back to article Rack-mount 24TB RAID 5 disk array for $5,000. Let's just check the label here. Uh, it's TiVo

TiVo has unveiled a massive new digital video recorder that costs $5,000 and can hold nearly three years of SD video, or 24 weeks of HD material. The TiVo Mega box is supposed to rid users of the pesky problem of ever actually running out of storage space by packing a 24TB RAID 5 system into a broadcast video recording box. …

  1. Nate Amsden

    needs more tuners

    6 tuners for that much space? I think it should have at least a dozen tuners. I can imagine a household having this kind of thing may have several people in there, each person should have at least two tuners.

    I would really like it if tivo made a smaller version of this system, in the form of a tivo with two disks in RAID 1.

    (tivo customer since ~2001 - currently have a series 3 and series 4)

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: needs more tuners

      Is there anywhere in the world where you could conceivably have 6 broadcast shows that you would to watch - let alone broadcast simultaneously ?

      1. P. Lee

        Re: needs more tuners

        Record everything all the time?

        Might be nice if you a, er, "community based facility."

        Let's calculate, $120/month foxtel x 5 users x 12 months and its more than paid for itself in one year. You'd need to add some fibre links and switches of course.

        There are still cheaper ways of doing this though.

        1. the spectacularly refined chap

          Re: needs more tuners

          Might be nice if you a, er, "community based facility."

          Let's calculate, $120/month foxtel x 5 users x 12 months and its more than paid for itself in one year. You'd need to add some fibre links and switches of course.

          In which case the price is an irrelevance - you could probably buy ten of these before you've matched the cost of copyright licensing, yes, even for a non-profit. This is a high end unit but it's still firmly a domestic unit. Six tuners ought to be more than enough in that context, complaining it is insufficient is like those 8 year olds looking at the latest Ferrari or whatever and dismissing it "Oh, it's only 600 horses, that's not enough".

          Think about it in a domestic setting - say four people. Each of them can watch what they like live. They can also record something whenever they like. Two of them can be watching something live and recording two something elses. They all have to be watching or recording different things before they hit that limit yet alone exceed it. Just how often is that going to happen?

          The spec has to be put somewhere. They've clearly though about this and put it somewhere that it is simply not an issue for the intended user.

    2. dan1980

      Re: needs more tuners

      I think the best option would be to have this available as network storage for multiple TiVos you may have around the house such that the individual TiVos record shows locally and then automatically upload them automatically to the central store.

      That would be a good way to supplement and expand this.

    3. Annihilator
      Boffin

      Re: needs more tuners

      "6 tuners for that much space?"

      Depends on what they're tuning. If it's DVB-T transmissions (likely) then each tuner grabs a multiplex that contains multiple channels. For example Multiplex PSB1 contains most of the BBC SD channels. A single tuner can record all of these at once.

      I lose track of how many active multiplexes make up the UKs digital transmissions, but it's 6-8. Best case, this thing can record all of Freeview simultaneously, worst case it's 75%. Your experience of Freeview might determine whether that's really best and worst case, or the reverse...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a waste of money

    Given that you could already add an external drive to a Tivo, not to mention the same ability for Directv or Dish satellite DVRs, why would anyone pay $5000 for this? If you're that level of a TV addict that you feel you need that much storage, you can put together an external SATA RAID array with equivalent storage and protection for $1000 or so.

    Maybe they're trying to steal the "ultra luxury custom home" market from Directv? The customers who hire custom installers with a $500K budget for their home's AV setup aren't going to try to save them a few grand by using an external drive. But they'd need to offer way more than 6 tuners - these people have dozens of TVs! Seems like it wouldn't be that hard to have add in tuner modules to expand to some crazy number of tuners. You'd need a separate cable card for each 6 tuners, but that's not much of an obstacle.

    Given the small number of people who would be interested in a $5000 DVR regardless of the number of tuners it includes, this has "orphan product in two years" written all over it.

    1. CliveM

      Re: What a waste of money

      But they'd need to offer way more than 6 tuners - these people have dozens of TVs!

      In which case they already have dozens of tuners - remember you said TVs, not monitors.

      I don't see this as a super-rich only thing so I don't suppose it's relevant anyway. I see as going after much the same audience as would buy a $1000 amplifier - you're probably talking about relatively affluent middle class males who like their shiny, but they're not necessarily super-rich.

      There are plenty of people out there willing to spend seemingly silly amounts of money on home entertainment equipment. If they have the money and they want to why should anyone stop them. It's more than I'd ever need but it'll appeal to those "1080p video is way too low res" types that come along here whenever 4K is mentioned.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: What a waste of money

        TV tuners are useless for cable TV, and people spending a ton of money on their system want to be able to watch anything from any TV, including recordings. Though they might rack mount a couple of those Tivos and use a matrix switch to deliver HDMI over cat6 to all the TVs.

        1. the spectacularly refined chap

          Re: What a waste of money

          TV tuners are useless for cable TV

          That cuts both ways - the Tivi has to have compatible tuners as well. However I think you're out of date. The last couple of DVB-T (Freeview) TVs I've had have also supported DVB-C (cable) out of the box, albeit needing a CAM module for the scrambled channels. They're probably technically capable of DVB-S as well but that isn't enabled on British sets where Sky refuse to allow you to use anything other than their Sky box.

  3. Alex McDonald 1

    Power consumption?

    At an estimated 200W 24 by 7 it might be worth investing in the optional RAIH5 power generating system (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Hamsters).

  4. patrick_bateman

    abit pricey, Flexraid and Green WD's with some SAS cards and an ML110G5 from the day and i can pull 3 HD streams with no issues atall, 3 of us in the house, no sky or cable tv. All goooood :)

    yer its not massive or superspeed but just like the guy who said about the Ferrari , it does me fine...

    I dont know why i was so shocked when my lodger told me his new job was to poll the VirgimM routers every 10 minutes for every requet that goe down teir line , (yeh i knew that bit but)......also one of his daily tasks were to pull the info from your Tivo box's;

    What is being watched

    what has been watched since last pull

    how long each channel

    what that channel and program was

    adverts skipped

    adverts watched

    How you skip between channels

    times of day you watch

    consistancys make money.

    i seriously beleive that they will make these devices not show adverts unless you are 'infront watching it' or it just goes into a sleep mode and then plays the ads when your back.

    after that they will be sensors inside.

    all this to sell your data/info on. My slightly OCD anti controll/higher order / dickheads in business world hating me is really not liking all this Big data thing

    let me pay you for the TV i want to watch, i dont give a hoot about downton abbey or that crap.

    I will give the companys £XXX a year not to be tracked traced, audited and for none of this crap tv

    dont get me started on road tax!!!!!!!! AARRHHHH

    1. Spikehead

      There is no such thing a "Road Tax" - that was abolished in 1937.

      Vehicle Excise duty on the other hand is solely dependant on the size of vehicle and the emissions generated by said vehicle and not on the amount of time the vehicle is used on the public highway. To make things fairer we need to monitor where and when you're going. If only there was something that we could use for that - Oh, the Galileo navigation system. Now if only they can get them into the right orbit!

  5. gwangy
    Black Helicopters

    Tivo only

    PPL dont really read .. this is Tivo, here in Uk thats only available thru Virgin, so not open std DVB-t. ALso just becoz you have the chops to put together a flexraid zfs downclocked gizmo doesn't mean that the other 95% of normal ppl could/want/understand how to.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like