Aeon Digital to Offer Lame New DVR
Addicted to Digital Media – NBC Universal to offer IPTV movies and programming Sean Alexander over at Microsoft is blogging this morning about an article that appeared at News.com on a new DVR coming out from Aeon Digital.
Unfortunately it does not appear to offer CableCARD support (hence no premium cable HDTV) but the company does have a deal in place with NBC Universal and will offer pay per view VOD movies. No word on the quality of the movie broadasts.
Here are the details on the box:
” * IPTV Support
* 200 hour DVR with ability to archive to your PC. No mention of CableCard support though 
* Streamed playback of music, photos, and video from your PC
* Component, composite and S-Video outputs
* Built-in 802.11g WiFi router with VOIP support,uPnP, NAT firewall
* Built-in EPG (Program Guide)”
The box will be available this spring for $299.
And here’s something that I HATE: “Titles will be available for a 24-hour period after they are selected, but pricing has yet to be finalized. Aeon Digital CEO Giovanni D’Andrea said the deal includes recent movies such as “Ray” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin” along with selections from Universal’s library. Among the covered television events are “Jerry Springer: Uncensored,” the “Blind Date” franchise and “The Land Before Time.”
Ugh! Why oh why make me watch the movie in 24 hours. What if I don’t want to watch it in 24 hours? What if I want to watch it in four days. To make consumers jump through hoops like this is just pure stupidity.
Personally I think the box sounds pretty lame. No premium HDTV, no expandability, no mention of portability, VOD expires after 24 hours. Very weak Aeon. I think I’ll stick with my HDTV TiVo for now and stick with a Vista CableLabs certified PC when they are available in the future.
I’ve seen the box. It’s simple.It works. Perhaps you might want to reserve your judgement till you’ve had a look yourself.
Paul
Paul, I’m not so interested in something that works but doesn’t record HDTV. HDTV’s are outselling regular TVs at this point and have gone mainstream. It would be like buying a black and white televsion and saying it’s simple, it works.