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DirecTV DVRs available in over 100 hotels, never miss the restaurant opening times again
On-demand TV viewing continues to secrete itself into the fabric of your lives and now its squeezing more viewing hours out of you from hotel rooms across the US. DirecTV's HD DVRs pack the typical programming guide and recording options, plus the ability for hotels to add up to 50 channels of their own content to the recorders -- meaning plenty of hotel infomercials dying to be paused, live. DirecTV has now officially launched its Residential Experience, bringing its DVR technology to 110 hotels across the country. Fortunately, the systems also include the hygienic touch of an anti-microbial remote. Classy.
DirecTV takes the germs out of your hotel remote, bed still questionable
Hotel rooms are gross. Well, some of 'em are. It doesn't take a germaphobe to know that your room's previous occupant may have had less-than-ideal hygienic priorities, so it'll probably come as a great relief to you frequent flier types that DirecTV has decided to do something about it. Bundled into its new Residential Experience for Hotels program is a proprietary germ-free remote control for every room. That's all well, clean and good, but what makes this experience even homier are the 100+ HD channels DirecTV added so you can make heavy use of that enhanced interactive program guide. Yessir, now you can watch HBO and, erm, 'adult offerings' without ever having to wash your hands; the new service is currently in testing with an intended launch for later this summer. It remains to be seen whether the EPA will swoop down to backhand DirecTV for dubious anti-microbial claims like it did IO Gear some years back. In the meantime, it's a solid sanitary high-five for the hospitality industry.
DirecTV HD comes to Argentina
The world is evidently DirecTV's oyster, as the satcaster has now launched an HD web portal for Argentinians just a week after going live with HD service in Latin America. Details about actual high-def offerings (outside of Fox HD and DirecTV HD Showcase) are still vague at the moment, but we are told that those who opt for the service will be handed an HD DVR capable of storing 400 hours of SD content and 100 hours of HD footage. Let us know if you gather up the courage to bite.[Via The Argentine Post, thanks Santiago]
No DirecTV HD for Vista Media Center until 2010?
It has been three months since we received leaked confirmation that the yet to be officially announced DirecTV HD tuner for Vista Media Center (VMC) was part of an upcoming update code named Fiji (expected in October). The fact that so much time has passed and our sources still haven't actually received a tuner was really starting to bother us. So we got even more concerned when we learned that the first release candidate issued to testers was missing required pieces to make the HDPC-20 possible. Unlike the previous beta releases, RC0 was missing native H.264 support which is vital to both DirecTV support and the latest Hauppauge HD PVR component capture device. Then to add insult to injury, many are now reporting that the update that will be officially called Windows Media Center TV Pack will only be available through OEMs. We're not sure if this means you'll have to download the update from Dell (for example) rather than Windows Update, but we can't see how the update could effectively be restricted to OEM installs. The testers we've talked to have reportedly been told that H.264 and DirecTV support have been pushed to Windows 7, which would mean it'll be 2010 before we see it. More about Fiji after the jump.%Gallery-26913%
