Pdr Technology.

[David Brent]

Just being released here is the Foxtel (pay network) iQ personal digital recorder.
It replaces the current digital tuner but gives the viewers the ability to record up to 60 hours of television through the iQ's internal 160Gb hard drive.
There is no need for tapes or disks.
The iQ features two TV tuners so that you can record two programs simultaneously. While it's recording you could also watch another recorded program.
Users are also able to pause and rewind live television up to an hour.
Recording is supposed to be very simple.You select a program from the guide and press the record button. A system called 'Series Link' can also be used where viewers can choose a particular show and the iQ will scan the program guide and record every episode that appears.
Manual recording features also allow viewers to record normal commercial channels.
Recorded programs can be deleted when required and while programs cannot be burnt to DVD or downloaded you can transfer them to videotape using a VCR.
The upfront access fee will be $400 (approx 160 quid) with added installation costs and a monthly fee of around $6. Not too bad when you compare the price to other personal digital recorders on the market. Of course you can only use the iQ with your pay subscription and you lose it as soon as you unsubscribe.
I know the American's have had their PDR version TiVo for awhile.
Is there a British version and has it proven to be popular yet?
Anyone out there using one at this time?
Are they value for money compared to other PDR's?
Will this technology be superceeded in the not too distant future?

Dave.

[deckard]

Hi Dave, personally I really don't see this format as a great leap forward.....as a storage media hard disk can be unreliable and (as we all do) we tend to trust it and store lots of files/programmes on it and not back them up frequently enough till the inevitable crash and all is lost, having said that, anyone can be thorough and back-up regularly and not have to many problems, but can the hard drive on this machine be re-formatted without going in to the workshop? and also, to only be able to save your films etc. to VHS is not really gaining anything, yes maybe recording the film in the first place may be easier but it's more time consuming getting the film on to tape which in the end only puts you right where you were when recording onto VHS in the first place! I suppose this system came be useful for recording lots of programmes that you aren't going to keep, but it seems like an awful lot of expense for this convenience. There is a version of this format available in the U.K. but as far as I'm aware it's not proving to be a "must have" system. I feel overall that if one could save recoded media to DVD or PC with this system it would be a lot more useful, and with the possible arrival of large capacity memory stick as a film storage media, I'm going to hang fire and see what happens. Anyway mate that's only my opinion, for what it's worth! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img] regards, Decks.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

And now you can buy decent quality DVD-R (or +R if you really want) in bulk for next to nothing.
You could buy and use a huge mountain of DVD-R's for the cost of a piece of kit like this.

[Steve Crook]

Originally posted by mysteriesofedgarwallace@Mar 18 2005, 02:37 PM And now you can buy decent quality DVD-R (or +R if you really want) in bulk for next to nothing. You could buy and use a huge mountain of DVD-R's for the cost of a piece of kit like this. <div align="right">Quoted post</div>

Why do they bother to put an "R" in the description of those DVDs?
What's the use of a DVD that you can't Read?
It'd be better if they stuck to terms like Read Only, Write Once Read Many

Steve

[DB7]

Originally posted by SteveCrook@Mar 18 2005, 07:26 PM Why do they bother to put an "R" in the description of those DVDs? What's the use of a DVD that you can't Read?

Think the R stands for recordable.(once) RW rewritable.

The DVD-R has about twice the life span (60 years) of RW's.

[mysteriesofedgarwallace]

Originally posted by DB7@Mar 18 2005, 08:59 PM Think the R stands for recordable.(once) RW rewritable. The DVD-R has about twice the life span (60 years) of RW's. <div align="right">Quoted post</div>

Yeah, I can really see a DVD-R lasting 60 years!

[David Brent]

Originally posted by deckard@Mar 18 2005, 02:21 PM There is a version of this format available in the U.K. but as far as I'm aware it's not proving to be a "must have" system. I feel overall that if one could save recoded media to DVD or PC with this system it would be a lot more useful, and with the possible arrival of large capacity memory stick as a film storage media, I'm going to hang fire and see what happens. Anyway mate that's only my opinion, for what it's worth! [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif[/img] regards, Decks. <div align="right">Quoted post</div>

Hi Decks, mate i think you've summed it all up in a nutshell.
We've been discussing the low quality content on television these days and who really needs 60 hours of dross stored away?It might just help you organise your own daily viewing choices but little else.
The real classic television that i would really like to see again ie THE PHIL SILVERS SHOW (Bilko), CAR 54 WHERE ARE YOU? ect.. are just not available over here.So to me there are few programs at this time worth storing.
I agree too Decks that 'losing' the stored content through a system malfunction is always possible.
Like you i think i'll hold out for what i hope are bigger and better developments in the not too distant future.

Cheers mate [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Dave.