Verizon Ships Home Media DVR

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software

Verizon has unveiled Home Media DVR to Verizon FiOS TV customers. Verizon's Home Media DVR features a multi-room DVR that enables up to 3 simultaneous viewings of programs recorded by the device without requiring customers to set up a complex home network or buy extra equipment. The recorder is bundled with Media Manager, a new feature that lets customers easily access photos and music from their personal computer and play them on their entertainment center where they look and sound the best. Both functions are made possible by software and technology already built into the FiOS platform on Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises network.

Verizon's multi-room DVR lets customers view recorded programs from any room in the house with a television and set-top box. In the multi-room DVR configuration, Verizon's DVR set-top box (the Motorola QIP6416) functions as the media hub, which records and streams the video, and its standard-definition set-top boxes (the Motorola QIP2500) are the remote terminals. To watch recorded programs on the media hub and up to two remote terminals simultaneously, customers just pull down the menu, click "recorded TV" to find and select their program, and then press "play". The media hub also functions as a dual-tuner DVR on which viewers can watch one program while recording another.

With Media Manager, family and friends can enjoy photos and music on their TVs rather than crowding around a computer to view them on a small screen. Verizon-developed Media Manager software automatically detects photos and music files on the PC and organizes them for presentation on the media hub TV. When customers want to show vacation photos, for example, they select "Media Manager" from the Enhanced TV menu and select the PC where the photos are stored. Customers can also play PC-based digital music files through their TVs and connected entertainment system. Music playback is being released as a beta application, with enhancements slated for release later this year.

Future releases of Home Media DVR will increase the number of set-top boxes that can simultaneously access recorded programs, provide playback of protected content, and permit playback of home videos stored on the PC. FiOS TV provides a broad collection of all-digital programming, two dozen high-definition channels, up to 2.500 video-on-demand titles and more. It is delivered over Verizon's fiber-to-the-premises network to communities in parts of seven states: California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Virginia and Texas. Verizon is adding new cities and states to its FiOS TV network as it obtains local franchises giving it the legal authority to do so. Several independent studies have shown that cable companies respond with lower prices in markets where Verizon offers its highly competitive FiOS TV service.

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