Pace Home Content Sharing

This thread is for the discussion of the Pace Home Content Sharing (HCS) product. HCS enables you to have a diskless, full dual tuner solution for every STB client in your home and also share/view recorded content on any client.

The recordings are stored on a NAS (aka Jayhawk) and can be accessed by any client on the network.

Background/Press Releases:

• HCS Overview
• Cable Companies Launching HCS

Articles on HCS:

• Engadget: Pace and Rovi work together to make a standard set-top a true multi-room DVR
• CED Pace serves up multi-room DVR for cable operators

Firmware Release Notes:

• DC900X NAS (Jayhawk)
  
• DC700X (aka Apache) client

Online manuals:

• DC900X NAS (Jayhawk) :
• DC700X (aka Apache) client

Online Advertising/Promos:

Sunflower Multi-Room DVR

FAQ:

1. How are clients connected to the NAS?

Either Ethernet (GigE if more than one client) or MoCA 1.1 (RF).

2. How many simultaneous streams are supported by the NAS in the initial release?

Up to 9 full-bitrate MPEG-2 HD streams (six recording and three playback).


3. Does Jayhawk support eSATA drives?

eSATA support is not available in the initial release. It will be added in a future maintenance release.

I will be updating the initial post as time permits with FAQs, docs, release notes etc.


The same revision of TV Guide is used in both HCS and non-HCS firmware releases. We've added a new screen where you can see/play/manage/delete all of the recordings on the Network but there's no new UI to learn.

The system currently supports up to three fully functional dual tuner DVR clients. If you choose Ethernet, a GigE switch is a requirement.


Can't get into too much technical detail right now until the initial press releases/announces are complete. Hope you understand.

I will answer both of your questions in detail in the future though.

You'll be happy to hear that the NAS is a uPNP server.

As to the specifics of your other requests, I will answer, just give me some time.

There is an eSATA port on the server (DC900X). The first software release does not support eSATA but a follow-on release will offer eSATA support as mentioned in the press release. Since you'll be able to attach any HDD you want, can you explain why you think you can't add your own storage?


Please explain, what functionality do you believe will be intentionally crippled?


As witnessed by customer statements/testimonials in the press releases in the first post, cable companies that are our customers are extremely enthused about this solution. Reaction to the product at SCTE also has been amazing.

Judging from the PMs I've been receiving, AVS customers are extremely exited about it also. In addition, I'm in close contact with numerous people that have trialed the solution and they indicate they couldn't live without it.

Why do you believe MSOs will not be interested in this solution?


Here are some highlights of things that can only be done with this solution:

• Ability to view/play/delete content recorded by any client in the home.
• Ability to pause playback in one room and resume in another room.
• MoCA 1.1 support.
• IP streaming in the home (either MoCA or Ethernet--you are not locked into either transport).
• Don't need to be a Ph. D to use it. Each client is a fully-functional DVR that can record two MPEG-2 HD streams and play an MPEG-2 HD stream. If you know how to use a standalone DVR, you know how to use this. Other solutions have playback only clients and a convoluted playback matrices once clients start streaming HD content.
• Ability to see exactly what other clients are playing/recording (I'll be posting screen shots at some point).
• Don't have to worry about clients being limited by the number of tuners on the server.
• Don't have to worry about the kids stealing a tuner on the server away to record Barney while you're watching the last two minutes of a football game (i.e. the clients are not limited by the availability of tuners on the server).

Please re-read the Engadget article. They got to play with the system at the show and said this:

There aren't many times where we're caught off guard by a new product enough to think, why didn't we think of that, but this is one of them. The set-top-box manufacture, Pace, has just launched one of the coolest multi-room DVR solutions we've ever heard of.

Sounds pretty progressive to me.

The tuner sharing feature that you outline above is not available in the first release. Remember, the same version of TV Guide is used in the HCS solution and that is limited to two tuners per client.

What you do get is a fully functional dual-tuner DVR in each client (i.e. you shouldn't be losing any functionality).

The first release supports Apache clients which have been available for quite a while now and are documented in the Pace MPEG-4 boxes thread. How they are used are described in the Engadget article. The reason for Apache as opposed to the other STBs you outlined is it ships without an HDD so its more cost effective for the cable provider.

All of the MSOs (other than Comcast) that supply Pace boxes have enabled the eSATA port for years. The eSATA issue are/were due to problems with MOT firmware/TV Guide and not an MSO issue.


For the most part, you are right. Software is the big differentiator. But the MoCA and Ethernet capabilities are new and different from those you outline above.


Are you talking about Motorola boxes or Pace boxes? Pace boxes have had some of those features enabled at a variety of MSOs. Unfortunately, I can't get into specifics about any MSO's adoption rates of new technology (or MSOs in general). Those on the thread can feel free to continue the discussion, but its an area I can't comment on publicly other than to say that they are very excited about HCS and have deployed other technologies Pace has introduced in the past that were not available in other STB providers.

If you read carefully through my post (and other posts of mine) you may find some hints as to reasons for the issues you outlined above.

The first post in this thread has been updated with links to the Jayhawk and Apache release notes.

And this is what other testers have reported. Since its the same version of TV guide, this type of behavior should be unchanged.

Sorry, can't comment on this in a public forum or via PM.

Not at the current time. The priority has been on diskless clients given the lower cost to the cable provider. However, several cable providers have requested it be supported.

FYI,

Updated the first post with a link to Sunflower's HCS comparison web page.

Not in the initial release. I've logged your request (others have requested it also).

This feature is not in the first release. However, this is a popular request and I've logged it.