Dave Zatz

Hulu’s Growing Pains & A Live “TV” Solution?

The Wall Street Journal has a fascinating (and lengthy) take on Hulu’s story arc. The free online television service has become one of the most-watched online video properties in the U.S. and a top earner of web-video ad dollars since its 2008 launch. But its owners—industry powerhouses NBC Universal, News Corp. and Walt Disney Co.—are … Read more

Microsoft Sues TiVo (Again)

Generally speaking, patent litigation bores us. However, we offer up this (abbreviated) story in the name of completeness. Given TiVo’s success in extracting $100 million from Echostar/DISH, they set their patent infringement sights on AT&T and Verizon. As AT&T U-Verse television service is powered by Microsoft’s Mediaroom, MS joined the fray and sued TiVo. Apparently, Softie’s initial … Read more

TiVo’s Charter Deal & Multi-Room Clues

TiVo’s gone ahead and inked themselves another deal with a cable provider: Charter Communications, Inc. and TiVo Inc., today announced that Charter is setting its strategy for the next generation of television into motion with TiVo Inc. Charter and TiVo have finalized a multi-year agreement that will leverage the TiVo user interface to bring a … Read more

A Few FiOS TV DVR Notes (versus TiVo)

fios-gear1

As regulars know, we recently left the cable hegemony behind in favor of Verizon’s FiOS TV…. to overcome switched digital video (SDV) tuning adapter flakiness and a CCI Byte content lockdown that essentially neutered our TiVo ecosystem. And, on the technological front, we couldn’t be happier. (But I may follow up with a less glowing billing and support post, as many of you cautioned.)

We’re a three TV/DVR household, although currently only possess two televisions — one powered by a TiVo Premiere and the other powered by the Verizon FiOS DVR shown above. So the question is, what DVR will power TV #3 when the time comes?

Now that Cox Communication’s CCI Byte “guilty until proven innocent” restriction is behind me, TiVo once again provides multi-room viewing. Although my mothballed TiVo HD and Series 3 may not have the bandwidth to move content wirelessly in real time between DVRs, the way I could Premiere to Premiere. On the FiOS TV front, most of us are still running Interactive Media Guide (IMG) 1.8… which doesn’t utilize a 16:9 UI and multi-room viewing is limited to a DVR hub feeding set-tops. However, testing is underway for version 1.9 and deployment should begin in the near future. And I’m quite interested…

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DOTD: 32″ Sony Bravia HDTV with Integrated Blu-ray @ $470

Today’s deal of the day comes to us via Dell’s official eBay account… Where they appear to be liquidating a number of new 32″ Sony Bravia LCD HDTVs. We’re probably in agreement that 32″ is too small to act as a primary television. However, it could be a reasonable size for a bedroom or den. … Read more

The Southeastern US GPS PSA

ZNF insider “MethodicJon” caught Engadget’s coverage of potential GPS interruption and suggested we run a public service announcement. And so we are. From the FAA advisory to pilots: The Department of Defense will conduct GPS tests on January 20th through February22nd, 2011. During testing, the GPS signal may be unreliable or unavailable. As you can see from … Read more

Researching the Galaxy Tab… From an iPad

You’ve probably noticed I’ve got an iPad in the house. And, along with the loaner, comes some mixed feelings. It still doesn’t really solve a problem I have, falling as it does between my smartphone collection and MacBook Air. In fact, the first few weeks I possessed the iPad, I only pulled it out when my iPhone was on empty. On the other hand, the software (apps), features, and new use cases are beginning to catch up to the promise of the form factor.

With that in mind, I’ve said all along I’ll probably pick up an iPad 2 whenever Apple chooses to grace us with one. I expect the next iteration will be a bit more practical, hopefully lighter weight and with a SD card reader as rumored. Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard case of some sort, I could see possibly retiring my laptop (and picking up an iMac or Wind0ws 7 equivalent).

Yet we’re not there. And who knows when we will be. But Apple isn’t the only game in town…

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Live NHL Video Streaming Now Available On iPad

During the hubbub of CES, I seemed to have overlooked news that live NHL streaming has come the iPad. But, boy how I’ve made up for lost time these last two evenings. Basically, the NHL iPad app is free… but to enable video, one needs a subscription to GameCenter Live. It’s not inexpensive. Yet, it could … Read more