Cabot’s pan-European DTR solution (Aurora XT) launched on Vestel twin tuner DTR
Sep 09, 2006
Vestel, Europe’s largest TV manufacturer, has selected Cabot’s pan-European DVB middleware solution, Aurora XT, which includes an advanced Digital Television Recorder (DTR) feature set, to deliver the next generation of rich twin-tuner DTR functionality to its customers.
“Vestel were delighted to launch our first DTR under multiple brands this summer,” commented Ihsaner Alkim, Chief Technology Officer at Vestel Group. “We are anticipating mass market penetration as the appeal of DTRs looks set to increase even further.”
Extremely high levels of consumer satisfaction make DTR functionality an attractive prospect for manufacturers battling it out in the price sensitive STB market: 94% of consumers say a DTR has dramatically increased their satisfaction with TV viewing ; consumer returns for DTRs are much lower than for standard STBs, at 6% compared to 24%; and DTR products can command much higher prices, at around £150, for a marginal increase in BOM (Bill of Materials) costs.
Cabot’s enhanced twin tuner DTR solution represents a significant opportunity for manufacturers wishing to gain an advantage in the escalating European twin tuner DTR market by bringing products to market quickly, while keeping in-house development costs down. Cabot’s integrated DTR reference application is easily customisable and offers an advanced feature set which includes:
- Watch one, record two functionality
- EPG (Electronic Programme Guide) based recording with advanced features enabling repeat recording with a daily/weekly occurrence, as well as EPG search
- Full trick mode support
- Live pause with user controlled time limit
- Recording status tracking including last viewed, resume from live TV
- Automatic deletion of recordings based on age, size, and viewed status (user selectable)
- VCR/DVD-R archive feature, including user defined chaptering
- Recording conflict resolution system with early start/late finish buffers and automatic trimming to ensure that the whole programme is recorded
Bob Lamb, Managing Director of Cabot Communications, commented, “The availability of twin tuner DTRs will create a massive opportunity for retailers and allow Freeview viewers to fully appreciate the benefits of digital TV. Once again Cabot is demonstrating its commitment to the digital TV revolution by reducing development costs for manufacturers.”
Cabot’s Aurora XT is a highly scalable DTR solution with unique plug-in architecture and an advanced DVB core capable of supporting multiple tuners and video output destinations. Fully MHEG 1.06 compliant, Aurora XT provides a single stack for pan-European deployment, supporting multiple country-specific requirements such as parental controls, genre ratings and scanning frequencies. Aurora XT has been integrated onto DTR capable platforms from ST, Fujitsu and Toshiba and is launching now on products from Goodmans, Digihome and Daewoo, among others.
