DVR/networking

[wireblsam]

Just a question to those of you that are much smarter than I am.  Would it be technologically possible (sometime in the future) to be able to view programs stored on a DVR on another box within the same home?

Here is my situation and what I would like to be able to do.  I have a HD DVR in the basement and HD boxes on the first and second floors.  I would change the channel on my non-DVR HD box to channel XXXX (The my DVR On Demand Channel) which would display what is stored on my DVR.  I can then watch from that box.  

Is this a) possible and/or b) the biggest pipedream of them all?

[mhz40]

The multi-room DVR is already nearing the beta test stage.  I would be surprised if you didn't have one in your home before Thanksgiving.

[jkane]

Depends on who's DVR.  Any made for cable companies probably won't because it's not in their interest to let you "share" video since most of them are so closely tied to movie studios.

TiVo on the other hand does this now.  If you modify it you get many options. They just started releasing official software to watch stuff on a computer.  It's not able to be returned to another Tivo yet though.  I'm waiting on the download for the upgrade to see how well this new feature works.

Replay does the same thing, but for an even bigger audience.  You can actually share between friends on their Replay over the internet!

[Greg Oman]

The other solution is to use a computer-based PVR application, and using using either a wired (or maybe wireless) network to manage media content and distrubute it to output devices (TV, monitors, or stereo's for audio).

It's still a bit techy, but all of the pieces are out there now, you just need to understand how and what to put together.

Greg O.

[wireblsam]

Thanks for the info mhz!

I did a little digging and ran across this release from SA...

Release date: January 6, 2005

CES/January 6-9, 2005
South Hall, Booth#31754

Scientific-Atlanta is First to Launch Cable Multi-Room DVR for the Connected Home
— Multi-Room technology from Scientific-Atlanta now commercially available to Time Warner Cable consumers in Minneapolis —

Las Vegas, NV – CES 2005 – Scientific-Atlanta announced today the commercial availability of its innovative Explorer® 8300™ MR-DVR set-top. Time Warner Cable, the cable industry leader in the deployment of DVRs, is now initiating the deployment of Multi-Room™ DVR set-tops in its Minneapolis division. Scientific-Atlanta's innovative Multi-Room DVR service builds on its very popular DVR service first commercially deployed in August 2002. With Multi-Room DVR, a consumer can not only choose what to watch, when they want to watch, but also let's the consumer decide where to watch it as well.

"New DVR research shows that the concept of a truly connected home that allows recorded content to be viewed on multiple TVs is indeed very appealing to consumers," said Jennifer Choate, Principal, CCubed, LLC. "In fact, that was one of the highest ranked features of interest by DVR users surveyed."

"Multi-Room DVR provides cable operators a clear competitive advantage in the market place by providing consumers unprecedented control in how they watch their favorite programs" said Michael P. Harney, corporate senior vice president and president of Subscriber Networks. "With Scientific-Atlanta's Multi-Room DVR solution, we have made it incredibly easy for our customer's subscribers to watch their DVR recorded content throughout the home. For operators that deploy, market, and bundle Multi-Room DVR service in their service packages, they are setting the stage as the provider in the market place for the connected home."

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/newscenter/newsreleases.asp?target=http://www.scientificatlanta.com/newscenter/releases/05Jan06-2.htm

And this one....

Release Date: January 6, 2005

Scientific-Atlanta's Innovative Multi-Room DVR Wins Storage Visions Award for State of the Art Technology
— Scientific-Atlanta recognized for its leadership in DVR technology with award for its Explorer Multi-Room DVR prior to 2005 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas —

ATLANTA, GA – Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer® 8300™ Multi-Room™ DVR (MR-DVR) has been awarded the "Best Integrated Home Entertainment" award at the fourth annual Storage Visions Conference in Las Vegas, NV. The MR-DVR solution was recognized by the award's sponsors, Storage Visions and Engage Capital, for advancing "the state of the art in storage technologies utilized in consumer electronics." Judges selected the MR-DVR because of its contribution to fulfilling the vision of a digitally-connected universe of products and services.

"Scientific-Atlanta's innovative Multi-Room DVR technology takes the digital video recorder experience to a whole new level for consumers," said Dr. Ken Morse, vice president, client architecture for Subscriber Network Systems at Scientific-Atlanta. "Our exciting Multi-Room DVR delivers incredible control of time and video content to consumers through a combination of local storage on the main DVR and distributed connectivity for access throughout the home to stored content."

Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer 8300 Multi-Room DVR solution takes everything people love about DVR today and makes it even better. MR-DVR enhances the way consumers receive and store entertainment, and takes DVR to a new level. Using existing in-home wiring and additional Explorer digital set-tops, consumers can view content recorded on the MR-DVR on multiple television sets within the home. In fact, using TVs in up to four different rooms in the home, individuals can watch different recorded programs or they can view the same program, but time shifted at different points in the show.

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/newscenter/newsreleases.asp?target=http://www.scientificatlanta.com/newscenter/releases/05Jan06-5.htm

[kjnorman]

In addition you'll also be able to expand the HDD memory on you 8300 series DVR/Multiroom device.

Yahoo: Maxtor QuickView Expander Now Shipping

Maxtor QuickView Expander Now Shipping to Time Warner Cable
Wednesday January 5, 8:03 am ET
Maxtor and Time Warner Cable Deliver External Storage for DVR Set-top Boxes

LAS VEGAS, CES, Jan. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Maxtor Corporation (NYSE: MXO - News), a worldwide leader in hard disk drives and consumer storage products, announced today that Time Warner Cable has ordered its first shipment of Maxtor® QuickView Expander(TM) external hard drives and will begin offering external storage options to its digital video recorders (DVR) subscribers in select locations. The QuickView Expander drive was unveiled in late April 2004 as the industry's first external solution to increase storage capacity for cable DVRs.

The new offering emphasizes Maxtor's commitment to develop and market application-specific storage solutions for a variety of consumer electronic devices. The first version of the Maxtor QuickView Expander drive utilizes an external SATA connector and is designed to work in association with Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer® 8300(TM) series of DVR products. Additional versions of the QuickView Expander will also be offered to work with other DVR set top boxes produced by other manufacturers.

"Maxtor continues to develop and brand distinct consumer storage solutions for the digital entertainment market," said Greg Ireland, senior analyst, IDC. "Securing Time Warner Cable as a customer is an excellent endorsement that reflects DVR growth, increased consumer storage needs, and commitment from both Maxtor and Time Warner to make such a solution available to customers."

"Maxtor is at the forefront of the ever changing digital entertainment landscape," said Mike Cordano, executive vice president of worldwide sales and marketing at Maxtor. "With industry analysts forecasting that over 30 million homes will have DVRs by 2007, and adoption of high definition television on the rise, the demand for additional storage capacity will dramatically increase. With introductions such as the Maxtor QuickView Expander, DVR manufacturers and service providers now have the ideal solution in place to easily extend DVR storage capacity as well as add convenience to the process for their customers."

Maxtor will be present at Storage Visions in Las Vegas, NV, January 4-5, 2005, and CES in Las Vegas, NV, January 6-9, 2005, to show the QuickView Expander drive in addition to several new consumer storage solutions. Come visit us at the Las Vegas Convention Center at N222/221.