TiVo obviously believes things have improved since 1992 when Bruce Springsteen sang about 57 Channels (And Nothin' On). The company has announced the TiVo Mega, a digital video recorder (DVR) that packs a whopping 24 TB capacity. This allows the device to store over 26,000 hours of TV, which translates to around three years of non-stop viewing – which would stretch the endurance of the most dedicated TV marathoner.
The device features a rack-mountable form factor that packs six tuners and can record content from live TV, on-demand, streaming services and Web-based TV onto the 10 hot swappable HDDs that make up its RAID 5 array. While the drives can store 26,000 hours of content in standard definition (SD), this drops to around 4,000 hours (around six months) for HD recordings.
Ethernet and MoCA connections allow the device to be networked to multiple TVs around the home, with live and recorded programs also able to be streamed to smartphones and tablets when out and about via a free companion mobile app. Content can also be downloaded to the mobile app for offline viewing on mobile devices.
The Mega can be controlled via said smartphone app, over the internet or via the included TiVo Slide Pro Remote that features a full QWERTY slide out keyboard and relies on RF (radio frequency) communications so it can be used through walls. Users get TiVo's channel guide with filters and can conduct a universal search for content across cable, video-on-demand and web apps, including Netflix and YouTube.
"Size matters," says TiVO CMO Ira Bahr. "People hate being forced to delete cool stuff from their DVR before they want to or finding a TV show they had recorded is now gone. Now, with TiVo Mega they can always know their show or movie is still there to watch later. TiVo Mega offers more than twelve times the storage of any cable or satellite DVR. TiVo Mega is the solution for the power user who wants to record everything."
TiVo hasn't finalized pricing, but says the Mega is expected to retail for around US$5,000 when it is released in early 2015.
Source: TiVo
