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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → 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… → Read More
Credit: Steve Garfield CC BY-NC-SA It’s been over two years since Comcast announced that its DVR boxen would be getting the TiVo treatment, with nothing materializing yet. That is, of course, unless your name is Steve Garfield, of the Boston area, in which case your DVR is now a TiVo. Garfield is apparently the first customer in the country to get the upgrade, and things are going about how… → Read More
It would be tempting to come up with a snarky headline for this story, such as “TiVo changing channels”, but we’ll spare you. In fact, we’re going to make a general summarization: TiVo is doing better than analysts thought it would, and that’s because it’s concentrating on working with content providers, not just using what they create. NBC, for example, after… → Read More
Your TiVo box added a wee bit o’ usefulness today with the inclusion of Photobucket and Picasa compatibility. You can view your own photos, other people’s photos that you’ve been given the ability to access, and you can also customize photo feeds and view photos that have been tagged with specific keywords. Anyone try this out yet? I’m gonna fire my TiVo up this afternoon… → Read More
I found this here. I do not know what it is and I am very scared. Nobody likes cable companies, but now you have a reason to loathe Comcast a little less. New England Comcast customers can pay $2.95 a month to get the TiVo interface in their cable box in addition to the normal $16.94 a month charge for a DVR, ratcheting the cost up to about $19.89. This is a good move for Comcast because it makes… → Read More
Let’s face it. Much of TiVo’s charisma is due to its excellent software interface. The boxes are nice, yes, but the real power is in the UI. Well TiVo and Nero have just struck a deal wherein "Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer." Hot damn. No word on timeframe or how much it’ll cost but this is good news… → Read More
Oh hey. Ya, they got them TiVo in Canada now, you betcha. You can get a Series 2 dual-tuner DVR for $199 CAD or $10,223 USD, considering the exchange rate. You also got to get yourself a TiVo subscription, ya, and it’ll be available at Best Buy, The Brick, Ye Olde Maple and Moose Shoppes, Beer ‘n’ Pancakes ‘n’ DVRs, Bruce’s Hockey and Electronics Store, and Geez… → Read More
Wow, this is a good one. I bought a single tuner TiVo last year for around the same price (maybe even more). This offer is $125 for a dual-tuner Series2 TiVo with 80-hour recording time and an entire year of service. The deal ends on December 28th, so you do have some time to mull it over. Enter promo code "Toyota" without the quotes. Toyota Owners Online [TiVo] via FatWallet → Read More
The Bullet DVR system is a portable video recorder designed for racing. It records all of your racing action from a first-person point of view and can be played back on a Windows PC. TrackTimer, a provided app, will allow you to log your lap times, jetting, gearing, suspension and fuel consumption. If you’re a struggling serious racer, this could be a great tool to study your driving skills… → Read More
Thinking of buying a TiVo soon? You’ll enjoy discounted service rates if you make your purchase between now and February 2nd. Monthly dues have gone from $16.95 to $12.95, 1 year prepay has gone from $179 to $129, 2 year prepay has gone from $279 to $249, and 3 year prepay is staying the same at $299. Unfortunately, this offer only applies to new TiVo customers. Existing customers can… → Read More
As a current TiVo and former Rhapsody subscriber, the idea of putting the two together intrigues me. What doesn’t intrigue me is paying $17 a month for TiVo and another $13 a month to use Rhapsody on it. I like the services and all but $30 a month seems a little steep, especially on top of the extortion money that I have to shell out to Comcast every month to rent (against my will) a… → Read More
In the New England area (where I live) Comcast just started rolling out set-top DVRs equipped with TiVo software. It’s sure gonna be hard for me to say goodbye to Comcast’s awesome user interface. Pretty soon, I’ll have to use TiVo’s crappy, stupid interface instead. → Read More
Fancy listening to music on your TiVo? The company today is expected to announce a deal with Real’s Rhapsody to allow its users to sign up (for $13 per month) and listen to the more than 3.5 million songs right from the DVR. Further details are still sketchy—I bet TiVo’s not too happy that word of this partnership leaked, considering there’s supposed to be an event tonight… → Read More
OK, when I first got wind of this rumor a couple days ago, I dismissed it. It’s something that I chalked up to background chatter. The thing is, I got a second email today from another source who’s always been right, so now this thing is looking more like a real deal. Rumormonger One told me that Vizio, you know, the HDTV guys, were getting ready to build hard drives into their TVs. → Read More
You may be able to get a DVR with your cable box, but nothing comes close to being able to record shows and burn them to a DVD. So it makes sense that years-old DVD-recorders are going for as much as $1800 on Amazon.com and eBay. Consumers aren’t able to find boxes that can both record and burn shows without a monthly fee in stores anymore, so they’re turning to the Internet in hopes… → Read More
Wolverine, some company no one has heard of, will be shipping its new ESP 5250 portable media jukebox this week. Designed for the consumer who likes watching movies while on the move, the 5250 packs 250GB of storage and has a multi-format card reader for additional storage. You can throw either 80,000 songs or 500 hours of video (depending on your codecs, etc.) on this bad boy to ensure that any… → Read More
Me: Santa, I’d like a PS3 for Christmas. Santa: I thought you hated the PS3. Me: Well, I did but Warwick Light, head of marketing for Sony in New Zealand, has made an announcement that’s making me eat my words. You see, Freeview is a free digital television and radio provider in NZ and Sony is hoping to support their terrestrial digital broadcast service by March 2008. Santa: That’s not… → Read More
It’s one thing to watch over-the-air HDTV on giant, 70-inch plasma display, but it’s quite another to watch such programming on your MacBook or iMac (or whatever other Mac you have nearby). Elgato’s Mac-only HDHomeRun combines a digital TV tuner and EyeTV software in one smart, if not awfully named, package. You’ll need to supply your own ATSC antenna or unscrambled cable… → Read More
If you’re the kind of person who’s reading a blog like this one, chances are pretty decent you’ve gotten yourself a handy DVR. You know, like a TiVo or the new digital boxes Comcast hands out. And you’re not alone: according to the Carmel group, in just 3 years 50% of those with cable TV will also have a DVR, and that number is expected to rise in the future. Of course, we… → Read More
The TiVo Series3 DVR is about to get a little more affordable, according to a recent Ars Technica article. A product with the model number “TCD652160″ has apparently been popping up intermittently on retail websites in the past few days and is believed to be the new “Series3 Lite” as it’s been christened by the TiVo community. General consensus is that the new device… → Read More
Groundbreaking! Hey, John, I like FiOS. Nuts to your crazy, East Asian “technology,” OK? Now, thanks to Zatz, I can look (no touching!) at FiOS TV 2.0, what the kids will call IMG. The jazzed up interface++, which now includes super helpful widgets and a free hard drive space indicator(!), is currently available in select FiOS neighborhoods. Verizon is expected to announce IMG’s… → Read More
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