“I’ll see your ability to record 12 shows at once, and raise you three more,” seems to be the message Cablevision Systems is delivering to Verizon Communications following an upgrade that allows customers to record up to 15 shows at once via the cable operator’s network-based DVR.
Cablevision’s product, branded as the “Multi-Room DVR,” previously allowed customers to record 10 shows simultaneously. The upgrades enter play about a week after Verizon launched two new “FiOS Quantum TV” packages that feature souped-up whole-home media servers, including a Premium option that allows customers to record up to a dozen shows at once and provides 2 terabytes of storage – enough to record about 200 hours of HD video.
Cablevision’s upgrade also preempts the new level of DVR competition coming from Verizon, as the telco has so far limited the availably of FiOS Quantum TV to the Dallas, Texas, and Harrisburg, Pa., markets, but plans to extend it to all other FiOS TV markets over the next three months.
Verizon’s Quantum FiOS TV tiers, which supports 1 TB or 2 TB, still has the edge on storage. Cablevision’s network-based DVR product currently offers enough for customers to store up to 300 hours in standard-definition, and 75 hours in HD.
According to Cablevision, the upgraded capabilities were introduced Monday (April 7) and was added automatically to the service, which currently runs on digital set-top boxes (CableCARD devices are not currently compatible with Cablevision’s Multi-Room DVR).
Despite the upgraded recording capabilities, the monthly price for the MSO’s upgraded Multi-Room DVR remains at $12.95 per month. Multi-Room DVR customers also have the ability to manage the DVR at Optimum.net or the Optimum App.
Check this week’s issue of Multichannel News for a deeper look at the pay-TV industry’s recent spate of DVR one-upsmanship (subscription required).
