I’m no expert in these little home media boxes, but I suspect they are excellent investments for those of you with too much money. Certainly the abilities of a Vista Media Center type setup are enviable, but for $2000 you could have put another 10 inches on that screen and built a media box yourself. But I digress (and am probably wrong). This FUZEbox has up to 2TB of space, does DVR and basic media stuff, and networks itself into your home (360 support coming) — if you know how to do that or are willing to pay. Interestingly, in the press release it promises “The capability to back up and distribute DVDs and Blu-Rays to various video zones,” but in the FAQ it helpfully states “There are a multitude of software options available for individuals to purchase that allow archiving of DVD content to their personal computers.” In other words, you’re on your own — but we won’t ask any questions. A safe position, I guess, but it would have been nice to have that capability on board. Watch the demo video here if you’re curious. → Read More
The Pinnacle Video Transfer is a $99 device that promises easy one-touch recording to a myriad of devices including USB memory sticks and external hard drives as well as direct recording to the Sony PSP and iPod Video, Nano, and Classic devices. In short, it’s super easy and it works well. → Read More
Speaking of TiVo and DVRs, it looks like the company has begun shipping its HD XL DVR. The $600 device has a 1TB hard drive; off-the-shelf 1TB hard drives can be had for as little as $150 by my count. As you might guess, TiVo is going to be pushing the HD XL at hardcore TiVo users, the high-end folk who need to record every single episode of Degrassi and whatever else it is people watch these days. It’s also worth noting that the HD XL is THX certified. But, if you’re TiVo thorugh and through and need “more power,” as Tim Allen would say, then yeah, the HD XL would be the way to go. Hope your job pays well enough. → Read More
Flickr’d DVRs aren’t just good for watching Conan O’Brien at a decent hour. Nope, it turns out that they can also improve your relationship. That’s what a new study claims, at least. The study, carried out by NDS (a big manufacturer of DVR “technology”), shows that 79 percent of respondents said that the little device actually improved their relationship. Additionally, the DVR is now the second most “can’t live without” device out there, trailing only the cellphone. Cellphone I can see, sure. DVR? I imagine it leads to less fighting over who sees what and when. Which, in turn, I guess would improve your relationship. I guess I’m most surprised that, for all we’ve heard, the TV is still to central to so many people’s lives. Fact: I’ve never had a DVR. → Read More
Cablevision, a regional cable provider found primarily in New York, can go ahead with its network DVR, a U.S. court has ruled. Several entertainment studios had said that the DVR, which remotely stores content on Cablevision’s servers rather than a local hard drive, violates their copyright. No idea why they’d think this, but we all know the studios are allergic to new technology. The DVR, which is officially called the Remote Storage Digital Video Recorder, is supposed to be faster and cheaper than traditional DVRs. While the appeals court said it was OK with the DVR, all proceedings have been sent to the U.S. District Court in New York. So, a step closer to see it released. → Read More
If the MPAA had its way, your DVR would be nothing more than a hunk of useless metal and plastic, unable to record and pause live television. Steps are being taken to ensure that it gets its way. The fun-loving association is pushing hard for a technology called selectable output control, or SOC, which allows content providers—movie studios and the like—to prevent material from being recorded. It does this by blocking the so-called analog hole, making it impossible for you to, say, plug in standard 3.5mm audio jack and record sound to your computer. I know that sounds evil and all that, but the idea behind this isn’t exactly unreasonable. Movie studios want to be able to let cable companies get an earlier crack at showing movies on-demand (for example), but are worried that folks will simply exploit the analog hole and record the movie long before the studio ever releases the DVD or Blu-ray version. If consumers could copy and record movies long before their DVD date, why should the movie studios even bother to produce a DVD? Now, that’s completely not my problem, how the movie studios make money, but at least there’s a proper reason for their policy this time around. Note that the FCC has so far said no to SOC, so there’s still some legs in this story. → Read More
The Motion Picture Association of America wants to release movies to TV, pay-per-view, on-demand, and premium movie channels before releasing them for sale on DVD. Sounds good, no? There’s a little catch, though. The MPAA wants to block these early releases from being recorded on your DVR. Traditionally, new movies get released into theaters, then get shown on airplanes and in hotels, then are made available on DVD and over the Internet, then on-demand/pay per view, then premium movie channels like HBO, and finally to regular broadcast TV. The whole cycle typically takes about three years. Well, the industry now wants to get its movies onto people’s televisions a whole lot sooner, before the movies are released on DVD, even. The problem, however, is that the MPAA is asking that the FCC allow it to selectively block high-definition movies from being recorded on our DVR systems. This process is called Selectable Output Control, and is currently restricted by the FCC, and, according to Ars Technica, “The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) wants a waiver on that restriction in the case of high-definition movies broadcast prior to their release as DVDs.” → Read More
Here comes the Wooo BH250, the new Hitachi Blu-ray set-top recorder with a built-in 250GB HD for storage of content. So it’s really a Blu-ray disk burner/DVR combo, which is a pretty sweet mash-up. We’ve heard that Blu-ray recording was coming to the Wooo series before, but this is the first actual model that goes on sale for the public. It’s set to hit Japan in June, and hopefull we’ll see it here, but you know that no matter where you are, it’s going to be expensive. But if you’re a high-end home theater nerd, you’re already wiping drool from your keyboard. → Read More
Father’s Day and graduation season is upon us, readers. And what better way to celebrate than getting your dad or grad a My DVR Expander USB edition external drive from Western Digital. Of course, they’ll have to own a DISH network VIP Series HD DVR and the 500GB drive only retails for $150. It’s also a low power-consuming hard drive that has a no-fan passive cooling system that keeps things quiet and reduces energy by 30 percent. → Read More
The New York Times has a piece on the impact that digital video recording, on-demand offerings, and web video services have had on advertising budgets for prime time television slots. Apparently if people aren’t actually watching TV during prime time, it makes advertising “trickier to measure and pitch to marketers,” resulting in less ad revenue, giving the networks “no choice but to adapt.” Boo hoo. → Read More
A new update to TiVo’s Desktop Plus software features the ability to subscribe to video content via RSS. TiVo’s touting the feature as Season Pass for web video, which is basically just a fancy way of saying that you can subscribe to a video podcast’s RSS feed and new episodes will be downloaded to the TiVo Desktop Plus software ($24.95 one-time fee) that runs on your PC and then makes those video files available for viewing on your TiVo box. According to the recent press release, Starting today, TiVo users can subscribe to and watch a broad range of video content available through Real Simple Syndication (“RSS”) feeds, including everything from network nightly newscasts and The Sesame Street Podcast to Daily Headlines from MTV News and College Humor from CHTV. The application also gives consumers access to niche interest and hobbyist videos covering areas far more specialized than cable and satellite channels. Again, the Desktop Plus software is $24.95 and is PC-only. There’s also a free PC version that supports fewer video formats and doesn’t handle the RSS stuff and a Mac version that only does photos and music (you can use the $150 $70 Roxio Toast 8 to handle video transfers). TiVo ToGo [TiVo.com] via Zatz Not Funny! → Read More
…at least in patent-world. AppleInsider found a patent related to an AppleTV DVR interface for picking programs to record. Since it was filed in October 2006, this might have been a feature they left out because all of Apple was drunk the week they made the Apple TV and left out the DVR part — that’s just my guess, seeing as how the thing has pretty much sucked on wheels until firmware 2.0 and even then it’s no great shakes. Anger at being force to still use my SD TiVo aside, it seems like a cool addition to the wee box but would definitely require a hardware refresh. Apple TV DVR interface revealed in patent filings [AppleInsider] → Read More
Some boffin over at Rice University has decided that five years from now, the capacity of DVRs will be such that we’ll be able to record HD video from ten channels at once, and keep it going for two weeks straight. That’s all fine and dandy, but what the professor has failed to take into account is that channel-based TV is on its way out even now, and the popularization of DVRs is symptomatic of consumer dissatisfaction with that system. Customers aren’t going to want to spend $500 to upgrade to another version of the same thing when the next generation — on demand TV — is staring them in the face right now in 2008. And in 2013? Please, do you really think they’ll even want a DVR when they have a hoverboard? DVR Capacity Going to Skyrocket? [G4TV] → Read More
The PS3′s PlayTV add-on — essentially a DVR for the PS3 — will go on sale in Europe in March for about $150. Not word on US availability. There are also reports that content recorded by PlayTV will not be copy-protected and that you will be able to drop video onto MPEG-2 compatible devices without DRM. Sony stamps on PlayTV date and price listing [GamesIndustry] → Read More
When the TiVo HD box was announced, there was a pretty substantial price gap between it ($299) and the original Series3 box ($799) but the differences between the two didn’t seem enough to justify the purchase of the more expensive unit. After a $200 holiday rebate on the original Series3, TiVo has just about run out of stock and will not be replenishing its supply. → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf Here’s a quick first look at the Comcast + TiVo interface that’s recently become available in the Boston area. Pros: Way better than the alternative Comcast DVR interface from 1982, it’s TiVo, dual tuner + HD for about what you’d pay per month for TiVo except you don’t have to shell out $299 up front for the TiVo HD box, Comcast OnDemand feature is intact. Cons: It’s way slower than “real” TiVo, no home networking or Internet features We also found out from sources that the required technician visit is a temporary measure to make sure installations go smoothly. In the near future, it’ll be a software push upon request. You’ll just need to pick up a new TiVo remote at your local office. Actually, you don’t need to pick one up because the regular Comcast remote works. Also, the networking features will be here in a later software update, except for things that would otherwise cut into Comcast’s revenue, like downloading Amazon Unbox movies and things like that. So you’ll be able to share videos and photos across the network and maybe view Internet video, but you’ll not be able to purchase videos or movies from anywhere besides Comcast. If anyone has any questions, please let me know and I’ll try to dig up the answers. → Read More
[photopress:pipelinehd_lr_.jpg,full,center] Product Name: Seagate PipelineHD Series Hard Disc Drives Description: A hard drive that’s specifically built for high def DVRs with (initially) up to 1TB in storage space Price: TBA In-store date: First-half of 2008 Site: Seagate Why it’s cool: Because storing high def, DVR’d content takes up an obscene amount of space. PipelineHD is not only large enough for 200 hours, or 8.3 days, of high-def content, but it uses propreitary technology to be as quiet as possible—nothing kills the charm of movies like “Once” like the ear-piercing sound of HDD access. → Read More
