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Tivo’s new TV platform will combine cable and streaming
TiVo has launched its new streaming service that promises big things for both consumers and cable or streaming operators. Called the Next-Gen Platform, it gives viewers a convenient, unified way to watch recorded content from both cable providers and streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. Operators like Altice, meanwhile, can implement TiVo's tech to provide consumers with "hyper-personalization, recommendations and voice-control" on multiple devices and screens, TiVo says.
Verizon will reportedly launch its next-gen TV service this year
Massive multimedia conglomerate Verizon is reportedly looking to overhaul one of its key consumer offerings. According to Variety, the company is preparing a next-generation "IP TV service," with a planned launch in one of its existing FiOS markets later this year. Details are sketchy on how exactly this new service will work, but it sounds like it'll be centered around a new set-top box. Earlier this week, Verizon filed FCC documents for a new box that would include the OnCue internet video technology that the company picked up from Intel over two years ago.
FCC to allow encryption of basic cable, with a few strings that Boxee approves of
As you might expect, the cable industry has been taking measures to protect its business by asking the FCC to allow encryption of basic cable -- something that has never been done and that many have rightly opposed. The FCC responded by releasing new rules on Friday and while cable operators will be allowed to encrypt all its channels, it isn't without a few strings. The Boxee blog voiced its approval of those strings, which basically amounts to a requirement that when an operator encrypts, it also needs to make basic channels accessible via IP -- with or without some hardware in your home -- so that Boxee and others can still tune in. The other, less interesting stipulation, is that you might be entitled to at least one free set-top box or CableCARD for up to five years, depending on what package you subscribe to or if you are on Medicaid. The free hardware will only be for existing customers who apply within four months of when your provider rolls out the basic cable encryption. The real loser here are those few who actually use the Clear-QAM tuner in their TV, or perhaps those that use HTPC software that'll never get an update.
TiVo Premiere 4 confirmed early, promises a 4-tuner DVR for the masses
TiVo owners who've wanted to record any more than two shows at a time or use more recent technology like MoCA have had to look towards the wallet-busting Premiere XL4, at least if they didn't happen to rely on a cable provider bundling the Premiere Q. Thankfully, TiVo has told Zatz Not Funny that a more affordable Premiere 4 option is on the way. The new DVR will still require QAM digital cable or FiOS TV for its tuners to sing, but its 500GB of space will likely lead to a significant price cut versus the 2TB-touting XL4 -- if also a whole lot of deleted old shows. MoCA, an eSATA port and a single CableCARD slot will carry over, so there's few other penalties in store for those who pass on the XL4 flagship. We don't have any official word on the launch strategy so far, although one loose-lipped rep has floated the rumor of a release within the next one to two months at $250 price tag. If true, the Premiere 4 will go a long way towards satisfying TV junkies who are more concerned about catching every show in a crowded prime time slot (and a lower cost) than digging through months-old archives.
TiVo Premiere DVRs in the Bay Area get Comcast VOD starting today
Just one month shy of a year after we first heard it would happen (not counting the icon flub during the original Premiere announcement) TiVo has announced its DVRs will be able to access Comcast's Xfinity On Demand library. The blog and product page feature several screenshots flashing the Xfinity VOD icon and showing off the TiVo Premiere UI's universal search pulling from Comcast's library alongside other sources like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus. Until now, switching to third party DVRs exclusively meant largely foregoing access to Comcast's VOD, but with this customers who dig the TiVo experience can switch without making compromises. Naturally, to make use of this customers will need to be Comcast TV subscribers, although we hear the video will be delivered via QAM just like on cable company owned boxes instead of IP, which might provide higher video quality than the Xbox 360's recently launched app. The update will be made available to customers in the San Francisco Bay Area to start, delivered "today and over the next few weeks" -- no word yet when we'll see this roll out elsewhere.
Boxee and the NCTA debate if ClearQAM is good for us
The National Cable & Telecommunications Association and Boxee don't see eye to eye on whether or not ClearQAM is good or bad for us. Boxee argues that encrypting even those channels free and clear via an antenna, as a few cable companies have requested permission from the FCC to do, will increase your bill and limit competition. The NCTA alternatively claims that eliminating ClearQAM will enable self installs, thus reducing costs and truck rolls, because the coax outside your house will no longer need to be disconnected when you cancel service, and that Boxee should just adopt CableCARD if it wants the Boxee Box to access live cable TV -- of course most anyone who has had a CableCARD setup knows that a simple truck roll to connect a cable outside is child's play. While this struggle has played out in public with FCC filings, social media and blog posts, we all just fondly remember a day when setting up a TV was as simple as connecting a single coax cable and running a channel scan. Of course, it would be nice if the FCC would actually force more QAM to be sent in the clear and require accurate PSIP data while it's at it, but we gave up on that dream years ago.
Simple.tv DVR / placeshifter frees free TV from the constraints of location, time
One of the many innovative products we checked out tonight was this ViXS XCode 4210 powered Simple.TV box, which tunes into free, unencrypted channels (even in HD) via cable or antenna. Where it starts to differ from other boxes like Sling and Monsoon however, is that it eschews any direct video out or even passthrough, working solely to transcode those feeds to variable bitrate MPEG-4 streams for playback on internet-connected mobile devices and TV boxes. Besides the missing TV out, this headless unit also only supports DVRs courtesy of whatever storage you may add yourself, since it doesn't contain any. The Simple.TV box is set to launch this spring and initially should have viewing apps available for Roku and iPad, with Boxee Box and Google TV viewers eventually planned as well (there is also a $29 Windows Media Center app). Currently the pricing is set at $149, and while streaming to another device in the home and simple DVR function are free to use, adding a guide and allowing streaming to up to 5 devices over the internet will require another $4.99 per month. If you're interested, check out the video after the break and keep a spot near your coax line open.
DVBLink turns any ATSC or clear QAM tuner into a networked tuner
A craze that was started by Silicon Dust years ago is very popular for a very good reason -- network tuners are incredibly flexible -- and it just came to any ATSC or clear QAM tuner. The company DVBLogic has made it possible to turn any DVB tuner into a network tuner for some time, but since we don't DVB in the US, it hasn't been very useful on this side of the Atlantic. The latest release of DVBLink includes said ability which might be just the way for you to watch live HD on your laptop using the existing tuner in your HTPC. It isn't free software, but we're betting if you have the need the ~40 Euro price won't keep you from it -- assuming the free 30 day trial works as advertised.
ZeeVee adds remote management to ZvBox line, QAM 64 broadcasting and more
ZeeVee as a whole has transformed mightily as a company since we saw 'em debut back in May of 2008, now catering its hardware business towards enterprise customers and the occasional high-end home owner. That said, there's still reason to pay attention, particularly if you're an existing owner of a ZvBox. The company recently made known that a trio of gratis updates were being made available, the first of which added remote management capabilities to the entire line. Essentially, this upgrade allows multiple ZvBoxes to be simultaneously connected to a single computer at the ZvBox deployment site, and then access is granted to said computer via the web. In turn, an administrator can completely control distribution and the like, adding a bit of Sling flair to the whole ordeal. In lesser news, all ZvBoxes can now also broadcast using QAM 64 (in addition to the traditional QAM 256 method), and the ZvPro 250 can now deliver a single video stream with split-audio, which could be helpful in serving up multilingual streams. Or, you know, a censored version of that R-rated movie for your kid's room.
Clear QAM HD isn't going anywhere!
Oh we just love the echo chamber that is the internet these days -- some genius reads about something as harmless as a integrated security waver for cheap digital SD set-top-boxes and automatically predicts the end of clear QAM as we know it. Now we hate all the feet dragging by cable operators in the US as much as the next, and wish the FCC would enforce the Telecommunications Act of 1996 already, but that doesn't mean that everything big cable does is evil, or that the FCC is useless. The bottom line is that local broadcast channels are available in HD to any cable subscriber with a clear QAM tuner, whether you have a set-top-box or not. The recent news changes nothing, except maybe a very select few who were lucky enough to receive more than locals via clear QAM. We dropped the FCC a line to make sure we had our facts straight -- wouldn't want to call people out without checking our own first -- and the very prompt answer we received was that this statutory requirement goes all the way back to the to the Communications Act of 1934 (Section 614(b)(4)(B). More recently, the FCC addressed the issue when laying down the digital transition rules which "states that broadcast signals that are subject to mandatory carriage must be "viewable via cable on all television receivers of a subscriber which are connected to a cable system by a cable operator or for which a cable operator provides a connection." Now obviously we're not lawyers, but it seems pretty clear that local cable operators are not allowed to encrypt any locally broadcast HD stations. Now we've heard reports that some cable companies do indeed encrypt these signals, but while you might be willing to complain on some forum about it, have you taken the time to file a proper complaint with the FCC? If not, then you really don't have anything to complain about.Read (doc) - The 2007 Report to set the transition rules (paragraph 15)**UPDATE** As you can see from the comments, with anything legal it isn't exactly cut and dry. In fact the only thing we've managed to accomplish is to be confused. So while some level of broadcast TV has to be free, we're not sure if it's free as in beer or what. Stay tuned for a follow up just as soon as we figure it out.
HD 101: What is ATSC, PSIP, QAM, and 8-VSB?
Once you buy an HDTV it doesn't take long before you get confused by all the acronyms. We love us some HD, but the days of simply bringing a new set home and plugging into a coax cable are long over -- at least for most. It is pretty obvious by the latest surveys that most people don't understand exactly what it takes to enjoy HD on their HDTV, but even if you do, you may not understand what most of it means. Now while this isn't the typical make sure you have your HDTV configured to watch HD post, it will help you understand the different ways HD is delivered.
Motorola's QUE100 MicroEncoder lets analog sources and digital displays to play nice
We were pretty excited to see analog TVs disappear from store shelves; delays in the analog shutoff aside, it was a big move in the right direction. But wouldn't you know it, there's a niche market that still legitimately needs to move video around to analog-only endpoints -- security cameras, commercial distribution systems and MDU (multiple dwelling units) setups, for example. Users of such systems who haven't stocked up on analog sets will be glad to know Motorola's got them covered with the QUE100 QAM MicroEncoder. The svelte rack-mountable units will soak up 2, 4, 8 or 12 (depending on model) standard definition MPEG-2 analog video feeds along with their audio and put them all into a single MPEG-2 QAM output that can be tuned on those newfangled digital tuners.
Cable HD compression gets turned up a notch in the Electra 8000 encoder
We haven't talked about QAM cramming much recently, but we have a feeling its ugly, pixelated head will soon be raised once more, now that Harmonic is launching the DiviCom Electra 8000 encoder, capable of stuffing four MPEG-2 HD streams in one QAM channel. It might be an interesting bit of hardware if you're a head end tech, capable of delivering 1080p60, MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 video capable of three encoding passes, but all we can see at the end is too many channels slotted into too little frequency and the potential for compression artifacts. Anyone stopping by Cable Show '09 this week should be able to get a demo, with the first units shipping in June, we'll be keeping a close eye on both our channel lineup and picture quality.[Thanks, Larry]
Latest CE Pro Magazine reveals the ZeeVee ZvPro
Well looky here, the wonders that is print media isn't useless just yet -- thanks to very long lead times and an ambitious postal worker, the latest edition of CE Pro Magazine reveals the evidently soon to be announced ZvPro. The ad doesn't offer up enough details for us, but it does look like some of our biggest gripes about the original ZeVee Box are addressed. For example, now we have component and Toslink input as well as RS-232 control and an IR port -- no indication if that is an input or an output. The rack mountable device is obviously geared towards the prosumer so it isn't too much of a stretch to assume this little baby will demand a premium price -- if we were the betting type, we'd have our money on over $800. But even at that price, we're sure this box will find at least a few homes as there are plenty of people trying to figure out how to send HD over the existing coax in their home without mounting a STB on the wall below the HDTV.[Thanks, Utah]
ViewSonic's 22-inch N2201w LCD TV packs inbuilt DVD player, TV tuner
We still haven't been able to shake the ViewSonic dragon from our memory, but we're attempting to move on with our lives by directing our attention (however briefly) to the N2201w. This so-called "3-in-1" LCD TV packs a 22-inch 1,680 x 1,050 resolution panel, a 5-millisecond response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio and a built-in NTSC / ATSC / QAM TV tuner. You'll also find an integrated DVD player and an HDMI port, and just to prove it really is multifaceted, there's a PC input to boot. No telling if the picture quality is anything to write home about, but the $429 price tag sure is palatable.[Via CEPro]
ZeeVee ZvBox review
There aren't many things we love more than when a new gadget comes along that is nothing like anything we've ever seen, so when we first heard about a box that streams HD around the house on the existing coax that is in just about every abode in America, we got pretty excited. Lucky for us, we were able to pull a ZeeVee ZvBox in for review, and after a few setbacks during setup, we were left playing with something pretty unique. The problem of course is that unique isn't really a compliment, but it can be if it just happens to be the solution you're looking for. So if you've been scouting a way to get web content on your HDTV without running any wires and without being forced to deal with a STB or the headaches that come with a wireless device, click on through to see what all the fuss is about. %Gallery-28977%
Ask Engadget HD: What is switched digital video (SDV)?
With scads of cable providers slowly but surely converting markets and delivering channels via switched digital video, we reckoned now was an excellent time to dust off the terminology dictionary and dig in deeper. Fittingly, Jarad agreed: "I've seen that lots of markets are being switched over to SDV lately, and I've noticed CableCARD users are generally upset whenever this happens. Why is that? I thought SDV was supposed to free up space so that more high-definition channels could be distributed on the current network?"If you've suddenly found yourself wondering the same, head on past the break for the low-down.
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-2250 TV tuner gets reviewed, loved
Just about the pull the trigger on that warmly received AVerTV Bravo Hybrid, are you? Hold your horses just a moment. Hauppauge's WinTV-HVR-2250 recently hit the test bench over at PC Magazine, and we'll just get right down to the dirt: it was called "the gold standard of home theater PC TV tuners." That's right folks, the gold standard. Said card boasts twin hybrid tuners, dual hardware MPEG encoders and integrated QAM support, and apparently, using it was a real joy. Setup and installation was "a snap," and image quality was "crisp and clear." Really, the only dig reviewers had was that the QAM plug-in was still a bit unstable, but given that it is still in beta, that really shouldn't come as a surprise. Of note, this card will run you a touch more than the aforementioned AVerTV at $129, but it just might be worth it based on this glowing review.
Hauppauge tuners net QAM support in Vista MCE, thanks to beta plug-in
Folks possessing a Hauppauge HVR-1250, HVR-1600, HVR-1800 or HVR-2250 -- have we got an interesting tidbit for you. A fresh new beta plug-in has surfaced, which promises to give the aforementioned cards ClearQAM support within 32- and 64-bit Vista Media Center environments. Initial reports are somewhat disappointing, but encouraging nonetheless. Those with nerves of steel can hit the read link and proceed to download the beta -- but only if you promise to tell us how it goes in comments below.[Via Chris Lanier's Blog, thanks Will]
Comcast rolling out Science, Disney and ABC Family HD channels
Comcast is stepping up its busy HD rollout (and channel squeezing) schedule, with several new channels spotted today in the Detroit and Chicago areas. Science HD, Disney HD and ABC Family HD are probably in your local channel guide -- Discovery HD is now listed DSCHD, while Disney is DISHD, confused yet? -- and word is they should hit many other areas Wednesday. Posters at AVSForum indicate more of the 3 channels-on-one-QAM compression tactics are afoot, take a look and let us know if having High School Musical 2 in HD still satisfies.[Thanks, Nathaniel]Read - Detroit, MI HDTVRead - Chicago, IL Comcast
