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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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