Archived from groups: alt.video.ptv.replaytv,alt.video.ptv.tivo (More info?)
Hard Drives Will Soon Plug into DVRs
Storage vendors expect big demand in external storage for video recording
devices.
Tom Krazit, IDG News Service
Monday, May 03, 2004
When San Francisco resident Keith Abrams ordered his digital video recorder from
TiVo, 40 hours of recording time seemed an enormous amount. But Abrams and his
roommate saved far more episodes of favorite shows than they had anticipated,
and the resulting storage crunch means he can record fewer shows than he'd like.
This familiar scenario is eyed as an opportunity by storage vendors.
Maxtor and Seagate Technology are among the makers of external hard drives who
hope to cash in on the growing need for extra digital video recorder (DVR)
storage. Both vendors plan to work with cable and satellite providers to develop
and market external hard drives for DVRs from companies like TiVo and Echostar.
About 4.2 million DVRs shipped worldwide in 2003, with about half that number
selling in the U.S., according to market research from IDC. Last year, shipments
to the U.S. grew by 180 percent, IDC analysts say.
Most DVRs available today provide a minimum of 40 hours of storage. DVRs with
higher capacities are available, but when people buy their device they don't
usually understand how quickly their DVRs will fill up, says Rob Pait, Seagate's
director of global consumer electronics marketing.
Abrams and his roommate didn't realize how much extra storage capacity would be
used by higher-quality versions of their favorite shows, he says in an e-mail
interview.
Demand Will Grow
As more consumers switch to high-definition television (HDTV) services, storage
requirements will skyrocket, Pait notes. HDTV programs can take up to nine times
the storage capacity of conventional programs, he says.
Adding a larger internal hard drive isn't something most users of consumer
electronics products are comfortable doing on their own, Pait notes. Also,
satellite and cable providers do not want to train support technicians or make
house calls to upgrade hard drives on DVRs, he says.
TiVo allows users to upgrade their boxes using kits with step-by-step directions
to open the DVR and install the new hard drive. TiVo customers can also send
their DVRs to the company for upgrades.
But both Maxtor and Seagate believe the cable and satellite operators now
entering the market will want to offer external storage products. The advantage:
Consumers can simply plug them into the back of an existing DVR without opening
the case, sending the machine back to the manufacturer, or coordinating a
service call.
Seagate plans to work with service providers as well as set-top box
manufacturers such as Scientific Atlanta to ensure its external drives work with
existing DVRs and forthcoming products, Pait says. The company outlined its
plans for the market and demonstrated several devices at the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association show in New Orleans this week.
Last week, Maxtor unveiled the QuickView Expander external drive, designed for
DVRs. It will hold 160GB and is expected to ship early in the third quarter,
says David Barron, Maxtor's director of digital entertainment. Pricing is not
yet disclosed.
Maxtor will sell QuickView Expander products online to consumers as well as
through cable and satellite providers, Barron says.
Need Has Evolved
External hard drives are a popular storage upgrade option for PC users, says
Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis with NPD Techworld. Sales of
external hard drives for PCs are growing more quickly than internal hard drives
as consumers seek easy ways to store their growing libraries of digital pictures
and video, he says.
Contributing to this growth are standards such as USB 2.0 and Firewire, which
support faster transfer rates between PCs and external storage devices, Baker
notes.
Seagate and Maxtor are working with set-top box manufacturers to make sure their
DVRs ship with support for at least one of those two standards. TiVo's Series2
DVRs have USB 2.0 ports that will be able to take advantage of external storage
units, Maxtor's Barron says.
The consumer electronics world also wants to solve the storage problem for DVR
users. A coalition of companies led by Sanyo, Pioneer, and Sharp has developed a
standard for a portable hard drive that can plug into both PCs and consumer
electronics devices.
A product based on the Information Versatile Disk for Removable usage (IVDR)
standard is expected to ship later this year from IO Data Devices. That product
will come with 20GB of storage and will use the USB 2.0 standard to transfer
data.
http
/www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115973,tk,dn050404X,00.asp
==
"Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television."
-- David Letterman
"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
-- Bertrand Russell
Hard Drives Will Soon Plug into DVRs
Storage vendors expect big demand in external storage for video recording
devices.
Tom Krazit, IDG News Service
Monday, May 03, 2004
When San Francisco resident Keith Abrams ordered his digital video recorder from
TiVo, 40 hours of recording time seemed an enormous amount. But Abrams and his
roommate saved far more episodes of favorite shows than they had anticipated,
and the resulting storage crunch means he can record fewer shows than he'd like.
This familiar scenario is eyed as an opportunity by storage vendors.
Maxtor and Seagate Technology are among the makers of external hard drives who
hope to cash in on the growing need for extra digital video recorder (DVR)
storage. Both vendors plan to work with cable and satellite providers to develop
and market external hard drives for DVRs from companies like TiVo and Echostar.
About 4.2 million DVRs shipped worldwide in 2003, with about half that number
selling in the U.S., according to market research from IDC. Last year, shipments
to the U.S. grew by 180 percent, IDC analysts say.
Most DVRs available today provide a minimum of 40 hours of storage. DVRs with
higher capacities are available, but when people buy their device they don't
usually understand how quickly their DVRs will fill up, says Rob Pait, Seagate's
director of global consumer electronics marketing.
Abrams and his roommate didn't realize how much extra storage capacity would be
used by higher-quality versions of their favorite shows, he says in an e-mail
interview.
Demand Will Grow
As more consumers switch to high-definition television (HDTV) services, storage
requirements will skyrocket, Pait notes. HDTV programs can take up to nine times
the storage capacity of conventional programs, he says.
Adding a larger internal hard drive isn't something most users of consumer
electronics products are comfortable doing on their own, Pait notes. Also,
satellite and cable providers do not want to train support technicians or make
house calls to upgrade hard drives on DVRs, he says.
TiVo allows users to upgrade their boxes using kits with step-by-step directions
to open the DVR and install the new hard drive. TiVo customers can also send
their DVRs to the company for upgrades.
But both Maxtor and Seagate believe the cable and satellite operators now
entering the market will want to offer external storage products. The advantage:
Consumers can simply plug them into the back of an existing DVR without opening
the case, sending the machine back to the manufacturer, or coordinating a
service call.
Seagate plans to work with service providers as well as set-top box
manufacturers such as Scientific Atlanta to ensure its external drives work with
existing DVRs and forthcoming products, Pait says. The company outlined its
plans for the market and demonstrated several devices at the National Cable and
Telecommunications Association show in New Orleans this week.
Last week, Maxtor unveiled the QuickView Expander external drive, designed for
DVRs. It will hold 160GB and is expected to ship early in the third quarter,
says David Barron, Maxtor's director of digital entertainment. Pricing is not
yet disclosed.
Maxtor will sell QuickView Expander products online to consumers as well as
through cable and satellite providers, Barron says.
Need Has Evolved
External hard drives are a popular storage upgrade option for PC users, says
Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis with NPD Techworld. Sales of
external hard drives for PCs are growing more quickly than internal hard drives
as consumers seek easy ways to store their growing libraries of digital pictures
and video, he says.
Contributing to this growth are standards such as USB 2.0 and Firewire, which
support faster transfer rates between PCs and external storage devices, Baker
notes.
Seagate and Maxtor are working with set-top box manufacturers to make sure their
DVRs ship with support for at least one of those two standards. TiVo's Series2
DVRs have USB 2.0 ports that will be able to take advantage of external storage
units, Maxtor's Barron says.
The consumer electronics world also wants to solve the storage problem for DVR
users. A coalition of companies led by Sanyo, Pioneer, and Sharp has developed a
standard for a portable hard drive that can plug into both PCs and consumer
electronics devices.
A product based on the Information Versatile Disk for Removable usage (IVDR)
standard is expected to ship later this year from IO Data Devices. That product
will come with 20GB of storage and will use the USB 2.0 standard to transfer
data.
http
/www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115973,tk,dn050404X,00.asp==
"Everyone has a purpose in life. Perhaps yours is watching television."
-- David Letterman
"The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
-- Bertrand Russell
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