Pace to Show HD Personal Video Recorder at Broadband Plus

[Gregg Lengling]

Company showcases cable technology geared toward generating new revenue

 
 
  ANAHEIM, Calif., Dec. 03, 2002 -- Pace Micro Technology, a provider of technology for the digital cable gateway (set-top box) market, is presenting its full line of revenue-generating technology for U.S. cable operators at this week's Broadband Plus cable show.

Among Pace's latest innovations are PVR/HD (personal video recorder functionality for high definition content) digital cable gateways that work on any cable network in the U.S.. The full line of cable technology includes:

The Pace PVR/HD cable gateway
Pace introduces its PVR/HD cable gateway concept that will provide customers PVR functionality for both SD and HD programs. The first to launch cable gateways with PVR functionality in the UK, Pace is now developing PVR gateways to work on all major cable networks in the U.S. Pace's PVR/HD gateway has multiple tuners and will provide consumers with the following PVR functionality for SD and HD programs:


Record one program while watching another (you can also record a program while watching a previous recording)


Single button recording


Automatically record episodes of broadcast TV series


Record without video tapes (on average 20hrs worth of recordings)


Record the original digital broadcast signal (recording will be the same quality as live viewing)


Record and play back subtitles


Pause live TV (records the remainder of the program, no matter how long)


Full VCR-type control on all recordings

 
Pace 500 Series
The Pace 500 Series has created quite a buzz among cable operators because of its high reliability and low failure rate. Pace has shipped more than 250,000 of these cable gateways to Time Warner Cable

The Pace 500 Series is successfully integrated with the industry's video-on-demand (VOD) applications and electronic program guides (EPGs). Pace will be demonstrating a number of the latest revenue-generating applications running live at Broadband Plus

The Pace 500 Series is the world's smallest digital home gateway and the first to receive an ENERGY STAR(R) label for energy efficiency. It includes the world's first single-chip solution, and enables more than 150 channels of analog and digital television, as well as the latest digital interactive television services.

Pace 700 Series
Pace's 700 Series cable gateway features an integrated DOCSIS cable modem, 300+ MIPS processing power, and includes support for all formats of HDTV. The Pace 700 Series supports DigiCipher II(R) conditional access as well as TV Guide's EPG and multiple middleware solutions. The open software and hardware architecture of the Pace 700 Series can support a DVR solution utilizing the secure digital IEEE 1394 interface. The Pace 700 Series is the cable gateway Pace has developed for Comcast Cable and will begin shipping sometime next year.

Pace 550 HD
The Pace 550 HD Offers cable operators advanced functionality and flexibility. The Pace 550 HD can support DVI 1.0 and optional IEEE1394- standards based, secure digital connections for digital television monitors and consumer peripheral devices. Its hardware and software architecture has been specifically designed to enable the secure delivery of both Standard Definition (SDTV) and HDTV content. Gateways available to operators so far have only accommodated an unsecured analog 1080i signal output, which can cause a subscriber's television to display some content with both letterbox and pillarbox bars (black bars around picture). The Pace 550 HD is capable of enhancing the viewer experience by scaling content to fit both 4:3 and 16:9 monitors; thus, minimizing the use of letterbox and pillarbox bars.

Pace's cable gateway technology works for both SD and HD television sets (480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i output resolutions) and supports HD video and graphics scaling for on-screen guides.

IP400
At Broadband Plus, Pace is demonstrating the IP400 digital gateway which offers multichannel video, VOD, iTV, Internet, e-mail, chat, Caller ID, gaming, and home networking services over IP.

The IP400 supports new low bit rate codecs such as MPEG-4 and Windows Media 9, which widens the pool of available content operators can use to deliver more content to more consumers at a high quality over their networks.

The IP400's open architecture enables operators to update all software programs, including codecs, as standards for this market evolve. The IP400 gateways can also be upgraded remotely over the network to provide future-proofing reassurance for operators and maximize returns on investment.

[kjnorman]

From what I can tell, this is based in the 700 platform, for which the specs are here.

[FreQi]

Let's hope it's got ethernet built in so it can get schedule updates through existing lan's and internet gateway's rather than use a phone line.  But like anything, if you put a hard drive in it, hackability and customizing of the box would shortly follow it's release.  I'm liking the sound of it...

Is this something cable companies will be leasing to customers?  Or would you buy it like a tivo?  Maybe schedule updates are provided over the coax like existing digital cable boxes.