A new personal video recorder (PVR) that allows users to record both free to air TV and Foxtel in high definition has been launched by the Digital Products Group the maker of the Beyonwiz PVR.
The new Beyonwiz DP-P2 comes with a 320 GB HDD which is double the capacity of the TiVo offering also allows users to pause and rewind live HDTV and record over 30hrs in HD or 80Hrs in SD. It also has the Ice TV electronic program guide which for almost 18 months Channel Nine has been trying to noble because it allows users to eliminate free to air TV advertising.
A new line input capability allows users to connect almost any AV device including their Foxtel iQ or iQ HD as well as a Tivo unit and record to the DP-P2’s internal HDD. The benefit of this say DPG is that when a viewer is using their PayTV service via the Beyonwiz “Line Input” the Beyonwiz will automatically hold a Buffer of up to 2 hours so you can Pause and Rewind Live PayTV.
The Beyonwiz DP-P2 also doubles up the amount of storage available allowing users to offline storage to the Beyonwiz. Users can also connect the DP-P2 to their home computer network and playback movies, pictures and music directly from their PC, External HDD or from a variety of supported memory cards. If a user owns more than one Beyonwiz unit they can even playback recordings from one unit to another, so if you record a program in the Lounge Room on your first Beyonwiz you can play it back in the Bedroom on your second.
Digital Products Group General Manager Jai Kemp said ” I have been co-developing and importing STB and PVR’s for almost 10 years now, and the number 1 question that a consumer asks when enquiring about one of our products is whether it can record Pay TV to the HDD as well as FTA TV, well now they can”
” The reason that PVR manufactures have not been able to implement this feature in the past is that it is almost technically impossible to achieve using the current PVR chip-sets. We have developed a new Chipset and a digital encoder that allows us to do this”.
The Beyonwiz DP-P2 is “available now” and has a RRP of $999.