Dave Zatz

Vista Media Center to Support SDV (But how?)

Chris Lanier reports that Microsoft has pledged researching support for switched digital video:

We [MS] are working to enable support for the CableLabs SDV Tuning Adaptor for Windows Media Center Digital Cable Tuners, ensuring that Windows Media Center users will be able to access switched content.

Ben Drawbaugh believes a PC-based USB connection should be sufficient to control the tuning adapter, while Chris contends new CableCARD tuners with USB ports will be required. Regardless of the implementation, I seriously doubt VMC users will have the ability to access switched channels this year. For those impacted, the best short-term solution to access all digital programming via PC is by renting a cable-co set-top box and recording programming using SageTV in conjunction with the Happauge HD PVR.

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Sling Media Founder backs BitGravity

Last month I learned that Sling Media founder Blake Krikorian backed video CDN BitGravity. Not only is Sling a customer (presumably in regards to the forthcoming Sling.com), my former leader (and Rock Band compatriot) was a participant in BitGravity’s first round of funding ($2.5 million) and has landed on their board. It’s a good time … Read more

80GB PS3 with DualShock now Available

While Amazon and SonyStyle don’t yet have inventory, the new 80GB Playstation 3 SKU slated for a September release started shipping to various other retail outlets as early as August 20th. In fact, my local GameStop received inventory last week. And today I swapped my (former) Xbox 360 for the new PS3. Sony’s more compact … Read more

ZNF ‘Round The Web

Trying something a bit different here.. We often find ourselves commenting on a variety of stories around the blogosphere. Topics that we’d maybe like to cover but just don’t get to, content that is slightly off topic, or news that doesn’t justify an entire post. So the experiment here will be aggregating some of our … Read more