Dave Zatz

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Firefly HTPC Remote Control Review: Brent Evans Geek Tonic Grand Theft Auto IV, Diary Entry #1: The Daleisphere Grand Theft Auto IV, Diary Entry #2: The Daleisphere Cheaper All-Digital, All-HD and All-Switched: Media Experiences 2 Go NCTA on Switched Digital Video and CableCARD: Connected Home … Read more

Sezmi Demystified

Mari and I sat in on the Sezmi webcast briefing earlier this week and we’ve been slow in covering the news… As it turns out, this gives me an opportunity to provide some clarity in response to the widespread confusion. At a high level, Sezmi (formerly Building B) is a video service with the goal … Read more

Network Remote Control of TiVo (iPhone!)

The latest TiVo hack doesn’t actually require any hacking. Last fall, TiVo partnered up with Creston to integrate the Series3 into their home automation framework. While I haven’t heard anything since, it turns out the hooks are wide open (via Omikron) to any application or hardware on one’s home network – and possibly well beyond by implementing router port fowarding. Until something more polished is developed, the telnet protocol allows you to manually feed a variety of remote commands to a networked TiVo. For example, in the video above, I’m using a terminal application on my jailbroken iPhone as a rudimentary WiFi remote control. There’s some real interesting potential here…

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The Firefly Remote

SnapStream, the folks behind Beyond TV DVR software, offered Team ZNF a look at the Firefly RF media center remote control ($50). While Brent‘s finalizing his review, he shipped the remote back to play with before we give it away on ZNF. The Firefly controls a wide variety of media apps out of the box, … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Comcast Launches AnyRoom: Media Experiences 2 Go Mac Mini as Windows HTPC: Brent Evans Geek Tonic Grand Theft Gamestop: Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection New Motorola VDSL2 Gateways: Media Experiences 2 Go Teaching Time Warner Clear QAM: Brent Evans Geek Tonic Femtocells, Region by Region: Media … Read more

The NCTA State of the Union Call

After probably feeling some heat online in the last week or so (here and here for example), the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) rounded up a bunch of journalists (mainstream press and bloggers) for a conference call today. They presented a bit of CableCARD history in how we got here (SDV) and where we’re … Read more

Dash Express Unboxing

The FedEx man dropped off a new goodie early this AM. What makes the Dash Express auto GPS ($400, plus service) unique is the integrated Internet connectivity (WiFi and GPRS cellular), expanding point of interest (POI) search possibilities and enhancing real-time traffic data by feeding customer driving experiences back into the cloud. I haven’t done … Read more