If this isn’t too PC centric (yeah right) it might actually be something people will want aside from Tivo, though as I’ve said many times a DVR that gets tangled up as an aftermarket connect to your cable service is a tough sell. There’s no word on the number of tuners, whether it works on IPTV or cable or what… Perhaps LG will have a demo box / prototype at the show. Certainly an interesting move Mr. Bill.
I’ve been excited about this one since I first heard the news. As part of their digital home efforts, Bill Gates announced as part of his keynote Microsoft is releasing a standalone DVR/DVD-Burner platform to compete with the likes of TiVo. First to market will be a new box from LG later this year. These units will have a look and feel similar to the Media Center PC platform but will not be traditional PCs nor will they be usable for PC tasks such as running Office. They will have the standard Windows EPG and will be able to burn content to DVDs. Since they support Windows Connect, they will be able to stream music and pictures from your PC and also be able to transfer TV content to your PC for syncing to a portable media center. Media Center Extender technology to connect to a media center PC is also planned but won’t necessarily make it into the final release. [Michael Gartenberg]