# Tivo & Pace Team Up on 6-tuner Gateway



## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

http://www.multichannel.com/article..._Pace_TiVo_Tee_Up_Six_Tuner_Video_Gateway.php

Boston  TiVo and Pace are providing details of their first jointly developed product, the Pace XG1, a six-tuner hybrid QAM/IP video gateway featuring TiVo's user interface to be available to operators in the Americas later this year.

The companies announced their partnership in February 2012 to develop set-tops and gateways. TiVo and Pace expect to follow the XG1 with additional solutions for domestic and international operators.

The Pace XG1 includes six tuners, an integrated DOCSIS 3.0 modem, and at least 500 Gigabytes of on-board storage. It will use TiVo's whole-home capabilities, such as multiroom streaming and support for both traditional set-top boxes and the potential for IP client devices, as well as support for TiVo's mobile and tablet applications.

The gateway runs on Broadcom's BCM7425 dual high-definition, dual-transcoding hybrid gateway set-top box system-on-a-chip that offers 3000 DMIPS (Dhrystone million instructions per second) of processing power. The Pace XG1 will support Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA) 2.0 and includes Broadcom's BCM3383 DOCSIS 3.0 8-by-4 chip for up to 320 Mbps down and 120 Mbps upstream.

"This partnership will make the TiVo experience easily accessible to more cable operators than ever before," David Sandford, vice president and general manager of TiVo's service provider business, said in a statement. "It will provide operators a best-in-class advanced television solution that they can quickly and cost-effectively deploy and will serve as the gateway to a rapidly expanding choice of content across multiple screens through TiVo's whole-home solutions."

Tim O'Loughlin, president of Pace Americas, added, "There is no denying that the current climate for operators is immensely competitive, and we have been hearing more and more frequently from this community that TiVo is a user experience that they want to offer."

U.S. operators currently deploying TiVo offerings to their customers include Charter Communications, DirecTV, Suddenlink Communications, RCN and Grande Communications, and European operators include the U.K.'s Virgin Media and Spain's ONO.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

In a nutshell, this sounds like a Pace box driven by Tivo software, like the Virgin and DTV boxes.

This box has some power to it. More than twice that of the Premiere's chip. MoCA 2.0, DOCSIS 3.0...


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

6 tuners makes sense for a whole house cable solution as one cable card (and tuning adapter if required) can support the 6 tuners. Maybe not so good for stand alone users as this equipment will likely never be sold retail.


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## BlackBetty (Nov 6, 2004)

With the recent change if the elite to XL4 I think it bodes well that we may see an XL6 at retail. Maybe at the old elite price.


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

BlackBetty said:


> With the recent change if the elite to XL4 I think it bodes well that we may see an XL6 at retail.


Doubt it.


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

BlackBetty said:


> With the recent change if the elite to XL4 I think it bodes well that we may see an XL6 at retail. Maybe at the old elite price.


Similar to Dave Zatz, I doubt this very much. Tuning adapters only support 4 tuners.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

davezatz said:


> Doubt it.


Unfortunate since a 6 tuner TiVo is the only product that interests me from today's news.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

It sounds like an expensive box if it ever went to retail. The monthly fees alone from a cable operator will probably be high. And of course since it's aimed at cable operators it has a paltry 500GB hard drive for six tuners which is an insanely low capacity for that many tuners.


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## stlbluesfan74 (May 2, 2012)

Agreed, 500gb is pretty weak. No mention of an OTA tuner either.


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## socrplyr (Jul 19, 2006)

stlbluesfan74 said:


> Agreed, 500gb is pretty weak. No mention of an OTA tuner either.


Why would there be? This is a cable co solution.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

http://www.multichannel.com/blog/BIT_RATE/33325-Cable_Show_2012_TiVmits_Full_Slingbox_ing_from_TiVo_Stream_.php



> Meanwhile, TiVo is working with two specific U.S. MSO customers to develop the six-tuner Pace XG1 gateway; Klugman declined to identify the customers.


Any bets on who the two are?


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

sbiller said:


> http://www.multichannel.com/blog/BIT_RATE/33325-Cable_Show_2012_TiVmits_Full_Slingbox_ing_from_TiVo_Stream_.php
> 
> Any bets on who the two are?


The super safe bets would be RCN and Suddenlink. Although Charter seems to be gaining momentum. And I still think Cox is dead.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

davezatz said:


> The super safe bets would be RCN and Suddenlink. Although Charter seems to be gaining momentum. And I still think Cox is dead.


Agreed. Now that Rutledge is in charge of Charter, he's pushing to eliminate the STB all together similar to these idiotic statements from TWC's CEO,



> Cable set-tops will become extinct, and eventually be replaced by smart TVs and other IP-connected devices such as gaming consoles, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt told attendees at the opening session here at The Cable Show.


TiVo is long overdue to announce a new US MSO deal so I'm guessing there is one deal predicated on this new six-tuner box. We also know that CableOne hasn't announced their new STB plan now that they ditched Echostar.

I still don't think Cox is dead. They could be one of the MSOs as well.


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## MichaelK (Jan 10, 2002)

i was looking at the banner on my elite the other day and literally thought to myself that the font that shows what the 4 tuners are doing in perfectly sized/spaced to add another 2 at the bottom and fit the space perfectly. (probably all the speculation recently of xl2, xl4 would mean xl6 made my mind wander...) So i was guessing they planned at one point to go 6 tuners in the software but this is faster than i thought.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

socrplyr said:


> Similar to Dave Zatz, I doubt this very much. Tuning adapters only support 4 tuners.


Not true. Tuning adapters support up to 6 tuners. In fact Ceton is going to release a 6 tuner retail DVR later this year that will use one CableCARD and one tuning adapter for all 6 tuners. Nothing would prevent TiVo from doing the same except maybe costs. (people expect the Ceton DVR to cost somewhere close to $1K)

Dan


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## magnus (Nov 12, 2004)

Is this something that would work for AT&T Uverse?


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Interesting question. It might in theory. This box enables a lot of theoretical things, including elimination of a tuning adapter and more readily available access to cableco VOD.

But since it's technically a Pace box, geared towards MSO buyers, we might not be able to find out.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

davezatz said:


> The super safe bets would be RCN and Suddenlink. Although Charter seems to be gaining momentum. And I still think Cox is dead.


Well. RCN is ruled out as one of the two MSOs mentioned.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/204709376127275009


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## davezatz (Apr 18, 2002)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> Interesting question. It might in theory. This box enables a lot of theoretical things, including elimination of a tuning adapter (thanks to the DOCSIS chip) and more readily available access to cableco VOD.
> 
> But since it's technically a Pace box, geared towards MSO buyers, we might not be able to find out.


Unless some open(ish) spec is produced, the ability for two way communication doesn't necessarily mean you can actually communicate on any given network... without that operator's assistance. It wouldn't be plug 'n play as things currently stand.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Yes, hence theoretical. I _strongly_ stress theoretical.


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## JosephB (Nov 19, 2010)

magnus said:


> Is this something that would work for AT&T Uverse?


No. Uverse is pure IPTV and is based on a Microsoft platform. This box is QAM/cable, even the IP stuff is picked up via it's internal cable modem. Physically it couldn't connect to Uverse, not to mention the software.


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## drebbe (Apr 11, 2012)

http://www.pace.com/universal/news-events/press-releases/2013/gci-pace-tivo-platform-launch/

Although the first post in this thread summarizes many of the technical specs of the Pace XG1 hardware, it may also be helpful to look here:

http://www.pace.com/Documents/Products/Am/STB/xg1.pdf

For example, one feature of the XG1 that I had overlooked was a removable HDD.


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## SullyND (Dec 30, 2004)

I wonder if it's intended to be user removable, or for easy servicing. Maybe TiVo OS is stored in flash? How does the HDMI input work? Seems like a pretty cool DVR.

It even has a clock!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

SullyND said:


> .............
> 
> It even has a clock!


:down::down::down::down::down:


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

So am I to assume this will be working with TiVo Minis?


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## drebbe (Apr 11, 2012)

atmuscarella said:


> So am I to assume this will be working with TiVo Minis?


Or the (MSO-only) TiVo Previews. Not clear which.

The most important news in this announcement to the larger TiVo community is that TiVo has deployed a version of their software that runs on the Broadcom BCM 7425.


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

innocentfreak said:


> Unfortunate since a 6 tuner TiVo is the only product that interests me from today's news.


Move to Alaska. 

http://www.fiercecable.com/story/gci-deploys-tivo-powered-pace-xg1-gateways/2013-08-12?utm_medium=nl&utm_source=internal

Anyone from Alaska can confirm this and post pics?


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

SullyND said:


> I wonder if it's intended to be user removable, or for easy servicing. Maybe TiVo OS is stored in flash? How does the HDMI input work? Seems like a pretty cool DVR.
> 
> It even has a clock!


I would think that one that use the TiVo software would likely have the TiVo logo on it. Why is everyone so hung-up on having clock?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Johncv said:


> I would think that one that use the TiVo software would likely have the TiVo logo on it. Why is everyone so hung-up on having clock?


For me, I don't like having a clock since just about every device already has a clock. one button press and I can see the timeon my TiVo.
I guess as long as there is a way to turn off the display, I'm not opposed to it though.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

We have a large analog atomic clock hanging behind the TV so I have no need for a clock on any of my devices.


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## Johncv (Jun 11, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> We have a large analog atomic clock hanging behind the TV so I have no need for a clock on any of my devices.


I have the same thing!! :up::up::up: Work great and keep time.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

> An additional 2 QAM demodulators are available for fast channel change to enhance user experience.


Can anybody explain how the extra QAM tuners make channel changing faster? Though one clever thing I can think of would be that you tune the tuners to one ABOVE and one BELOW in your channel list (i.e. not absolute channel #s) from the "current tuner". So then if you hit channel up or down, you simply make that new tuner your "CURRENT" tuner.

Though then channel up/down is now a lot faster than typing in a channel #.... and inconsistency is often worse than slow overall.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

mattack said:


> Can anybody explain how the extra QAM tuners make channel changing faster? Though one clever thing I can think of would be that you tune the tuners to one ABOVE and one BELOW in your channel list (i.e. not absolute channel #s) from the "current tuner". So then if you hit channel up or down, you simply make that new tuner your "CURRENT" tuner.
> 
> Though then channel up/down is now a lot faster than typing in a channel #.... and inconsistency is often worse than slow overall.


Exactly as you describe. The extra QAM tuners tune the channel above and below the current channel. It seems like this would be an issue with CableCARD since CC only support six channel decryption.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

sbiller said:


> Exactly as you describe. The extra QAM tuners tune the channel above and below the current channel. It seems like this would be an issue with CableCARD since CC only support six channel decryption.


So why would you need the channels above and below tuned? Only if someone actually channel surfs. I will guide surf but never channel surf.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

sbiller said:


> Exactly as you describe. The extra QAM tuners tune the channel above and below the current channel. It seems like this would be an issue with CableCARD since CC only support six channel decryption.


Not sure about Motorola, but the Cisco PKM908 CableCARD supports 8 streams.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/video/ps8611/ps8650/ps8651/ol_28628_01.pdf


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

aaronwt said:


> So why would you need the channels above and below tuned? Only if someone actually channel surfs. I will guide surf but never channel surf.


Its probably because even Tivo users use live TV more than they watch recorded programs. The TC survey on that was very enlightening, though I have little clue why folks do that, the fact is, they do.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

jrtroo said:


> Its probably because even Tivo users use live TV more than they watch recorded programs. The TC survey on that was very enlightening, though I have little clue why folks do that, the fact is, they do.


My guess is that some of the time people sit down in front of a TV to mindlessly waste time not because they want to watch a specific show.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

My Sister and her family do that. I have not watched live TV in a couple years, and even then it was because a live news event was happening and I wanted to see what's going on. If I want to waste time and I have nothing recorded I read a book, play on my iPad, play video games, watch a movie, etc... I never waste time watching whatever is on right now.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

JosephB said:


> No. Uverse is pure IPTV and is based on a Microsoft platform. This box is QAM/cable, even the IP stuff is picked up via it's internal cable modem. Physically it couldn't connect to Uverse, not to mention the software.


The Premieres could connect to U-Verse if AT&T let them and put in the right bridges in software (and HPNA to Ethernet for installation). It's all over IP with MPEG-4, both of which would work fine on a TiVo Premiere.

There are still people stuck in 1999 like my dad, who channel surfs and refuses to guide surf like any civilized person would.


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