At the end of this year, Grundig will become the first German manufacturer of consumer electronics to bring a Personal Digital Recorder (PDR) onto the market.
The PDR combines functions of a digital receiver with those of a video recorder. For the first time ever, viewers will be able to cast aside the restrictions imposed by TV station programming and put together the programming they want.
This has become possible thanks to the 20 Gigabyte hard disk which is integrated into the recorder and enables at least ten to twelve hours of recording. This makes owners of a PDR entirely independent of their preferred programmes' start times. It is possible, for instance, to record with the so-called Timeshift function and watch the recording simultaneously, while it is actually shifted in time.
The easy-to-operate electronic programme guide EPG has also been built in. It not only offers an overview of the programmes with a list of contents for all movies as well as other services, but also allows you set a recording simply by clicking the programme you want. You will no longer need to deal with awkward channel or time settings. And it will also save you rewinding, fast forwarding or searching for the beginning of a particular film.
If you wish to select a particular type of programme from the large range of freely receivable digital programmes, such as movies, documentaries or sports programmes, you can have these recorded automatically. And should you want to archive recordings, simply record them onto a standard video cassette, thus freeing up space on your hard disk again.
With its dimensions of 360 millimetres in width, 68 millimetres in height and 260 millimetres in depth, the device, developed by the Axcent Media AG in Paderborn, will hardly take up any space in your living room. The Personal Digital Recorder will be available for less than DM 2,000 by the end of this year. With this Grundig is continuing the product offensive it started in 1999 and set forth earlier this year and is occupying a market which experts believe has a great potential for success.
Internet: www.grundig.de