ok i came across this articlethat talks about networked PVRs and the future of PVRs. The reason I post it here is that Motorola seems to be developing a networkable PVR for cable that uses UCentric software. It sounds very similar to VOOMS planned PVR and we probably can figure out when it will be released. Cables will probably be released first because it will not have an over the air tuner to worry about. Remember the delay for Tivo with the tuner? Plus cable will not have to worry about MPEG4 compatibility issues.
Make Way for PVRs
Personal Video Recorders Drive Set-Top-Based Home Networks
By Justin J. Junkus
Ask the average home electronics consumer to think about home networking, and chances are that set-top terminals will be one of the last topics to enter his or her mind. On the other hand, mention TiVo, and immediately the same consumer will see the box on top of the set. It may not be readily apparent, but the personal video recorder (PVR) application (aka digital video recorder or DVR) typified by TiVo is rapidly becoming an important part of home networking and may be the set-top’s entrée as a home gateway.
According to the survey, “The PVR Monitor III” from C-Cubed, October 2002, 43 percent of PVR owners purchase two or more devices for their homes, and 74 percent of them say they want PVR on all TV sets in their homes. Networked PVR, which accomplishes multiroom PVR without the need for separate devices in each room, had all the markings of a killer application at this year’s wave of trade shows. At the National Cable Show, Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta provided examples.
Networking options
Motorola showcased its DCT 6412 dual-tuner and DCT 6208 single-tuner, high-definition (HD) set-top terminals, equipped with 120 and 80 gigabyte (GB) hard drives, respectively, and Ucentric networking software. The vendors demonstrated a four-room PVR scenario, where live or recorded content could be paused and resumed from any room. In the demo, the DCT 6412 was networked with DCT 2000 and DCT 2500 set-tops. The networking technology behind the application includes a device discovery protocol and a resource manager that reserves devices anywhere on an Internet protocol (IP) coax network for each viewing experience, as required.
Michael Collette, Ucentric CEO, explains that the approximately 100 Mbps data capacity of an IP coax network is more than adequate to support pause and play of both real time and recorded viewing from any room, and that the constraints on the number of rooms and simultaneous sessions are functions of processor speed and disk input/output (I/O) rates. The IP network and device discovery protocol also make it possible to show photos and play music stored on an external hard drive over the same network.
Scientific-Atlanta provided a different implementation of multiroom PVR, based upon the use of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) channels above 870 MHz and a return channel for control. The Explorer 8300 contains a third generation DVR, providing both HD and standard definition (SD) recording and playback and 80 GB of storage, which can be increased to 160 or 300 GB. The Explorer 8300 was networked with Explorer 2200 set-tops for the multiroom application. While pause, rewind and playback are possible for recorded content from any room, because of the asymmetric nature of forward and return channels, this functionality is only available on the master unit for live content. A hint of possible future applications was indicated by the ability to display cell phone photos downloaded to the 2200 via an 802.11b interface.
These different technical implementations make it difficult for vendors in the second source market. Mike Pulli, president, Pace Americas, indicated his company is planning a rollout of a PVR product in the first quarter of 2005, but is still evaluating how it will provide multiroom functionality. “We are talking to Ucentric, Entropic, and others in our investigations of nonproprietary solutions that will serve our clients, who require both S-A and Motorola compatibility.”
Architecture
To see the real potential of set-top-based home networks, it’s helpful to know some basic set-top and networking architecture. What appears to be a special purpose device has a number of possible paths to other applications.
A typical set-top box includes a number of hardware and software resources that must be managed for the set-top to function. Examples include tuners, codecs, demodulators and I/O connections. The manager of these resources is the set-top operating system (OS), which is similar in concept to the OS found in a desktop computer.
Applications software that implements functions associated with the set-top communicates with the OS via application program interfaces (APIs). APIs provide a way to add new features without directly modifying the OS for specific applications. Network interfaces to other set-tops are an example of an application that uses APIs.
There are a number of possibilities for networks that interconnect set-tops. Perhaps the earliest home network is a simple coaxial star topology, with a set-top in the center and individual TV sets on the legs of the star. This type of network could be used with a remote infrared (IR) device to allow a TV set in a room separate from the set-top to use the set-top. The set-top becomes a shared resource, but all TV sets are limited to the same channel.
Applications such as PVR that demand far greater functionality of shared resources tend to make the interconnection interface to the set-top more complex. This complexity can reside in hardware, software or both.
For example, the physical connection to the set-top may still be an RJ-11 jack. However, additional chips within the set-top provide local area network (LAN) functionality over that jack, as well as analog or digital video transport. Several choices are available for coaxial cable LAN implementation. The Multimedia Over Cable Alliance (MOCA) is developing specifications specifically for coaxial cable LANs. HomePNA and HomePlug are examples of existing standards originally intended for media other than coaxial cable but that have been modified to work with coax.
The LAN connection does not need to be limited to the coaxial medium. IP-based networking is relatively independent of the physical layer, so a number of connectivity options are possible. For example, Motorola’s multiroom DVR application at this year’s National Show provided LAN connectivity via universal serial bus (USB) ports and associated “dongles” on DCT series set-tops. 802.11b wireless links are also possible.
A set-top-based network does not even need to be a LAN. Scientific-Atlanta’s Explorer 8300 essentially treats the home network as a mini-cable system, with the 8300 acting as a program source and the home’s coax network functioning as a distribution network.
The advantage of using IP LAN technology, however, is in its ability to expand its horizon as user needs to connect devices grow. Device discovery protocols such as universal plug and play (UPnP) facilitate connection of any IP-compatible device to an IP network without end user modifications. Ucentric uses UPnP as part of the FlexMedia LAN technology behind the Motorola multiroom DVR, music and photo application.
Ucentric’s Collette notes the value of an all-IP home network to the migration of set-top functionality: “Once there is a high bit rate, high-quality IP network in the home, the set-top can become a home gateway, which can set up high availability solutions for data as well as handling video networking. Having the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) modem in the set-top rather than in individual data devices makes it easier to provide Ethernet connections where they are needed without the difficulties associated with interfacing DOCSIS to a bunch of foreign devices.”
Applications
The path for set-top networks to other home networking applications is not clearly marked. CableLabs Senior Vice President Broadband Access Ralph Brown points out that there are two distinct types of applications that can be networked. “‘Laid back’ applications are typically associated with the use of TV for entertainment. ‘Lean forward’ applications are those we normally do with a computer.”
CableLabs is addressing the support of both types of applications, but its efforts tend to be segmented into separate project teams with focuses on DOCSIS, home networking and OpenCable. “The economics of a universal home gateway hasn’t yet played out,” says Brown. “The potential for convergence is there, but incremental cost is a problem.”
Vendors are beginning to offer some hints of how convergence of both types of application into one device might occur. Digeo and Pioneer emphasize the importance of user interfaces tailored to television. Digeo offers Moxi Mate as a second-room DVR solution, but packages that solution with menu-driven user interfaces to music, games, sports, news and other Internet-based content that can be accessed from both TV sets. Pioneer’s Digital Library, now a prototype set-top software suite, started out as storage access for home photos and digital music and then added an HDTV tuner and PVR capability.
Pioneer Home Entertainment Vice President Product Planning Matt Dever notes that the direction to a commercial offering would have to include an electronic program guide (EPG) and user interfaces to interactive applications. Microsoft, with its deep roots in the computer industry, is the only player that appears to be pulling for migration of computer interfaces to the TV set via its set-top versions of the Windows operating system.
Future directions
Irrespective of how it gets to the future, it is clear that set-top networking will continue to evolve beyond recording and playback. There are technology options, but in the end, it will be consumers who dictate which applications are added and when they appear.
Make Way for PVRs
Personal Video Recorders Drive Set-Top-Based Home Networks
By Justin J. Junkus
Ask the average home electronics consumer to think about home networking, and chances are that set-top terminals will be one of the last topics to enter his or her mind. On the other hand, mention TiVo, and immediately the same consumer will see the box on top of the set. It may not be readily apparent, but the personal video recorder (PVR) application (aka digital video recorder or DVR) typified by TiVo is rapidly becoming an important part of home networking and may be the set-top’s entrée as a home gateway.
According to the survey, “The PVR Monitor III” from C-Cubed, October 2002, 43 percent of PVR owners purchase two or more devices for their homes, and 74 percent of them say they want PVR on all TV sets in their homes. Networked PVR, which accomplishes multiroom PVR without the need for separate devices in each room, had all the markings of a killer application at this year’s wave of trade shows. At the National Cable Show, Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta provided examples.
Networking options
Motorola showcased its DCT 6412 dual-tuner and DCT 6208 single-tuner, high-definition (HD) set-top terminals, equipped with 120 and 80 gigabyte (GB) hard drives, respectively, and Ucentric networking software. The vendors demonstrated a four-room PVR scenario, where live or recorded content could be paused and resumed from any room. In the demo, the DCT 6412 was networked with DCT 2000 and DCT 2500 set-tops. The networking technology behind the application includes a device discovery protocol and a resource manager that reserves devices anywhere on an Internet protocol (IP) coax network for each viewing experience, as required.
Michael Collette, Ucentric CEO, explains that the approximately 100 Mbps data capacity of an IP coax network is more than adequate to support pause and play of both real time and recorded viewing from any room, and that the constraints on the number of rooms and simultaneous sessions are functions of processor speed and disk input/output (I/O) rates. The IP network and device discovery protocol also make it possible to show photos and play music stored on an external hard drive over the same network.
Scientific-Atlanta provided a different implementation of multiroom PVR, based upon the use of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) channels above 870 MHz and a return channel for control. The Explorer 8300 contains a third generation DVR, providing both HD and standard definition (SD) recording and playback and 80 GB of storage, which can be increased to 160 or 300 GB. The Explorer 8300 was networked with Explorer 2200 set-tops for the multiroom application. While pause, rewind and playback are possible for recorded content from any room, because of the asymmetric nature of forward and return channels, this functionality is only available on the master unit for live content. A hint of possible future applications was indicated by the ability to display cell phone photos downloaded to the 2200 via an 802.11b interface.
These different technical implementations make it difficult for vendors in the second source market. Mike Pulli, president, Pace Americas, indicated his company is planning a rollout of a PVR product in the first quarter of 2005, but is still evaluating how it will provide multiroom functionality. “We are talking to Ucentric, Entropic, and others in our investigations of nonproprietary solutions that will serve our clients, who require both S-A and Motorola compatibility.”
Architecture
To see the real potential of set-top-based home networks, it’s helpful to know some basic set-top and networking architecture. What appears to be a special purpose device has a number of possible paths to other applications.
A typical set-top box includes a number of hardware and software resources that must be managed for the set-top to function. Examples include tuners, codecs, demodulators and I/O connections. The manager of these resources is the set-top operating system (OS), which is similar in concept to the OS found in a desktop computer.
Applications software that implements functions associated with the set-top communicates with the OS via application program interfaces (APIs). APIs provide a way to add new features without directly modifying the OS for specific applications. Network interfaces to other set-tops are an example of an application that uses APIs.
There are a number of possibilities for networks that interconnect set-tops. Perhaps the earliest home network is a simple coaxial star topology, with a set-top in the center and individual TV sets on the legs of the star. This type of network could be used with a remote infrared (IR) device to allow a TV set in a room separate from the set-top to use the set-top. The set-top becomes a shared resource, but all TV sets are limited to the same channel.
Applications such as PVR that demand far greater functionality of shared resources tend to make the interconnection interface to the set-top more complex. This complexity can reside in hardware, software or both.
For example, the physical connection to the set-top may still be an RJ-11 jack. However, additional chips within the set-top provide local area network (LAN) functionality over that jack, as well as analog or digital video transport. Several choices are available for coaxial cable LAN implementation. The Multimedia Over Cable Alliance (MOCA) is developing specifications specifically for coaxial cable LANs. HomePNA and HomePlug are examples of existing standards originally intended for media other than coaxial cable but that have been modified to work with coax.
The LAN connection does not need to be limited to the coaxial medium. IP-based networking is relatively independent of the physical layer, so a number of connectivity options are possible. For example, Motorola’s multiroom DVR application at this year’s National Show provided LAN connectivity via universal serial bus (USB) ports and associated “dongles” on DCT series set-tops. 802.11b wireless links are also possible.
A set-top-based network does not even need to be a LAN. Scientific-Atlanta’s Explorer 8300 essentially treats the home network as a mini-cable system, with the 8300 acting as a program source and the home’s coax network functioning as a distribution network.
The advantage of using IP LAN technology, however, is in its ability to expand its horizon as user needs to connect devices grow. Device discovery protocols such as universal plug and play (UPnP) facilitate connection of any IP-compatible device to an IP network without end user modifications. Ucentric uses UPnP as part of the FlexMedia LAN technology behind the Motorola multiroom DVR, music and photo application.
Ucentric’s Collette notes the value of an all-IP home network to the migration of set-top functionality: “Once there is a high bit rate, high-quality IP network in the home, the set-top can become a home gateway, which can set up high availability solutions for data as well as handling video networking. Having the DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) modem in the set-top rather than in individual data devices makes it easier to provide Ethernet connections where they are needed without the difficulties associated with interfacing DOCSIS to a bunch of foreign devices.”
Applications
The path for set-top networks to other home networking applications is not clearly marked. CableLabs Senior Vice President Broadband Access Ralph Brown points out that there are two distinct types of applications that can be networked. “‘Laid back’ applications are typically associated with the use of TV for entertainment. ‘Lean forward’ applications are those we normally do with a computer.”
CableLabs is addressing the support of both types of applications, but its efforts tend to be segmented into separate project teams with focuses on DOCSIS, home networking and OpenCable. “The economics of a universal home gateway hasn’t yet played out,” says Brown. “The potential for convergence is there, but incremental cost is a problem.”
Vendors are beginning to offer some hints of how convergence of both types of application into one device might occur. Digeo and Pioneer emphasize the importance of user interfaces tailored to television. Digeo offers Moxi Mate as a second-room DVR solution, but packages that solution with menu-driven user interfaces to music, games, sports, news and other Internet-based content that can be accessed from both TV sets. Pioneer’s Digital Library, now a prototype set-top software suite, started out as storage access for home photos and digital music and then added an HDTV tuner and PVR capability.
Pioneer Home Entertainment Vice President Product Planning Matt Dever notes that the direction to a commercial offering would have to include an electronic program guide (EPG) and user interfaces to interactive applications. Microsoft, with its deep roots in the computer industry, is the only player that appears to be pulling for migration of computer interfaces to the TV set via its set-top versions of the Windows operating system.
Future directions
Irrespective of how it gets to the future, it is clear that set-top networking will continue to evolve beyond recording and playback. There are technology options, but in the end, it will be consumers who dictate which applications are added and when they appear.
