We've been waiting since 2009 for the RVU Alliance to deliver on its promise of TV service controlled by a main server that streams content to any screen in the home without requiring any set-top boxes and it appears DirecTV is ready to make it so. A press release issued today indicates it has started field trials of the HR34 RVU server that will be the keystone in its Home Media Center, and plans to roll the service out nationwide in October. If you want to know when to start buying HDTVs like the Samsung D6000 series, it also mentions RVU certification for those and DirecTV's own C30 Home Media Clients (check out a video demo
here) is expected to be finalized in June. There's been some delays but if you were also hoping that 2011 would be the year we can get rid of the cable box, the progress is looking very promising.
Engadget
1 comments:
I might just be frugal, but spending $2700 for the UN60D6000 just for the RVU capability verses a UN60D7000 for $2288 seems a little out of range. $412 difference between the televisions, and the RVU was the only difference I could see between the two. Also with the software on the HR 34 still being in Beta, the RVU television can be slow to respond of course when a final software release is through that will clear up. I think the world has gotten used to companies like Microsoft releasing products that are sub-par and still in beta. I think it says something for putting together a complete product before releasing it for general sale to customers. Directv seems to release a lot of their receivers with beta software in them and “aggressively” update the receiver until it works in about 6 months. Seems the HR-34 is no different in this case, but I would get perturbed if I was having trouble access my recordings, or having to restart the receiver all the time. I think most companies are guilty of it at some point, working at DISH I saw that happen with the 922 briefly. Not a 6 month period, more along the lines of a month, but from what I have seen of the Hopper, that is a mistake that won’t be repeated. Announced at CES, The Hopper will be the whole home solution from DISH, which will come with “Joey” boxes for the remote televisions. Although the HR34 has 2 more tuners then the Hopper, I don’t believe this will be a hindrance to the receiver because of the addition of the Primetime Anytime feature, which will automatically record all the primetime blocks from the big 4 networks and allow you to access all the show for 8 days. For me that will cut down my DVR schedule by 70% about, and let me watch all the shows I want to watch instead of choosing. Separate from that recording space, The Hopper will have 250 hours of HD recording available for the subscriber, 50 more then the HR-34. I’ve spent a few hours just playing with the Hopper and all the options trying to push it to its limit, but even with all three tuners going, and me pressing every button you can imagine, I never once had to reboot it, except to see what is does when it starts up.
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