[Guest]

Last light on the tech chat they were talking about the new JVC TU PVR-9000. It's a HDTV PVR device with two tuners. Is this the same thing as the 921 I've been hearing about? If not what's the difference? Which one is scheduled to be released first?

 

[HTguy]

No, the PVR921 is not a JVC product. It's in development by E* & is slated for release later next year. I don't think the feature list has even been finalized so it's hard to say how it will differ from the JVC 9000 but I anticipate it will have more HD recording time (bigger HD) and some home networking components.

 

[Guest]

Here is some info that will help you - look about midway through this article for some specs. The PVR921 will have a hard drive that is 40gb bigger than JVC's product.

http://www.tvinsite.com/twice/index.asp?layout=story&doc_id=98000&display=br

 

[David_Levin]

120 Gig in a HD PVR is too small. Hopefully the new units support the ATAPI extensions to get over 137 gig.

Hard Drives should be user upgradable. Void the warrenty if needed - but, most PC vendors manage without problems.

E* could provide a list of compatible hard drives. Once this is done dealers could also make a few bucks upgrading drives.

The hard drive vendors should be happy - PCs just aren't pushing the technology anymore (I'll be looking for a 500 gig to 1T drive in my Hi-Def PVR - especially with more locals turining on).

 

[Jacob S]

When the hard drives continue to get bigger in size just as they do now, they will eventually get that big without the extra expense, its just a matter of time, and that is the time go out and buy one of these units. Also by this time the unit will be lower in price anyways just on the HD part of it, so both of those combined would create a lot lower priced product. Until then its just a niched product.

 

[DarrellP]

Support for dual drives with automatic swapover when one is full is what they really need, or the ability to stripe 2 or more drives. How about a SCSI bus to feed an external drive array?

 

[Jacob S]

Good idea. Doesnt a receiver have two hard drives in it already? Isnt it a DirecTv receiver? Are two smaller hard drives cheaper than one really big hard drive that is the same space? One advantage of this is that one could be like a backup as well, where if one would fail, you would at least have one that still worked and time to get it fixed still having some pvr functionality.

Also would two smaller hard drives take up more space than one large hard drive?

 

[Mike123abc]

Well two drives are not always better. More drives adds noise and heat. If the box is too noisy you will not want it in your living room.

 

[Jacob S]

Other than the noise and the heat (which can be solved) what are the bad thing about two drives? Can one add another large hard drive to a pvr receiver that already has one even if it were to be outside of the receiver?

 

[RJS1111111]

Remember, now, we're potentially talking about unencrypted recording, playback, and copying of any high-definition digital content here!

The movie rights holders don't want to allow this to be done by consumers at all, much less with expansion "outside the box", "unlimited" recording time, and data integrity features.

Until they agree on an "unbreakable" copy protection scheme, they are going to do their utmost to shut down anything as good as that.

 

[woodman]

Originally posted by RJS1111111

Until they agree on an "unbreakable" copy protection scheme, they are going to do their utmost to shut down anything as good as that.

That's precisely what makes the entire idea of "copy-protection" so utterly ridiculous, assinine, ludicrous, etc. They can agree on all of the "unbreakable" schemes they want to, and it will only take pirates a matter of hours to break it! There's only ONE way to combat piracy of intellectual content, and that's to go after those that are illegally profiting from their property with all of the gusto they can manage. They have the law on their side, and can get the real pirates (that's not you, me, or John Q.) locked up where they belong.

Why the movie, television, and music industries don't grasp this basic fact completely baffles me. By pursuing these inane attempts to control how people can use the "product", they're doing nothing more than alienating the very consumers that they want to sell their products to!

 

[Guest]

Will E* release updates for the JVC like they are doing for the 721? I really want that new JVC, but am worried about new features not coming out for it like they would for a E*921

 

[David_Levin]

Originally posted by RJS1111111
Remember, now, we're potentially talking about unencrypted recording, playback, and copying of any high-definition digital content here!

The movie rights holders don't want to allow this to be done by consumers at all, much less with expansion "outside the box", "unlimited" recording time, and data integrity features.

I'm not sure the data here is necessarily unprotected. Don't you need a receiver with a smart card to access it?

Do you really think they're worried that we're going to be sharing PVR hard drives with our friends? More trouble then I would consider.

Is the real issue with upgradable hard drives the security of the content? The only thing I've seen E* mention is the customer service hassle and box reliability.

As far as I know, the new D-VHS machines do allow a recording for personal use. You just can't make copies of the tapes, or access unprotected digital or analog content.

 

[dlsnyder]

Are either of these products going to contain an integrated 8VSB tuner?

 

[Martyva]

Both units ARE manufactured by JVC. There will be a few differences between the units, so each product may stand on its own.

 

[alv]

I don't think the JVC has a OTA tuner.

 

[RJS1111111]

Originally posted by David_Levin


I'm not sure the data here is necessarily unprotected. Don't you need a receiver with a smart card to access it?

Do you really think they're worried that we're going to be sharing PVR hard drives with our friends? More trouble then I would consider.

Is the real issue with upgradable hard drives the security of the content? The only thing I've seen E* mention is the customer service hassle and box reliability.

As far as I know, the new D-VHS machines do allow a recording for personal use. You just can't make copies of the tapes, or access unprotected digital or analog content.

I honestly don't know the answers. They did mention once on the Tech Forum that plans for a SCSI port on the 501 were scrapped, due to provider concerns about copying digital content.

 

[Mike123abc]

Well you have to remember that the DBS companies can reprogram the boxes if they need to/are required to by law. If Hollywood is successful in getting evil copyright laws, they could force the DBS companies to change the recievers not to output HDTV at full resolution on non secure links. Then you could record to your local disk inside the machine, but to watch what you recorded you would have to watch it on the DVI or 1394 outputs, analog connectors would be downresed.

 

[Martyva]

The JVC unit will have both DVI and ilink. The Dish unit will not have ilink, but a larger hard drive. The both will have OTA Tuners