Tuesday, September 25, 2007

External TV Tuners/PVR Devices Tested

olomon writes "TV Tuners for the PC have existed for a long time but with the ever increasing popularity of TiVo-like services and the possibility of replicating such features on your Windows PC with little effort and a small investment, tuners have been getting a lot of attention this year. Today there's three-way shootout posted at TechSpot with products from Digistor, Transcend and a very appealing offer from RTV called the VEG that lets you play consoles in your monitor. Although neither of these devices can match TiVo completely, they do give you a very cheap alternative."

External TV Tuners / PVR Devices: 3-way shootout

Not too long ago we reviewed LG’s stunning 23” LCD widescreen monitor which unfortunately we already had packed and ready to be returned to the manufacturer by the time we started writing this article. Although the big screen was the most obvious attractive part of the LG 23” “Media Station”, it was not only a gorgeous monitor that we were going to miss but a multimedia station. And to think, for a measly $2,500, I could have kept it. A small price to pay for a multimedia workstation of such caliber, don’t you think?

You might have to think again. If an affordable multimedia workstation is what you need, you could be saving that $2,500 and look up one of these affordable units that also add TiVo-like options to your system. They may not have the sexy looks, enormous included monitor, or sleek lines like the LG unit, but they get the job done. These are no frills units that allow you to watch television on your monitor, or play an Xbox game or two. How about a night at the movies, right on your laptop? Need a place to connect your camcorder to, and record the video? Do you like to pause and record live television? And guess what? It’s pretty darn cheap.

We took on three different products for this shootout, all of them external devices which should offer extra versatility versus its internal counterparts. The first is a unit from Transcend, which is called the TV-Box. Next on the docket will be a unit from Digistor. And finally, the largest of the bunch is the RTV VEG-N Video Entertainment Generator.

Are These Products For Me?

These products have the ability to turn your workstation into a multimedia tool. The tested units all have built-in television tuners, along with remote controls which allow watching television on your computer either on full screen or windowed modes. All products came with software that enables the user to record live television (similar to a Tivo), schedule future programming, and edit for burning to DVD, provided you have plenty of hard drive space available.

The space needed will depend on the quality of the recording, which can be selected by the end user. To perform these tasks, each reviewed unit comes with its own PVR (Personal Video Recorder) software suite. As a side note, you must have at least one USB 2.0 port available in your machine, or you won’t be able to use any of these devices.

All of the units reviewed here also have external connectivity for input devices such as video recorders, DVD players, or even gaming consoles. With this you should be able to transfer old VCR tapes to DVD discs, and edit unwanted portions if desired. You can also transfer video from your camcorder, and burn it to disc. The units all have the ability to be connected to a gaming device, but only one of them offers enhanced resolution capabilities, which supposedly enhances visuals in your Xbox or PlayStation games.

Here’s where we start seeing bigger similarities and differences between products.

As you can see, both Transcend and Digistor products are touted as very small, unobtrusive units that get the job done with the flexibility of an external device.

The smallest unit is the Digistor, followed by the Transcend. The largest of the bunch is the RTV tuner which more than doubles the size of the others although later you will find what all that space is being used for.

TiVO's New "Feature"

It became official, . I guarantee not a single user requested this. Was there a customer who said “You know, when I hit the fast forward button on commercials I want to see banner ads”?

TiVo is doing this as a way to increase revenue, thereby being able to decrease the cost of the boxes and acquire more customers. Other than making ad agencies, advertisers and maybe TiVo happy it will alienate users.

For a company that prided itself on delivering an amazing user experience this seems to be a huge miss. Why didn’t TiVo release 2 versions of their system? One with ads and a premium version without ads that cost more?

This is a big boon for cable system DVRs that (as of right now) are ad free on FF.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Digital video recorder (DVR) (or personal video recorder (PVR))

A digital video recorder (DVR) (or personal video recorder (PVR)) is a device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive or other medium. The term includes stand-alone set-top boxes and software for personal computers which enables video capture and playback to and from disk. Some consumer electronic manufacturers have started to offer televisions with DVR hardware and software built in to the television itself. It has also become the main way for CCTV companies to record their surveillance, as it provides far longer recording times than the old VCRs.

History

The technological underpinnings of hard-disk based video recorders were tested on July 8, 1965, when CBS explored the possibilities of instant freeze-frame and rewind for sports broadcasts. Ampex released the first commercial hard disk video recorder in 1967. The HS-100 recorded composite analog video onto a 14" diameter hard disk using FM modulation. It could store a maximum of only 30 seconds, but could record continuously, and play back 2x normal speed down to still frame. http://www.cedmagic.com/history/instant-replay-hs-100-deck.html http://www.sssm.com/editing/museum/ampex/hs100.html

In 1985, an employee of Honeywell’s Physical Sciences Center, David Rafner, first described a drive-based DVR designed for home TV recording, time-slipping, and commercial skipping. U.S. Patent 4,972,396 focused on a multi-channel design to allow simultaneous independent recording and playback. Broadly anticipating future DVR developments, it describes possible applications such as streaming compression, editing, captioning, multi-channel security monitoring, military sensor platforms, and remotely piloted vehicles.

Hard disk-based DVRs

The two early consumer DVRs, ReplayTV and TiVo, were launched at the 1999 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Although ReplayTV won the "Best of Show" award in the video category, it was TiVo that went on to much greater commercial success. The devices have steadily developed complementary abilities, such as recording onto DVDs, commercial skip, sharing of recordings over the Internet, and programming and remote control facilities using PDAs, networked PCs, or Web browsers.

This makes the "time shifting" feature (traditionally done by a VCR) much more convenient, and also allows for "trick modes" such as pausing live TV, instant replay of interesting scenes, chasing playback where a recording can be viewed before it has been completed and skipping advertising. Most DVRs use the MPEG format for encoding analog video signals.

The two consumer DVR brands in the United States are the TiVo and DNNA's ReplayTV. In the UK TiVo has a small presence; Thomson, Topfield, Fusion, Pace and Humax also supply digital terrestrial (DTT) DVRs. BSkyB markets a popular combined EPG and DVR as Sky+.South African based Africa Satellite TV beamer Multichoice recently launched their PVR which is available on their Dstv platform.

Many satellite and cable companies are incorporating DVR functions into their set-top box, such as with DirecTiVo, DishPlayer/DishDVR, Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8xxx from Time Warner, Motorola 6xxx from Comcast, Moxi Media Center by Digeo (available through Charter, Adelphia, Sunflower, Bend Broadband, and soon Comcast and other cable companies), or Sky+. Also LG Group offers a television with DVR functions built in.

In the case of digital television there is no encoding necessary in the DVR, as the signal is already a digitally encoded MPEG stream. The DVR simply stores the digital stream directly to disk. Having the broadcaster involved with (subsidizing) the design of the DVR—and directly recording encrypted digital streams—can lead to features such as the ability to use interactive TV on recorded shows, pre-loading of programs. It can, however, also force the manufacturer to implement non-skippable advertisements and automatically-expiring recordings.

In the United States, the FCC has ruled that starting on July 1, 2007, consumers will be able to purchase a set-top box from a third-party company, rather than being forced to purchase or rent the set-top box from their cable company. [1] [2]

Introduction of dual-tuners

In 2003 many Satellite and Cable providers introduced dual-tuner DVRs. These machines have two tuners within the same receiver to operate independently of one another. The main use for this feature is the capability to record a live program while watching another live program simultaneously or to record two programs at the same time while watching a previously recorded one. Some dual-tuner DVRs also have the ability to operate two separate television sets at the same time. The PVR manufactured by UEC (Durban, South Africa) and used by Multichoice has the ability to view two programs while recording a third using a triple tuner. With some machines, such as the Scientific Atlanta 8300DVB PVR, it is possible to view one program whilst recording two other programs according to the users preference.

PCs

Software and hardware is available which can turn personal computers running Microsoft Windows, Linux and Macintosh into PVRs, and is a popular option for home-theater PC (HTPC) enthusiasts.

Linux

There are many open source and GPL-licensed DVR applications available for Linux:

Commercial Linux version available from SageTV for most popular Linux distributions. Brightbox, a consumer electronics device, uses SageTV.

Macintosh

Elgato makes a series of DVR devices called EyeTV (610, 250, DTT, Hybrid, Diversity, and so forth). The software supplied with each device (but also available separately) is also called EyeTV. As of 2006, Elgato have released version 2.3 of their EyeTV software, with a redesigned interface, better program guide (built into the program) and a "One Click" to iPod video feature. Miglia used to make DVR hardware that ran the EyeTV software, but their contract with EyeTV has not been renewed and future hardware will utilise other DVR software.

Other DVR products include myTV.PVR from EskapeLabs and ConvertX PVR from Plextor. MythTV (see above) also runs under Mac OS X, but most recording devices are currently only supported under Linux. Precompiled binaries are available for the MythTV front-end, allowing a Mac to watch video from (and control) a MythTV server running under Linux.

Apple provides applications in the FireWire software developer kit which allow any Macintosh with a FireWire port to record the MPEG2 transport stream from a FireWire equipped cable box (for example: Motorola 62xx, including HD streams). Applications can also change channels on the cable box via the firewire interface. Only broadcast channels can be recorded as the rest of the channels are encrypted. iRecord is a free scheduled-recording program derived from this SDK.

Windows

Microsoft Windows has several free DVR applications including GB-PVR, Got All Media [3], MediaPortal and Orb (web-based remote interface). DScaler also has DVR support in the works.

There also are several proprietary applications including AVS TV Box [4], CyberLink PowerCinema, SageTV, SnapStream Beyond TV, ChrisTV [5], Showshifter, Meedio (now a dead product - Yahoo! bought most of the company's technology and discontinued the Meedio line, and rebranding the software Yahoo! Go - TV, which is now a free product but only works in the U.S. and Canada), InterVideo WinDVR, Recordit Plus and the R5000-HD.

Windows Media Center is a DVR software by Microsoft bundled with the Media Center edition of Windows XP and Home Premium and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista.

[edit] Source video

Television and video are terms that are sometimes used interchangeably, but differ in their technical meaning. Video is the visual portion of television, whereas television is the combination of video and audio modulated onto a carrier frequency (i.e., a television channel), so that the signal can be delivered to the receiver (TV or computer/PVR with a TV tuner).

Analog television

Analog television in NTSC, PAL or SECAM formats, analog cable, or regular VHS tapes use a signal that is fed directly to the electron beam within the television set. There are a number of details on how this is done, but in essence each line in each frame corresponds to a specific fraction of time within the signal.

To record an analog signal a few steps are required. A TV tuner card tunes into a particular frequency and then functions as a frame grabber, breaking the lines into individual pixels and quantizing them into a format that a computer can comprehend. Then the series of frames along with the audio (also sampled and quantized) are compressed into a manageable format, like MPEG-2, or WMF, usually in software. Some TV tuner cards like the DVR-250/350 or the TiVo chip deliver an MPEG-2 or other compressed stream directly to the computer, performing both the frame grabbing and compression in hardware. This greatly reduces the load on the CPU allowing an overall cheaper implementation.

Analog broadcast copy protection

(Many mass-produced consumer DVRs implement a copy-protection system called CGMS-ACopy Generation Management System--Analog). This encodes a pair of bits in the VBI of the analog video signal that specify one of the following settings:

Copying is freely allowed
Copying is prohibited
Only one copy of this material may be made
This is a copy of material for which only one copy was allowed to be made, so no further copies are allowed.

CGMS-A information may be present in analog broadcast TV signals, and is preserved when the signal is recorded and played back by analog VCRs, which of course don't understand the meanings of the bits. But the restrictions still come into effect when you try to copy the tape onto a PVR.

Digital television

Digital television contains audio/visual signals that are broadcast over the air in a digital rather than analog format. Recording digital TV is generally a straightforward capture of the binary MPEG-2 data being received. No expensive hardware is required to quantize and compress the signal (as the television broadcaster has already done this in the studio). The MythTV DVR supports both international DVB signals and American ATSC signals while the TiVo Series 3 supports only the ATSC signals. In the U.S., the FCC attempted to place a road-block before digital DVRs with its "Broadcast flag" regulation. Digital video recorders which had not won prior approval from the FCC for implementing "effective" digital rights management would have been banned from interstate commerce as of July 2005. The regulation was struck down on May 6, 2005.

DVD-based PVRs available on the market as of 2006 are not capable of capturing the full range of the visual signal available with high definition television (HDTV). This is largely because HDTV standards were finalized at a later time than the standards for DVDs. However, DVD-based PVRs can still be used (albeit at reduced visual quality) with HDTV since currently available HDTV sets also have standard A/V connections.

Satellite or digital cable

Recording satellite or digital cable signals on a digital video recorder is more complex than recording analog signals or broadcast digital signals. This is so because the MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 stream is usually encrypted to prevent people from viewing the content without paying for it (usually via subscription).

The satellite or cable set-top box does two things. First, it decrypts the signal. Second, it decodes the MPEG stream into an analog, DVI, or HDMI signal for viewing on the television. In order to record cable/satellite digital signals you must get the signal after it is decrypted, but before it is decoded (between steps one and two); this is how DVRs built into set-top boxes work.

An alternative is that some satellite or (more commonly) cable set-top boxes have a FireWire port that can be connected to a computer. The recorded MPEG stream can be relayed to the computer via this FireWire port; though it can be done live, this is more commonly used for transferring shows from a set-top box with built-in DVR. (For instructions on doing this on a popular set-top box with DVR, please see the Wikibook entry How to use a Motorola DVR; some of the ideas there may apply to other set-top boxes as well.)

DVD

Many DVD-based DVRs are equipped with two DVD drives or an additional internal hard drive. This arrangement can be used to copy content from a source DVD, which is disallowed in the U.S. under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act if the disc is encrypted. Most such DVRs will hence not allow recording of video streams from encrypted movie discs.

[edit] Digital camcorders

Some DVD-based DVRs incorporate a Firewire connector which can be used to capture digital video from a MiniDV or Digital 8 camcorder, possibly recording a simple DVD as the camcorder is played back. Some editing of the resulting DVD is usually possible, such as adding chapter points.

Security applications

Digital video recorders configured for physical security applications record video signals from closed circuit television cameras for detection and documentation purposes. Many are designed to record audio as well. DVRs have evolved into devices that are feature rich and provide services that exceed the simple recording of video images that was previously done through VCRs. A DVR CCTV system provides a multitude of advanced functions over VCR technology including video searches by event, time, date and camera. There is also much more control over quality and frame rate allowing disk space usage to be optimized and the DVR can also be set to overwrite the oldest security footage should the disk become full. In some DVR security systems remote access to security footage using a PC can also be achieved by connecting the DVR to a LAN network or the internet.

Security DVRs may be categorized as being either PC based or embedded. A PC based DVR’s architecture is a classical personal computer with video capture cards designed to capture video images. An embedded type DVR is specifically designed as a digital video recorder with its operating system and application software contained in firmware or read only memory.

Hardware features

Hardware features of security DVRs vary between manufacturers and may include but are not necessarily limited to

Designed for rack mounting or desktop configurations.
Single or multiple video inputs with connector types consistent with the analogue or digital video provided such as coaxial cable, twisted pair or optical fiber cable. The most common number of inputs are 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32. Systems may be configured with a very large number of inputs by networking or bussing individual DVRs together.
Looping video outputs for each input which duplicates the corresponding input video signal and connector type. These output signals are used by other video equipment such as matrix switchers, multiplexers, and video monitors.
Controlled outputs to external video display monitors.
Front panel switches and indicators that allow the various features of the machine to be controlled.
Network connections consistent with the network type and utilized to control features of the recorder and to send and/or receive video signals.
Connections to external control devices such as keyboards.
A connection to external pan-tilt-zoom drives that position cameras.
Internal CD, DVD, VCR devices typically for archiving video.
Connections to external storage media.
Alarm event inputs from external security detection devices, usually one per video input.
Alarm event outputs from internal detection features such as motion detection or loss of video.

Software features

Software features vary between manufacturers and may include but are not necessarily limited to

User selectable image capture rates either on an all input basis or input by input basis. The capture rate feature may be programmed to automatically adjust the capture rate on the occurrence of an external alarm or an internal event
Selectable image resolution either on an all input basis or input by input basis. The image resolution feature may be programmed to automatically adjust the image resolution on the occurrence of an external alarm or an internal event.
Motion detection: Provided on an input by input basis, this feature detects motion detection in the total image or a user definable portion of the image and usually provides sensitivity settings. Detection causes an internal event that may be output to external equipment and/or be used to trigger changes in other internal features.
Lack of motion detection. Provided on an input by input basis, this feature detects the movement of an object into the field of view and remaining still for a user definable time. Detection causes an internal event that may be output to external equipment and/or used to trigger changes in other internal features.
Direction of motion detection. Provided on an input by input basis, this feature detects the direction of motion in the image that has been determined by the user as an unacceptable occurrence. Detection causes an internal event that may be output to external equipment and/or be used to trigger changes in other internal features.
Routing of input video to video monitors based on user inputs or automatically on alarms or events.
Input, time and date stamping.
Alarm and event logging on appropriate video inputs.
Alarm and event search.
One or more sound recording channels.
Archival.

[edit] Privacy concerns

It is possible when providing DVR service to gather real time data on user's viewing habits.^{[citation needed]}

Patent litigation

On July 14, 2005, Forgent Networks filed suit[6] against various companies alleging infringement on U.S. Patent 6,285,746 , entitled "Computer controlled video system allowing playback during recording". The listed companies include EchoStar, Directv, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Comcast, Time Warner, and Cable One.

Scientific-Atlanta and Motorola, the manufacturers of the equipment sold by the above mentioned companies, have filed a counter-suit against Forgent Networks claiming that their products do not violate the patent, and that the patent is invalid. The two cases have been combined into case 6:06-cv-208, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler Division.

According to court documents, on href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_20" title="June 20">June 20, 2006, Motorola requested that the United States Patent and Trademarks Office reexamine the patent, which was first filed in 1991, but has been amended several times.[7]

On March 23,2007 Cablevision Systems Corp lost a legal battle against several Hollywood studios and television networks to introduce a network-based digital video recorder service to its subscribers.

The saga continues: http://www.pvrwire.com/2006/04/06/tivo-vs-echostar-lawsuit-update/

Ad-free TV just a click away, five years late

Over the weekend we learnt that Rupert Murdoch thinks the next media revolution will be personal video recorders, which are basically a cross between VCRs and computers, in which the TV programs are recorded on a big internal hard drive instead of videotape.

One always is inclined to pay attention to Rupert Murdoch's musings on the future of the media, but perhaps the most interesting thing about PVRs is that we can't buy them, even though they have been on sale in America for four years.

Murdoch's Foxtel plans to introduce them next March - a total delay of about five years, if it's the first to sell them.

Why the hold-up? Answer: PVRs have been kept out of Australia by a TV network conspiracy.

That's because they allow advertisements to be easily skipped, either when you are recording or playing back.

They also improve the efficiency of recording TV in general by using electronic program guides (EPGs) to help preset the recorder weeks ahead, but the main thing is ad-skipping. "Ad-free TV" is the promise.Advertisem

In the US, TV networks were unable to prevent PVRs. A device called TiVo has become a cult product and is selling well for $US99.99 ($A138).

In Australia the networks have blocked them. TiVo has been trying to get into the Australian market but failed. Go to the local Harvey Norman or JB Hi-Fi and you won't find a PVR.

To operate effectively, PVRs need electronic program guides so they can hunt for shows you want to record; without EPGs they are just VCRs with more storage.

The TV networks control who gets program guides in Australia because the courts here apply a different copyright law to that in America. A seminal case called Telstra v Desktop Marketing, in which Telstra prevented that company reusing the White Pages, has resulted in copyright in Australia applying to raw data.

In America, thanks to a case called Feist v Rural Telephone, there needs to be creative addition for copyright to apply.

A Sydney-based listed company called HWW Ltd, controlled by Stephen Wall, has a licence to distribute electronic versions of TV guides in Australia. Its contracts with the TV networks explicitly prevent it from selling the guides to anyone who plans to use them in PVRs. In the contracts, the networks assert copyright over the guides, although this has not been tested in court.

Chief executive Paul Marshall says he gets at least five requests a month to use the program guides in PVRs. He refuses them all.

Another company in Sydney, Faulconbridge, using the brand name ICE and run by Peter Vogel, believes it has found a way around this.

Vogel collects TV guide information from a variety of public sources, including newspapers and websites, and is planning to launch a service for PVR owners in two weeks' time, providing EPGs over a wireless data network for $2 a week.

He says his legal advice is that copyright does not attach to his EPG, but he is preparing for a big legal battle anyway. He believes, with good reason, that the TV networks will move heaven and earth to stop him.

But the thing they really want to stop is not so much his EPG service, which might actually get people to watch more TV, but his fiendish added extra: for $1 a week Peter Vogel will also notify your PVR, using the wireless data network, when the ads start and finish.

This means that when the PVR is recording a program, it can stop recording during the ads (this is what TiVo machines do in the US). When you play it back - no ads!

The implications of this for TV networks are obvious. In the US, TiVo has produced a trend towards product placement in TV shows instead of traditional ads, because so many people are zapping them. There are some who believe that the only viable long-term television business model is now subscription (which is why Rupert Murdoch is excited).

Even without Peter Vogel's ad-notification service there is trouble for the networks.

I found a business in Melbourne called DVRs Direct, run by Nigel Trinca, selling digital PVRs through a website. He sells 14 brands from Korea and Taiwan at $500 to $1500.

Most of them, says Trinca, can be programmed to automatically skip the ads, but he doesn't want to take on the networks. Instead, his machines fast-forward in 30-second jumps. So you press it five times for five 30-second ads, which takes about five seconds, and the ads are gone.

Yesterday I went into a JB Hi-Fi store. There were a few hard-drive video recorders for sale (they're not PVRs without EPGs) that have varying ad-skipping abilities. One fast-forwards very quickly; another goes in 10-second jumps. All of them are more efficient at zapping the ads than any VCR.

And that's the basic problem for the networks: the principle of fast-forwarding is no different to the VCRs we are all used to, and the recordable DVDs that are on the market now.

It's just that PVRs are much better at it, and can do it automatically, while they record.

Foxtel and Rupert Murdoch, meanwhile, have an interesting decision to make with their own PVRs next March: what sort of fast-forward/ad-skipping do they allow? (Five per cent of Foxtel's revenue comes from ads and Kerry Packer owns 25 per cent of the business.)

Will it be just the usual rolling fast-forward, or 10-second skips, or 30-second skips, or automatic ad-zapping?

I asked Foxtel this question yesterday - a spokesman said it hadn't decided yet. But he understood the significance of the decision.

If Peter Vogel wins his forthcoming battle and other PVRs have the full ad-skipping function, anything less from Foxtel would make its PVRs less attractive to the market, but threaten 5 per cent of revenue.

The networks and Foxtel have done well to hold back the tide for four years, but they can't do it forever.