Reycom to Launch Windows Media Center Set-Top Box in US for $499

Jan 6, 2011 by

Reycom RECReycom, of Aarau Switzerland, is at CES displaying an amazing new box called the REC at Microsoft’s booth. The REC is a set-top box built upon Windows Embedded Standard 7, utilizing Windows 7 Media Center as it’s user interface. Inside it packs an Intel CPU, Nvidia graphics, dual ATSC tuners, hard drive (320GB or 500GB) and optional DVD or Blu-ray. All of this should be available in Q1 2011 in the United States starting at $499. It sounds like the Blu-ray option will cost more, although it was not specified as to how much more it will cost.

The box will be capable of full 1080p video playback, along with Silverlight, Flash, HTML5, YouTube, and DLNA support. Because it is built on Windows 7 Media Center it will be able to display and stream all of your content from other Windows PCs on your home network, giving you access to all of your music, videos, and photos from across your home. You will also be able to connect  XBOX 360s to it as Media Center Extenders, giving you access to this media in other rooms of your house. It will come with an RF remote, but it is also stated that you will be able to control the device via Windows Phone 7.

The two models, the REC 100 and REC 1000 mainly only differ in hard drive capacity (320GB vs 500GB) and optical drives. The REC 100 includes a DVD-RW, while the 1000 includes a Blu-ray drive.

REC 100 Features:

  • Two HDTV ATSC tuner:
  • 14 days EPG
  • Timeshift TV: Pause-TV, Catchup TV
  • Support for HDTV resolution until 1080i/p
  • 320GB harddrive for TV-recordings, your music, pictures or videos
  • Connected TV, Catchup TV: Access to Internet TV content
  • DVD R/W (or blu-ray REC1000)
  • 4 USB
  • Microsoft Xbox360 as Multimedia-Extender
  • DLNA
  • Games
  • Phone 7 or I-Phone as remote
  • RF remote
  • Standby ≈ 1W
  • best quality

Connections:

1x HDMI, 1x DCIN, 1x TV-IN,  1x LAN, 4x USB2.0, 1x Analog Stereo Out, 1x SP/DIF Coaxial Out.

 REC 1000 Features:

  • Two HDTV ATSC tuner:
  • 14 days EPG
  • Timeshift TV: Pause-TV, Catchup TV
  • Support for HDTV resolution until 1080i/p
  • 500GB harddrive for TV-recordings, your music, pictures or videos
  • Connected TV, Catchup TV: Access to Internet TV content
  • blu-ray
  • 4 USB
  • Microsoft Xbox360 as Multimedia-Extender
  • DLNA
  • Games
  • Phone 7 or I-Phone as remote
  • RF remote
  • Standby ≈ 1W
  • best quality

Connections:

1x HDMI, 1x DCIN, 1x TV-IN,  1x LAN, 4x USB2.0, 1x Analog Stereo Out, 1x SP/DIF Coaxial Out.

Source: Press Site, Press Release (pdf)

Related Posts

Tags

Share This

  • Jrandeck

    It looks like a cool box, but I hope a good chunk of that $500/box is going toward marketing or it will never catch on.

    Oh, and cablecard would certainly help its cause…

  • http://twitter.com/attilag Attila

    CableCard support is missing from Embedded, clearly a fail from Microsoft, regardless of the reason. I would like to see larger harddrives and at least a 3rd tuner (possible a 4th). I’m pretty sure they could have fitted them in. Otherwise, it looks really nice.
    But what is an I-Phone? An iPhone probably? I personally haven’t seen anything about that in the press release, just WP7.

  • http://twitter.com/usacomp2k3 AJ Peck

    Can’t drop the tuners? I like the HD Homerun.

  • Anonymous

    Attila, Embedded does support CableCARD now. This particular manufacturer just choose not to implement it.

  • Anonymous

    Yeah, CableCARD was added in SP1 if I’m not mistaken, which just came out recently. I think I should try out the demo in a VM and see for myself.

  • http://twitter.com/attilag Attila

    Yep, I realized it later yesterday that SP1 has it (as SikSlayer wrote). I just never heard of that. Still, w/o CC support in this box and only 2 tuners… meh. Now, the Gateway box with InfiniTV 6, hm… Although I think it looks a bit ugly but still very impressive.

  • http://twitter.com/attilag Attila

    Actually, the Gateway box would make me think about subscribing to FiOS TV… I don’t need 7MC to play back my local or internet content (see the last standalone HTPCentric episode :) ). But: if it could record to whatever external drive and I could use my Xbox 360 as extender, man, that would be awesome. I also wouldn’t have to worry about a HDMI switch as I don’t have a free HDMI input anymore.

  • http://www.r4carteds.com Carte dsi

    full 1080p video playback make me fun, hope can support more, will like more.

  • http://www.r4carteds.com Carte dsi

    full 1080p video playback make me fun, hope can support more, will like more.

  • http://viettelonline.com USB 3G

    Well, interesting post, thanks!

  • http://www.best-registrycleaner.net Best Registry Cleaner

    It looks like a cool box, love it.

  • http://www.findprefab.com Panelized Homes Houses

    This is a cool box. Thanks for sharing with us.

  • http://thedigitalmediazone.com/2012/01/10/reycom-to-release-media-center-set-top-box-in-us/ Reycom to Release Media Center Set-top-box in US | The Digital Media Zone

    [...] is a company that we heard from, and wrote about, last year at CES. They displayed a set-top-box DVR built on Windows Embedded Standard 7 utilizing [...]