Taped shows in six rooms - new from Telus

[Jack Bennest]

Can some techy type explain this one to me why do I want to play back the show in six different rooms - what happened to family theatre?

Telus will continue to invest in its broadband network cross the province to deliver advanced internet services and high definition digital Telus TV, including an enhanced version of Telus TV powered by Microsoft Mediaroom which allows customers to use a single personal video recorder


to record and play back shows on up to six home televisions, the company said in a news release.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Telus+boosting+broadband+reach/2768705/story.html

[jon]

The Six capability is more than just the ability to feed TVs in 6 rooms. It also allows recording a different channel than you are watching, or recording overlapping programming with the TV turned off, assuming you have two video recorders.

The typical "Set Top Box" has eliminated the flexibility we used to have with a TV antenna on the roof, analogue cable, or TVs with their own antennas built-in. Whether it is satellite, digital cable or IPTV (like TELUS TV), you needed multiple set top boxes, or a set top box with multiple "receivers" built-in, if you wanted to watch or record more than one channel at once.

As for everybody in the same dwelling watching the same thing, what about the penchant of many to watch multi-hour sporting events? And I don't mean the Olympics. They can't expect everyone else to share their interest. So, what are those disinterested folks supposed to do? Listen to the Radio, perhaps missing their favourite TV show while "the game" goes into Overtime?