Addicted to Digital Media – More on the LG LRM-519 DVD Recorder w/DVR by Microsoft Sean Alexander has a post out this morning with a lot of information on the new LG LRM-519 – a CNET “Next Big Thing” finalist.
LG LRM-519
One might almost refer to this new unit as “MCE Lite.” It will have a similar UI to MCE as well as Microsoft’s program guide, as well as allow you to display photos and music.
One cool feature about this unit will be the expandibility options through using a USB connection (i.e. hook as many external drives as you want to it and store as much as your heart desires of record time).
It will be interesting to see how this unit is priced, but there are two flaws that I can see immediately.
1. The unit only has a single tuner. For the life of me I cannot imagine any company that would build a PVR these days with a single tuner. Adding a second tuner adds minimal cost to the unit and exponentially increases the sexiness of the unit. (Yes, I am aware that the lame standalone TiVo is only a single tuner PVR – an equally poor marketing design decision).
2. The best that I can tell, this unit will not record HDTV.
Without these two important features I’m afraid that this unit will be doomed to obscurity unless it is priced at $99 or less which I seriously doubt.