Scientific Atlanta Profit Halved
I am a Rogers Cable customer.
As such, if I want a PVR that’ll record digital and HD stations, I have one option: Scientific Atlanta. Rogers sells Scientific Atlanta PVRs as their PVR solution. So I have one.
I like it. A lot. My wife Allison likes it. A lot.
My ex-neighbour just bought one. He likes it. A lot. And his wife. (You figure out which way I meant that.)
These things are just so cool. Of course, there’s room for improvement. But it’s so much better than a VCR that I’m not complaining (much).
It seems like Scientific Atlanta brought in $34.5 million in profit this last quarter, versus $70.2 million last year.
Oh pooh. I hope this doesn’t mean that they’ll stop updating my software.
Check out our new sister blog on Home Theater, HTBlog.net
August 14th, 2005 at 11:35 pm
You can record HD, but how can you archive what you record? The recordings are saved so that they can only be played by your SA box. When you change boxes (due to upgrade or breakdown) you lose your recordings.
August 15th, 2005 at 8:03 am
For me it’s not an issue. I don’t care much for archiving. I used to tape a lot of shows because I thought I’d watch them again. One day I realized that I never watch those old tapes, so I stopped taping things. Temporary storage like a PVR is just fine for me.
August 20th, 2005 at 2:15 am
I think archiving is extremely important. I’d love to be able to save mpegs of boxing matches and then go back and watch a fighter’s career after 20 years. If I could archive these fights on dvd or on my computer in an inexpensive way, I’m sure that I would go back later to see the fights, particularly if I knew a fighter was scheduled to perform. Of course it’s not just about boxing, there is a lot of content that consumers should be able to store permanently. Whether it’s a game show that a family member is on or a news story about a company that you own, the ability to transfer and store this data is going to be particularly important. Currently, you can use Media Center to archive tv and tivo has some non hdtv dvd burning units, but as HDTV becomes the norm, it will be important that consumers be given options to store this content, even if this means paying extra for it.
August 20th, 2005 at 12:03 pm
I’m not saying that HD PVRs shouldn’t have a permanent storage solution available, I’m just saying I wouldn’t use it. There actually is an option - the Firewire output. That’s how you record HD digital programming. Unfortunately, not many people support it.