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Marcus Carr
join:2009-04-08
Baltimore, MD

Marcus Carr

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Quad-Tuner DVR

Comcast’s Xfinity Spectrum quad-tuner cable card HD DVR offers Facebook, Twitter support

December 20th, 2010



Comcast subscribers…see that box above? You want one. This is Comcast’s new Xfinity Spectrum quad-turner HD DVR. That’s right, four tuners means you can watch one show, while recording three more.

The Spectrum also introduces Comcast’s Social TV concept that integrates social media services such as Facebook and Twitter with your cable TV interface. The box will have a “Friends Trends” interface that will allow users to rank movies and TV shows with their friends. The box also allows subscribers to listen to music over Pandora, or watch YouTube videos.

The back of the Spectrum offers component, composite, HDMI, S-video and digital audio out ports, as well as USB, 1394 and Ethernet connections. You’ll also notice a cable card slot – it looks like the Spectrum will require a cable card to work.

We don’t have any word on when the Spectrum will be released, or how much it will cost. The device did make its way through the FCC today, suggesting that a launch date is near.




»www.wirelessgoodness.com ··· support/

trythisfirst
@comcast.net

trythisfirst

Anon

said by Marcus Carr:

Comcast’s

also notice a cable card slot – it looks like the Spectrum will require a cable card to work.

All new cable boxes have a cable card built in to the device. Thats the separable security thing. You will not need to rent a cable card, its built in, you will notice it has a bolt covering the card slot lol. I haven't heard anything about this yet...
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678 to Marcus Carr

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to Marcus Carr
but will it have the same 90's guides that all the other cable boxes have?

4 tunners will it be MRV only and cost $20-$30 /m rent? + $8 per outlet for the boxes at the other tv's?
Joe12345678

Joe12345678 to Marcus Carr

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to Marcus Carr
60 hours HD on a 4 tuner box?
The 2-3 years old Directv boxes can do 50 + they have E-sata and the new Directv ones are at 100 + E-sata.

CableTool
Poorly Representing MYSELF.
Premium Member
join:2004-11-12

1 recommendation

CableTool

Premium Member

Comparing space or overall functionality of the box?

I think people view Leased DVRs as archiving boxes... they arent really for Archiving all of your favorite programming, they are for recording it to view it later.
I cant imaging storing 20 hrs of HD programming let alone 60.
If I have to shift 60 hours of programming at any given time I might need to re-evaluate my entire life.

castsucks
@sbcglobal.net

castsucks

Anon

said by CableTool:

Comparing space or overall functionality of the box?

I think people view Leased DVRs as archiving boxes... they arent really for Archiving all of your favorite programming, they are for recording it to view it later.
I cant imaging storing 20 hrs of HD programming let alone 60.
If I have to shift 60 hours of programming at any given time I might need to re-evaluate my entire life.

ok say 10-20 hours for one person but what if you have 5-6 people in the same house?

But seeing how cheap HDD are getting putting in a 160G or maybe even A 320g seems cheep and small for 2011 NOW days 750 or 1TB is about right maybe 500g if you want to be cheap. also bulk prices make the HDD costs even less.

CableTool
Poorly Representing MYSELF.
Premium Member
join:2004-11-12

1 recommendation

CableTool

Premium Member

I can see that. I have a family of four but admittedly there is a 6 year old and a 2 year old in the mix.

I think if I had two or three teens and TV interests were that diverse It wouldnt be realistic to store all of that on ONE box anyway. Because really.. when the hell would anyone watch them all?

A god case for one or two anyroom DVRs however. One for the adults, one for the kids. That would be a truly wired house.

I think however this offering along with a few other endeavors are really more or less geared towards the introduction of streaming web content then storing shifted content.

In any event, I think the storage is inline with what the general target would find adequate.
I know if I had a 1TB HDD I would have 300 Oprahs on it instead of the 57 she currently has....
ak3883
join:2005-08-20
Marlton, NJ

1 recommendation

ak3883 to Marcus Carr

Member

to Marcus Carr
If you store sporting events(such as football games ~3 hours), before you delete them, you might want to record some game footage, clips, or the entire game to a DVD/Hauppauge HDPVR, the old 160GB drives filled up FAST.

I just got a newer DCX3400 with 320GB and it is so nice to be able to hold more than 3 or 4 games(when you also store a few primetime shows, the occasional hour HD special, a few episodes of your favorite sitcom in HD, etc). And I live alone!

Over/under on year of release for this is 2013.

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
·PenTeleData
ARRIS SB8200

cypherstream to Marcus Carr

MVM

to Marcus Carr
And here's the manual.

Yes all new GUI included.

Pace manufactured RNG-210n a.k.a. "Spectrum"

www.xfinity.com/spectrum will be the URL to manage the service from anywhere.
nysports4evr
Premium Member
join:2010-01-23

nysports4evr to Marcus Carr

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to Marcus Carr
One thing that stands out for me is that it has an HDMI input... what could that be used for? recording from other devices...?

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
·PenTeleData
ARRIS SB8200

cypherstream

MVM

said by nysports4evr:

One thing that stands out for me is that it has an HDMI input... what could that be used for? recording from other devices...?

Not sure, because on page 54 of the manual, the back panel doesn't match this Spectrum RNG-210n. It looks more like the RNG-110. I'm sure that it's not a final working document anyway. After all it says Comcast confidential property all over it.
jwhite4
join:2002-03-21
Philadelphia, PA

1 recommendation

jwhite4 to CableTool

Member

to CableTool
said by CableTool:

...I cant imaging storing 20 hrs of HD programming let alone 60...

I think you're in the minority. Remember that when DVR's first came out, they could always store 60-80 hours of "the highest quality programming available". [Not our fault that was only SD]. That's what we want now. We should have to choose between 4 hours of SD programming, or 1 hr of HD programming.

I'm not forcing Comcast to make every HD DVR have a 500GB-1TB drive in it. There probably are people like you that don't need that much recording space, and don't want to spend extra money on larger drives. But like FIOS (is starting to do), at least make the eSATA port functioning, so that if I choose to increase the storage capacity of my DVR, I can.

Jeff
Joe12345678
join:2003-07-22
Des Plaines, IL

Joe12345678 to nysports4evr

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to nysports4evr
HDMI loop through?
Joe12345678

Joe12345678 to jwhite4

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Directv may have a 1TB or more in there 4-6 tuner MRV box that roomed not only that they pushed out a firmware update for all of the HR2X boxes that adds support for 4K sectors so you can hook real big disks to there WORKING E-sata ports.

lovswr
join:2001-09-15
Riverview, FL

lovswr to CableTool

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to CableTool
Archiving! Not having to delete stuff in any given 7 day period is a good thing. The first time I got this crappy DVR & it asked me If I wanted to delete the program immediately after I finished watching it, I knew something was wrong. Comcast/Motorola should be ashamed of themselves.

So the new box may only have a 160G drive as well. Hi ho, Hi ho, its off to Ceton I go.
lovswr

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lovswr to Marcus Carr

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Well sports fans, look at what else Pace is up to (dang 160G drive though.)

Phooey I tried to post the picture, but I hate HTML (& it hates me). Check out the page below. Pace was developing something that looks alot like the above a year ago. Pretty exciting box, but I would imagine that it would take a direct command from the sun god Ra before Comcast execs would allow that kind of functionality.

»hd.engadget.com/2009/10/ ··· true-mu/

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
·PenTeleData
ARRIS SB8200

cypherstream

MVM

I think Armstrong cable in western PA was testing that Pace home server.

Anyway on this RNG-210n, there's some kind of square dot matrix LCD or something right next to the xfinity logo.

Pretty nice looking box though. I tipped off EngadgetHD and they picked up this story.
»www.engadget.com/2010/12 ··· ccess-r/
saratoga66
join:2002-08-22
Saratoga, CA

saratoga66 to Marcus Carr

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I wish Comcast would push new guide software to the DCX boxes. These boxes are very powerful but they choose to keep the same software on all boxes. Other than only having 2 tuners I would think they could do pretty much everything that the proposed Pace boxes do.

mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV

mikedz4

Member

yes it would be nice if they would push the new guide to the pace rn110s and the dcx boxes. I know I won't see the new guide or this vaporware box anytime before I am 50 though the way comcast moves with this stuff. (ps that is 21 years away).

DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey

DaveDude to CableTool

Member

to CableTool
said by CableTool:

Comparing space or overall functionality of the box?

I think people view Leased DVRs as archiving boxes... they arent really for Archiving all of your favorite programming, they are for recording it to view it later.
I cant imaging storing 20 hrs of HD programming let alone 60.
If I have to shift 60 hours of programming at any given time I might need to re-evaluate my entire life.

I have about 40 hrs stored on my tivo, i record entire series, and watch them when i can. I wonder if tivo is going to react to this at all ?

cypherstream
MVM
join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA
·PenTeleData
ARRIS SB8200

cypherstream

MVM

Tivo, react? Ha. Maybe they will react with a lawsuit, seems that's all they are good for.

Tivo Premier - half finished. One CPU core is disabled. It's slow.
Tivo on Motorola STB - failed. Never got out of New England. Waste of their time.
Tivo on DirecTV - Tivo's CEO states that it will basically be the old DirecTivo with MPEG4 / SWM LNB compatibility. 10 year old interface still intact despite numerous delays. Wow, what a waste of everyones time yet again.

Tivo IMO is going the way of the dinosaur, unless they drastically change their thinking.

The Virgin media Tivo in the UK looks pretty nice, however that is the UK. Doesn't do us any good over on this side of the world.

DaveDude
No Fear
join:1999-09-01
New Jersey

DaveDude

Member

said by cypherstream:

Tivo, react? Ha. Maybe they will react with a lawsuit, seems that's all they are good for.

Tivo Premier - half finished. One CPU core is disabled. It's slow.
Tivo on Motorola STB - failed. Never got out of New England. Waste of their time.
Tivo on DirecTV - Tivo's CEO states that it will basically be the old DirecTivo with MPEG4 / SWM LNB compatibility. 10 year old interface still intact despite numerous delays. Wow, what a waste of everyones time yet again.

Tivo IMO is going the way of the dinosaur, unless they drastically change their thinking.

The Virgin media Tivo in the UK looks pretty nice, however that is the UK. Doesn't do us any good over on this side of the world.

I agree with everything you said , i think moxi will pick up where tivo left off . I dont give tivo more then 4 more years. The premiere is a disaster.
GTFan
join:2004-12-03
Austell, GA

GTFan

Member

I think the Moxi will be discontinued within a year. Arris bought Digeo for the tech, not the product, IMO.

The Premiere works fine if you don't use the half-baked HD UI, btw, and it's very fast doing transfers between Premieres or a PC.

But Tivo is definitely asleep at the wheel, and I can't figure out why. It's not like they don't have the money and are going to get a lot more soon from the Dish lawsuit.

camper
just visiting this planet
Premium Member
join:2010-03-21
Bethel, CT

camper to CableTool

Premium Member

to CableTool
said by CableTool:

...I cant imaging storing 20 hrs of HD programming let alone 60.

 
Everyone is different. That is one of the reasons why disk drives are sold in a panoply of sizes.
yhp
join:2006-12-27
Philadelphia, PA

yhp to Marcus Carr

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to Marcus Carr

The back of the Spectrum offers component, composite, HDMI, S-video and digital audio out ports,

I don't see any S-Video output on the rear-panel pic. Just me?
yhp

yhp to CableTool

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to CableTool

If I have to shift 60 hours of programming at any given time I might need to re-evaluate my entire life.

Maybe, maybe not. But you'd definitely have to re-evaluate Comcast as your TV provider.
ComcastTech
join:2008-05-31

ComcastTech to yhp

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to yhp
god forbid
yhp
join:2006-12-27
Philadelphia, PA

yhp

Member

Why "god forbid"?

I use S-Video out on the DCX3400 to record to my off-the-shelf standard-def DVD recorder. (I recognize the shortcomings, but it has more pros than cons for me, and Comcast does not offer disc-burning DVRs.).

I need an alternate (non-HDMI) output to my TV to use closed-captioning in something besides the completely and insanely unacceptable fashion in which Comcast has implemented it on their Motorola boxes. A working S-Vid out adds another option for me.

For users whose screens lack HDMI-in or component-in (and given the fact that they are restricted by Comcast from using their tuners) S-Video offers a noticeable quality improvement over composite.

Not really sure what the problem is. If it's beneath you, don't use it.

THZNDUP
Deorum Offensa Diis Curae
Premium Member
join:2003-09-18
Lard

THZNDUP to yhp

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to yhp
said by yhp:

The back of the Spectrum offers component, composite, HDMI, S-video and digital audio out ports,

I don't see any S-Video output on the rear-panel pic. Just me?

Not unless we're both not seeing the same thing........ or something like that.

Left to right: cable in, 1394, component video, audio out/digital audio, HDMI out/in, cablecard/USB, eSATA, ethernet, power. Nope, didn't see composite or S-Video anywhere. Must'a been those pesky red/white RCA connectors looking for a yellow one.........

I wonder how many will be active, working, and supported.

mikedz4
join:2003-04-14
Weirton, WV

mikedz4 to Marcus Carr

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when is this thing going to be released? will it be released this year, hopefully before summer.