Verizon’s outrageous 2TB, 12-tuner media server might talk to your Xbox, iPad

Subscribers to Verizon's Fios cable service will soon have a new toy to play with as the company released its highly-capable new VMS1100 media server today. The anticipated device boasts a host of new features, including a 1TB hardrive, 6 on-board tuners, and the ability to combine with extender boxes to allow up to 12 shows to be recorded at once.

The VMS 1100 is the centerpiece of Verizon's new Fios QuantumTV service. The box is being billed as a "next generation media hub," and it brings along some impressive new abilities as a part of that billing. Along with the single box's sextet of tuners, users can add small extender boxes for an extra 6 tuners and a combined 2 TB of storage space, which translates to around 200 hours of programming. Working from the hub source, the extender boxes will also allow users to pause and play live TV, and even pause a source program in one room and continue it in another, with the ability to connect up to 10 TVs.

Perhaps trying to build a buzz, Verizon played coy with the box for its initial unveiling. According to an Engadget report, Verizon posted and then pulled a commercial for the box with a video hosted on Youtube, only to repost that same Youtube hosted video on zatsnotfunny.com. 

Engadget also uncovered some forum postings on DSLReports.com of actual VMS1100 users in parts of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and California who are part of Verizon's "phased roll-out" for the device. First impressions are that the system is extremely fast, though it's still got a few hitches. There's no word yet as to an official full launch date.

As one might imagine, Verizon isn't setting the VMS1100′s talents loose for free. A break down of the cost for the box's new powers amounts to $22 per month for the single box, $32 for the dual setup with 12 tuners, and $10 for connection boxes for each additional TV, without adding in the actual cable bill. Then again, if your home hosts 10 TVs, you can likely afford that kind of monthly rent.

While the VMS1100 already offers some promising features for the roving couch potato, a bigger buzz is centered around its "phase 2" services, which Zats Not Funny claims Verizon has looked at in the near future for its hub. Among potential tools in the VMS1100's future is the possibility to send video feeds to other IP-connected components in your home arsenal,  such as Xbox, Roku devices, and iPads – a feature already available from TiVo and Dish Network devices. The new service will also potentially provide easy access to "TV Everywhere" technology for watching programming on the go, and QuantumTV will come with a built-in mobile app to make for a seamless transition to mobile devices, potentially serving up everything from your home network.

Still more intriguing is conjecture that the new server could incorporate some of the powers from Intel's ill-fated OnCue device, which was purchased by Verizon in January for somewhere in the $300-400 million range. Intel's OnCue system was proposed as a portal to the future of Internet TV, combining streaming apps, live TV, on-demand content, and mobile delivery in a box unbound by standard cable delivery methods – before Intel was unable to secure programming from content providers, that is. With Verizon owning all of that technology, many are wondering just how powerful this long awaited media server may prove to be. 

For now, we can only speculate on Verizon's future plans for the VMS1100 and its new QuantumTV service. However, you can check out the device on Verizon's homepage now, and even investigate its instruction manual here.
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