HD personal video recorder (1 Viewer)

[Hugo]

Hi, I don't know if you already know about this Zenith HDR230 HD personal video recorder, I though you might find it interesting:

http://www.zenith.com/index.asp?url=...asp%3Fcat%3D52

 

[Ken Chan]

Hmm... only 8 hours capacity though.

//Ken

 

[Dmitry]

Only one 80GB drive, hopefully that can be expanded.

 

[Bob McElfresh]

What is "PSIP-based EPG" mean?

The big key to these PVR's is they are smarter than a VCR that typically only records from 8-9pm, Wed nights. The EPG is a critical part.

People with roters on their antenna could have problems if they program 2 shows from different directions. I dont think there is a way for the box to order the antenna to move.

 

[Stephen Tu]

Reports are that you can just plop in a bigger drive, no special formatting needed. There might be a 137G addressable limit with the current firmware though.

PSIP - I forgot what this stands for, something like "program system information protocol" maybe. It's schedule information all the digital broadcasters are supposed to be sending along with the actual programs. The Zenith reads this and populates its guide with this info. The main problem is that a lot of stations aren't fully up to speed with this yet and are sending out incomplete or bad data. Certainly it's not up to the level of the guide of a Tivo, Replay, or digital sat / cable boxes. Pester the stations' engineering depts enough and it will become reasonable eventually.

So with the Zenith don't expect much more than VCR-like timers, at least for now.

At $1000 for OTA only, I'm waiting for HD-Tivo/Dish 921/Motorola 6208, and am going to pass on the Zenith box. Especially since currently it can't play back previously recorded shows while it's recording a new one. With that huge limitation, it's not much better than much cheaper PC cards.