NDS announces Home Media Center Box

The SA8300HD DVR STB theorectically has the ability to stream SD throughout the house. It's in the software. but turned off. SA even has a manual about doing this. Maybe this will push SA and cable companies to deliver

This is nice. But how can DTV spend all that money developing a nice box but not give us UPN WB PBS in HD?

This will be a threat when (if) it ever ships. I think this very system has been announced at at least one CES, if not two. If course the Series 3 TiVo is sort of the same in that they keep announcing it. When the two units ship then we can decide which will be a threat to which.

I don't see the threat. DirecTV could have similar functionality today if they had enabled HME on their Tivos.

just add this Dish feature and the nds box would be perfect

Also included in the ViP series is the ViP622(TM) DVR, the world's first MPEG4 multi-room high definition and digital video recorder satellite TV receiver with the ability to view independent programs -- one in high definition and one in standard definition programming -- on two televisions at once. No other pay-TV company offers this innovative combination. It features a massive hard drive with a recording capacity of up to 25 hours of high-definition and up to 180 hours of standard-definition content.

vstone said:

The SA8300HD DVR STB theorectically has the ability to stream SD throughout the house. It's in the software. but turned off. SA even has a manual about doing this. Maybe this will push SA and cable companies to deliver

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You need an 8300MR-HD (which includes a QAM modulator). The standard 8300HD (which most cable companies buy) doesn't have a QAM modulator ... multi-room can't just be enabled by a firmware update for those.

The 8300MR-HD ... however has a QAM modulator ... and can be used with SciAtl's multi-room software.

The 8300MR-HD is in (limited) field trials.

newsposter said:

This is nice. But how can DTV spend all that money developing a nice box but not give us UPN WB PBS in HD?

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Beacuse UPN, WB,and PBS don't exist in the UK and rest of the world

didn't think the other networks did either, especially the AMERICAN broadcast company

newsposter said:

didn't think the other networks did either, especially the AMERICAN broadcast company

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Sorry I was being a bit flipant, but my real point is tha NDS doesn't develop for DirecTV they develop for DBS systems worldwide, after all News International owns a lot of them. The feature set we are seeing arriving on the DirecTV systems are a consequence of what NDS are doing to meet the global market and not what DirecTV are doing. It has no bearing of what DirecTV can deliver in terms of content.

gotcha, they want us to go back to whence we came...cable Boy was i proud to go to satellite. Now they will prove me wrong.

newsposter said:

It features a massive hard drive with a recording capacity of up to 25 hours of high-definition and up to 180 hours of standard-definition content.

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Wow, that's so massive (not). Especially when you consider that the HR10 can already record 30 hours of HD, and the HR20 (as announced) can record up to 50 (in MPG4).

If something is really wants to be a "Home Media Center" it needs to have 100+ hours of SD (two 300gb+ hard drives).

I'd think outputting to 2 TVs in SD/HD 2 different programs at the same time is 'revolutionary' though

Im far from up to date.. but dont know of any other box that can do it

newsposter said:

I'd think outputting to 2 TVs in SD/HD 2 different programs at the same time is 'revolutionary' though

Im far from up to date.. but dont know of any other box that can do it

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But it only says it can do 1 HD and 1 SD.

Lee L said:

But it only says it can do 1 HD and 1 SD.

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Well 'some' families would really benefit. I just think it's a cool feature and very practical. And i've never heard of a box doing 2 different outputs at the same time.

parents watching movie in the LR while jr. is watching a cartoon in his bedroom.

Oh, it is cool, I am just hoping hte new Media Center box can do that and much more. Of course, I will probably still be waiting next year too.