TiVo++ from India

charmer writes "According to a story in rediff, a company in India, Divinet Technologies, have developed a set top box that plays video cds, offers sms, email, chat, plays mp3s, acts as a game box, has a web cam, video on demand, and a digital VCR, and has a multilingual interface (a necessity in India.) And it looks pretty good too :-) No pricing given though."

Real-Video-on-Demand, RealMedia

[dpryo]

Is that REAL Video-on-Demand, or RealVideo-on-Demand?

Sounds Useful

[n3rd]

You can watch a VCD that was recorded using your web cam of you playing video games while listening to MP3s.

Or you can read an SMS that tells you to check your e-mail that contains an chat log reminding you to record a show tonight.

Or you can chat with your web cam. Wait, that's not right. This device can do so many goddamned things I'm getting confused.

Stupid question

[Zayin]

To begin at the beginning, a couple of questions: What costs less than a dial-up connection, but gives you broadband Internet access upto 10 MB per second? What uses your TV set to offer Real-Video-on-Demand, SMS, email, chat, unlimited MP3s, online gaming, video-conferencing, telephony, and interactive education? What doubles up as your VCD, Web cam, Karaoke system, jukebox and VCR?

Linux!

But it doesn't run linux, does it?

[TheNarrator]

Well I can't buy a piece of consumer electronics equipment that doesn't run Linux. I mean why waste money on something you can't put in a Beowolf cluster, like my beowolf enabled Sharp Zaurus and Tivo.

I have ++Tivo

[News for nerds]

It's called "PC"

Re:I have to wonder...

[allrong]

Yes, for years the US has lead the world supplying useless acronyms (UA's) for anything vaguely technology or business related (VTBR). Judging from the article, it would seem that the Indians are catching up very strongly in this area (VSITA).

Maybe they've skipped actual innovation and gone straight for management and marketing.

Scary stuff

[Openadvocate]

They are evil [fanta.dk]

Ah finally Friday.

i've had one of these for years...

[rcamera]

it's called a laptop. all i need to do is place my laptop on top of the tv set. voila. throw the s-vid out into the tv and we're ready to roll. cost - ~$2800US

granted, my laptop doesn't have video on demand or a digital vcr, but my desktop with an ati radeon all-in-wonder gets awfully close. this box even has tv-pausing. once again, throw the s-vid out into the tv and we're all done. cost - ~$1800US

but unlike the "tivo++", these machines are not limited to what they can do. tell me this... can you /. with a "tivo++"?

But not only that,

[ultraexactzz]

...It can tuck your children in at night, make a killer caeser salad, and can divide by zero.

Re:Stretching

[Eccles]

Any plans to come to the US soon?

Are you kidding? The MPAA and RIAA want Bush to invade India next now. "IP terrorists!"

Programmer's Nitpick

[TheConfusedOne]

Personally, I'd prefer to buy ++TiVo instead of TiVo++.

After all, who wants to spend the money on a TiVo so that the NEXT person can get the incremented one? :-D

Only one problem with this box-

[BluedemonX]

No matter what show you're watching with it, at random points suddenly they all start doing a song and dance number and the voices on the lead actors change to a screechy woman for the female lead and a velvety-slightly nasal tone for the male lead. After the dance number, the show resumes. And every romance scene has the camera cut to a shot of trees or something just before any two people kiss (or do anything more hardcore).