Boxee may have abandoned the market to secure their survival, but Echostar & Channel Master are teaming up once again to tap the over-the-air television crowd with a new line of retail DVR. According to a FCC filing (embedded below), the two Channel Master K77 models “combine access to broadcast programming with over-the-top and DVR functionalities.” Both units are slated to include 16GB of Flash storage, presumably to house the OS and any potential OTT apps, with DVR storage handled via an integrated 320GB hard drive (in the higher end SKU) or added via USB storage by end users. Previously, the two companies collaborated on the DTVPal DVR – which seemed to enjoy a decent amount of buzz and interest. More recently, Channel Master has been pushing an Entone-powered OTA DVR… but may not be pleased with the results given their rekindled relationship with Echostar. We firmly believe there’s an audience for this sort of product and are looking forward to what Echostar brings to the table. Related, Simple.TV, with a new line of funding, is likely also preparing an updated OTT/OTA DVR. Combined with TiVo’s incoming 4-tuner Series 5 and Aereo’s contested cloud-based approach, options are certainly heating up for cord cutters.
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Wow, that's cool. I'm on an old TiVo HD, and trying to decide what's next. Right now I'm waiting until Aereo gets into my area (MSP), or TiVo comes out with something a bit more bundled. I totally agree though, that there really is a market for something like this. Especially if they can keep the price down. Simple.TV had a lot of potential, but I think one tuner per box, with having to buy one hard drive per box... kinda killed it.
My series 3 Tivo is getting long in the tooth and since I got rid of cable I have been watching for options to replace it with a DVR that has OTA tuners. I hope to see something that gets good reviews sowing up on the scene.
Optimistic for good reviews!