[opendtv] Re: News: Streamlined Cable TV in a Card
- From: Kon Wilms <kon@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 18:56:39 -0800
On Mon, 2005-01-03 at 21:24 -0500, Tom Barry wrote:
> But most of that is software, with no marginal cost to reproduce once
> you've made it. I already allowed for that in my first comment and I'm
> not so sure there is much additional security needed over that of a
> regular STB. But I suppose the broadcast flag robustness tax may add a
> little.
You are making the assumption that the h/w platform has a header and
support for the had drive, that the chassis airflow design can handle
the additional component, and that the PSU can handle the additional
powerload of the added component. And I haven't even hit issues like the
fact that you will have to tool a new faceplate if you want to show hard
drive activity, or that you may need extra onboard flash and ram to
handle buffering to/from disk and storage of additional PVR-only data.
On the software side, its 'just software' if you have things like a MMU,
multithreaded/tasking OS, etc. Most STBs do not.
So you come down to margins. There is little sense in offering a dumbed
down version that people can later upgrade to a full PVR, since you have
to sell at the lowest price point (you have to compete with pricing of
standalone-STBs as your 'user' may not want PVR capability). It is more
logical (from a design and business standpoint) to create two product
lines instead.
Cheers
Kon
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