Verizon Communications is unveiling a new digital-video recorder that can serve up three simultaneous streams of video, as well as photos and music, to televisions throughout the home.
The new Home Media DVR, available to Verizon FiOS TV customers this week, will allow customers to set up a home media network with the Motorola QIP6416 DVR set-top box serving as the hub and standard-definition Motorola QIP2500 set-tops as the remote terminals attached to secondary television sets.
Verizon is offering the multiroom DVR service for $19.95 monthly plus $3.95 per month for each added standard-definition box to link to the secondary TV sets.
Media Manager software included with the box can draw photos from the customer’s PC and display them via the TV sets. A beta version of an application allowing them to play music stored on a home computer via TV sets also is being offered, with plans to release a final version later this year.
Verizon also plans to update the service to support more simultaneous video streams that the hub DVR box can serve.
“Home Media DVR, with its combination of services, is one of the most powerful and convenient DVRs available,” Verizon senior vice president of video solutions Marilyn O’Connell said. “It breaks through technology barriers and living-room walls to let customers enjoy TV on their own terms throughout the home. It’s another way that Verizon innovation is changing the way customers watch TV.”
The whole-home DVR service follows on the heels of FiOS TV Widgets, a set of interactive features introduced in June that add local-weather and traffic-information tickers on the bottom of the TV screen.
