Dave Zatz Bear Stearns is out with a new report today suggesting DirecTV (DTV) may warm to the idea of renewing ties with TiVo under Liberty Media’s ownership, leaving Murdoch’s NDS venture behind. Or perhaps choosing to upsell a TiVo solution. We believe the new DTV management may be more amenable to renewing a relationship with TiVo. … Read more
Apple has followed Amazon Unbox’s lead in offering weekly 99 movie rental specials. Call it a loss leader – these sales reinforce their respective movie rental service offerings. When we still had the bedroom 32″ SDTV, we often enjoyed Amazon’s discounted films via TiVo. (Though we haven’t enjoyed watching them on our HDTVs – letter … Read more
Both Mari and I have a Pinnacle PCTV HD Pro Stick, though neither one of us is currently using it. However, don’t let that deter you… If you have a need, this is a decent product and a decent price (refurb): $45 shipped via Woot. In addition to using it with Pinnacle’s software, I believe … Read more
I’d like to thank Ben for loaning me his Apple TV at a good time. The folks behind Airfoil, which I’ve never heard of until today, just released an application update that streams any audio from a Mac or Windows PC to Apple TV (or other Macs, PCs, and Airport Expresses, too). In under a … Read more
Quite a few seemed to think today would be the day Microsoft and Netflix jointly announce a (new) Xbox 360 video service at the Game Developers Conference. However, I wasn’t optomistic. And it didn’t happen. While I’d like to see a revitalized Live Marketplace and expect it’d be good for both companies, it’ll take some … Read more
Coming Soon: Apple TV v. Vudu v. Xbox 360
Yesterday’s other big news was the beta release of DVD Jon‘s DoubleTwist software – that aims to be the Swiss army knife of multimedia conversion, sharing, and syncing. The feature (rightfully) garnering the most attention is the behind-the-scenes conversion of DRM-ed iTunes into unprotected MP3s for playlist synchronization onto non-iPods. Though, being a video geek … Read more
With the exception of ~1 million owners, the HD DVD story pretty much concluded today when Toshiba pulled the plug: Toshiba Corporation today announced that it has undertaken a thorough review of its overall strategy for HD DVD and has decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders. Toshiba … Read more