Sony’s 1TB DVR With Seven TV Tuners

[Suhit Gupta]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Info/2004/products_0510_typeX.html' target='_blank'>http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Info/2004/products_0510_typeX.html</a><br /><br /></div>Sony Japan today announced a DVR solution that pretty much kills the current competition. The new Type X DVR will have 1TB of disk space and as many as 7 TV Tuners so that you can simultaneously record up to 7 different channels. It supports high definition video and high-level AV efficiency.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/sony1tb.jpg" /><br /><br />It will supposedly be available later this year, but probably in Japan only. Not information on pricing. You can translate the link give using <a href="http://world.altavista.com/">Babelfish</a>.

[Tim Williamson]

Wow! 8O Who has the time/need to watch 7 channels of TV though?

[dgage]

Damn! And I thought I was crazy to have 1/2 TB and 3 tuners. :) No HDTV though.

Then again I rarely use the 3rd tuner but it is nice to have when something special comes on.

David

[c38b2]

Why are multiple tuners needed? Aren't all the channels coming in one cable anyways?

[dgage]

Multiple tuners are needed to view/record multiple channels at the same time. That's why higher-end TVs with picture-in-picture have two tuners. For me, I use one cable with a 3-way splitter to feed each tuner in my computer. My cable is analog however.

If you had digital cable or DirectTV, you would need a cable box for each tuner in your computer since the computer tuner can't handle digital directly. The ones I have can't anyway and there really isn't a digital standard since DirectTV tries to protect their data stream.

David

[Suhit Gupta]

Wow! 8O Who has the time/need to watch 7 channels of TV though?
That was my question for those that have 6-7 TiVo units in their houses.

Suhit

[Suhit Gupta]

Damn! And I thought I was crazy to have 1/2 TB and 3 tuners. :) No HDTV though.
Actually I believe it is HDTV. At least the translated page claims there is. :)

Suhit

[Kent Pribbernow]

Damn that is one sexy piece of hardware. If Sony made desktops that looked this sleek I would buy one in a heartbeat! 8O

[Kent Pribbernow]

Oooooooh, they do make PCs similar to this design:

http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGC-RA70P/spec.html

I want one. :cry:

[Suhit Gupta]

Hmm, unfortunately it turns out that this unit is actually quite large. :( - http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/sonys-type-x-dvr-is-big-boned-016123.php

Suhit

[dgage]

Damn! And I thought I was crazy to have 1/2 TB and 3 tuners. :) No HDTV though.
Actually I believe it is HDTV. At least the translated page claims there is. :)

Suhit

I meant I don't have HDTV. Mainly because there isn't an HDTV standard for cards and I think partially because companies are scared to put HDTV on a computer. Too easy to take perfect video and do whatever you want with it. You can bet Sony will have some sort of protection scheme on it. Just look at their latest MP3 player that converts MP3 to their proprietary ATRAC protected format.

David