G4 Tech TV Reviews Three New HDTV DVRs

Thomas Hawk writes "G4techTV does a review of three of the new HDTV recorders. Noticeably absent is Microsoft's Media Center 2005. The Hughes HD 10-250 gets the highest marks and is the 'G4tech TV Lab Pick.' Although I haven't used the other two HDTV recorders I have to say I would concur on their opinion of TiVo's DirecTV box."

MCE 2005

[Joffrey]

As far as I knew, Media Center Edition doesn't have HD support. Not therefore surprising that they wouldn't include it in their roundup.

(perhaps the author meant that MCE was noticeably absent as an HD-DVR?)

Well...

[BrianGa]

I don't know. Think about this. PVR's piss off hollywood because you FF through commercials. But, even though you WILL FF through commercials on this also, the commercials will be permantntly burned into a DVD. What sales company wouldn't like the idea of permanent commercials on a DVD?

Also: pcHDTV HD-3000 now taking pre-orders...

[manyoso]

The folks over at pchdtv.com [pchdtv.com] are now taking orders for the new HD-3000 *linux only* HDTV video capture card. [pchdtv.com]

And yes, they are working on QAM digital cable support for this new card. Here is a nice FAQ [mythtv.org] about what is new in this card.

Digital cable standards

[ergo98]

In my neck of the woods there are few HDTV providers - Cogeco (a cable system), and Bell Canada ExpressVu (a satellite system). Both of them use entirely different hardware, and thus my choice of PVR box is dictated by my choice of provider (in my case it would have to be a Motorola DCT6208 or a Bell 6120..whatever manufacturer that is), and if I ponied up the $800CDN or so with one and became disatisfied with the service, I'd have to toss the box in the garbage.

Which is why I chose to rent the box for $20 a month - when the two-tuner version comes out (within the year) I'll do a swap. The point of all of this? I guess that ultimately I am choosing provider and the PVR comes along for the ride.

Future Channels?

[SurfTheWorld]

I think equally important in the discussion is the number of channels that will realisticly be offered in the near future.

While I'm not OTA, cable, or dish network expert (neither am I a DirecTV expert!), I do know that the launch of DirecTV 7S earlier this year represented a monumental leap forward in bandwidth capability. It's my understanding that the purpose of 7S is to relieve the other birds from their coast-to-coast broacasts (using it's spot-beam technology), thereby freeing up the frequencies for HD content.

From what I read (sorry I can't provide links), the amount of bandwidth 7S brings to the skies above us is enormous, and the intended purpose of the bandwidth is the carrying of HD content.

DirecTV knows that Cable is ramping up HD offerings. Not wanting to fall behind, I'm sure DirecTV will offer more HD channels in the future.

Personally, I'll hold off until 7S starts broadcasting, and wait for DirecTV to offer ESPN, CNN, FOX, etc in HD before I actually sink my credits into a HDTV. Hopefully by that time, prices of HD-TiVO's will have come down (hopefully to $500).

But, I think that contemplating what future offerings will be provided is certainly relevant when discussing which company to go with. ... especially when you're talking about $1000 for the PVR!

Hope this info helps.

Re:MCE 2005

[Joffrey]

Dammit. I hate it when I'm wrong. The last time I investigated MCE 2005, they hadn't announced HDTV support. Thanks for the clarification.

Re:Also: pcHDTV HD-3000 now taking pre-orders...

[Waffle Iron]

it's a windows world, and this is just a bad business decision

I'm not so sure that it's such a bad business decision. At this early stage in the HDTV market, the overlap between people who will be recording HDTV and people who can run Linux may be pretty high.

Moreover, to market it for Windows machines on a larger scale than the Linux market they would probably need to slog through the Microsoft programs to get the little "Designed for Windows" logos on their products (which could involve adding extra Redmond-approved DRM hooks), and they would probably need to somehow break into the big retail sales channels to make the extra effort worth it. All that might be a pretty big capital investment. Maybe they see a niche where they can make some money without a lot of up-front investment.