Dave Zatz, Author at Zatz Not Funny!

Reward Zone Loyalty Program Revamped As "My Best Buy"

Best Buy has just announced they are replacing their “Reward Zone” loyalty program with “My Best Buy” — promising greater rewards, such as free shipping, and more mobile integration, including bonus points for “checking in” at stores. And certainly my Best Buy expenditures have increased given permanent Amazon price matching (and their recent store redesign doesn’t hurt). … Read more

Netflix Lands On Virgin Media TiVo (Other Updates, Too)

Netflix was just enabled on about 40,000 Virgin Media TiVo boxes housed in Peterborough, Crawley, Andover, Londonderry and Swindon (UK) as a pilot – with all 1.7 million deployed units expected to receive the app later this year. Beyond enhancing the experience for Virgin/TiVo customers, this deal is also notable as the first time Netflix has been offered via a pay television provider. And TiVo CEO Tom Rogers referred to the licensing complexity yesterday from a Merrill Lynch conference:

We enabled Netflix, as I said, through our retail device but because of the peculiarity of the over-the-top studio agreements, Netflix couldn’t be offered to a cable owned set-top box and still can’t be. I personally believe that’s going to be solved […] Virgin Media, because you have a different rights situation over there, Netflix could offer itself through a cable operator owned set-top box.

Related, RCN has stated publicly they’d like to bring Netflix to their US cable customers and were “eager to reopen the dialogue” back when Netflix’s STARZ agreement had expired… yet we haven’t heard anything more on the matter.

We have a love-hate relationship with the CableCARD. -Tom Rogers, TiVo CEO

TiVo Ramps Up Network PVR (With Entone)

Life beyond the lawsuit… we’re beginning to get a clearer picture of TiVo’s long term intentions and they appear quite focused on delivering advanced television software and services on whatever platform potential operator partners have in mind. And, with an emphasis on the European market, TiVo is promoting a new Network PVR solution and IPTV integration from IBC. Europe, via Virgin Media, already represents about 50% of installed TiVo units and may grow at a faster rate given new initiatives underway and this Continental lingo, including “PVR” and “catchup” TV. Beyond a greater willingness from overseas Tier 1 providers to play ball, TiVo also recognizes some cost savings with foreign deployments. From CEO Tom Rogers at their quarterly call:

With our international deployments, all of that infrastructure is hosted by the operator and, therefore, our direct cost of service tends to be significantly lower than it does here in the U.S.

We previously caught an ActiveVideo demo of a cloud-based TiVo experience running via Roku (!), yet it’s looks like this IBC iteration of the TiVo nPVR runs on a Harmonic back-end infrastructure, piped through through Entone Kamai 500 and Cubiware/Evolution Digital set-top boxes.

The most interesting tidbit from TiVo’s recent announcements are the potential social features (which may or may not make it to US retail Roamio customers):

Toyota Drops Entune App Platform Subscription Fees

Toyota’s Entune is another mediocre product I never found the motivation to review. Available in a variety of vehicles the last few years, Entune rounds out Toyota’s Navigation and Bluetooth capabilities with a few apps… that receive their data via your cellphone’s connection. It’s not that it’s horrible, but the experience is quite limited compared … Read more

Breaking down the PS Vita TV: Why Sony's $100 set-top box is more than a consolation prize

Roku Android App Updated To Stream Video

The Roku Android app has just been updated to stream video from phone to television, as recently introduced on the iPhone. As you might expect, we’re talking unencrypted content and there’s probably some limitations in terms of codec and container. Although I’d assume anything shot natively on your ‘droid would work. Initial support is limited … Read more

Arris & Sling Media Launch Cable Slingbox

The previously unannounced Arris Slingbox that I had stumbled upon at the Cable Show is now ready for its closeup: Arris Group and Sling Media are introducing a new media streaming device that empowers service providers to offer live and recorded content for a comprehensive multiscreen experience for their subscribers…welcome to TV anywhere. The ARRIS MS4000 (Media Streamer … Read more