THC lets you experience television in a new level of quality.
THC makes TV independent of time and place.
THC combines traditional TV with today's state-of-the-art technology and the future of the Internet.
THC makes watching TV fun again.
All from a single source: TerraTec Home Cinema is a powerful and efficient solution from TerraTec for television on the computer. Turn your computer into a powerful video recorder with manual or controlled recordings (even via the Internet).
One of the basic functions of the Cinergy THC system is recording and playing back TV programmes. In principle, this function is most like those of a classic video recorder, but with a few important differences or expanded features:
The recording capacity is practically unlimited
There is no loss of quality whatsoever from the original
"Programming" is as easy as child's play (really!)
The most important tool for recording programmes is the EPG (E.lectronic P.rogram G.uide), which provides an overview of current TV programming on all stations. Cinergy THC presents it in an easy-to-use manner, sorted by stations or times ("What's on tonight, no matter where?"). If you are interested in a programme, simply click it - THC will record it for you.
An EPG system continuously obtains up-to-date data free of charge from the current (DVB) TV programme. Like teletext information, this information is transmitted in the background, separately from the TV picture. Just to be clear: you don't need an Internet connection to receive EPG data.
The recording capacity is limited only by the space on your hard drive or connected external hard drives. Of course, video data - compared to music in MP3 format, for example - is relatively memory-hungry. However, prices for hard drive storage have reached such a low level that even the most diehard hunter-gatherers among TV junkies can find enough storage space at a bargain price.
A practical example, which is even calculated in favour of quality (= higher data volume):
1 hour of high-quality digital TV takes up approximately 2GB of space
1 VHS tape (4-hour) thus saved the equivalent of 8GB (in much lower quality)
This means that a USB hard drive with 500GB of storage, available from the discount store, holds about 60 VHS cassettes - or about 10 days of non-stop television
In terms of programmes, this means 160 episodes of "Prime Suspect"... or 250 of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" ... or almost 3 years' worth of the evening news - the choice is yours.
Your favourite programme is recorded, and now you want to watch it. Doing so is just as easy as selecting an MP3 track or playing a DVD. Our THC software manages your recordings by date—just one click or press of a button is all that is needed.
As you would expect, you can also interrupt a movie at any time by pausing it and continue it later. This is a very useful convenience, as it allows you to fetch more snacks or drinks in the middle of your mystery, for example.
A less well-known fact is that you can do the same with a TV programme, even during the broadcast. "What!?", you ask? Yes, it's true! While watching a chat show such as Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, you can "freeze-frame" the couch—and a couple of minutes later, let the stars pick up where they left off.
An important distinction is that you are pausing, not stopping.
It gets even better: while you catch up, recording of the live programme carries on quietly in the background, allowing you to accumulate a "buffer" of several minutes' worth of programming that you can then fast-forward through if desired. In our example, this means that if you find the next chat show guest boring, you can just skip that part. You'll never want to do without the Pause button!
"What was that he said again?" ... "How cute! Did you see that?" ... Or, much worse: "What? 2-1 already?!“. Scenes like these will always be played out in front of the telly. With THC, however, each of these questions can be answered calmly—nothing could be easier that repeating the last few seconds (or minutes, or even hours if need be) of the current programme.
The technical term for this function is "timeshifting", rewinding the TV programme to any desired point in the programme and then fast-forwarding it to the current live picture. All of this without having to go though any extra steps to start a recording.
We guarantee that you will soon wish you had this handy feature on many other devices, particularly your car radio.
For DVB viewers who travel often, our THC software lets you save station lists, so that you do not have to repeat the channel scan each time you move between regions. Today, London and tomorrow, West Midlands—with just one click, the stations follow you from city to city and region to region.
The programme stream also contains data for subtitles, audio channels either in different formats (stereo, DolbyDigital) or languages, and good old teletext. The last is buffered in the background immediately after a channel change, eliminating load times when navigating between pages of text. In addition, web links in the teletext can be called up directly and, of course, pages can be superimposed transparently over the current programme.
The TerraTec team has proven its exceptional creativity and love of useful details by bringing back the good old "boss key". This feature, which those of a certain age will surely remember from the C64 and Amiga, is quite invaluable—yet it had nearly been lost forever in data oblivion.
This is how it works: if an unannounced visitor enters the TV arena, just press the boss key (actually a combination) [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[B], and THC disappears along with the TV picture and sound. At the same time, however, timeshifting is activated and the current programme simply carries on being recorded. You don't miss a second, and nobody notices your little break. Shh! Don't tell the TerraTec boss!