After launching a high-end, premium whole-home DVR service last year, Time Warner Cable has rolled out its more affordable Whole House DVR service for the first time in its East Region and Carolina systems.
Time Warner Cable’s premium Signature Home service, which costs anywhere from $179.99 to $199.99 per month, made its official debut late last year and includes Whole House DVR, but there are some key differences. Time Warner Cable said the standalone Whole House DVR service cost $19.99 per month with additional equipment fees as needed.
Whole House DVR is available today to Time Warner Cable’s East Coast customers in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York – including New York City – North Carolina and South Carolina.
“Whole House DVR offers our customers flexibility, convenience and enhanced accessibility to recorded programming throughout their homes,” said Mike Munley, president of residential services for Time Warner Cable’s East Region. “Time Warner Cable customers now have the ability to watch programs in any room and can start a program in one room and finish watching in another room, without having to restart the program.”
Whole House DVR uses DVRs and set-top boxes from Motorola, Cisco and Samsung, but while the Signature Home version offers up to 150 hours of HD recording capacity, the standalone Whole House DVR service has capacity to store 75 HD hours. Whole House DVR has a single DVR configuration and records two channels simultaneously, while Signature Home can record up to four channels at the same time.
Both Signature Home and Whole House DVR have been rolled out in areas where Time Warner Cable has upgraded its OCAP Digital Navigator (ODN) guide to ODN 4.02-4. Both services also use MoCA 1.1, which can support up to 16 connected devices in a home.
The Whole House DVR launch seems to be part of Time Warner Cable’s segmentation strategy, with Signature Home positioned as the premium service and the standalone Whole House DVR positioned as the more affordable version of multi-room DVR home networking.