The DVR info we DIDN'T get

[jagouar]

I meant to ask 3 things but forgot (hoping somebody else did)
1. Will the DVR be able to go "back in time" in the guide so if theres a show that just ended (IE we turned it on almost all the way through and got only the credits that we could have a way to get this show so we can record the next time.

2. What kind of a buffer will the DVR use (how long).... I know on the newest cable boxes that it stores an hour in the buffer so if you see a show and it was tuned in the whole time and you schedule it to record that ep it will auto save the whole episode (the buffer stuff and any future time left on the episode).

3. Related to the scability and networking of 2 DVR's if you have 2 units (if theyre priced right i know i will).... so will the networking be smart enough if theres 2 schedule programs on at the same time it will record one program on one unit and the second on the other. Or have some way that if I turn one device on and want to watch live TV (and I have 2 units) and the unit im on is usilizing both its tuners if it will have some way to shift one of the recordings to the other unit.

 

[Sean Mota]

Another thing that has gone under the radar is that two networked DVRs will give you 4 Satellite Tuners and 4 OTA tuners and so the more that you stack the more available tuners you will have. If they allowed up to 6 DVRs per account, I want 6. This will give 50 x 6 = 300 hrs of HD! 12 satellite tuners and 12 OTA tuners. The important thing is that it does not matter where the recording maybe, you can access the recording from any DVR.

[speculation]
One cool thing would be, to be able to control all the other DVRs from one. That is, have a screen of the six DVRs identified with labels. Select the DVR and be ableo to have an emulation screen of the DVR where one can manipulate and record. That will be awesome! I will never miss any programming. But even cooler will be to be able to access that same screen from the internet and be able to program everything you need right through a web browser. That will be too cool.[end of speculation]

 

[madpoet]

Sounds like you want Replay . Seriously, SonicBlue did almost all this with the Replays years ago. I hope Ucentric can follow suit.

 

[1080iBeVuMin]

Sean, I thought the demo guy said that it will be transparent to the user which DVR is being used to record a program. When you want to watch it you simply look up the recorded program you want by channel (900+) and the system finds the program on whichever DVR and then sends it to whichever HDTV you are interacting with. Very cool!

Controlling the DVRs over the web? Can you imagine what hackers could do? heheheh

 

[madpoet]

Again... I can do it with my Replay...

 

[dsball]

Again... I can do it with my Replay...

And been doing it for 2 years now Replay ROCKS!
No true HD recording is the only stumbling block.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I hope this thing turns out to be as hackable as the series 1 Tivo or at least incorporates the best hacked features.

(ie. ripping programs from the hard drive, browser interface for remote access, web server, etc)

 

[jagouar]

I hope this thing turns out to be as hackable as the series 1 Tivo or at least incorporates the best hacked features.

(ie. ripping programs from the hard drive, browser interface for remote access, web server, etc)

I would think a DVArchive like program would be possible/probable since its already networked (just a matter of defeating voOm's encryption)... that said I dont think this type of discussion would be allowed here.

 

[dankgus]

I do question how they would be able to support so many streams from a single hard drive. Being able to archive 2 HD streams and play a 3rd at the same time is just about the througput of a standard IDE drive, which it seems like they are using. You will also be bandwidth-limited in your streams, since I doubt the boxes support GigE.

Remember, these are COMPRESSED HD streams. I don't know the exact number, but I think they are around 12mbps. So, as far as the networking goes, regular 100mbps should easily support multiple streams. As to hard drives, even the slowest drives (10MBps lets say-and thats "MB"-roughly 80mbps) should be adequate. Surely they will use faster drives than the absolute slowest. Be aware, drives that claim 133MBps are total BS, you will NEVER get 133MB off of that drive in 1 second.

I wonder how easily it will be to capture HD over ethernet, onto your PC. I would think SOMEBODY would figure this out.

--Dan

 

[madpoet]

They should be around 19mbps unless they are really comrpessing them. But to answer my own question, the presenter said essentially what I thought... 2 recording, 1 viewing. Which would mean 3 streams.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

They should be around 19mbps unless they are really comrpessing them. But to answer my own question, the presenter said essentially what I thought... 2 recording, 1 viewing. Which would mean 3 streams.

I thought he said 2 recording, 1 viewing of previously recorded programs. That is only 2 streams. Same as DirecTivo.

 

[CraziFuzzy]

I think he meant streams to/from the HDD, it would be 3 streams, 2 writing to the disk, 1 reading from the disk...

 

[eddiscus]

I think Sean is asking for a lot (6 DVR's). I would be happy if they actually have one DVR available in March for an existing Voom customer. Wireless networking or coax would be the least labor intensive. But after reading the installer nightmare threads I doubt they would be able spend the time or have the patience to get a wireless network up and running. I would hope that voom would allow customers to do their own installs. I know I could bo a better job than most installers just based on the reasoning that I would care about what I am doing. I think most of the Voom users are of a technical background and would have no problem doing a quality install. Let the installers handle the customers that cannot do their own installs. If Voom goes the way I hope it does in March I doubt I could wait the time it would take just to ship the equipment to my house for my own install. I know I could not wait long enough for an installer to get out to do it.

 

[madpoet]

Correct, 3 possible streams total.

 

[barth2k]

do we know yet if an additional line (2 total) from dish to dvr will be required?

 

[CraziFuzzy]

probably won't have any more details until it is released.

 

[madpoet]

Man I love an optimist