million homes, and research firm Magna Global expects that to hit 63.1 million by the end of 2016. That would make over half of the homes in the US. It's an impressive number, but it pales in comparison to over-the-top solutions.
Right now, 45 percent of homes have an over-the-top device capable of streaming content from online sources. By 2016, Magna says that number will rise to 57 percent of homes, or a cool 71 million. Not too shabby.
Source: Home Media Magazine
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3D More Popular than DVRs by 2019 According to ESPN
Fri May 28, 2010 at 09:00 AM ETTags: ESPN, 3D, DVR (all tags)
It's a bold prediction at first glance, but it's not surprising.
ESPN VP Sean Bratches took part in a Q&A recently. At the event, he confirmed that ESPN believes that 3D televisions will be more popular than DVRs by 2019. It's a pretty wild statement, but when you look at the landscape, it's really not surprising.
For starters, Bratches simply said that more people will own 3D televisions than DVRs, which is inevitable. A good chunk of this year's new televisions are 3D capable, and they're great sets even if you don't use the 3D features. In the next few years, 3D could easily become a standard feature included on all sets. Whether you want to use it is up to you, of course.
There's also a new breed of internet connected televisions hitting the market, which will only become stronger as time goes on. If download and streaming services continue their upward trend, many people will drop their DVRs for the internet option.
As far as actual usage is concerned, we'll see how that goes when ESPN 3D goes on the air June 11th.
Source: Multichannel News
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DirecTV Launches Whole-Home DVR
Tue May 18, 2010 at 02:00 PM ETTags: DVR, DIRECTV (all tags)
Customers will be able to watch and record shows on any set in the house.
It doesn't get much cooler than DirecTV's Whole-Home DVR service. It's something we've been anticipating for a while and it just might be enough to convince consumers to switch.
Whole-Home DVR takes its cues from home media servers. Rather than having a separate DVR for each room of the house, DirecTV's new service connects every TV to a single DVR with enough space to handle it.
For a $3 monthly service charge, you'll be able to watch shows from that centralized DVR at any TV in the house. And it's not just playback, you can adjust your DVR recordings from any room too. No more getting up and running to the living room at two in the morning to make sure you've got 'LOST' set to record.
From the sound of things, there's no downside to watching in the satellite rooms. You can still play them back in HD, and you've still got the ability to pause, fast forward, and rewind. Not a bad setup by any means.
Source: DirecTV
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Broadcom Launches Ultra Capable DVR Chip
Fri Oct 30, 2009 at 02:00 PM ETTags: DVR, Broadcom (all tags)
The new Broadcom DVR chip features compatibility for tru2way, MoCA, DNLA and more.
Broadcom chips are used in a great number of DVRs on the market, and while DVRs may vary, the chip is at the very core of the functionality. If the chip can’t do it, the DVR can’t do it. So, while it may be a bit preemptive, we’re still fairly excited about Broadcom’s new BCM7125 SoC.
The BCM7125 offers the expected, such as tru2way and cablecard compatibility, but it also offers a lot of things that we’ve been hoping to see in a set-top box for a long time such as Flash and a 3D graphics engine. Two things in particular, though, stand out among the rest.
While DLNA support isn’t new in a set-top box, it certainly isn’t common enough. Having network media streaming functionality built into a DVR could save not only a little money, but some extra hassle as well.
The second thing to get us all excited is of course, MoCA, which allows media to be streamed through coaxial connections at breakneck speeds.
Just because the BCM7125 can handle all of this doesn’t mean that every DVR using the chip will take advantage of it, but we can sure hope.
Source: Broadcom
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Broadcom Launches Ultra Capable DVR Chip
Fri Oct 30, 2009 at 02:00 PM ETTags: DVR, Broadcom (all tags)
The new Broadcom DVR chip features compatibility for tru2way, MoCA, DNLA and more.
Broadcom chips are used in a great number of DVRs on the market, and while DVRs may vary, the chip is at the very core of the functionality. If the chip can’t do it, the DVR can’t do it. So, while it may be a bit preemptive, we’re still fairly excited about Broadcom’s new BCM7125 SoC.
The BCM7125 offers the expected, such as tru2way and cablecard compatibility, but it also offers a lot of things that we’ve been hoping to see in a set-top box for a long time such as Flash and a 3D graphics engine. Two things in particular, though, stand out among the rest.
While DLNA support isn’t new in a set-top box, it certainly isn’t common enough. Having network media streaming functionality built into a DVR could save not only a little money, but some extra hassle as well.
The second thing to get us all excited is of course, MoCA, which allows media to be streamed through coaxial connections at breakneck speeds.
Just because the BCM7125 can handle all of this doesn’t mean that every DVR using the chip will take advantage of it, but we can sure hope.
Source: Broadcom
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Pace Brings Home Content Sharing to DVRs
Fri Oct 30, 2009 at 10:00 AM ETTags: DVR (all tags)
Coming to cable companies soon, Pace’s DVR system allows six simultaneous recordings, but that’s not the best part.
Pace, maker of various set-top boxes and TV technologies, has announced a new product that they hope will revolutionize the home experience. The new Home Content Sharing (HCS) solution from Pace allows users to stream recorded television to any set-top in their home. The ‘what’ sounds great, but the ‘how’ gets a bit complicated and acronym filled.
Pace’s HCS utilizes a central Network Attached Storage (NAS) device which stores recorded shows. Any Set-top box on the network can set record times, and up to six shows can be recorded at once. Even more impressive, up to nine streams can be watched at once. The NAS will come in a variety of sizes and a variety of prices, but will also feature e-SATA expandability.
The NAS features MoCA 1.1 certification, which means that it is capable of sending signals through coaxial cable that would normally be sent through a wired or wireless network. The MoCA standard is capable of sending data at 175Mbps, much faster than normal. The downside is that while you’ll certainly be able to connect a PC or storage device of your own, you’ll need an adapter to send the signal at the same speed.
The Pace HCS option has been picked up by a variety of cable providers including Mediacom, Sunflower Broadband, Buckeye Cablevision, and all service providers belonging to the National Cable Television Cooperative.
Source: Pace
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Sony Unveils Five New Blu-ray Player DVRs
Mon Aug 31, 2009 at 05:20 PM ETTags: Sony, PSP, DVR (all tags)
Able to convert to PSP format impossibly fast.
A quintet of Blu-ray DVRs was released by Sony last week, just on the heels of a similar product offering from Mitsubishi. The DVRs range from the fairly unimpressive BDZ-RS10, sporting a single digital tuner and 320GB hard drive, to the BDZ-RX100 which has two digital tuners, a full terabyte of hard drive space and PSP support.
Blu-ray DVRs aren’t surprising coming from Sony, but what might be most interesting is the capability of many of these DVRs to convert video into a PSP compliant format. According to Akihabara News, the new PSP compatible DVRs are capable of converting an hour's worth of video in less than two minutes, an impressive speed for a fairly niche feature.
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DVR and Blu-ray In One, It’s The LG HR400
Thu Jul 09, 2009 at 02:00 PM ETTags: LG, Product Announcements, DVR, Industry Trends (all tags)
The UK gets one heckuva good combo from LG.
Why get a separate Freeview recorder and Blu-ray player when you can combine the functions of both into one unit? LG’s hoping that its UK based customers can’t think of a reason not to buy the new HR400, a Blu-ray player with Freeview functionality.
Featuring DVD upscaling, as well as Mpeg-4 and Divx support, the player has a pretty decent feature set, though nothing particularly stunning. Of course, the main attraction to the player is that it’s combined with a 160GB Freeview+ which allows not only recording, but pausing and rewinding of live television. Oh, and it streams YouTube videos as well, for those of you who’d want to subject a big beautiful HD screen to grainy video of a man getting hit in the groin.
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