Shameful to say, but I’ve never owned a Tivo. It’s on my Xmas list, for myself, but seeing as I’m entrenched in the Time Warner Moxi mayhem (I have their box and 60 shows setup) it’s hard for me to escape their clutches. Course, I’m digging this leaked Tivo interface so much, I might make the switch. I truly appreciate the PIP effect at the top of the screen.
It’s probably safe to say that this is close to the real thing, or an iteration there of, otherwise Tivo wouldn’t have requested that they pull it from the sources site.
Samsung’s MediaLive HDTV Media Center Extender is set to arrive on October 15. This sleek looking device attaches to the back of a compatible Samsung HDTV (with a HDMI-CEC connection) and streams content from a network-connected Vista Windows Media Center PC.
In addition to displaying all your media files, it allows you to view, pause, and record live TV through the TV tuner of the PC. And if that’s not enough you can also watch online content through Youtube, Amazon Unbox, Movielink, Netflix, etc.
DirecTV, which has a Tivo HD in the works, is going all in on the DVR tip. In short, the HDPC-20 is supposed to make it a snap to get hi-def content on your PC with DVR functionality and presumably an EPG. The additional value adds are unspecified special features thanks to Windows, a remote, all in one media (movies, music, etc), powerful search functions and streaming to Windows compatible devices, such as the Xbox 360.
I’ll take a Tivo, thank you. No word on price or release date.
A company named NDS ran a survey of just over 1,000 people in the US, UK, Australia and Italy. Compared to household items (hair dryer, washing machine, blender, etc) the DVR was ranked number 3. Compared to gadgets (cell phones, radio, landline) number 2. Interesting enough, Italians ranked the hair dryer higher than the DVR. What’s more interesting you ask? Survees believe that the DVR has improved their relationship with their spouse. The last piece of notable data is the increase in DVR usage from 2003 , which was 2% to 20% in 2008 (US only).
Now they just need to hurry up and form a partnership with Time Warner (I can wish, right) so I can ditch my Moxi box. No offense to Moxi, but Tivo has a superior product. There isn’t a ton of news to divulge here, but from what I’ve gathered DirecTV users can continue to enjoy the Tivo box and will soon have access to a Tivo HD box specifically designed for DirecTV.
Get the KWorld PlusTV ATSC 340U TV tuner for an amazing $14.99 w/ free 3-day shipping after mail in rebate. Click here: Newegg.com
This dongle plugs into your USB port and catches over-the-air HD channels or unencrypted QAM signals. Pair this with a PVR program such as the free GB-PVR and you’ll have a very low cost media center that provides live TV pause, play, record functionality.
The Popcorn Hour A-110 networked media tank is not your average media player. Following on the heels of the highly regarded A-100, the updated version adds several enhancements including SATA hard drive support, USB slave functionality, HDMI 1.3a, optical S/PDIF, and a built-in popcorn machine…well, maybe it doesn’t actually make popcorn but an overworked hard disk inside could, in theory, generate enough heat to pop some kernels?
Now that I wasted your time with technical specs, what does it actually do? Basically, it’s a media enclosure that allows you to play all sorts of video/audio/image files (XVID, H.264, AVI, MPEG, MP3, AAC, JPEG, BMP, ABC, 123, you get the idea). Add your own hard disk, network it to your PC, download Bittorrents directly sans PC, watch YouTube or other online videos, listen to internet radio, and more. Now hook it up to your TV using a host of outputs including HDMI, component, s-video, or composite. Then sit back, relax and there you have it, the Popcorn Hour.
Not a whole lot to tell. I’m guessing the interface is tailored to Tivo remotes. David from Zatznotfunny says it’s encoded in H.264 as opposed to MPEG-2, which is apparently the Tivo standard. The YouTube functionality will only be available to Series3 customers.
Expect the service, or addon, to roll out over the next week or so.
I’ve got a Netflix Player review unit right now and I gotta say I am pretty impressed. Don’t worry, I’ll knock out a review soon enough, but then again there are a number of other ‘reviews’ out there already. Anyway, back to the story at hand. According to Silicon Alley Insider, The Netflix Player might get a firmware update allowing it to stream other online sources. Youtube seems reasonable since it’s largely clips and user generated movies. I’d go ahead an rule out any other service, like Hulu, since that competes directly with Netflix’s paid offering.
The jury is still out on this one, at least for me. The Hauppage 1212 is a DVR that allows you to record 1080i or 720p content in H.264 compression. It’s got a bunch of outputs, allows you to convert your old video tapes to digital, but at the end of the day you’ll still need a computer to store all the information. What’s kind of cool, is that you can set a variable output rate ranging from 1Mbs to 13.5MBs when outputting to DVD. Included is a the WinTV scheduler but you’ll have to depend on the ‘blaster’ remote to change the channel, which sounds all a bit too sketchy especially when you’ve got die-hard-can’t-miss-an-episode Lost fans.
