Following on from its merger with Telewest a few weeks back, UK cable company NTL is finally starting to rev up for its upcoming battle with Sky in the HDTV and personal video recorder markets. On Saturday the company announced details of its soon-to-be launched personal video recorder the Explorer 8450DVB.
The model will apparently be HD and MPEG4 compatible and is being manufactured for NTL by Scientific Atlanta. It will sport a trio of TV tuners enabling users to record three programmes simultaneously.
Other features include a 160GB hard drive (the same as Telewest's model and the current top-end Sky+ box), USB 2.0 and Ethernet connectivity, and the option of multi-room which will enable users to stream programmes to other Scientific Atlanta boxes in their home.
Telewest, NTL’s one time friendly rival and now partner in the merged company, also has a unit which includes a similar set of features but isn't MPEG4 compatible.
Explorer 8450DVB Features
- MPEG-4 part 10/H.264 Decoding – Will support compression technology that benefits advanced high-definition and standard-definition services.
- Three Video Tuners – Will record three standard- or high- definition MPEG-4/H.264 programs at the same time.
- Internal SATA 160GB Hard Drive – Latest, future-friendly hard drive technology will support extremely high data throughputs.
- IP Multi-Room™ PVR Capability via second Ethernet port – Watch programs recorded on the hard drive in multiple rooms.
- Built-in Euro-DOCSIS 2.0 Cable Modem – Support for advanced 2-way applications such as Video-on-Demand and other interactive services, as well as high speed internet access to a computer connected to the set-top.
- USB 2.0 Connectivity – High-speed connectivity to external peripherals such as hard drives, will allow for expandability.
- Hard Disk Drive Reliability – Will leverage Scientific-Atlanta’s hardware and software design experience, gained over the development of five generations of PVR/DVR set-tops.
Story source:
hdtvuk.tv.
