{"id":3503,"date":"2013-09-17T10:20:01","date_gmt":"2013-09-17T14:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.nccomputertech.com\/?p=3503"},"modified":"2013-09-17T10:20:01","modified_gmt":"2013-09-17T14:20:01","slug":"with-30-tuners-and-30-tb-of-storage-snapstream-makes-tivos-look-like-toys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/09\/17\/with-30-tuners-and-30-tb-of-storage-snapstream-makes-tivos-look-like-toys\/","title":{"rendered":"With 30 tuners and 30 TB of storage, SnapStream makes TiVos look like toys"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When you’re picking out a DVR for your home, there’s a pretty short list of candidates\u2014TiVo has its new 6-tuner DVRs, or you can get something from your cable provider, or you can roll your own. But consumer-grade DVRs don’t really scale all that well for media companies that need to record and process lots of TV. When you’ve got 30 or more channels that you need to be recording simultaneously, your cable company’s DVR isn’t really up to snuff anymore and it’s time to call in the big guns.
\nHouston-based SnapStream makes a line of DVRs that scale to truly silly sizes\u2014its products are the monster trucks of the DVR world. If you watch TV at all, you’ve almost certainly already seen what SnapStream can do\u2014popular shows like The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, The Soup, and tons of others are customers, using 30+ channel DVRs to record dozens and dozens of TV shows simultaneously in order to integrate clips from those recorded shows into their own.
\nEnlarge \/ The SnapStream offices near downtown Houston are filled with neat TV memorabilia. Marketing director Rachel Eichenbaum’s office, for example, features a Mad Men silhouette falling down against the skyline.
\nBut SnapStream’s boxes do a lot more than simply record TV\u2014they’re actually a home theater PC geek’s dream. Because Snapstream works so closely with media production companies, its DVRs sport functionality that no consumer set could possibly get away with having. For example, a SnapStream cluster is just as good at repackaging, transcoding, and distributing content for re-use as it is for recording it in the first place\u2014functionality you won’t find on a consumer-grade DVR. The system also gives users the most amazing TV guide access we’ve ever laid eyes on, wrapped in a simple and almost ludicrously fast GUI.
\nArs recently spent some time at SnapStream’s Houston-based office to learn more about what the company’s products do and how they do it. What we found was actually pretty surprising: the privately held company only has only about twenty employees, but its products are everywhere\u2014not just in media, but in just about any industry that needs to record and catalog video, including local, state, and federal governments.
\nFull Story: With 30 tuners and 30 TB of storage, SnapStream makes TiVos look like toys | Ars Technica<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When you’re picking out a DVR for your home, there’s a pretty short list of candidates\u2014TiVo has its new 6-tuner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[992],"class_list":["post-3503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology","tag-snapstream"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/papNkV-Uv","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8378,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2015\/06\/05\/comcast-customer-satisfaction-rating-plummets-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":3503,"position":0},"title":"Comcast customer satisfaction rating plummets again","author":"NCCT","date":"June 5, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Image: Aurich Lawson \/ Thinkstock Comcast's customer satisfaction scores have dropped again in all three triple-play categories, with the nation's largest cable and broadband company faring particularly poorly in pay-TV service. The American Customer Satisfaction Index's (ACSI) latest annual report on telecommunications and information, released today, places Comcast at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Technology","link":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/category\/technology\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sad-trombone-is-sad-640x360.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sad-trombone-is-sad-640x360.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/sad-trombone-is-sad-640x360.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2916,"url":"https:\/\/nccomputertech.com\/techtalk\/2013\/07\/13\/cable-providers-eager-to-enter-internet-streaming-market\/","url_meta":{"origin":3503,"position":1},"title":"Cable providers eager to enter internet streaming market","author":"NCCT","date":"July 13, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"It appears some of the nation\u2019s largest TV providers are feeling the heat from Netflix and other streaming services. 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