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TiVo offers up chromed-out "Glo" premium remote
If you've weighed both sides and finally (albeit begrudgingly) handed over your $800 or so for TiVo's Series3 box, what's another $50 get the same remote again with a flashy outfit? Apparently TiVo thinks it's just a drop in the bucket, as the company is now selling a "premium remote" that bears resemblance to Logitech's Harmony 670, which supposedly lets you take "maximum control" of your oh-so-pricey PVR. The "Glo," as it's so aptly called, sports only one main distinction over the bundled flavor: a chrome rim around the edges. However, the remote will reportedly still operate exactly like the non-glamorous version with Series2 boxes, Series1 units made by Philips, and "Hughes, Samsung, and RCA DirecTV DVR boxes with TiVo service." It also touts a "DVR switch" to dictate dual TiVos with the flick of the finger, and hopes to reel folks in with its fingerprint-loving glossy black finish. While we don't see much value in this "ultimate edition," you can place you order now for $49.99 if you've just got to have it all.[Via Zatz Not Funny]
LiteOn HD-A070GX HD PVR with HDD and DVD
It's all been done before, and we're sure it'll all be done again, but LiteOn's new HD-A970GX hybrid PVR boasts of HD resolutions, and works with a hard drive and DVD drive for storage and playback. The 320GB drive isn't the largest around, but it should do the trick, and the included HDMI cable is a nice touch. The A970GX records video to DivX so you can ship your recordings over to you PC or portable player without much hassle. The unit also does the 1080p upscale thing, which is still one of your best bets for getting passable "HD" content for your fancy HDTV. No word on price or availability.[Via PVR Wire]
Toy Quest intros Rip Roar Video Free PMP / PVR for kids
Joining the seemingly endless amount of toys that adults wish they had as children is a kid-friendly portable media player / PVR designed to keep 10-year olds satisfied while their teenage peers sport iPods. Crafted by Toy Quest -- the same folks behind the Blue Man Group's childish instrument lineup -- the Rip Roar Video Free poses as something akin to a Fisher Price gizmo, but packs the same functionality found in a bevy of cheaper PMP wannabes. The device can record "up to five hours of live television," and has no trouble learning IR codes from your remote control; it also packs an integrated speaker, USB connectivity, and 512MB of internal storage, but additional media can presumably be loaded onto your SD card if needed. The unit also boasts a 2.5-inch LCD, which is said to match the "size and quality" of that found on Apple's own flagship player, and touts a modest five hour battery life, which should outlast any youngster's attention span anyway. While there's no specifics concerning supported file formats, we doubt the typical fourth-grader will demand playback for his / her XviD and APE files, and at least the $179 pricetag sure undercuts a few grown-up alternatives.[Via I4U]
Toshiba annnounces new VARDIA HDD/DVD recorders
Toshiba's introduced a pair of new VARDIA digital video recorders for the Japanese market today, the RD-E300 and RD-W300. Each box packs a fairly substantial 300GB hard drive, DVD burner, digital TV tuner, and HDMI output, with the RD-W300 throwing some VHS action into the mix -- cause nothing shows your rebellious side better than digital content stored on an analog medium. Toshiba's also seen fit to include not one but two remotes with each unit (a full-featured one and a simplified one), no doubt a well-intentioned move on Toshiba's part, but one that's also likely to cause a few bouts of dueling remotes. No word on pricing for either of 'em, but it looks like they should both be available in November.[Via Akihabara News]
New Slingbox supports Mac OS X, Symbian - but where's the software?
It's time to check in again on the Slingbox's journey to Mac OS X, as Dave Zatz pinged us with some more details and a purty picture he took off one of the new Slingbox AV models at Best Buy. Turns out there are going to be three new models - Tuner, AV and Pro. Tuner ($150) goes the bare bones route for regular cable or antenna, AV ($180)can interact with a set top box, and Pro ($250) is the One to Rule Them All™ with support for multiple feeds and that hot new 'HD' thing the internets keep talking about. The interesting thing, as you can see, is that these new models list support for Mac OS X (as well as Symbian) right on the box, but as we learned a couple weeks ago, the company is still in the middle of a private beta of their SlingPlayer software for the Mac - nothing is public yet. So for now, it sounds like they're cranking out these boxes without actually having any way for John Doe Mac user to work with them, though after an update over on Dave Zatz's original story, we might have a public beta of the software very soon.If any of you rush out to grab one of these, feel free to let us know if there are some wires mixed here and Mac OS X software actually is shipping in the box.
Evergreen's DB-MRC100 video recorder / player
Just in case you were in the market, Evergreen has this new Memory Stick DUO/PRO, SD/MMC, and Compact Flash video recorder up for grabs. The DB-MRC100 specializes in recording video for playback on your PSP or iPod via a couple of recording pre-sets but is certainly not limited to these devices. It features MPEG-4 recording at a resolution up to 640x480 at 30fps and can playback a wide variety of audio, video, and picture formats including DivX 3/4/5, MPEG-4, JPEG, MP3 and WMA when connected to your PC or TV via RCA jack. Shipping in Japan starting September 22 for ¥14,800 or right around $127.[Via Impress]
Pace's satellite/IPTV hybrid PVR
Looks like 2Wire isn't the only player in the league trying to forge a little satellite / IPTV lovefest, with British manufacturer Pace now pushing a hybrid set-top box of its own -- dropping some PVR and content sharing functionality into the unit to boot. Dubbed simply the Pace Hybrid PVR at the moment, the box is being offered directly to operators looking for a two-pronged approach to pry customers away from the cozy confines of their cable provider, meaning it's still a ways off from actually landing in your living room. Like the 2Wire box, Pace's unit will give customers the attractive-but-likely-pricey option of side-by-side standard or high definition satellite and IPTV service (a la U-verse), and the ability to stream all that content (wired or wirelessly) to other IP-enabled devices in your house -- like a PC, handheld, or a second set-top box. No word yet on any takers for the converged STB, but with SBC already staking out its territory with 2Wire, we're guessing that there must be at least few other operators out there looking to play a little catch-up.[Via GigaOM]
Neuros OSD hardware out in beta, let the hacking begin!
Ah, so this is what you get when you take a hardware platform "open-source" -- the Neuros OSD. This infinitely hackable Linux-based media recorder / player beta unit is on sale now. Yeah, beta, 'cause this ain't no ordinary hardware offering. See Neuros is willing to pay you cash-money "bounties" to code new features into the open source firmware: YouTube or Google video ($1000), Flickr photo browsing ($600), wireless remote capabilities from a WiFi handheld device such as a PDA ($500), TiVo-style radio recording when connected to an FM/AM or satellite receiver ($700), and VoIP capabilities when a USB phone is connected ($500). Not bad for something you'll likely do for the fun of it anyway right? Out of the box, you get a standalone media player which can record from any external analog audio/video source and then automatically encode it for playback on PSPs, mobile phones, and iPods in popular formats such as MPEG-4, AVI, ASF, MP3, OGG, WMA, and AC3. And with a dual-core ARM9 / TI DSP, multi-card memory slot, USB host capability, Ethernet, recording up to 720x480 resolution at 30fps, IR Blaster, and S-Video in and Composite audio/video in/out, well, you still might be tempted to plunk down the meager $230 to take this baby home. Hurry though, only 200 beta units left!
FX to combat DVR ad-skipping with 30-second still pics
Either cable channel FX reads Engadget, pays attention to USPTO filings, and/or is genuinely concerned that it's wasting away (along with other American TV advertisers) an estimated total of $8 billion annually. On September 22 and only in the UK (for now), FX will use its 30-second ad slot to display a single still image hawking its new drama "Brotherhood," so that the estimated one-third of its British audience using a PVR device (like this Sky box shown at right) will be able to follow FX's sales pitch even after thrice hitting the fast forward button. We wonder if this may actually be more effective than those "interactive and on-demand" ads that have been showing up on TiVo over the last few months. Apparently the US PVR audience isn't quite yet ready for the sheer awesome power of low-tech advertising (no, not this one) that has existed for well over a century in print magazines.
Is the TiVo Series3 worth $800?
We know that the TiVo isn't inexpensive by any means: currently the highest tier (180-hour TiVo Series2 DT DVR) will run you a few hundred dollars per year. However, the newest TiVo, the Series3 will retail for $800, a fair jump from its last iteration. HDBeat examines the question: is the Series3 is really worth 400 Jeffersons (or 80 Hamiltons, take your pick) ? Here's some of the things you'll get for shelling out that wad of dough: NTSC, analog cable and un-encrypted QAM support, eSATA support, front panel display, Ethernet port, two USB ports, HDMI TOSLINK and component out, can record OTA or cable, and, of course, has CableCARD support. Also, we should remind you that your lifetime TiVo subscription is transferrable to the Series3 for an additional $200 (though it's possible that TiVo's dealings with Cox and other cable companies may make it possible for you to get yer paws on a slightly stripped down model for far less cash). Still, TiVo certainly has a lot of catching up to do in the marketplace, and the high price will make it difficult to help out the company's bottom line -- we're gunning for 'em, though.
Softtrends' LivePVR gives new meaning to "voice recording"
Our paranoid side tells us this app has "lawsuit" written all over it, but we're excited nonetheless. LivePVR, as its name suggests, acts as something of a PVR for voice; in its "meeting notes" mode, for example, it keeps a rolling buffer while recording, allowing the user to permanently save clips leading up to the moment. The more legally questionable "phone call" mode can be set up to automatically record every conversation or just the next call placed. A final "voice recorder" mode acts as a more traditional voice note app, with no limit to a note's maximum size. The whole package scoots out the door for $10 in Windows Mobile or S60 flavors.[Via Smartphone Thoughts]
SanDisk's V-MATE: records video to what else, flash memory cards
Sandisk is plenty busy with new products at IFA in Berlin. Now, they've thrown down with a whole new product line-up by launching the V-MATE video recorder. And since SanDisk likey their flash memory, the V-Mate is designed to record directly to a wide variety of memory card formats from any composite video source such as your set-top box, DVD player, or TiVo. The V-MATE features a remote control, on-screen programming interface, and an infrared emitter to turn on your TV tuner device and select the right channel for programmed recording. And MPEG-4 compression delivers about 1.8 hours of playback per 1GB of flash at the V-MATE's maximum 640 x 480 recording resolution or up to 3.6-hours when the rez and bit rate are throttled back for the requirements of say, your cellphone display. Available in October for about $130.
Humax releases 32-inch LCD with built-in dual-tuner PVR
Humax continues to rock the all-in-one bizness with its latest 32-inch LCD TV, the LP32-TDR1, which manages to cram a 160GB PVR with twin Freeview tuners into its otherwise unassuming set. The usual specs like resolution, contrast ratio, and response time are a bit hard to come by, but it is apparently equipped with a CI slot for subscription content, component, composite , s-video, and "PC" ports, (not sure if that means VGA or DVI), two RGB SCART jacks and, most importantly, an HDMI connector, something Humax's earlier TVs lacked. Price is £900, or about $1,700 for those of us this side of the pond.[Via Slashgear]
VidaBox launches media center PC line-up
In a market becoming saturated with one HTPC offering after another, VidaBox is launching what seems like just another HTPC line-up for those too busy to build their own. Four strangely familiar looking models are headed your way: the ROOMMATE, SLIM, LUX, and MAX, which aside from performing all the usual functions -- recording live TV, storing music and photos, and sporting a snazzy case -- feature "unparalleled storage offerings." The LUX and MAX models offer up to 3.75TB of storage and includes their "VidaSafe" technology (which appears to be RAID, folks) to keep the machine running and your files recoverable, even if one of the hard drives fails while operating. As with most pre-built HTPCs, they don't come cheap, and with prices ranging from $1,499 to near-infinity, the VidaBox line-up can satisfy your wildest home theater desires if your credit card can stand the punishment.
New TiVoToGo automates PSP support; low-res still
TiVo has updated their TiVo Desktop software to make automatic transfers to your various portable devices (like an iPod or PSP) automatic, just like a Season Pass. The show records, notes that it's supposed to be on your PSP, automatically gets passed off to your computer to do the transcoding and voilå! Plug in your PSP, dump the latest episode of The Daily Show, and you're good to go. While the tech is certainly pretty cool (and easy), there are several notable shortcomings: For starters, this isn't free. TiVo owners will need to pony up $24.95 to cover software development and pricey codec-licensing. Yuck! Also, the videos will not playback at the PSP's native (delicious) 480x272 resolution. Not a problem for most shows, since they'll be 4:3 anyhow, but it's interesting to note that this isn't due to the frustrating resolution-cap of the PSP's video player. Rather, it's due to considerations made by TiVo to placate content owners. In a brief interview with our good buddies at Engadget last night, TiVo VP Jim Denney said, "TiVo feels by limiting transcoded files to a low resolution of 320 x 240, they further protect the rights of content owners while providing appropriately sized video for portable devices." Well, I guess it wouldn't have worked anyways. Pffft. This is Windows-only for now, folks. TiVo's been promising a Mac-client for TiVoToGo for some time now, and this latest iteration is no different. Denney reiterated that they are currently working on it, so that tune hasn't changed. Indeed, all Mac owners should know it by heart. Since the PS3 is expected to be a PVRing, PSPing, all-in-one entertainment device, should we expect similar functionality (at full-res even) from it sans PC (we know they don't do software so well)? That smells like killer app to me.[Thanks, WebPimp]
Mustek announces DV536 super gadget
How much would you pay for a music- and video-playing gadget that could also take 10 megapixel still photos with a 10x zoom, capture 30fps VGA movies, record your whimsical musings, function as a digital card reader, and even encode footage directly from your TV or DVD player? $1000? How about $750? Surely you'd shell out at least $500 for such an amazing product. Well you'll be shocked to learn that Mustek is practically giving away all this and more for under $200 with its new DV536 Digital Camcorder-PVR. Too good to be true, you say? Well, yes and no; you really do get all of those functions in this new super gadget, but the list of caveats is rather long: the 2.4-inch screen isn't the best for watching flicks, that 10 megapixel resolution is really achieved through interpolation from a 5 megapixel CMOS sensor, and the 10x zoom we mentioned is of the digital variety, as no optical zoom is included. Plus, there's no way to schedule recordings and you're only getting 32MB of internal memory, meaning that you'll need a pretty big SD card if you want to store all those movies, photos, video clips, and songs you'll be loading this up with. Still, $200 isn't too bad for all the features you're getting here, even if none of them hold a candle to dedicated devices performing the same tasks. [Warning: PDF link]
Grundig hits the market with Freeview recorders
After taking a bit of a respite from the market, price-slashing TV maker Grundig is getting back into the swing of things in the UK, and is out to provide a bit of Freeview DVB-T recording on the cheap. Even as Sky+ HDTV makes its way slowly across the UK, DVB-T is still a decent digital TV alternative for those without access, with 30 digital channels and 20 digital radio stations. Grundig's GUDVDR0IV lets you schedule up to a week of recordings in advance, and burns onto DVD+R/RW discs for easy archivin'. If stowing the shows isn't your thing, Grundig is also offering a HDD version with 160GB of recording space, the GUDVDRHDD160V. There's actually no word on price yet, but it's a pretty a safe bet that Grundig will be aiming to undercut the current Panasonic and Sony offerings on the market. Both players should be out next month.
TiVo patent for DVR PPV
It's a long way from the wild west days of PVR, but this work by TiVo to develop a system to securely distribute and monetize Pay Per View and Video On Demand programming is fairly exciting all the same. The patents filed refer to purchasing MPEG-2 downloads, and differentiate between TiVo's own DVR service and the actual content provider, which will hopefully mean a bit more success in nabbing content for the service. There are descriptions of PPV and subscription methods for purchasing content, and the content is securely tied to the MAC address of your DVR's network adapter. The patents were filed in November, so it's anybodies guess as to when TiVo will actually roll out the functionality, but so far things are looking good for your entertainment convenience, and not so hot for your credit card balance.[Via Zatz Not Funny]Read - Patent 1Read - Patent 2
Interact-TV's TellyRAID serves 2TB of TV
If the joys of prime time serial dramas such as 24, Lost and Desperate Housewives are proving a bit taxing on that garden variety DVR or WMCE of yours, it might be time to bump your storage with a bit of NAS action. Luckily, Interact-TV has an incredibly pricey solution to your woes, which doesn't just bump your storage, but includes a whole DVR/DVD/CD managing system to bear on your media problems. The newly launched TellyRAID, bundled with the TellyVizion, allows you to rip and store DVDs, CDs, Photos TV shows and surf the web for even more content to stuff into the 2TB TellyRAID. The TellyVizion can also burn CD playlists, and can be scheduled remotely via the Telly website. The RAID runs quietly, and can work with other computers or compatible media devices to serve up media over Gigabit Ethernet or USB 2.0. It supports up to four SATA drives, and can work with a USB network adapter for WiFi connectivity. All of this doesn't come cheap, you can get the pair for $2,860, but it should hold onto a season or two of those prime time good times.
Leadtek announces "WinFast PalmTop TV" external tuner
External USB TV tuners are a dime a dozen these days, but with DIY media PCs still growing in popularity, we can expect to see even more devices like Leadtek's WinFast PalmTop TV before the flood of products tapers off. This Japanese model features a high-speed USB 2.0 connection, hardware-based MPEG-1/2/4 and AVI encoding, and a wireless remote, along with a suite of bundled software for TV watching, recording, and DVD authoring. Expect this unit to hit an already-crowded market next month, for an unknown price.[Via Impress]
