May 28, 2012

TiVo US announce a six tuner monster!

Press release: TiVo and Pace Announce First Pace Product With TiVo Software Integration

TiVo Inc. the creator of and a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), for consumers, content distributors and consumer electronics manufacturers, and Pace, a leading developer of technologies, products and services for global broadband and broadcast markets, today announced details of the first product, the Pace XG1, resulting from a global partnership TiVo and Pace announced in February 2012 to develop flexible, advanced television solutions for operators. This new Multi-tuner Video Gateway from Pace will provide cable operators in the Americas an advanced television solution for their customers by bringing to market the full award-winning TiVo experience on powerful, new platforms designed to be easily integrated with today's cable networks.
The Pace XG1 includes 6 video tuners, an integrated DOCSIS 3.0 modem, and at least 500GB of on board hard drive storage. It will utilize TiVo's whole-home capabilities, such as multi-room streaming and support for both traditional set-top boxes and IP devices as clients over MoCA, and support for TiVo's mobile and tablet applications.As previously announced, this initial offering will first be made available by Pace to cable operators in the Americas later this year. TiVo and Pace also expect to follow the XG1 with additional solutions for domestic and international operators soon after.
U.S. operators currently deploying TiVo offerings to their customers include Charter, DIRECTV, RCN, Suddenlink and Grande Communications, and European operators include Virgin Media, the largest cable operator in the UK, and ONO.
I wouldn't expect to see much demand for a six-tuner TiVo box in the UK, but it's interesting to note that the new partnership with Pace is starting to deliver some new hardware solutions for TiVo.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

As the world moves to on demand streaming over IP this type of thing is a dinosaur from another era. I'd bet within 5 years every TV sold will be ready to go with wi-fi and every streaming service imaginable, and the set top box will disappear fast.

Even those with vested interests, such as Sky, are launching a new streaming service 'on every platform' this summer. They can see change, and I fear poor TiVO don't.

Simple PC said...

I'd disagree slightly with Phil's comments, streaming services are no way near good enough to replace subscription TV. Many people talk about the improvement of the broadband network to supply such services but according to figures from BT the percentage of take up for its fibre products is astoundingly low proving everyday peoples either don't see the need for faster broadband or don't want the additional costs involved.
Yes subscription TV will probably decline although Virgin are reporting gains in TiVo take up, but the real advance next is IP streaming around the home from one subscription box.
6 tuners, yeah that's a bit over kill.
The next real advancement is 4K & 8K HD but we won't see that until 2020, plus with the extra airwave bandwidth required to supply that type of content it might be that cabled service is the sensible way to go?

Simple PC said...

I also forgot to mention the terrible quality of HD content through streaming services like Netflix!

Jon said...

It sounds like the model for this new box would see tuner less boxes in other rooms, so although sometimes you may have the overkill of 6 tuners available to record, if you have 2 extra boxes, when you are watching something on those you are back to 3-4 tuners for recording