LONDON -- NDS, the leading provider of technology solutions for digital pay-TV, today announced two new product enhancements of Synamedia Metro, the NDS IPTV middleware solution. Distributed-DVR and ShareTV are two patent pending product features which will deliver even more benefit to IPTV service providers who choose Synamedia Metro to protect and enhance their business. The middleware and content protection attributes of NDS Synamedia Metro combined with the power of Jungo’s Open RG software, bring peer-to-peer video sharing and distributed DVR capabilities to IPTV operators.

Distributed DVR: Traditionally, DVRs require a set-top box (STB) with a disk contained in it. Distributed DVR capability from NDS uses the home network and Jungo Residential Gateway UPnP software to find suitable external hard disks for DVR TV storage. Without the need for a hard drive, the cost of the IPSTB is reduced, and the residential gateway becomes the home’s virtual on-demand TV server. The subscriber therefore is not restricted by the amount of storage provided in the STB. Furthermore, the subscriber can add as much storage to the home network as required to store recorded programs.

ShareTV: Once content is stored within the home network, ShareTV allows IPTV subscribers to legally share their stored TV content using peer-to-peer Technology running in the Jungo Residential Gateway software. For example, a missed episode of a TV series can be requested from other subscribers using Share TV’s peer-to-peer software. ShareTV manages the download of the content from other peers on the operator’s network and then stores it on a selected hard disk for playback.

Content Protection and Digital Rights Management: VideoGuard technology protects both the rights of content owners and those of operators for both ShareTV and Distributed-DVR. As the media files are encrypted, content is protected even if the content is transferred to a portable media player. A subscriber can only access and view content for which they have a valid subscription.

Nigel Smith, Vice President, NDS Broadband Internet Group, commented: “Distributed DVR and ShareTV are powerful NDS innovations allowing IPTV operators to introduce TV recording and sharing of archived TV content at a fraction of the cost of providing a typical network DVR system using VOD servers and large amounts of dedicated bandwidth. This is the first of a range of collaborations with Jungo where we see the set-top working hand in hand with the residential gateway to offer a wide range of flexible and cost-effective solutions to the consumer, while safeguarding the operators’ and content owners’ rights.”

NDS Ltd.