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morisato
join:2008-03-16
Oshawa, ON

morisato

Member

Zazaaen Ip tv?

Curious how many " tuners" are included with this product? for example if i was to get a competing solution i get 3 hd 1 sd tuner with my connection so i can record or watch up to 4 things at a time? whats zazeens limit's?

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

Considering their current STB isn't intended to be a PVR (supported, but optional via external hard disk), it probably isn't overflowing with tuners. They do allow you to buy up to three STBs though.

Canaca
Premium Member
join:2007-03-05
Mississauga, ON

1 edit

Canaca to morisato

Premium Member

to morisato
Each STB costs $75.00. The limit is three right now however once we are out of beta you will be able to order as many as your internet connection can handle. We may still charge a monthly fee for each extra STB. Will depend on the viewing ratios.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz

MVM

said by Canaca:

Each STB costs $75.00. The limit is three right now however once we are out of beta you will be able to order as many as your internet connection can handle. We may still charge a monthly fee for each extra STB. Will depend on the viewing ratios.

You didn't answer the OP's original question :P

How many tuners does the STB have? Basically, if used as a PVR, how many shows can it record simultaneously? Can a user watch channel 10 while simultaneously recording a show on channel 15?

Canaca
Premium Member
join:2007-03-05
Mississauga, ON

4 edits

Canaca

Premium Member

Sorry. It's set to 2. So two recordings and what ever your playing. If your not viewing any channel it can do three. It also depends on the type of storage device. Don't try to use a USB stick or SD card for 2 simultaneous recordings.

WI-FI also affects the count.
LostTheGame
join:2012-11-24
Ottawa, ON

LostTheGame

Member

still on the fence about signing up; do Distributel employees get a deal? *wink*
morisato
join:2008-03-16
Oshawa, ON

morisato to Canaca

Member

to Canaca
said by Canaca:

Sorry. It's set to 2. So two recordings and what ever your playing. If your not viewing any channel it can do three. It also depends on the type of storage device. Don't try to use a USB stick or SD card for 2 simultaneous recordings.

WI-FI also affects the count.

Thanks thats helpful information to have, and your not using a centralized PVR scheme like the incumbents each Box has 2 tuners availible Plus 1 to watch so a total of 3 tuners? all hd?, provided you have the bandwidth to accomplish said feat?
scorpido
Premium Member
join:2009-11-02
Abbotsford, BC

scorpido

Premium Member

Would it even be tuners as its true IP tv? Wouldn't it be as many as your internet connection can handle? Or is it a software set limit?
morisato
join:2008-03-16
Oshawa, ON

morisato

Member

Well Its the easiest way to Define it scorpido, Like on Fibe tv u get 4 tuners 3 hd 1 sd, its also IP tv, and over the same damned dsl connection they just have 2 sessions one ppoe one DHCP to pretend its Different travels thru the same last mile last i checked p:) and only 1 profile is set for the line thus same internet.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to scorpido

MVM

to scorpido
Call them what you will; decoders, tuners, either way you can only handle as many streams as you have physical decoders. No STB does decoding in software (I'm sure there are exceptions).
epsilon3
join:2008-03-29
canada

epsilon3 to Canaca

Member

to Canaca
Hi Acanac Inc

Do you offer the Zazeen TV service on the cable internet on Cogeco area?

Or, do you offer cable internet in Cogeco area?

Thanks,

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone to Guspaz

Premium Member

to Guspaz
said by Guspaz:

Call them what you will; decoders, tuners, either way you can only handle as many streams as you have physical decoders. No STB does decoding in software (I'm sure there are exceptions).

You're thinking about this the wrong way.

It only needs to be able to "decode" one stream, as one can assume this is the maximum number of video sources that the box is able to output. If it has the ability to display different things on different outputs, you would need one decoder for each independent video source as it is sent to a different output, though I doubt that is likely considering the type of hardware we're talking about.

As for "streams" it would be wholly correct to say that you would be limited by the speed of your Internet connection and nothing else. The information being received by the box would be saved to the hard drive in native compressed format, and only decompressed and decoded upon viewing. As a result, decompressing and decoding what is being received by the box and saved to the hard drive is a non-issue as far as box hardware and instead has everything to do with your net connection (or the Ethernet controller in the box, but I digress...)

The whole idea of "tuners" or to think of decoders like tuners in this case is meaningless, because there's no physical channel RF to tune into like there is with a cable DCT and satellite boxes. Cable and satellite PVRs save data directly to the hard drive in the native compressed format, so in those cases you only need one decoder, but you also need as many tuners for each individual stream you're saving.

elwoodblues
Elwood Blues
Premium Member
join:2006-08-30
Somewhere in

elwoodblues to Canaca

Premium Member

to Canaca
said by Canaca:

Sorry. It's set to 2. So two recordings and what ever your playing. If your not viewing any channel it can do three. It also depends on the type of storage device. Don't try to use a USB stick or SD card for 2 simultaneous recordings.

WI-FI also affects the count.

Why? Is it only USB2?

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

Gone

Premium Member

said by elwoodblues:

Why? Is it only USB2?

From a purely technical level, the only limit would be how quickly you can get the data in and how quickly you can save it to a storage device. A USB 2.0 hard drive is still going to be faster than the vast majority (if all) Internet connections in Canada as they top out at about 300-400Mbit/s of usable bandwidth after overhead. We don't have Google Fibre, after all.

Limiting to three separate streams has more to do with what they realistically believe is sufficient bandwidth for a home Internet connection to maintain decent quality plus provide enough free bandwidth for Internet usage.

Guspaz
Guspaz
MVM
join:2001-11-05
Montreal, QC

Guspaz to morisato

MVM

to morisato
Presumably they're decrypting the content when they save it to disk, or at least, not using the same on-disk encryption as they use for the actual broadcast...

Gone
Premium Member
join:2011-01-24
Fort Erie, ON

1 edit

Gone

Premium Member

said by Guspaz:

Presumably they're decrypting the content when they save it to disk, or at least, not using the same on-disk encryption as they use for the actual broadcast...

They would I assume they don't, and the reason they don't is so that you can't take that hard drive out and use it somewhere else like on a computer. The decryption happens upon viewing. There is no need to decrypt when saving to the hard drive only to reencrypt again.

Even if they do, encryption processors are so advanced that it should be a non-issue as far as being able to handle multiple streams in excess of three.