Removable Hard Drives In Your Next TV?

With the transition of our television signal in the US from analog to digital, it has created a shortage of devices with digital tuners. Specifically, there is currently no set top box that has a digital tuner, and a hard drive. While this elusive, but theoretically much needed combo may be arriving soon (I saw the signs on the shelf for the Philips model at Wal-Mart today for $299, and a related Polaroid unit for $259; supposedly they're both from the same assembly line and just branded differently). I'm sure, due to the lack of competition there will be plenty of interest, at least from enthusiasts, in both of these devices. Speaking for myself, I won't be paying $300 for a VCR/DVDRW with a digital tuner, but a hard drive recorder at that same price point is far more intriguing.

However, while we've all been focusing on the set top box, perhaps the future of recording lies in the set itself. Last month, Hitachi Maxell announced a removable hard disc drive that they called the iV. They are a hard drive in a cartridge with initial capacities at 80 GB for $170, and 160 GB for $300. This is somewhat pricey given current hard drive capacities, but one or two cartridges would likely record quite a bit of content unless the highest quality settings are used. To be sure, this new system is not the only cartridge based removable hard drive around, for example, HP puts one in their media PC's to be able to offload content from the main system hard drive. What makes this system potentially unique is that it is designed to be used with the Hitachi flat panel TV line, in other words, directly with the TV without an intervening box. The above linked to article states:

The Removable Hard Disk Drive iV will be included in select Hitachi Wooo flat-panel TVs, which will feature an iVDR-compatible slot iV pocket.

Devices using iVDR will be used as bridge media to record HD and SD content that can be viewed on a player or in a car, the company said.

So apparently they are looking for an HD style TV recorder based on cartridges to be called iDVR. After looking for some confirmation on this, I found this article, which is translated from Japanese. These translated pages always have to be not taken too literally, but for nothing else but the image, reproduced above, shows clearly the slot in the TV and a cartridge being stuffed into it. It is also from the Hitachi company and the loosely translated text jives with the above analysis and info.

So far, this iDVR appears to be headed for the Japanese market, and short term, not for our shores. However, if this works out over there, I could definitely see this coming stateside in the next year or two. In the end, the recording television just might be moving into the TV itself without any intervening set top box. Hey, if it will eliminate some cables, I'm all for it!

--Jonas