Sony Vaio With 7 Tuners

[btvbuddy]

Very exciting news! Wondering if 3.5 will work on this baby...

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118050,00.asp

CHIBA, JAPAN -- Sony will begin selling in Japan in November a combination personal computer and video server that can record up to seven channels of television simultaneously, it said at the Ceatec 2004 exhibition here.

The Vaio VGX-X90P goes on sale in Japan on November 20 and will cost around $4727.

To understand the Vaio X computer it's best to think of it as three things packed into one black, shiny box.

On one side it's a multimedia personal computer, with two 250GB hard drives and a television tuner. Users can do all the normal things they would with one of the company's Vaio computers including recording television programs from a single analog channel or, via an optional unit, a digital TV channel.

Also packed into its tower-PC sized case are two video server boards. Each unit contains three analog TV tuners and is connected to a 250GB hard drive. The unit runs on the Micro iTron operating system and the interface with the rest of the PC is via an Ethernet port, says Junji Tsuyuki, a senior product producer at Sony's IT and mobile solutions network department.


Simultaneous Recording
The three analog tuners mean it's possible to record three channels at once and because there are two server boards this rises to six channels simultaneously, says Tsuyuki. With the tuner from the PC side of the device also added, a user can record seven channels at the same time although the focus of the device is continuous, simultaneous recording of six programs via the dual video servers.

That works out well for the company's target audience of consumers because most areas of Japan are served by two public television channels and between three and five commercial TV networks.

The 250GB hard drive space is enough to store five and a half days worth of programming from each of the three channels assuming continuous recording, or one week's worth of programs assuming 19 hours per day of TV per channel, Tsuyuki says. What's more, users can specify 400GB drives for the video server units when they order the Vaio X. This would raise its total storage capacity from 1TB to 1.3TB.

Users can bring up a grid-like electronic programming guide screen that, instead of looking forward, contains the past few days of television. Then, at the press of a button, any program can be watched on demand--a function Sony likens to a time machine.

"In America, TiVo is very famous but we don't have it in Japan," says Tsuyuki. "This is a kind of TiVo for Japanese users."

Sony has licensed technology from TiVo and also holds a stake in the Alviso, California, company but none of the company's technology was incorporated into the Vaio X, says Tsuyuki.

[mvaughn]

$4,700 ... I'd rather spend that on a 56in DLP Television

[Eric3a]

$4,600: A couple of months on my sailboat away from the 7 tuners!

Eric

[SHS]

Yes I agree $4727. that very frickin' expensive at that price hmm Let see I can do better plus add one tuner to boot.
Media Server
(1) Motherboard must be 5/6 PCI slot (Intel or AMD) around $125
(1) CPU any speed will do (Intel Celeron or AMD) around $125
(1) Video card (Any one will do after this just server that if the motherboard dosen't have on board video) let say nVidia GF4 $40
(1) NIC (Any one 10/100 will do that if the motherboard dosen't have on board NIC) RealTek 8139 $15
(1) 512MB Memory around $100
(1) Case Full Tower Server Chassis $125
(4) 250GB $600
(1) BeyondTV or SageTV $80
(4) WinTV-PVR 500 Dual Tuner $800
(1) 17" Monitor $100
$90 for any misc parts you know like more fan, cable, etc, etc.
GrandT about $2200

Clinet PC can be anything you want after all you only need BeyondTV Client or SageTV Client $30 for each PC.

The only problom are that most Satellite/Digital cable recevier they don't have this cool feature know remote address sign like the dish network recevier do so it can be a bit of plain in a@@ setup up Multi-Recevier box becues there no IR blaster that support that min output port and close one is the USB-UIRT which can do up to 3 Recevier box with the same IR code.

[rakeshagrawal]

Originally Posted by btvbuddy

Very exciting news! Wondering if 3.5 will work on this baby...

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,118050,00.asp

CHIBA, JAPAN -- Sony will begin selling in Japan in November a combination personal computer and video server that can record up to seven channels of television simultaneously, it said at the Ceatec 2004 exhibition here.
<snip>
Also packed into its tower-PC sized case are two video server boards. Each unit contains three analog TV tuners and is connected to a 250GB hard drive. The unit runs on the Micro iTron operating system and the interface with the rest of the PC is via an Ethernet port, says Junji Tsuyuki, a senior product producer at Sony's IT and mobile solutions network department.


Simultaneous Recording
The three analog tuners mean it's possible to record three channels at once and because there are two server boards this rises to six channels simultaneously, says Tsuyuki. With the tuner from the PC side of the device also added, a user can record seven channels at the same time although the focus of the device is continuous, simultaneous recording of six programs via the dual video servers.
<snip>

(bold-facing above added by me)

Does anyone know what they mean by "two server boards" or what the setup here is that allows them to record six channels with three analog TV tuner cards? Or is recording seven channels some sort of marketing spin?

[SHS]

The same thing Network Recorder rakeshagrawal kind like a custom mini pc with only 3 tuner and harddrive and nic with must likely no video card, no sound card and no pci slot just bear bone stipp down mini server with embedded operating system which only dose one thing.
There two Network Recorder and one in a reg PC = 7 tuner.

[carthur50]

Originally Posted by rakeshagrawal

(bold-facing above added by me)

Does anyone know what they mean by "two server boards" or what the setup here is that allows them to record six channels with three analog TV tuner cards? Or is recording seven channels some sort of marketing spin?

I interpreted that to mean that there are two "server boards", each with three tuners.

[btvbuddy]

More details below, wondering what codec is used and details of those sever boards? If this is the SDTV version there is no mention of HDTV and the special tuners it would need. Hoping we can get some ideas on building/customizing our own open-based versions based the Vaio-X specs.

New Sony PC Boasts 1,000 GB of Storage

TOKYO - Japan's Sony Corp (NYSE:SNE - news) (news - web sites). will begin selling a computer and home-server system in Japan with 1,000 gigabytes of hard-drive storage — enough to record six TV channels for a week straight — the company said.

Vaio Type X, set to go on sale Nov. 20, will sell for about $4,700, Sony spokesman Shinji Obana said Wednesday.

"The best part is that you can freely choose what you want to watch without having to worry about what you might have missed," he said.

There are no plans to market the computer overseas, Obana said.

Recorded programs are displayed as a thumbnail TV guide that Sony calls Time Machine View. The shows can also be grouped by categories such as sports or sitcoms, Sony said.

The machine has six analog TV tuners that can record six channels at once for a week at 19 hours of programming a day, or five and a half days of continuous recording. It also has a regular personal computer tuner for recording a seventh channel.

The oldest recordings are automatically deleted unless they are saved to make room for new recordings.

The Vaio Type X is on display at the CEATEC electronics show this week in Chiba, a Tokyo suburb.

[rakeshagrawal]

Here's the product website...
http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/VGX-X90P/

[btvbuddy]

Model VGX-X90P
OS Microsoft Windows XP Professional (Service Pack 2 correspondence)

The Intel Pentium 4 processor 560
System bus 800MHz
Intel 915P Express chip set
1GB (512MB×2)
ATI Technologies RADEON X600 XT 128MB (DDR SDRAM)
(PCI Express ×16 connection)

Supports Recording in MPEG and DV
* High picture quality mode (MPEG2 8Mbps 720×480 30fps) maximum approximately 63 hours (all the channel meters)
* Standard mode (MPEG2 4Mbps 720×480 30fps) maximum approximately 125 hours (all the channel meters)
* Long haul mode (2.5Mbps) (MPEG2 2.5Mbps 352×480 30fps) maximum approximately 200 hours (all the channel meters)
* Long haul mode (1.25Mbps) (MPEG2 1.25Mbps 352×480 30fps) maximum approximately 400 hours (all the channel meters)

MPEG Hardware Encoder board
- Video capturing function (video input -> real time conversion function)
- TV tuner (VHF1 - 12ch, UHF13 - 62ch and CATV C13 - C63ch*1, stereo /2 national languages)*2
- Video recording mode (selective possibility):
* High picture quality mode (MPEG2 8Mbps 720×480 30fps) approximately 17 minutes/1 GB
* Standard mode (MPEG2 4Mbps 720×480 30fps) approximately 34 minutes /1GB
* Long haul mode (MPEG2 2.5Mbps 352×240 30fps) approximately 53 minutes /1GB
- (DNR) digital noise reduction - three dimensional Y/C separated circuit
- Ghost reduction function

Network video server - X3 video server unit 2 system
- The number of simultaneous video recording channels: Channel 6 (channel 3 ×2)
- Hard disk drive: Approximately 500GB (250GB×2)
- Video capturing function (video input -> real time conversion function)
- TV tuner (VHF1 - 12ch, UHF13 - 62ch and stereo /2 national languages)*2
- Video recording mode (selective possibility):
- Three dimensional Y/C separated circuit
- Ghost reduction function
- Network (LAN) connector (100BASE-TX)*3
- Network transmission function: The number of simultaneous per 1 system of X3 video server transmissions:
Maximum of 1 system (the video of 8Mbps), maximum of 2 systems (video below 4Mbps)*4

Wondering if it's possible to develop a Beyond TV solution that meets or beats this system. We know whitebox PC parts are cheaper. Is there a maximum of tuners 3.5 will support? Does anyone have a three or four tuner setup currently?

Imagine a Dream System built around three or four dual tuner Haupp 500's!

[ruel]

I like the picture of one screen interface used by this vaio. Looks almost like a a set of columns that you probably navigate around as if it was like a grid. I can't tell if it's for a page from a catalog of all the video recordings on the system or for pictures in a photo album or if it could even be for album covers for MP3 music (or whatever format Sony is using for music). of course other frontends use something like this but interesting nonetheless.

ruel



http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Products/...lead_feat1.jpg

[merrypig]

I rather get the impression that it stores the video in raw format but has one hardware encoder that will offline transcode files to mpeg2?

Can't see a software encoder running on 7 streams in parallel that's for sure.

[Eric3a]

I love how you never see any wires in marketing brochures.

This thing doesn't need power?
Eric

[SHS]

Yup that ture Eric

[btvbuddy]

Wires, Wires, Wires so many many wires! Imagine this 7 tuner Vaio X or SnapStreams 6 tuner Medusa PVR on a satellite setup. All those RCA cables and USB-IRT and serial cables everywhere! We could call it the Octopus PVR! :-)