The Interact-TV Telly is a commercial, open PVR. The device is built on standard PC components, as is the TiVo, but unlike TiVo, the Telly is wide-open to user modification. Adding hard-drives, swapping cards or the motherboard, installing new software and other warranty-voiding no-nos are encouraged by Interact-TV. My TiVo has started to crash a lot lately and my understanding is that the newer TiVo models are even harder to do unauthorized upgrades on at home than the old ones were. Maybe it's time to upgrade to something DRM-free.
"We wanted a box that could grow, that would not be locked down with storage or any particular technology," said Interact-TV CEO Ken Fuhrman.
The Telly automatically records TV shows, and can pause and rewind live TV. Programming information is provided over the Net through a free subscription service.
The Telly also plays music and displays photos. Thanks to a built-in CD-RW/DVD drive, it can rip and burn CDs, and play DVDs. The company said DVD burning will be added in the near future. Consumers will be able to buy and install their own DVD-burning equipment, and the necessary software will automatically be pushed to the device using the Net.
