Vestel introduces PVR integrated TVs for European market

Vestel and Exatel announced today that Vestel started production of new television sets with integrated personal video recorder (PVR) from Exatel. During the past year the companies have collaborated on definition, development and integration of the advanced PVR module inside Vestel's high-end Televisions.

The new televisions extend the traditional TV features to include "Live TV Pause/Play" for time shifted program watching, "Record and Playback" program recording while watching another, and "Fast/Slow Forward/Rewind" for recorded and paused programs.

Exatel's advanced architecture utilizes the latest technologies, including KFIR-II, the Audio/Video MPEG-2 encoder from VisionTech and STi5512, the highly integrated MPEG-2 Decoder from STMicroElectronics. Utilization of these technologies enables most cost-effective implementation of digital video recording/playback features and assures compatibility with Personal, Enhanced and Interactive TV services available from variety of providers.

"Vestel considers Pause-TV module as one of the most important built-in features for its new generation TVs", said Cevat Kumbasar, VP, Global R&D of Vestel. "Our relationship with Exatel is long term, where we intend to meet further customer demands through very close cooperation".

"Availability of Televisions with integrated PVRs signifies a major milestone in the Home Entertainment evolution. PVRs, also known as Home Media Servers (HMS), totally transform the consumer's TV viewing habits, greatly enhancing the entertainment experience through live-pause, instant replays and program personalization", said Israel Bar, co-managing director of Exatel. "Vestel's leadership in Home Entertainment will significantly propel the proliferation of PVR-enabled devices; we are excited about our continued successful collaboration".

Source: Vestel
With contributions by John McKnight, Assistant Editor