Dave Zatz, Author at Zatz Not Funny!

TiVo Series3 Multi-Room Viewing Is Here! (sort of)

While twiddling my thumbs waiting for the official Multi-Room Viewing (MRV) and TiVoToGo (TTG), I went ahead and cobbled together my own very nice MRV solution.

I’ve read online that the max distance for a non-amplified HDMI cable run may not meet my needs, but quite a few vendors offer long HDMI cables. So I took the plunge and paid $51.01 (including shipping) for Monoprice’s most expensive 35′ HDMI cable. That allowed the living room Series3 to power the 42″ plasma locally via component, while simultaneously powering the 30″ bedroom HDTV via HDMI (with the help of a $5 13/16″ drill bit) as shown below. Video and audio come through very well, and there’s no indication that the source TiVo is out of range.

The next challenge is remotely controlling the TiVo… And at the same time this plan was percolating, Monster offered me their Harmony-powered IR+RF remote (AVL300) for review (MSRP $400). I’ve programmed it to control the bedroom TV via IR and the livingroom Series3 via RF. Response through the walls and around corners has been instantaneous, again with no indication the TiVo is located somewhere else.

Overall, this solution is very nice. I’m enjoying the immediate playback from a remote DVR, including HD content… unlike TiVo’s Multi-Room Viewing which doesn’t always stream (standard def content) real-time without having to wait for the buffer to build. I also like the idea of having one DVR to manage, though I’m limited to recording on the two Series3 tuners. (I still have a Humax DVD-burning TiVo in the bedroom… for now.)

TiVo PayPerPost Update: Program Killed

TiVo has pulled the plug on their PayPerPost advertising program. Following this forum thread, it appears that TiVo did intend to have a 5 second “bumper” on each video indicating it was a paid/sponsored clip – either TiVo or PayPerPost dropped the ball in delivering (and explaining) that asset to participants in a timely fashion. … Read more

First Two Season Passes Dropped

Prior to recording even the first episode, I dropped Bionic Woman. And after watching the debut last night of Discovery’s Last One Standing… I dropped it too. LOS is a reality show in which 6 athletes are shipped around the world to participate in “tribal games.” The problem is about half the locales/games involve combat … Read more

Where’s The Retail Moxi?

While (still) sifting through my accumulation of mail, I caught this Moxi ad in Wired. The moxi.com/wired link redirects to Digeo’s Moxi home page… where there’s no news on their upcoming retail DVRs. Reading between the lines, one could assume the Moxi boxes are either running behind schedule and/or will be making an appearance in … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Place-Shifting Grows Up: Connected Home 2 Go Finding Bandwidth for the DTV Transition: Connected Home 2 Go The Switched Digital Video Update: Connected Home 2 Go Holding Off On The Latest Gadget: TechLore WiMax on Water: Connected Home 2 Go

TiVo v EchoStar: Boredom in the Courtroom

No disrespect to the court, the judges, the attorneys, or anyone else… but, man, was that boring.

Essentially, ~80 of us gathered in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit for a little over an hour while EchoStar and TiVo provided oral argument in Echo’s appeal of TiVo’s lower court jury win in this ongoing DVR patent dispute. Echo’s position is that there were “claim construction issues” in regards to how three patent elements (2 hardware, 1 software) were presented. A whole lot of discussion (judges and lawyers from both sides) focused on the meaning and implication of the words separate (how, when, and physical versus logcial), source object/collection (in regards to software components), and an (is it both singular and plural).

The three judges posed some interesting questions during the proceedings: Why is the jury’s decision invalid? If the appeals court invalidates some of the claims but not all, do monetary awards and injunction terms change? (TiVo says no, Echo says yes.)

I have no inkling of what the outcome will be… and I suspect the case will be largely decided on the contents of the humongous documents (blue book from Echo, red book from TiVo) rather than these oral arguments, which seemed more about clarification.

So what happens next? Apparently, verdicts are put onto the web when they’re ready with no advance notice – Sadly, there won’t be any courtroom theatrics of thrown DVRs. (I’d come back for that!) Sounds like if the lower court’s ruling is simply affirmed, we should hear something in the next week or so. Otherwise, it could be a few months while the judges mull things over and render their decision.

Recognize This Tuner?

In browsing HP’s DigitalLife booth (for both work and pleasure), I stumbled upon a familiar site:

Sure looks a lot like the new-yet-still-destined-to-fail ReplayTV PC hardware edition. Which looks a lot like Hauppauge’s pair (PC and Mac) of USB HD tuners. Which looks like a lot like the Eye TV Hybrid.

As an occasional USB HD tuner user (Pinnacle variety), I wonder how much ATSC tuners cost these days? Perhaps it’s time to start building this functionality into most laptops (and integrate antennas into the LCD chassis).