Video Without Boundaries' new $899 MediaREADY 5000 PVR+RW lets users select what they view by recording shows on either the built-in computer hard drive or DVD recorder. Users can access digital media files on the unit's internal drive, a network-connected PC or a network-connected peripheral device. The unit also has e-mail, an Internet browser, games, and plays MP3s, CDs, DVDs and video files in MPEG-1/MPEG-2/MPEG-4 format on the TV it's connected to.
"We are setting the industry standard for value and quality in the convergence consumer electronics world," said VWB president and CEO Jeffrey Harrell. He said that big-time CE houses such as Phillips, Pioneer, Samsung and Sony have yet to offer a complete digital media convergence product that links PCs with living room entertainment centers wirelessly in one unit as the MediaREADY 5000 PVR+RW does.
The unit uses an "IR blaster" to control channel changes on cable or satellite set-tops similar to the TiVo approach today. It automatically changes a DirecTV or cable TV channel to record something that the user has programmed it to record.
All the company's products support CAC Media's Content Delivery Network (CDN) that was announced last week. The CDN will download pre-selected, non-mainstream DVD quality-video content to the MediaREADY hard disk for playback at the user's convenience.
There are some limitations, however:
1. It has only one tuner and thus the user cannot watch one channel while recording another. A user can watch a stored program on the unit's hard drive while recording another.
2. It comes with its own program guide but does not display the TV guide from the satellite or cable TV service.
The company is counting on consumers finding compelling content over and above what the more mainstream satellite and cable TV services offer. It believes that it can find and offer broadband users attractive and otherwise unavailable content that they cannot get over their existing set-top box.
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