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Lifeware's LMS-810 Is the Baddest Media Centre PC Money Can Buy
Posted by John Mahoney at 7:42 AM on September 5, 2008
In a show full of ultra high-end home theatre installations, Lifeware's LMS-810 Media Centre piece still manages to be a standout. Taking what they came with last year and doubling it, Lifeware has crammed eight CableCARD tuners (two on board and six more in the external Lifetuner box on top) into a dual Intel Quad Core, 12TB RAID 5 box that can stream out to ten Media Extenders (here, Xbox 360s driving Samsung LCDs). The box can record from all eight of its HD streams while streaming to all 10 Extenders at once, so if you've been wondering what to do with your home's 8 spare digital cable feeds, now you know. No price yet for a pre-Christmas release, but last year's model with half as many CableCARDs was US$15k.
Denver, CO - CEDIA EXPO 2008 - September 4 - 7, 2008 - Booth #410 - When you take the best possible options for high definition entertainment and combine them into one seriously powerful media server, you're going to need a new name for the experience you create. Life|ware™, makers of whole home automation and entertainment solutions, have done just that, unveiling a new "High Density Television™" initiative that brings in more high definition entertainment and distributes it around the home more effectively than ever before.
"High Density TV reinvents how we will move and/or view high definition entertainment around the home," said Seale Moorer, Life|ware's Chief Executive Officer. "This is the first solution to provide a whole house entertainment server that provides unparalleled capability in terms of HDTV tuners, HDTV streaming and Digital Media management for consumers."
Life|media™ 810: 8 TV tuners, 10 Extenders, 12 TB of Storage
Several new Life|media units highlight the effort, headed by the company's new Life|media LMS-810, which has 8 HDTV CableCARD™ tuners and can support up to 10 Media Centre Extender devices."The 810 is a very powerful Media Server," said Moorer. "It deftly handles the high-definition feeds from eight CableCARD tuners and provides HD streaming to ten extenders over the existing home network."
The 810 provides an incredible 12 terabytes of RAID 5 storage which provide the disk space for a huge digital library of recorded TV, movies, music, photos and videos."The Life|media LMS 810 is the centerpiece of a digital entertainment solution as we all envision it," said Pat King, senior vice president of Seagate's Consumer Solution Division. "Seagate's Pipeline HD hard drives are designed specifically for this type of scenario. With HD video optimization, exceptionally quiet acoustics and power management, Pipeline HD drives enable the LMS 810 to provide a reliable way to enjoy digital entertainment."
Life|tuner™ provides more video options
Also being unveiled at CEDIA is the Life|tuner series of HDTV CableCARD tuner devices that work with Life|ware's Life|media media servers, allowing the addition of up to six additional HDTV tuners to the Life|media experience."Life|tuner is another product that makes life easier for our dealers," said Moorer. "Obviously, TV tuners themselves are nothing new, but this product allows the easy addition of two, four or six CableCARD tuners to our Life|media servers."
Life|media media servers feature two CableCARD TV tuners. By adding the six-tuner Life|tuner unit to a high-end Life|media, a consumer has a remarkable 8-tuner DVR solution.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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urbanturban666
Posted 7:57 AM 5/9/08
youd need a pretty ADD infested family before you got one of theses...
urbanturban666
ripfire
Posted 8:59 AM 5/9/08
8 cable feeds? Couldn't you just split the signal 8 ways?
ripfire
dmexs
Posted 9:43 AM 5/9/08
I think the point is that it can tune to and record 8 different programs simultaneously. To do this it requires more than one tuner. I could be wrong though..
dmexs
ripfire
Posted 10:01 AM 5/9/08
@dmexs: I mean split the cable 8 ways to 8 tuners.
ripfire
fogmaster
Posted 10:46 AM 5/9/08
@ripfire: I think thats what htey are doing... However since this is HD, it probably makes the device much faster relying on the tuners for more even distribution of work
fogmaster
burnsds
Posted 11:02 AM 5/9/08
Doesn't say anything about how they plan to address folks who think cable TV sucks. I have not used cable television in a decade, except for my Internet modem. I use DirecTV and over-the air antennas for all of my HD program feeds, hundreds of them, and digital sound. If I could find a way to record and library all of my movies into an HD RAID library or save and burn them to Blu-Ray or DVD, without losing them I would buy this setup tomorrow. I have a great Pioneer Elite Kuro 60" TV and receiver, and I lost most of my DVR movies when my DTV DVR crapped out and I shipped it back to DTV for a new one. I need a system that records in HD, stores in HD, and lets me play it back on my televisions, Slingbox, and iPods. Any suggestions - money is not an issue.
burnsds
theEnemy
Posted 12:05 PM 5/9/08
lol, Goodluck with those 360's.
They should have just put PS3s in it.
theEnemy
commentotron
Posted 6:05 PM 5/9/08
I have a dual tuner cablecard setup with MCE. Activating cablecards is a huge PITA. The cable guys make it as convoluted as you can imagine. You need three different numbers for each card and device pair. One of the numbers (serial number) is printed on the card, and not displayed via the UI. The other two are in the UI (host ID and data ID) Figuring out which SN goes with the each host and data ID pair means you have to connect the tuners one at a time and write it all down. Then call comcast (in my case) and read them all of them.
I don't blame MSFT for this. I blame CableLabs who cooked up this bogus consumer hostile joke of an authentication system. The need to "pair" the card to the tuner hardware is the cause of this pain. You should just be able to pop authenticated cards into the tuners and have it JUST WORK. The cable operator has the card IDs already, pop the damn cards in and phone in a request to activate them. No numbers and pairing should be needed.
I cannot imagine setting up 8 tuners in this manner.
To burnsds: when you're on digital cable it is all digital. Comcast does not re-compress the local feeds. You cannot say the same for DirecTV and their 2nd generation H.264 downresed versions of the networks already lossy/artifacted broadcast.
theEnemy: why would Microsoft support the PS3 as a media center extender for Vista?
ripfire: Of course they take a single cable and run it through a splitter (amp probably). To the eight digital cable tuners in the monster Media Center box. That Media Center box in turns serves recorded or live TV to the connected extender clients, either xbox 360s or dedicated clients like those from linksys, dlink, samsung or HP. The latter two offer flat panel TVs with extender clients built in or easily bolted on.
commentotron
rcme
Posted 11:48 PM 5/9/08
Wow, $15K for half of what they demoed? That's why Microsoft is keeping CableCard OEM only, they must be getting kickbacks from the OEMs on these ridiculously overpriced Media Center computers.
rcme
UofITom
Posted 12:16 AM 6/9/08
that's a lot of XBox
UofITom
mrAnderson
Posted 4:36 AM 6/9/08
@UofITom: Yeah, $3,990 of XBox. Just imagine trying to find the right controller on your coffee table for each screen.
mrAnderson
Sixdust
Posted 4:27 AM 9/9/08
Do want, but would I need to upgrade my power line for all of these things running?
Sixdust