ReplayTVBlog

Roku has introduced their Netflix Player, a new set top box that’s about the size of a paperback book and will let you stream movies from the huge Netflix movie library right to your TV without a computer. Priced at $99.99, it’s cheaper than competing devices from Apple and TiVo, but it also does less — much less. In fact, all it does is let you select a movie from the Netflix library to watch and then it streams it directly to your TV.

While that may sound like a limitation, I think it’s actually an advantage. Sometimes, simple is good. For most people, when they want to watch a movie all they want to do is choose their movie and then have it play. They don’t need to see the DVD cover on the screen, know the bio of every actor in the movie, or even how long it is. They just want to watch the movie. This is where the Netflix Player will excel. Choose your movie and watch it — No PC Needed!
Of course, the Netflix Player doesn’t appear to be perfect. You don’t have access to the entire Netflix library, but hopefully this will improve over time. The other weakness is that you can only stream movies from the Netflix library. It would be nice to eventually be able to stream video from other sources (like YouTube) but for now it’s Netflix or nothing.

Shortcomings aside, is a simple to use device that does what it says it does and does it well — something that’s pretty rare these days in technology products.

Technorati Tags: Netflix, Roku, TiVo, Apple

Popularity: 2%

Now that the new Video iPod is out in the wild, it was only a matter of time before someone figured out a quick and easy way to get your own videos and TV Shows on your iPod.

And if you have a ReplayTV, it gets even better. Gizmodo has posted instructions for transferring your ReplayTV Shows to your iPod that were emailed to them by one of their readers. The process seems pretty simple — basically, after getting your shows onto your computer using DVArchive, you just convert them to an iPod video format, which is where a shareware program called PSPVideo9 comes in.

This program converts any mpeg2 video file to a PSP compatible video but it will also work with an iPod. PSPVideo9 is simple to use and apparently quick — the author of the instructions said converting a 30 minute video only took about 16 minutes!

After the video is converted, all you have to do is drag and drop it onto your video iPod.

I’m not psychic, but I think I see a video iPod in my immediate future …

Technorati Tags: iPod, Apple, ReplayTV

Popularity: 21%

Veoh.com has been around for a while now as a video sharing site similar to YouTube. But now, they are preparing to launch their new application, VeohTV, which they are calling a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) for Internet Video. Basically they are saying that it will be similar to a ReplayTV or TiVo but instead of recording from a cable or satellite TV source VeohTV will record and store Internet Video sources.

As it appears now (it’s still in beta testing), VeohTV will arrange videos from the Internet into something similar to a Channel Guide that you would see on a TV Cable box or DVR. For example, most of the major networks now offer streaming video of the full episodes of their prime time shows on the Internet. So if I wanted to watch the latest episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, I could go to the NBC website and watch it there. With VeohTV, I will have an NBC.com channel, and (somehow) they will have all the available videos listed and I can record them and watch them at anytime through VeohTV.

Of course, this is all speculation. Currently, VeohTV is in closed beta testing and is only available by invitation. But these features (as described on the VeohTV site) are what they are expecting to be in the final version, which is scheduled to be released sometime later this summer.

We’ll have to wait and see what the final product looks like, but VeohTV sounds good. Maybe too good to be true, but I’m hoping …

Technorati Tags: Veoh, VeohTV, DVR, TiVo, ReplayTV

Popularity: 20%

Mike Ramsay, former TiVo CEO (and now just your average TiVo board member), recently told the Sunday Herald that TiVo may be returning to the UK.
It won’t be in the set top box form we’re used to seeing here in the US, but as the DVR software most likely embedded in a Freeview set top box. TiVo would still handle the guide service, similar to the deal that TiVo has with Comcast in the US.

TiVo was originally available in the UK, but had to pull out to cut costs. Hopefully this return to the UK is a good sign for TiVo. I doubt they would even be considering this expansion if there cash flow and current business situation were not improving.

Technorati Tags: TiVo, DVR, PVR, Comcast, Freeview

Popularity: 21%

Engadget has the scoop on the latest entry in the Portable Media Player (PMP) market — the Maxian M800 PMP. This portable device will not only play a variety of video formats on the go on its 4.3 inch color screen, it also can record from just about any video source (including TV) to it’s internal 30GB Hard Drive. While 30GB may not seem like a lot of storage when it comes to video, it’s certainly enough to take a couple of movies on the road.

But, as seems to be the case with alot of the PMP devices, the M800 will most likely not be available in North America. I’m not sure if this is due to fears of copyright infringement on the part of the manufacturer or just (what the manufacturers believe) is a lack of interest, but it’s a shame that we won’t be able to get this in the US. You would think that after seeing the success of the Video iPod in the US, PMP makers would realize that there is a large market for these devices in the US.

Technorati Tags: Maxion, PMP, Portable Media Player, iPod

Popularity: 22%

Another win for Consumers and a definite blow to the Cable Companies bottom line. A Federal Appeals Court has upheld the recent mandate from the FCC that Cable Companies must provide consumers with CableCards. This means that newer TV’s and TV related devices (like the upcoming TiVo Series 3 DVR) that support the CableCard standard will not need a set top cable box to decode and display digital cable channels. Essentially, Digital Cable TV will be “Plug and Play”.

This is a good thing. Not only will it be easier to setup Digital Cable TV with DVR’s and other set top boxes, but the potential for dual tuners is just a second CableCard away — no more A/B switches and analog basic cable only tuners.

Of course the Cable Companies are not too happy about this mandate. It is estimated that the Cable Companies make approximately $2.5 Billion a year renting cable boxes to consumers. Not only will the CableCard eliminate the need for these boxes, but it will also cost the Cable Companies almost $470 million to implement the new CableCard technology. But don’t feel too bad for the Cable TV Industry. I’m sure they will make up for all that lost revenue by charging us a monthly fee for the CableCards they let us use.

Now I can’t wait to get my hands on a new TiVo Series 3 DVR and stick two cable cards into it — Mmmmmmmm…. Dual Tuner HDTV Recording Goodness!

Technorati Tags: FCC, Cable TV, CableCard, TiVo, DVR, PVR

Popularity: 23%

While we all think of TiVo and ReplayTV as having invented the DVR / PVR in the late 1990’s, apparently the first PVR dates back to 1967. PVRWire has an excellent article on the History of the PVR. In the article they talk about the Ampex HS-100, the first commercial PVR. While it may seem primitive by todays standards (it only holds 30 seconds of video!), for the time it was revolutionary.

While we are calling it a DVR (Digital Video Recorder), I’m not sure that that is 100% correct. If you read the article on PVRWire, they say the Ampex HS-100 records to a digital hard disk but in the comments it is noted that while it may be a disk, it is recording analog video, not digital. Either way, it’s amazing to think that there was something like this that long ago.

Technorati Tags: DVR, PVR, TiVo, ReplayTV, Ampex

Popularity: 22%

One of the most sought after features of any DVR is the ability to effortlessly skip TV Commercials. For all the effort (and money) advertisers put into making commercials, we just don’t want to be forced to watch them. How about AntiVirus for our DVR to get rid of those evil commercials.

Enter a new patent application that was recently filed for a system to detect and eliminate TV Commercials from recordings on a DVR. Basically, this system would involve a database of commercials stored on the DVR and anytime a commercial comes on, the DVR would check it’s database and if it found a matching commercial, it wouldn’t record it.

Of course, an application like this would require that it’s “database” of commercials is constantly updated with new commercials — just like virus definition updates for the AntiVirus program running on your computer!

While this sounds like an interesting idea, I don’t think it will ever be viable as a commercial product. As proven by the ReplayTV and it’s famous commercial advance, the TV industry will never allow such a product to come to market. In the case of ReplayTV and Commercial Advance, they were sued and forced to remove the feature from new ReplayTV models.

But there is always a chance that something like this could be developed as an open source application for Media Center computers . With no company to sue, there would be no real way for the TV industry to stop it.

Technorati Tags: DVR, PVR, ReplayTV, AntiVirus, Commercials

via USA Today

Popularity: 25%

Last year at this time, the Internet was filled with rumors that Google was going to buy TiVo. They has a boatload of extra cash lying around (and apparently they still do) and all the big technology websites were speculating on how Google might spend their hard earned cash. Cnet even reported that they had multiple sources that confirmed that Google was in negotiations to buy TiVo.

Fast forward one year later and the rumors are starting again. But this time, instead of Google buying a DVR / PVR company like TiVo or ReplayTV, they are supposedly creating their own DVR. Thomas Hawk has a post on his Digital Connection blog about the CTO of OpenTV leaving them to go work for Google. He believes that this is an indication that Google is working on some type of DVR. PVR Wire also has a post about the same rumor with some more speculation about some new domains that Google has registered (googletv.com and googlehdtv.net) that they also think may be an indication of something PVR related going on at Google.

If any of this turns out to be true (and it’s all speculation and rumor at this point), what could Google possibly be working on that could compete with the likes of TiVo or the upcoming ReplayTV PC edition. I don’t see Google developing a hardware based DVR (ala TiVo) — they are mainly a software company, not a hardware company. And even if it is a hardware PVR, it doesn’t really fit into their usual business plan of giving away the product for free — this might work for software, but not hardware.

So if it’s anything, it will probably be a software PVR that will run on a Windows based computer. Which will put them in direct competition with the likes of the upcoming ReplayTV PC Edition (Not Free) and SageTV (Also Not Free), which are much more mature offerings but, again, NOT FREE.

If any of this ever comes true (pretty unlikely), it will be interesting to see how a new, immature, and untested software PVR that is being given away for free will fare against tried and true software DVRs (ReplayTV PC Edition, SageTV) that are not free. My guess is, because it’s Google and it’s free, they will have no problem taking a huge share of the DVR market from the existing players. I, for one, will always pay for quality — but I think I’m in the minority. To quote Field of Dreams, Build It and They Will Come — oh, and if you make it free, they will come in droves.

Technorati Tags: DVR, PVR, TiVo, ReplayTV, Google

Popularity: 23%

Apparently, the only way to make a splash on the Internet these days is to take something that costs money and give it away for free. Google did it with Google Analytics (which used to be Urchin and was not cheap) and now Yahoo has done it with Yahoo! Go TV (which used to be Meedio and was not free). Yahoo Go TV is basically free DVR software for your Windows computer that also has a number of media management functions built in — very similar to Windows XP Media Center Edition in many ways.

Yahoo Go TV will run on most Windows based computers, but to take advantage of the DVR functions you will need to have a TV tuner card installed in your computer. I don’t have a TV tuner card in my computer (yet) but hey, it’s free and I’m definitely going to be downloading and installing the beta.

Technorati Tags: Yahoo, Meedio, DVR, PVR, Yahoo GO TV

Popularity: 16%

Craig of Craigslist fame has posted a short entry on his blog about how he thinks that we can save democracy using our TiVo or any DVR / PVR. He apparently had this flash of brilliance while watching The West Wing and reading about how Congress spends more time raising money for re-election TV commercials than actually working.

Craig’s theory is that if everyone with a DVR (TiVo, ReplayTV, etc.) were to fast forward through all TV commercials and completely stop watching TV commercials, Congress might actually do some work! This is based on the assumption that it will be very difficult to replace TV re-election ads for politicians with something that is actually part of a TV show, such as product placement.

This sounds like an interesting theory, but I don’t know if it would actually work. Politicians are a pretty crafty bunch and will most likely figure out a way around this plan. I can just see it now — instead of the stupid Ford ads that we have on American Idol now, we’ll have Hillary Clinton in the Red Room with Ryan Seacrest interviewing the American Idol Top Ten while she campaigns for President.

Technorati Tags: TiVo, DVR, PVR, Democracy, Politics, Hillary Clinton, American Idol, Congress, Craigslist, The West Wing

Popularity: 14%

Matt Haughey of PVRBlog has posted about one of his major pet peeves with his Comcast / Motorola DVR — it can ruin shows (like American Idol) by showing you the live ending to the show while selecting to play the recording show in the DVR menu. Basically, Matt likes to watch American Idol delayed so he can fast forward through the commercials. But his Comcast / Motorola DVR shows the current live TV channel in the upper right corner of the screen while you are in the “My DVR” menu. So, as he was about to start playing American Idol from the beginning from the menu, he saw Ace Young being voted off in the upper corner of the screen, effectively ruining the show.

I definitely feel his pain. For those of us with a Scientific Atlanta DVR from Comcast, we have a problem like Matt’s but even worse. When you are watching a show that is recording on a Scientific Atlanta DVR from Comcast, when the show finishes recording, you are immediately brought to Live TV on that channel. Inevitably what happens is I will be watching American Idol delayed while it is recording and when it finishes recording, I will be thrown to Live TV and will catch the last few seconds of the show, which of course will be enough to let me see who was voted off of American Idol. This has happened to me more than once, and as far as I know there is no solution other than to not start watching American Idol until after it is over.

Unbelieveable as it is, Scientific Atlanta released their DVR with this “bug” and still has not fixed it. While Matt’s problem with his Motorola DVR is a pain in the but quirk, I wouldn’t call it a bug. And this bug is one of the reasons that Scientific Atlanta will lose all of their Cable company customers (like Comcast) to TiVo. As long as Scientific Atlanta is willing to release buggy software like this and not fix it — it has been like this for over a year — they will never be able to compete with TiVo.

It’s things like this that really make me hate Scientific Atlanta!

Technorati Tags: Scientific Atlanta, Comcast, DVR, PVR, TiVo, American Idol, Motorola

Popularity: 13%

The Fox Television Network has announced that they will be making many of their prime time shows available on the Internet. The shows will include 60% of their prime time schedule but they have not yet announced specifically which shows will be available. To make this possible, Fox has signed a six year agreement with their affiliate stations that will share the revenue from showing the shows on the Internet with the Fox affiliate TV stations.

Presumably, they will make money with advertising during the shows, similar to what ABC / Disney is also going to do with their prime time TV shows.

It’s good to see the major TV networks starting to fall into place now and realize that they need to adapt to the Internet and find a new method of broadcasting. While broadcast TV is not going away anytime in the near future, the Internet is definitely becoming another means of delivery for Television content. To survive in the future, TV networks will have to find a way to distribute their shows over the Internet that will bring in the advertising revenue they lose from viewers not watching the shows on regular broacast TV. Offering the shows for free (with advertising and commercials) will also help to defuse the problem of TV shows being downloaded over the Internet for free. When given the choice of paying to download TV shows (iTunes) or downloading them for free, most people will opt for the free lunch!

Technorati Tags: Fox, ABC, Disney, iTunes, TV

Popularity: 6%

ABC has announced that they will start to experiment with streaming some of their TV shows online for free. The shows will be available as a test on the ABC website for the months of May and June and will include Lost, Desperate Housewives, and the entire season of Alias. The shows will contain commercials, although it is unclear if they will be the same as the broadcast commercials.

Finally, a network decides to be innovative and tries to co-exist with new technology instead of attempting to defeat it. Not only are they offering the shows for free, but they may also be trying some new interactive commercials. From the article:

The show’s advertisers, which include AT&T, Cingular, Ford, Procter & Gamble, Toyota , Unilever’s Suave, Universal Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures, plan to experiment with offering users who elect to stream these shows online the ability to click on their ads and receive more information, and possibly long form ads

I hope that this experiment is successful for ABC and the advertisers. Not only could this become a new model for broadcasting TV shows but it could also help to create a new format for TV commercials that is both more interactive and more effective.

Technorati Tags: ABC, TV, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Alias

Popularity: 3%

File this under “We expected this and are suprised it didn’t come sooner” category. In response to Cablevision’s announcement of their upcoming Remote DVR service, all of the lawyers at the major programming networks are reviewing Cablevision’s new service. Surprise, surprise, the major TV Networks don’t like the idea of Cablevision recording all their shows so that viewers can fast forward through commercials. I’m not sure if Cablevision thought that they would be able to sneak this by the networks or if they are ready for a fight, but in the end I don’t think this is going to end well for cable customers. Either Cablevision will make a deal with the networks and probably end up disabling fast forwarding through commercials or Cablevision will back down and cancel the Remote DVR service. Either way, this is just another good reason for having a stand alone DVR (TiVo, ReplayTV, Windows XP Media Center, etc.) that is not controlled by cable companies and TV networks.

Technorati Tags: DVR, PVR, Cablevision, Cable, TiVo, ReplayTV, Windows XP Media Center

Popularity: 3%

MythTV is finally getting some mainstream press! The Wasington Post has an article that attempts to explain what MythTV is to those not in the know. I wouldn’t call the article comprehensive but it does give a brief account of the history of MythTV and then attempts to explain what MythTV is and how somebody would get it. Of course, the obligatory comparisons to TiVo are there (since that’s what everybody knows) and the article does a good job of explaining what MythTV is from a high level. They even touch on the KnoppMyth project and link to a couple of companies that sell ready made MythTV systems, MagicITX and iDOTpc.

It’s good to see the MythTV project getting some publicity — while it may not be for alot of people, it’s definitely for more people than are currently aware of it. Hopefully, this will raise awareness of MythTV and the DVR in general.

Technorati Tags: MythTV, DVR, PVR, TiVo, ReplayTV, KnoppMyth, Washington Post

Popularity: 6%

Over at XYZ Computing they have posted a great article on How to Build Your Own Mini-ITX DVR. This is actually the third part in a series of articles on building a tiny Mini-ITX based computer. In the beginning, the Mini-ITX motherboard booted a very small Linux distribution off of a flash drive and was not very powerful, but definitely small and quiet. The second part of the series added a better “cube” shaped case, more cooling, and it booted a larger Linux distribution from a CD and could actually save data to a Comact Flash card.

In this, the third part in the series, XYZ Computing shows how they took their existing Mini-ITX system and added a hard drive and Video Capture Card with TV Tuner so that they could turn it into a DVR running MythTV that could replace a TiVo or ReplayTV.

This is a project that I have been thinking about tackling sometime in the near future and it’s interesting to see someone else’s approach to this idea. While I think that their final Mini-ITX / DVR system is nice, there are some things I plan on doing differently. For one thing, I think that the noise level is extremely important when building a computer that is going to be in the living room next to the TV and I would like to try and build one that doesn’t need any fans. Either it is water cooled (if possible) or runs cool enough that it doesn’t need any additional cooling — again, if possible. The other thing I know I would do differently is to use a case that is more like an audio or video component case than the tiny cube shaped case that XYZ Computing used. This will be a larger case that will help solve some of the space issues they had inside the cube case and it will fit in better with the rest of my home entertainment system.

With lots of pictures and specific hardware examples, this article will be a great reference for anybody trying to build a Mini-ITX based DVR — I know that I will be referring back to it when I start my DVR project!

Technorati Tags: Mini-ITX, DVR, PVR, TiVo, ReplayTV, MythTV

Popularity: 6%

Starting in May, Comcast will be adding several NBC shows to their Video on Demand (VOD) lineup. The shows will be available to order and watch starting at Midnight on the day following the original airing of the show. It will cost $.99 to order the shows and the following shows will be available:

• Ghost Hunters
• Celebrity Poker Showdown
• Law and Order: SVU
• Law and Order: Criminal Intent
• Passions
• Battlestar Galactica
• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
• Late Night with Conan O’Brien
• Monk
• Conviction
• Las Vegas
• The Office

The list is an interesting mix of shows that are popluar and doing well in the ratings (The Office, Battlestar Galactica) along with some shows that probably need some publicity (Conviction, Ghost Hunters). I’m sure that NBC is hoping that making these shows available on VOD will give them a boost in ratings.

The one real question with this service is who will be able to get it. Apparently, it’s only going to be available in markets where the local NBC affiliate is actually owned by NBC. I don’t know if my local NBC affiliate is actually owned by NBC, but if I get these shows on VOD I will definitely have to try it out and order a couple of them. It will be interesting to see what they do with the commercials — will there be any, will we be able to fast forward through them, etc.

Technorati Tags: Comcast, NBC, VOD, Video on Demand, The Office, Law and Order, Battlestar Galactica

Popularity: 4%

With the announcement by Cablevision earlier this week that they will begin testing their Remote Storage DVR System (RS-DVR), both Comcast and Time Warner have come out in support of Cablevision and their RS-DVR System. At the Bank of America Media, Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference Comcast COO Stephen Burke said: “It’s a great idea. I applaud it.” Burke, along with Time Warner CFO John Martin, said at the conference that the Cable industry is watching Cablevision and that if their tests are successful that they would most likely implement a similar solution.

It seems like the rest of the Cable industry is watching Cablevision to see if they get sued by the broadcast networks. Time Warner had toyed with the idea of implementing a similar service a couple of years back (called Maestro) but abandoned the service amid fears of copyright lawsuits from the TV networks. The difference with Cablevision’s RS-DVR system is that users will select which shows to record and each will have their on storage, initially limited to 80 hours. The Time Warner Maestro system was going to record all TV shows and store them so that users could choose to watch any show they wanted to without having to have scheduled it to record.

If Cablevision’s RS-DVR system works and they are not sued by the broadcast networks, I think that the rest of the Cable companies will probably follow suit and put into place their own Remote Storage DVR solution. So what will this mean for the Comcast / TiVo deal and any future deals that TiVo may be working on with the other Cable companies? If Comcast does go ahead with an RS-DVR system, why would they also offer TiVo boxes — although they could probably offer the TiVo boxes as a “premium” solution, I don’t see many people opting for it. The RS-DVR choice would be cheaper and most people just don’t know how much better a TiVo is compared to your average generic DVR or PVR, which is what the RS-DVR systems will probably be like.

Technorati Tags: Cablevision, Comcast, Time Warner, RS-DVR, DVR, PVR, TiVo

Popularity: 4%

So here’s something that shouldn’t really come as a surprise to anyone — Traditional TV Ads Just Don’t Work Anymore! According to a survey by the Association of National Advertisers, 78 percent of the TV Advertisers surveyed felt that their TV Ads had become less effective in the last two years. The advertisers that were surveyed also said that they were exploring new technologies to help make their ads more effective.

This survey is interesting because it basically shows that advertisers are pretty much giving up on the traditional 30 second TV commercial and possibly TV advertising all together. While survey participants did say they are looking at new technologies to try and make their commercials more effective, 80% of them also said that they would be spending more money on web advertising.

With 80 percent of them looking to spend more money on web advertising, I think they’ve pretty much conceded that TV Advertising is dead. And while they might be right, I also think they just don’t get it. The problem is not that we have DVRs and Video On Demand that lets us fast forward through commercials, it’s that the commercials are so boring and run of the mill that we don’t want to watch them. Most of my TV watching is not live anymore. With 2 DVRs in the house (ReplayTV and Comcast DVR), I don’t watch live TV anymore. So I am always fast forwarding through commercials. But, there are some commercials that I enjoy so much that I will actually stop fast forwarding and rewind just to watch them.

Maybe I’m not the norm when it comes to watching TV commercials, but it seems to me that if the advertisers would just make interesting, clever, and unique commercials, we would actually want to watch them which would be much more effective than commercials we are forced to watch because we can’t skip them.

Technorati Tags: DVR, PVR, ReplayTV, Comcast, Advertising, Commercials

Popularity: 4%