YOUR next computer could replace your video recorder鈥攁t least, that鈥檚
the promise from a Canadian software house called MGI. The Toronto-based company
this week teamed up with British electrical retailer Dixons to launch a PC that
doubles as a 13-hour digital video recorder (DVR).
The launch challenges plans by video industry giants such as Philips, Sony
and Panasonic, who want consumers to buy a new generation of set-top boxes that
record many hours of TV on a built-in hard drive. These are already on sale in
the US. But MGI thinks viewers will not want to keep adding set-top boxes to
their cable or digital receivers. It believes PCs can do the job just as
well.
MGI鈥檚 video recording software, called Pure Diva, runs on a Pentium III-based
PC and requires around 3 gigabytes of disc space for every hour of video
recorded. The program is being preloaded on Dixons鈥� top-end own-brand PCs,
costing between 拢1500 and 拢2500.
Advertisement
All kinds of DVRs work in basically the same way. The hard drive鈥檚 recording
and playback heads work independently, so that a viewer can watch a programme
while it鈥攐r a number of others鈥攁re being recorded. If you are
interrupted while watching a live broadcast you can pause playback while the
recording heads continue working, so you can carry on where you left off.
The DVR picks up information from schedules that flag the content of TV
programmes, so that it records anything that matches your chosen viewing
profile. You don鈥檛 have to set a timer.
In the US, TiVo (backed by Philips and Sony) and Replay Networks (backed by
Panasonic) sell $500 boxes that convert analogue TV into digital code and
store at least 10 hours of programmes on a hard drive. But the boxes only work
when fed coded TV schedules that are downloaded via a built-in modem. TiVo
charges $10 a month for this service, and Replay sends advertisements and
sponsorship promotions onto the viewer鈥檚 screen.
Unlike TiVo and Replay, Diva can be programmed like a standard VCR. If you do
want to use the schedules to record automatically, they鈥檒l be free on the
Web.
For the moment, users of the Diva system will either have to use their
computer monitor to watch recorded programmes 鈥攖he way many people now
watch DVDs鈥攐r dump them onto VHS tape. But David Mercer, a senior analyst
with the international consultancy Strategy Analytics, thinks that this problem
will quickly become disappear as people wire up their homes. 鈥淲ith a wired or
wireless network the PC becomes the centre of home entertainment. Diva is a
first step in that direction,鈥� he says.