It’s been some time since TiVo’s had some competition in the retail DVR appliance space. And Ceton looked poised to join the fray this year. The Ceton Q DVR was expected to arrive in 2012 containing a whopping six tuners, powered by a single CableCARD, two terabytes of storage, and a Blu-ray drive. Ceton has announced upcoming Holiday availability of the Echo Windows Media Center extender, with benefits, yet they’re withholding further details on the Q until September… suggesting to me that we’re no longer on track for release this year. In terms of divining pricing, with the tuner-less Ceton Echo launching at $179, I’d say we’re easily looking at a $400 product – with $600 being even more realistic for a small company. But, with Microsoft seemingly content to let Media Center atrophy and die, I’m not sure how much I’d be willing to invest on a solution based on that platform.
The day it comes out is the day that there is an injunction barring its sale. Copying Tivo’s name is a stupid move. While the Premiere Q isn’t a retail device it is still a DVR. It wouldn’t fly.
And don’t forget the Nexus Q… which I still haven’t gotten around to bashing (although it’s not a DVR).
They said the q was still on track for a 2012 release. We’ll see.
This is really disappointing. This product seemed to hold a lot of promise, but as the year progresses it does seem likely they’re having some problems getting it out. Which makes one wonder how much they got from Microsoft and how much they had to write from scratch. And if they had a lot to write from scratch, I’m not sure its a given they’ll get this done…
As you say, given Microsoft’s recent moves I’m quite worried about the long term viability of this platform.
BTW, I think you mean “poised” not “posed”.
Glenn, yes – thank you. Wish I had time for more writing… and more spell check. Although I could have still missed it, who knows.
If they’re writing more themselves, it’s a bit of a double edged sword — it’ll be a custom, unique experience maybe less reliant on WMC even if built on another embedded Windows products (as say the SlingCatcher was), but it’ll be harder to do well and certain more time consuming. If they’re relying more on WMC, well, as I said I don’t have a lot of faith in that platform lingering. Of course, they could start with WMC underpinnings and then rewrite over time. Given how long they’ve been at it, I’d say they’ve got good investment… but it certainly isn’t bottomless.
Ben, Interesting – good intel and I hope it comes to pass. But I’m obviously doubtful, based on speculation, and also thinking Boxee with OTA DVR capabilities might be a more marketable product.
Is there really enough demand for another retail CableCARD DVR? There’s a reason TiVo is the last man standing, and even there retail is now a secondary business using hardware designed for the MSO market. Retail is the boutique market where TiVo can show off what they can do without MSO limitations – like Google’s Nexus products. Retail is the ‘raw’ experience before it gets ‘skinned’ for MSOs.
@MegaZone- I think its relatively clear the Q and the Echo would be niche products. But, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be profitable. SageTV was able to stay in business for about 10 years, and I suspect it was profitable until the very end- the developers just got an offer from Google that they couldn’t refuse. Ceton ought to be able to find a bigger market than that.
Ceton also has inroads into the commercial market too. So who knows maybe their plan is to also get it to work with cable companies directly instead of just at retail.
As for the platform itself. Assuming they can push bug fixes for the underlying system, the platform can’t be any worse then Tivo’s even if it remains upon Win7 embedded. I mean Tivo has had what, 2 and a half years, plus whatever time they took before they released and they still haven’t completed the UI. So at least Ceton can start out with a whole home DVR that has a completed UI.
Still, I am disappointed by the time table of it all. Was hoping for a fall release and now we are looking at a late 2012, possibly 2013 release.
After Moxi dropped out of retail I figured we’d be stuck with TiVo forever (which isn’t too bad). The Ceton Q seems great but I wouldn’t be surprised if its one of those situations where the software engineering work takes twice as long as expected.
Competition is great for everyone. Ceton seems like ‘the little company that could’. I wish them luck, and plan to buy one to supplement my TiVO (really, how much do 6 TiVo tuners cost? – Yikes! )
As far as trademarks go, doesn’t the 007 franchise own the rights to ‘Q’.
Ceton has shown that they have talented engineers and software developers with the rock solid CableCard tuners they have created. Let’s hope that Ceton works with Microsoft, maybe even take over development of the MCE fork, and keep it going. I am a SageTV user now, but I am likely going to jump to MCE as soon as the Ceton products start shipping.
Since Microsoft seems to be on a be a hardware company kick recently, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad thing for them to acquire Ceton and use them as a dedicated team for the WMC product line, but then to expand that to a more “complete” solution with the necessary hardware to make it more mainstream friendly. Also, integrating the tuning into the forthcoming Smart Glass would be pretty interesting too.
I hope that does not happen the same way Google “acquired” SageTV and seems to have all but killed it.
I agree Ceton has been fighting the good fight… but, like Megazone, suspect CableCARD demand is limited and there must be more fertile markets than retail digital cable products. :/
KenP,
I too hope that wouldn’t happen, but I think this would be a bit different as Ceton makes a product that effectively compliments Microsoft’s offering where Sage made a product that competed with Google’s TV plans. Basically, there would be no reason to buy them to just kill the product, unless of course MS is taking drastic measures to ensure the death of WMC.
I sure hope not. Now that someone is finally making the dvr/streamer/photo viewer I’ve been dreaming about: An beautiful, reliable and easy to use SageTV with cablecard. If it doesn’t happen, I’ll fall back to Tivo and GoogleTV
Why would 7MC machines suddenly not be viable?
Even if MS stops offering guide data you can buy it for your whole household for $25/year from Schedules Direct (much cheaper than what Tivo charges)
There will still be plenty of computers w/ 7MC sold for awhile longer.
Ceton is going after commercial markets? Like what? Selling WMC thru Comcast? You’re kidding right? TiVo hasn’t been able to do that. I suppose Ceton might find some oddball small cable co someplace that would resell their product, and given the potential size of the retail WMC market that might still be interesting to them, but its still going to be a tiny market. I don’t see it.
Bill in NC–I agree there’s nothing wrong with 7MC today, but the world moves on eventually. Seems like a fine product to bet on for a number of years even, but it does feel like eventually there will be a problem. Not sure if its 5 years or 10, but at some point the fact that Microsoft is no longer developing MC will become an issue. If Ceton is doing enough of their own development, maybe they’ll be fine. Or not.
Maybe the home gateway concept catches on and they need undepinnings for the new DRM required to support that. Maybe a new codec takes hold. Or a whole home control scheme. Or cable cards get replaced with something else. Or something I just can’t forsee… It’ll happen eventually, the question is just when.
Until then, just keep enjoying WMC. We still have years left.
Wow, the first new Windows Media Center extender since 2007? I am anxious to see it. But curious what will happen since Microsoft is letting WMC die off.