« 80's Lyrics Quiz | Main | Forrester Wrong about Charging for Email »
December 16, 2003
Networked DVR Has No Local Storage
Wi-Fi Planet has a story about the Media Player/Recorder (MP/R), a forthcoming device from PRISMIQ (huh?). In a nutshell, think of it as a "distributed TiVo" -- a DVR that relies on using space on hard drives of PC's scattered throughout a wired/wireless LAN for recording TV or watching stored media. Read the full article if the concept isn't clear.
While reading this, I thought, "no way will that ever be successful." Why do I think that? Well, if the DVR is reliant on both the network and one or more PCs in the home, then everything has to work correctly for the DVR to function. If a PC needs to be rebooted or locks up (gee, that never happens) or a router needs to be reset or the WLAN gets bogged down by a microwave oven or other interference, then the DVR is disrupted.
Since TV streams in real time, if even a 5-minute interruption happens, the recording is, for the most part, shot. I can't imagine most geeks' spouses being willing to live with that risk, especially when self-contained DVRs are relatively inexpensive (no more so than this MP/R) and very reliable (at least my TiVo is). Then why does PRISMIQ think this a better solution? Being able to stream/store content in distributed fashion would be a cool additional functionality for a DVR, but IMO it's certainly not a substitute for local, dedicated storage.
Comments
I think this may work soon, but not now. If they concentrated on pulling content from network attached storage devices instead of PCs, this is a great idea. Problem is manufacturers are not really marketing NAS devices to Average Joe yet. They think that only corporations can make use of large amounts of network accessible data.
Posted by: Mitch at December 17, 2003 10:05 AM