For the 'have-it-your-way' folks, a new wave of PVRs fills the bill

[Gregg Lengling]

Stephen Williams
   
 
 
 
   

May 9, 2004

The history of the personal digital video recorder is so short, that to define it as history is something of an exaggeration.

Nonetheless, the Next Generation of PVR has arrived, sporting technological bells, whistles and high-definition recording capabilities.

This could be a big deal, allowing for the limited amount of HD programming coming through (growing steadily, though). High-definition addicts trying to satisfy their cravings for material can only look east and drool: In Japan, high-definition optical-disc recorders are on the shelves, the so-called Blu-ray format supported by a number of Japanese manufacturers. On this side of the Pacific, Blu-ray machines are expected later this year or next, although a competing standard, called HD DVD from NEC and Toshiba, is muddying the marketing waters.

Given all that, to an expanding and sophisticated viewing audience that's being TiVo-ized - that is, accustomed to watching what they want, when they want, HD included - the advent of the HD PVR is an event.

For several weeks I've been tuning in to off-the-air broadcasts with LG Electronic's silver sleek PVR, the LST-3410, a powerful box that holds a 120-gigabyte hard drive, large enough to store about 12 hours of HD material, or up to 120 hours of standard analog programs.

On the cusp of the home theater market is Dish Network's brand-new Dish Player DVR-921, which one-ups the LG model by building in a 250-gigabyte drive and a Dish satellite receiver. I guess that means it actually two-ups the LG model. And yet another HD PVR, this one for DirecTV subscribers and being marketed in alliance with TiVo, is expected soon.

EchoStar's Dish system was initially announced in early 2003, but it took more than a year for it to arrive en force. Dish's circa-$1,000 921 unit, which is bulky and noisy, ships with a dual-tuner so that it can record two programs at once - high-def or otherwise - while the viewer watches a third program that's already been recorded. The deal with Dish gets somewhat more intriguing if you buy into a bundle: For $1,599, the company offers a system that includes the 921, a rear-projection or tube HDTV, plus a 20-inch oval satellite dish and installation.

Dish's HD programming includes several channels, such as Discovery HD Theater, HBO, ESPN and HDNet. There's also an integrated analog-digital tuner for over-the-air digital stations, which in New York now features WCBS, WNBC, WABC and WNYW.

One of the advantages - perhaps the advantage - of time-shifting is skipping past commercials, and this applies with HD as well as conventional broadcasting. The 921's remote advances the show from 4x normal to 300x. Skip FWD (Forward) or Skip Back does the same frame by frame.

Early reports had the machine rebooting itself for no apparent reason, and sometimes crashing. Dish blames the problems on software glitches that the company says have been corrected.

Because of the drive's annoying rumble, Dish's remote uses radio frequency rather than infrared signals to control the 921, so that the box can be hidden out of the controller's sightlines.

Meanwhile, LG's deck, on sale online for $900-$1,000, had no reliablity issues that I encountered, and recording HD was seamless, although the built-in, on-screen TV Guide is overly complex and way too busy to look at. I did like the Smart Skip function, which analyzes recorded video content to skip ahead or back through scenes, usually finding them.