uk, tech, rant

The Register, via their Hardware channel have reviewed the Telewest TVDrive HDTV-enabled PVR. Seems like nice kit.

Don't get it. Why on earth would you want a PVR in the house?

From here on in, assume PVR == the functionality of a PVR, not the actual set top box you traditionally see. Namely, something that lets you record huge amounts of video, can store it for years, lets you watch it again, again and again, fast forward through ads. You get the idea.

What happens if the "PVR" doesn't live above your TV, but down the other end of a long long wire that reaches into a server hosting facility somewhere?

First off, with half decent broadband you can stream good enough tv quality down the line.

You most likely don't have an email server, or web server in your home. But I'll bet you email and use the web. Centrally locating all the PVRs in a warehouse would mean that scale really kicks in.

Larger harddrives (or banks of them) could be employed. Why store 2000 identical copies of Desperate Housewives for 2000 different people with their PVR co-located? Just store the one copy and create a "shortcut".

What's the point? For the same $$ you would be able to have Terabytes of storage available instead of Gigabytes. At this point, you could technically store everything broadcast on Freeview for a rolling 12 month window.

Imagine, anything, from any channel in the last 12 months available to watch as often and as many times as you like.

'cause it is just a very very large PVR : and a PVR is already perfectly legal.

Heck, with this model (and having signed up using your tv licence number to ensure it is used properly), you can now login to your account from anywhere in the world and watch, well, anything.

Update: Seems we're not the only ones with this idea