Freeview Television, the U.K. digital terrestrial television platform that provides about 50 free over the air digital TV channels, radio stations and interactive services, is rolling out a DVR that automatically records a week's worth of programming, some 10,000 titles, guaranteeing a user will never miss a show.
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The promise home recorder is shown here with the optional touch-screen front panel display and remote decoder boxes. |
The drawback? Price, for one. At $3,165 it's high enough to prompt some serious pre-purchase dinnertime discussion. Another hurdle, of course, is the fact that it currently is available only for the Freeview TV service.
The device is fully automatic, requires no set up or programming. It automatically records all content from BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 terrestrial channels and their digital services, as well as channels from Sky and UKTV, as well as dozens of other channels Freeview added late last year when it began to make use of MHEG standards.
Programs are saved in a circular format, so older content is expunged as new content come in, although users can save specific programs so they never expire.
The Promise DVR includes an on-screen guide that lists the programs by channel, time and in categories. Users can fast forward, rewind and pause, and bookmark content, as well as save specific content clips.
For more:
- see this BoingBoing article
Related article:
Freeview to add dozens of new channels