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Leaks point to a new TiVo 'Bolt' DVR on the way
So what's next for TiVo? After the company successfully kicked off the DVR era with its boxes, the world is now changing into one where cable TV isn't quite as important. Purchasing the remnant of Aereo is one way to get cord-cutters attention, but fusing what's left of traditional TV with the internet is going to be an interesting problem to solve over the next few years. Dave Zatz has tracked down a mess of filings and even mentions on TiVo's own website pointing to a new "Bolt." Based on the recent CableLabs certification of two new boxes July 1st and a trademark application, the Bolt definitely seems like a new DVR, possibly a replacement for the current Roamio.
Daily Update for October 2, 2013
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen. Subscribe via RSS
Apple hires former CableLabs exec, sets TV rumor alert level to mauve
Until Apple actually produces a new TV related device, rumors about what it might be working on will continue to flow, with no end in sight. While we still don't know what's next out of Cupertino, Multichannel News reports the company has hired a former CableLabs executive for the job of engineering director. Jean-François Mulé served as senior VP of technology development at CableLabs for the last two years, and MCN indicates that before that he worked on a number of IP-based projects like DOCSIS 3.0 and second screen technology. It's still hard to say what Apple may want to build for the living room, but apparently this is the kind of person needed to fill out that "vision of the future," especially if that means working with existing cable and satellite TV services.
MediaPortal posts new beta with new look and CableCARD, teases bigger sequel (video)
MediaPortal is a rare veteran spinoff of XBMC -- a testament to its fan base, but also a sign that it needs a fresh coat of paint. A new 1.3 beta might offer just what home theater PC users have been looking for to keep the front end relevant, at least in the short term. It carries a much more contemporary (and less Windows Media Center-like) skin with minor tweaks to the layout and overall interface. CableCARD support also makes its overdue appearance, although the lack of official CableLabs approval keeps the software from recognizing any copy-protected shows. Don't fret if those additions aren't enough, however -- we've been given a hint as to what the long-in-development MediaPortal 2 will offer through a pair of videos. The clips are largely top-level overviews, but they allude to mobile tie-ins, events, extensions, more skin support, video backgrounds and news. With an Autumn Build of MP2 available "right around the corner" for viewers, it might not be long before we learn what those new additions are like through first-hand experience.
Netgear at CES 2012: Powerline, wireless routers, home networking and more
As it seems to do every year, Netgear's chosen the Consumer Electronics Show to unveil, well... everything under the sun. Up first, the outfit's launching its WN2500RP, a universal dual-band WiFi range extender ($89.99) that runs both 2.4 GHz and 5GHz bands concurrently. Over on the home networking side, the Powerline 500 Nano and N900 convert a conventional wall outlet into a high-speed network connection, with the former shipping this quarter for $119.99 and the latter this summer for $79.99. Over on the non-product side, Netgear's trumpeting its reception of CableLabs DOCSIS 3.0 certification for the industry's first voice and data gateways (CGD3700B / CGE3700B) with concurrent dual-band WiFi. Head on past the break for specifics across the whole line.
Niveus demos its idea of TV Everywhere at the CableLabs Conference
The name Niveus should sound familiar to you if you've followed the home theater PC market for a while, but those who follow the cable industry might not be so familiar. The cable types will become more familiar if they trek to the CableLabs Summer Conference this week as the Niveus Connected Platform (project Snowbird) is among the demonstrations. NCP is currently being shopped to service providers (like cable and satellite), consumer electronics manufacturers and PC OEMs and with any luck will bring you your favorite content from your set-top-box or DVR, to your PC, tablet, phone or Smart TV by early 2012. We're sad to say that although NCP is built on industry standards like DLNA and DTCP-IP, we find it very easy to temper our excitement any time a cable company is expected to buy something for us we'd actually want. Oh, and while the three tuner HDHomerun Prime isn't shipping just yet, Niveus managed to get one to use as part of its demo.
Four tuner firmware update for Cisco Tuning Adapters rolling out
With less than two weeks to go until the very same FCC requirement (FCC-10-81) goes into effect, a Cisco Tuning Adapter in the wild received the F.1402 firmware update that upgrades it from double to quadruple duty. This is fantastic news for those who already have a Ceton InfiniTV 4 on a system that uses Switched Digital Video, as it will eliminate the need for one more set-top box, but should also be good news to the company who formally requested CableLabs change the spec to require four tuners in the first place; TiVo. No way to know exactly when this firmware update will roll out, but we're sure we're not alone when we say we hope it brings some much needed stability along with it.
HDHomeRun Prime TV tuner passes CableLabs tests - Update: Preorder pulled, 6-tuner ships first
We've been waiting for SiliconDust's CableCARD-compatible HDHomeRun Prime for a little over a year and it seems finally ready to bring its triple tuner TV magic home, having gained CableLabs certification as of April 28th and subsequently showing up for preorder on Amazon. While this is mostly big news for Windows Media Center fans who need a new way to get premium channels on their box it also supports other DVR software like MythTV on Copy Freely-marked content. HTPC builders don't have to choose between this HDHR3-CC and the (suddenly in abundant supply and still $399) Ceton InfiniTV 4 just yet, since the listing has no shipping date and the last we'd heard from SiliconDust was that preorders would ship around 30 days after it completed certification. Check out our hands-on impressions from CES a few months ago if you're on the fence, but right now all that's standing between you and that grey box is a little bit of time... and $207. Update: According to a post on its forum, SiliconDust confirmed the HDHomeRun Prime has been certified and an email announcement will follow shortly, however it expects to deliver a 6-tuner Theater version first with the three tuner box appearing afterwards. The post also notes sites are "incorrectly listing" the HDHomeRun Prime for preorder and "will not be first in line for delivering product" so you may want to wait for the official word on which "major retailer" has the go-ahead to make sure you're first in line. The option to preorder disappeared from Amazon this morning, we'll let you know when and where the option to purchase pops up next. [Thanks, robniep] %Gallery-113086% [Thanks, Neil]
Hands-on with the HDHomeRun Prime CableCARD tuner
Now look what we have here, the long awaited HDHomeRun Prime triple CableCARD tuner for Windows 7 Media Center. Originally announced at CES last year, the little black perforated box is already in production and will soon be selling for $250 after it makes it ways through the final stages of CableLabs certification. The sad fact is there is no way to know when that cert will be sealed, but when it is you'll be able to pre-order and then you can expect to receive it 30 days later. The other little tidbits we picked up from the booth is that SiliconDust is working on a six tuner rack mountable version that should ship later this year and that the ATSC and QAM version we've loved for years has a new case a new price of $129 and will be shipping in February. %Gallery-113086% %Gallery-113088%
HDHomeRun Prime CableCARD tri-tuner comes one step closer to reality
Originally announced at CES in January, Silicon Dust's entrance into the encrypted cable TV tuner market just reached an important milestone on its way to market: CableLabs Certification -- anytime CableLabs is involved things take longer than anyone expects. The price of the three tuner HDHomeRun Prime is still set at $249, but the hope of being released by the "holidays" seems lost (Thanksgiving counts as one of those days right?). Said product is expected to start production in the next few weeks, after which you'll be able to pre-order the elusive tuner from major retailers. The big question of course is with the Ceton InfiniTV 4 still on a three month backorder, and selling on eBay for over twice its retail price, which should you order? We suggest you pre-order both just to be safe; worst case you end up on the good side of a crazy eBay auction.
CableLabs amends OCUR spec, tuner sharing and MythTV are on
We told you that CableLabs had received a few requests to amend the OCUR spec that dictates what a CableCARD tuner for a PC can and can't do, and as expected the organization that many love to hate has come through -- we, expected it anyways. The first change is the most significant which is that each tuner in an OCUR can be paired with different PCs at the same time. This lets you buy one quad tuner and use it on four HTPCs simultaneously; one tuner per PC (a single tuner can't be shared simultaneous though). When we originally asked CableLabs about changing this they said, maybe, but it'd take three to six months to run through the process. The other change we're glad didn't take forever to become a reality is the one that stated that even Copy Freely content had to be transmitted securely, which meant that Windows 7 Media Center was the only way to watch any CableCARD tuner stuff, and while there isn't much encrypted QAM content out there marked Copy Freely, MythTV and SageTV fans will have access to at least some premium HD content. This isn't as big a deal as changing the meaning of Copy Once to something less draconian, it is welcomed news for those who just received their InfiniTV 4 (pictured above) and felt constrained by the old rules. We're sure there could be considerable time between when the change is made official and when the firmware is released to the public, but hopefully Ceton and SiliconDust don't waste any time making it happen.
CableLabs demos multiroom DVR and DLNA servers
In recent comments to the FCC the NCTA and its members were proud to exclaim how innovative its set-top boxes were, while we still laugh at their pitifully small hard drives, hideous user interfaces and the down right unpleasant experience they provide. But to be fair the cable providers do innovate, it is just 5-10 years behind the retail market. So in the same light, CableLabs held a tech demo recently and showed multi-room DVRs and set-top boxes with DLNA servers built in. Now both of these features should've been old news years ago, but will be welcomed even today since the majority of valuable content is delivered via cable companies. The DLNA aspect is actually an interesting one as we remember how odd it was when that very group issued a press release during CES that included quotes from most of the big cable companies who were sharing their love for DLNA. Of course that was 8 months ago and we are just now seeing a demo, so you can probably expect to see it hit your set-top in about 4 or 5 more years.
HDHomeRun CableCARD will feature three tuners in time for the holidays
What you're looking at here is a picture of the board that makes the new HDHomeRun CableCARD tuner work. You might notice the four squares on the right, those are the tuners, yes there are four -- don't get too excited -- but one of 'em is for the out of band data and can't actually be used to record HD. But that's still one more usable tuner than initially announced at CES and the best news is that the price remains the same at $249. There isn't a hard release data yet, but the goal is to release the beta details in the coming weeks, then submit it to CableLabs for certification and then finally have it in your HTPC in time for the holidays -- when exactly do holidays start again? The actual case isn't done yet, but there won't be a hump like the classic HDHomeRun and as you can see the gigabit network tuner's connections are all on the back including one coax, one USB, power, and a single CableCARD slot for all three tuners -- the USB doesn't do what you're thinking, it's for the Tuning Adapter. Contrary to some reports -- a USB version isn't on the table and we can't say we're surprised as that wouldn't be Silicon Dust's style. A picture of the connections on the prototype after the jump.
A CableCARD replacement is due by December 2012, bandaids by this Fall
While most of the FCC's new Broadband plan has been about, well, broadband, there's also some great news for HDTV fans. We expected a few mentions about CableCARD and its future when the FCC requested comments and declared it a failure, but we're still glad to see that the FCC listened to consumer electronics companies like TiVo and Sony -- among others. The biggest news is that the FCC has asked the industry to come up with a residential IP gateway that is open and that will provide same abilities as your provider's equipment, and most importantly, it should enable the very same gear to work no matter what type of service you prefer, whether it be satellite, cable or fiber -- for example, via various gateways the same TiVo would work with either DirecTV or Comcast. But while the FCC has given the industry until December of 2012 to define and deploy these IP gateways before implementing an "appropriate enforcement mechanism," in the meantime the FCC wants to see the biggest issues with CableCARDs resolved by this Fall. The list below of immediate fixes is pretty impressive, and other than the persistent lack of video on demand support, it'll help make CableCARD a pretty respectable solution. Ditch Tuning Adapters and let devices with Ethernet ports communicate upstream via IP to tune SDV channels. If a customer has a CableCARD in their leased set-top box, it must be reflected on the bill like any other CableCARD would. If the provider offers a self install for leased set-top boxes, they must also allow self install of a CableCARD. Software shouldn't require the same CableLabs certification hardware does.
CableLabs officially defines tru2way set-back box
The technology arm of the cable industry has come forward with an official specification for the tru2way set-back box. We first heard of these when Panasonic was requesting a waiver from the FCC to exclude an analog tuner, but we did find one of the floor of CES -- although it wasn't a functional demo. Basically this makes the box one step closer to reality, and if the cable industry has its way, tru2way with it. The idea of an inexpensive HDTV companion might be the perfect low cost, easy to support, solution that consumer electronic manufactures are looking for. And although we're not fans of tru2way in general, we do think it is an acceptable solution for those who don't want a DVR but do want an HDTV mounted on the wall without a set-top box to be found.
Ceton's quad CableCARD tuner for Media Center available for pre-order
That's right, you can now reserve your place in line to be the first to record four HD cable shows at once on your Windows 7 Media Center. The bad news is that ship date for the InfiniTV 4 is now May 31st. Ceton wasn't willing to share a specific reason for the 60 day delay, but we suspect CableLabs is to blame -- Ceton refuted this and insisted CableLabs has been very helpful, but we don't buy it. The other big news -- for those that were concerned with noise or fitment options -- is that the latest version of the PCI-E card pictured above no longer includes a fan. The InfiniTV name was the result of over 1000 submissions to Ceton's naming contest, of which Gary Petro came up with winner -- the name is not to be confused with Comcast's XFINITY. Future tuners in the line will share a variation of the name, so the dual external tuner would be the InfiniTV ex2 -- for example. But Gary isn't the only one receiving a free tuner, as two more submitters were deemed worthy. Rus Sanchez submitted 94 different product names, while Charles Fraser earned his free card with the funniest submission; Wicked Super, Super Duper, and Super Duper Alleyoopder. The last bit of news out of the Kirkland startup is a littler clarification in regards to the network capabilities of the card. Although you can share the tuners with a small form factor PC on the network, the bad news is that it gets paired per CableCARD, so all four tuners have to go to the same PC. Oh we almost forgot, the best news of all is that we received our review sample, so stay tuned for a full run down.
RCDb bringing IMDB, Gracenote lookup extras to tru2way boxes
We haven't seen a lot out of tru2way to start 2010, but maybe that can get turned around starting at the CableLabs Winter Conference, where Related Content Database (RCDb) is showing off its technology which pulls together cable set-tops with web databases like IMDB and Gracenote. Using a demo on a Panasonic tru2way box, the company's showing off the ability for Hollywood and others to bring BD-Live style features to discs and cable simultaneously. Of course, the adoption of BD-Live and tru2way have both been shaky so showing them off together might not strengthen the position of either right away, but we'll keep an optimistic eye out for any developments coming.
CableLabs starts testing 3D, determines existing set-tops are compatible
The cable industry's research and development arm has proudly announced that 3D testing is on. This will allow TV manufactures and cable companies to begin having their equipment tested for 3D interoperability. Along the way CableLabs has also confirmed that many of the existing set-top boxes will work with "frame-compatible" 3D formats -- like side by side pictured above. This is exactly what DirecTV announced it would use and is the very same standards that HDMI added to the spec. Basically it allows providers to dedicate the same amount of bandwidth to 3D as it was to 2D. Of course this means that the resolution is cut in half (horizontally in the case of side by side) but we're told that sharpness isn't as perceivable in 3D as it is in 2D and after seeing the DirecTV 3D demo at CES, we believe it. Unlike the adoption of HD, it doesn't look like the cable industry is going to let the satellite companies run away with the new technology unchallenged like last time.
Hell freezes over, the FCC admits that CableCARD is a failure
Well we have to say we never saw this coming, but have dreamed of it for years, but it appears that the FCC is actually listening to the CEA and is asking for comments on how to replace CableCARD with something that would actually make the network open. For those just catching up, Congress mandated that cable had to be open with the Telecommunications Act of 1996 -- yeah that long -- and 3rd party CableCARD devices first became available in 2004 and five years later there are only 14 3rd party certified devices and 443k 3rd party devices in service. The fact that CableCARDs just don't work is no surprise to anyone who has tried to use one -- ok we're exaggerating here, but we've had our fair share installed and every one makes for a funny story. Now obviously admitting you have a problem is the first step, but it also means we are years away from a solution. But since they asked, here's ours. Instead of silly cards and middleware, just specify a two way communications protocol and embed signed certificates that CableLabs will control the distribution of in the box for authentication and encryption. It really doesn't have to be any harder than that.
3D cable TV to be demoed at Cable-Tec Expo next week
At this point we know what you are thinking and we can say that you are wrong, we aren't about to rename the site to Engadget 3D -- not yet at least -- but we are getting excited about 3D and there isn't much more exciting then the idea of broadcast 3D. We say that because although we love movies, we're not crazy about 3D movies, but we are very very crazy about 3D sports which obviously requires broadcast 3D. So while we have a long way to go until we can enjoy our favorite sport at home in 3D, a demo by CableLabs at the Cable-Tec Expo next week is a great first step. The demo will be on a real cable plant and will fit on a single existing size cable channel. That's about all the details we know right now, but we'd assume it's using H.264 instead of MPEG-2, and we can only hope it is 1080p30, or better, to each eye. One other nuget in the article is that the broadcast will work with both circular polarized and active shutter glasses, which is something we've wondered about. Also on display will be 3D TVs from LG, Hyundai, Sony and Panasonic.
