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Now that's a Mac mini PVR
Jeff on 123Macmini sure knows how to turn a Mac mini into an awesome PVR (that's personal video recorder to you). Check out the 'behind the scenes' pic for more details.Well done, sir, well done.
TiVo to EchoStar: stop making DVRs!
Emboldened by its recent court victory in a long-running patent battle with EchoStar, TiVo has now taken the volume up a notch, and filed for an injunction to stop EchoStar from making or selling DVRs. However, EchoStar has fought back, insisting that recent USPTO rulings overturning some TiVo patents could render TiVo's victory short-lived. And, of course, EchoStar is requesting that the original ruling, which awarded TiVo about $74 million, be stayed until the USPTO finishes digging through TiVo's records. One thing's certain: this isn't ending any time soon, so if you want to keep up, be sure to program your TiVo box to catch the latest news (or program your EchoStar box, if that's what you've got, and hope that its time-shifting functions don't suddenly disappear via a court-mandated firmware flash).
TViX M-3100U HDD recorder with HD out
We've become accustomed to seeing some good looking hard-drive video units from Korea's TViX, and the company's latest, the M-3100U, appears to be no exception. Besides having a sleek, HTPC-style case, the M-3100U can record video content from a TV, PC or just about any analog source, and can save it in MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 formats. The box is also apparently capable of HD output at resolutions up to 1080i, though we assume that's analog HD, given that this thing doesn't have HDMI or DVI, but does have component outs. We somehow suspect that, if you want a similar box with real digital HD, you're probably better off seeing what you can get from your cable company or waiting for a TiVo Series 3 box -- though neither of those may be quite as pretty as this one.
TiVo Product Watch gives you commercials on your schedule
So, you thought the whole reason to own a DVR was so that you could skip commercials? Think again. Today TiVo is rolling out the Madison Avenue-friendly Product Watch service, which lets you watch commercials on demand. Whether anyone will actually demand to watch these ads remains to be seen, but TiVo has managed to sign up over 70 advertisers, who will provide the service with everything from 60-second spots to hour-long infomercials, which will, in the words of TiVo CEO Tom Rogers, "deliver real, relevant results for our advertising partners while at the same time enhancing the TV experience for subscribers." Ads will apparently include gems such as cooking tips for products such as Kraft's Tombstone pizza and Jell-O, and a Ford ad featuring Penn and Teller. As long as we can delete them from our hard drive, we'll live with the ads -- though we may just archive the Kraft spots to DVD; you never know when you'll need some tips on preparing Jell-O or nuking a frozen pizza.
TiVo Series2 DT hands-on review
We got our chance to have a little private time with TiVo's new 80-hour dual-tuner Series2 (TCD649080) last week. There isn't a whole lot we can tell you about the unit that you didn't already know (dual analog tuners, single digital, no CableCARD, no high def, integrated Ethernet, etc.). In other words, for those expecting something to ease the pain of the absentee Series3 box, you'll probably want to look elsewhere for something to meet your needs, perhaps a Media Center PC. But if you have analog cable and were thinking about snagging a TiVo, you might want to take a second look.
TiVo's Series2 DT 80 and 180 hour dual tuner boxes
Remember the dual tuner TiVos we heard about a few weeks back? Well, surprise, surprise, they're real and are more or less exactly as called. The two models feature a single cable / RF in jack with internal splitter, which allows you to record two analog programs simultaneously, or one analog and one tuned from your digital cable box. Beside the fact that now your TiVo now has dual tuners, it (freaking finally) has integrated Ethernet; starting May 1st you can expect to pony up $199.99 for the 180-hour TCD649180, or $99.99 for the 80-hour TCD649080, both after $150 rebate and service activation. Baby steps to the Series3, patience people.
Yahoo buys Meedio, but not Meedio TV
Yahoo swallowed another company this morning, one to flesh out that Go TV home digital media effort of theirs. Just not the DVR company we'd all kind of hoped and idly thought it would be, TiVo. Nope, Yahoo now owns Meedio, whose IP, technology, and staff are being folded into their Digital Home team. If you're a Meedio TV fan, steel yourself: according to Meedio, your EPG will be updated until July 1st, their support center is shuttering, and downloading Meedio will no longer be possible. Which, we'd postulate, means it'll be a little while before you'll be able to get your Yahoo Go TV DVR on download. And since Yahoo bought the company and not the Meedio product line, what comes out the other end could wind up looking, feeling, and working completely differently, totally ready and able to leverage all kinds of Yahoo media from ten feet away. In the mean time, for those not wanting to run Windows (Media Center) or sign up for TiVo, you've still got options, like MythTV, BeyondTV, SageTV, ChrisTV, Freevo, ShowShifter, WinDVR, and so, so many others.[Via Zatz Not Funny, thanks Richard B]
Elgato releases the eyeTV 250
Elgato, the makers of the popular eyeTV digital TV recording software and hardware for the Mac, today introduced the eyeTV 250. This thing is small, as in barely-bigger-than-an-mouse small (see picture at right). With it, you can watch, pause and rewind live TV, edit recorded shows and schedule recordings in advance. Plus, the included software will transfer your shows to an iPod automatically.Note that the eyeTV 250 only does analog cable/antenna recording. However, it's so compact and moderately priced ($199) that I think it looks great. It's on sale now and requires a G4, G5 or Intel Core processor, 256 MB of RAM (512 MB recommended) and Mac OS 10.4 or later.[Via PVR Blog]
Tivo Series 3 gets thumbs up from CableLabs and 180-hr Series 2 box disappears
TiVo's HD-ready Series 3 box just got one step closer to being real now that it's been certified by Cable Labs. Sure, the cert may not mean as much as that golden FCC blessing, but it allows the box to be sold as compliant with various cable standards, including CableCARD. Meanwhile, the dual-tuner, 180-hour TCD649180 and 80-hour TCD64908 Series 2 boxes appear to have vanished, after initially appearing for pre-order on Amazon. We'll leave the rationale behind that to the conspiracy-minded among you. We're gonna keep waiting for Series 3, and hope that the dual-tuner, big-drive model stays in place for those units.
DirecTV shows off $1,500 D-HR20P HD DVR
As much as we'd like to find out more information about DirecTV's D-HR20P HD DVR, pretty much everything we know, we've already said. The box, which the satellite broadcaster showed off at EHX last week, apparently has 750GB capacity, an integrated HD receiver, and will sell for between $1,500 and $2,000. If it's ever released, that is. Since DirecTV insists this isn't a "consumer device" (and it certainly does have a sort of retro-industrial, rack-mount look to it), it may just be a prototype box designed to show that the company is committed to rolling out bigger and better HD solutions.
Thinking laterally: slingboxing games
Heard of the Slingbox (pictured above)? It's a hardware and software product that allows a person to "sling" content from a home television set to any Internet-connected, Windows-based computer or PDA. This enables some pretty cool behavior. For example, you're stuck in some crappy hotel while away from home on business and so you decide to skip the meager hotel offerings to watch your home television programs on your Windows-based laptop. Let's take it a step further. Eventually, we imagine a product that will enable remote control of game consoles from any broadband device. Initially, it'll be simple. You'll be able to play simple games like Hexic on your mobile phone. Eventually, it'll be possible to experience PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, or Nintendo Revolution gaming from anywhere. How cool would that be? There's nothing technically impossible about it. We just need slightly faster mobile devices, slightly speedier Internet connections, and slightly better video compression technologies.
How to: get tons of HD content playing on your PC
Now that we have mastered OTA HD reception and connecting our PC's to our HDTVs it's time to bring the two together. HDTV content can come from many sources and those choices get broader and broader everyday. In the future there are going to be more options, but I am going to cover the options that are currently available.
You saw Lost right? (spoilers)
Did you catch the images in the "monster" as it faced down Eko? I don't have any screen grabs but Kevin might later, the'yre talking about it over on TV Squad also. Thanks to the high definition DVR I was able to make out the images as they flashed by, this wasn't so much of an HDTV easter egg as a Tivo-egg, because there's no way you would be able to see all the images without frame-by-frame. Church Eko as a child a woman the man he shot his brother and the gun an upside down picture of Eko coming out of the water after the plane crash the man who pushed him off of the missionary plane the woman who sold the figurines two flashes of Eko holding his dying brother Jesus on the cross All they need is a subplot about how Eko used to be in a wheelchair and he and Locke will officially be the exact same person. One of the best shows in HD is back and it should be an interesting rest of the season.
CES: High-Def TIVO
TIVO lovers, met HDTV. Your favorite PVR just got a whole lot better. TIVO pulled out all the stops on this one and I think I can clearly say this is the most powerful and feature filled PVR ever made. This unit has everything. Dual tuners (2 NTSC, 2 ATSC and 2 cable tuners), HDMI and component output, dual cable cards, Ethernet port and SATA expansion port for easy storage addition. What else could you want? You want Cable Card 2.0 support...that's cool. It has that too. They even upgraded the remote and backlit it. The unit has a cool front display that indicates the shows name and time.The current TIVO has not had major upgrades in years and I think that is what they want with this unit. They are throwing everything they can into it to increase the shelf life. Except to see it for sale in the last part of '06 and there is no word on price yet.Click on for TONS of pics including the remote and back panel.
Forget dual tuner, try ALL-CHANNEL recording
Thats what Japanese researchers for Sharp and Sony are saying we can expect......in 2010. The good news is that once broadcasters switch to DTV, building devices capable of recording whats being broadcast on every channel, all of the time will become much less complicated, the bad news is that even with new compression technologies like MPEG-4, you'll still need a 2-3TB HDD to store all the high definition content being broadcast, and there isn't an affordable 3 TB storage method yet, but they expect there will be in the next few years.Another challenge is building a suitable GUI for such a product, navigating through 7,000 recorded programs could be a bit difficult. Additionally, if IPTV and video on demand services really take off, there might not be a need for all-channel recorders by the time they become available, or broadcasters might move to block them to protect their advertising revenue. Despite all the potential challenges, it is an interesting concept, I just can't wait until 7,000 high definition programs are broadcast every week.
How to get HDTV on your Linux PC
Because Windows Media Center owners shouldn't have all the fun. The instructions are a little complicated but dude, if you're running Linux that should be par for the course. The EFF recommends you build your own HD PVR while you still can, since for the moment at least the "Broadcast flag" legislation is DOA.Any HDBeat readers currently getting HDTV on their non-Windows/Mac box?[Via digg]
Digital Hollywood Fall starts today
Digital Hollywood Conference is the place where the various companies that bring us much of the content we'll be experiencing on our HDTVs, cell phones, game consoles, and iPods get together and talk about the best ways to do it. Your next home server-mediacenter-xbox720-ps4-RSS parser-cell phone-breadmaker? Yeah they've got that. You can watch for updates here, as well as via a live blog of the event if you're interested (and we know you are) and a podcast; although several companies have already made notable announcements, and we'll keep you updated as it progresses.I'll be keeping a definite eye out for information from today's "Transforming Television" seminar, because HDTV, PVR, OnDemand and Interactive TV all touch me in my special place. Also at the conference will be our own Shawn Gold, speaking on Alternative Media & Advertising: Personalized Consumer Broadband, RSS Feeds, Blogging and Podcasting
Media Made Easy: simple HDTV recording
It kind of sounds like an "Easy Bake Oven", but Media Made Easy doesn't cook. Instead, the company builds and sells Media Center entertainment units. Their newest product looks fairly stylish; at least, stylish enough to sit in most family rooms. The HDTV system is built with your choice of 400GB or 800GB's of storage and includes a GeForce 6600 card for video. Digital program support is done by the Hauppauge PVR which allows recording of up to three programs at once, although only two of them could be HDTV programming. An Intel Pentium 4 provides the processing power, which is supplemented by 1GB of RAM. The Media Made Easy HDTV solution starts at $1,947 for the 400GB flavor; double the storage brings you to $2,283, or roughly the price of 440 Easy Bake Ovens.
HDTV PVR poll results
Over at PVRWire, Todd ran a great poll to see how many PVR owners had high-def recording technology. I don't know if a bunch of HD Beat readers hit the poll or not, but a whopping 49% of the respondents have an HD-capable PVR. An additional 25% polled indicated that they plan to get one; this is the camp I'm in.My suspicion is that most of the HD PVR owners have a unit through their satellite or cable provider. There aren't that many standalone HD PVR units out there yet, although this is clearly a growing segment. With so few choices, the standalones are much more expensive and can't compete with the integrated set-top receiver and recorder. It doesn't hurt that the content providers are heavily subsidizing the boxes. Another thought is that many of the HD PVR owners have Windows Media Center Edition 2005, which supports HDTV over-the-air recording. Curious: do we have any folks that are using WMCE 2005 on a large HDTV monitor? Let's define large as 34-inches or more. I'm thinking I have a new project, since I don't have an HDTV PVR or a WMCE machine.
