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Jinni's TV search tools selected by Time Warner and Vudu to power intelligent search
Whenever you ask a friend to suggest a good TV show, they often just bellow praise for The Wire, Breaking Bad or My Little Pony -- not useful if your tastes are a little more diverse. That's why major players Time Warner and Vudu have signed up Jinni's taste engine to build into their platforms to help you find entertainment -- no more boring grid-style guides, Jinni promises. We're apparently entering, "a new era of intuitive, personalized user experience," which sounds perfectly swell to us. A duo of European providers are also hopping on board -- Bouygues Telecom and C More Entertainment -- as well as Asia's SingTel and Africa's Multichoice. Nobody's talking specifics on when we'll see these metadata-pulling suggestions appear in homes, but if your horizons suddenly start to broaden, you know who to blame.
International HD news roundup
Here at Engadget HD, we'd prefer not to just focus on high-def happenings in the US of A. Thus, we round up the best of the best from the international front each week and present it here, bundled together in a single, easy to digest list. If something went down in your corner of the globe over the past seven days, let the rest of the world know it in comments. 'Til next week, Sanga'ay hanto!Read - AETN signs carriage agreement with Taiwan Broadband CommunicationsRead - AAAN enters TaiwanRead - Multichoice HD PVR update positively received (South Africa)Read - Central European Expansion for HISTORY & HISTORY HDRead - History HD confirmed for SkylinkRead - Microsoft Mediaroom Comes to RussiaRead - High Definition a key driver for UK Projector marketRead - ITV, C4 worry over Freeview HD fundingRead - El Salvador adopts ATSC digital TV standard
South Africans to see 2010 World Cup in HD after all?
We were completely and utterly dismayed after hearing that South Africa -- the host nation of the 2010 World Cup -- would not be able to catch the action in high-def in its own backyard. Thankfully, it seems that someone with some clout was able to change all that, or at least that's what we've gleaned from a recent writeup praising the country's sole HD channel (DSTv). Put simply, the writer states that "all [2010] World Cup games will be televised in high-definition," and he also states that locals can catch said HD action "on big screens at one of the many fan parks that will be dotted about the country." We're sincerely hoping these fan parks come to fruition -- can you imagine the excitement of a people experiencing HD for the first time as they watch the beautiful game?
MultiChoice sees 26% increase in South African subscribers, eyes more HD for next year
Things may not be all peaches and cream for every programming provider out there, but we'd say the cards are playing out just fine for Africa's MultiChoice. The carrier has just recently reported a 26% increase in subscribers over the past year, bringing its total installed base to 830,000 in South Africa. Of course, bigwigs are already looking for ways to get that figure up even higher, and expanding high-def is obviously on the brain. Eben Greyling, CEO of MultiChoice Africa has noted that more HD should be seen around September of next year once the outfit has "migrated to a new satellite which supports the HD format," and it'll also be bringing video-on-demand with it in 2009. Atta way to show 'em how it's done, MultiChoice.
South Africa to see Olympics in HD on MultiChoice's DStv platform
We already knew that DStv would soon be launching its first HD channel in South Africa, but now details are finally coming out in regard to Olympics coverage. It's no surprise that said provider will be utilizing its new station to broadcast this summer's biggest television event in high-def, but we now know that locals can tune to slot 170 on August 8th from 14:00 to see the Opening Ceremony. From there, more than 70 hours of HD coverage will continue on through August 12th. If you haven't bothered snagging an HD PVR from the company, you should probably get on that -- wouldn't want to wait 'til the last minute, would you?[Image courtesy of Virtual Tourist]
