Sharp's 1TB HD TV recorder does simple too

Aquos recorder combines DVD and HDD to full effect

The Sharp Aquos DV-ACW90 boasts a massive 1TB hard drive

It might not have a Blu-ray deck on board, but Sharp's latest HDD/DVD recorder has something even better - a 1TB hard drive that can hold hundreds of hours of high-definition broadcasts.

The Aquos-branded DV-ACW90 includes that monster hard drive - strictly speaking, it's 1,000GB, not 1,024GB - and will cost ¥160,000 (£781) when it hits Japanese shops on 20 March.

One-button recording

Perhaps as a sop to the usual insanely complex options that come with a machine like this, Sharp has introduced a simpler way to record what you want.

A button marked News/Weather tells the ACW90 to seek and record the latest news and/or weather bulletins with no need for sifting through EPG schedules.

Otherwise, the recorder can write to DVD-R/RW and DVD-R DL disks and has one analogue and two digital TV tuners. It can also record from a tuner in a connected TV if necessary and can pull photos off cameras and phones by USB or infrared.

By J Mark Lytle
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Broadcom acquires Sunext Design, will develop Blu-Ray SoC solution with optical recorders

Monday, Mar 3rd 2008 by Daniel Lim

At present, the top three System-On-A-Chip aka SoC maker for Blu-Ray technology are Sigma Design, Broadcom and Panasonic UniPhier. Majority of current Blu-ray players are coming from sigma Design’s SMP8634 SoC, but the company may face the toughest challenge with its rival’s recent acquisition of Sunext Design.

Broadcom has announced that they have acquired optical disc technology expert and cost optimized single-chip SOC solutions Sunext Design. The acquisition will allow Broadcom to expend its SoC back-end Blu-ray Disc platform to feature recording solutions in the future. Blu-ray and HD-DVD recorder is more popular in Japan than it is in US, in fact, I don’t remember a single release of standalone Hi-Def recorder in US except a few optical drives in PC industry. The end of Format War and cheaper SoC on its way may spike the AV Industry’s Interests in Blu-Ray optical recorder, but I have to admit, it’s really tough to beat HDD recorder. Optical recording is outdated, Blu-Ray or not.

[via release]

Three New Media Recorders from Panasonic

Looking for an alternative to your now obsolete shiny new HD-DVD recorder? Here's the DMR-BR500 from Panasonic, a Blu-Ray video recorder with 250GB of HDD. Now, if you're more “old-school” and don't really care about Blu-Ray, you'll still be able to record HD video on DVDs thanks to the DMR-XW320 (500GB) and the DMR-XW120 (250GB).On a side note, all our three new recorders support the AVC codec and will let you record full HD video in Mpeg-4 AVC/H.264, with a maximum bit rate of 8.6Mbps.

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Celrun TV HDD Hi-Def Multimedia Player

Looks like the Mvix MV780 is getting some competition in the unique space of hard-drive equipped HD media player/PC media streamers that also double as NAS devices. However, what sets the Korean manufactured Celrun TV apart from the crowd is that it also functions as a PVR with the ability to record to its 320GB hard drive from either an unencrypted cable (QAM) TV connection or over-the-air (ATSC) antennae signal, according to Akihabara News. But that’s not all… since the Celrun TV is powered by Sigma Designs’ SMP8634 chip, the device makes easy work of playing 1920×1080p HD video (HDMI out), outputs S/PDIF digital audio, and plays back a multitude of popular media files codecs/formats like H.264 MPEG-4/AVC, VOB, Xvid, WMV HD, MPEG-1/2/4, FLAC, OGG, AAC, MP3, etc. (full list below). The device even offers wireless 802.11b/g connectivity and USB 2.0 Host functionality.

Unfortunately, there’s no word if this product will make it to the states and for how much. But from the reaction this product has been getting in the blogosphere, I wouldn’t be surprised if that changes soon. MORE »

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ABI Research Says Streaming Online Rentals to Lead Online Video Growth

BI Research says that online rentals will lead the online video pay market in the years to come. According to ABI Research pay video streams online will grow from 215 million in 2008 to over 2.4 billion in 2012 with online video rentals accounting for half of these numbers.

ABI says a number of challenges remain for the online streaming rental market with poor rental terms that studios dictate to all distributors. Other competition will continue to come from VOD services offer by cable companies as well.

"Studios are locked into the same 24-hour 'once-started' viewing window and similar pricing for all online rental partners," said Michael Wolf. "We believe that over time they will begin to offer greater flexibility, in particular as DVD and other physical media continue to mature and new consumer Internet-to-TV hardware expands their audience of consumers."

Via ABI Research

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Study Claims to Prove What TV Watchers Want in Interactivity

A new study has been released today that claims to prove what consumers want in interactive TV programming. According to the study from enseQuence 70% of TV viewers would sign up for another cable provider or satellite is it offered advanced interactivity at no additional charge.

I would bet a large portion of these same people would be willing to pay slightly more for the service, I know I would. The survey says that 72% of TV viewers now find programming to watch via the onscreen viewing guide.

The study also shows that 72% of reality TV watchers want to interact with the shows. 65% of those watching sports want to interact with the event, and 66% of viewers want to interact with commercials. An interactive TV commercial is an interesting idea that could get some of the DVR owners to stop skipping commercials.

Via enseQuence

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Digital TV Set-top Box Sales Break 100M Barrier

IPTV Set To Become Fourth Major DTV Platform

London, England - 20 February 2008 - Worldwide sales of digital TV set-top boxes broke through the 100 million barrier for the first time in 2007, according to the latest research from the Strategy Analytics Connected Home Devices service. The report, "Digital TV Set-Top Boxes: Global Market Forecast," found that sales reached 102.4 million units last year, an annual increase of 12%. IPTV's market share rose to 5.9%, compared to 3.6% in 2006. Cable's share also rose, to 36.2%, while satellite and terrestrial shares declined. For 2008 the report predicts a surge in demand for digital terrestrial set-top boxes, driven by the impending switch-off of analog broadcasting in the US. By 2012 annual global sales of all digital TV set-top boxes will reach nearly 200 million units.

"We expect the Asia-Pacific region to overtake North America and Europe in 2008, accounting for a third of this year's 129 million sales," says Peter King, Director, Connected Home Devices. "Sales of digital terrestrial TV boxes in Europe have now plateaued, as consumers begin to transition to integrated digital TV sets, but this pattern is unlikely to prevent overall market growth across all platforms."

"The set-top box remains the key gateway to advanced digital television services around the world," says David Mercer, Principal Analyst. "Added value services such as high definition TV, digital video recording and Internet video are all set to drive further growth in this strategically important sector."

The report provides Strategy Analytics' latest global market forecast for digital TV set-top boxes, based on analysis of more than 200 digital television platforms and operators around the world. It includes 5-year demand forecasts for 22 countries across the principal geographies, and segmentation by the major access platforms DTTV, IPTV, satellite and cable.

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