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Comcast set to roll out HDTV/DVR box

We've previously noted that Comcast was testing the PVR waters, but it looks like the rollout will soon be going full-force.

Comcast is saying that 90% of their customers (millions of people) will have access to this Motorola box by the end of next year, and this device will serve both HDTV and DVR functionality. The box looks like it can pause, rewind, and fast forward both regular TV and HDTV siganls, though recording appears to be confined to an analog MPEG encoder and I would assume DVR functionality will be limited to regular TV, not HDTV. The box has more outputs than I think anyone knows what to do with, so it'll be interesting to see how the hacking community takes to this box. It only has one tuner and records at one set compression level, so hopefully it'll be able to store signals digitally instead of having to recompress everything.

This could be another huge setback for TiVo's financial future, but the c|net article also mentions that Time Warner claims that video on demand will soon outpace what is possible with a DVR. While seeing a pay-per-view movie any time you want is nice, it stills seems silly to think people will prefer that over taping anything they want so they can watch later. [thanks pb]

update: David pointed out it does in fact record HDTV, though only a few hours can fit on its 80Gb drive. Here are the recording capacity specs:

Analog: 25 hrs
Digital TV: 30-60 hrs
HDTV: 8-10 hrs

another update: Time Warner is ready to release their own digital cable/HDTV box with DVR functionality.

yet another update: reports that shares of TiVo's stock fell several percentage points after Comcast's announcement.

by Matt Haughey December 3, 2003 in News

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