Dave Zatz 
Ben Drawbaugh (who you probably know from Engadget HD) and I share a love of college football. While I was recovering Friday night, he caught South Florida’s upset of West Virginia. He also spotted a Series2 TiVo unit in the replay booth. Which is really no surprise – We’ve been hearing for years how TiVo is used in a variety of sports, both amateur and pro. And now we have visual proof!
Dave wipes out entire opposing 4-person Halo 3 team in under 4 seconds.
I’m still sifting through a few weeks of unopened mail, but noticed Engadget and Gizmodo discussing HDTV reviews in the latest issue of Consumer Reports. Low and behold, after flipping through the mag, it turns out my Panasonic plasma is their top rated 42″ set. It’s certainly the nicest television I’ve ever owned and looks … Read more
TiVo has just opened a v9.1 software update priority page, so drop off your TiVo Service Number (TSN) if you want in. However, those of you with Series2 units should keep in mind: For Multi-Room Viewing to work in software version 9.1, your other DVRs must also be running software version 9.1. Please sign up … Read more
TiVo and EchoStar head into the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit this Thursday to continue arguing their ongoing patent dispute. The docket is pretty tight, so the hearing should be a brief affair. An unexpected benefit in attending the pre-DigitalLife event last week was spotting Kunal Madhukar’s badge (and the person attached). … Read more
Microsoft had a fairly large (Media Center) presence at DigitalLife and I managed to sneak away Thursday for a bit to attend their press conference and visit the booth. In addition to educating the uninitiated in Media Center functionality, Microsoft also had new extenders on display ($300 and up from DLink, Linksys, and Niveus) and announced the public beta of Internet TV.
In the booth, MS reps had folks focus on the new extenders from their partners. I told them I already own an almost-great MCE extender in the 360, that all it needs to reach greatness is Divx and Xvid support. Bryan Koski, of the Windows group, went on to tell me that Media Center functionality is pretty much a self-contained chunk of code… Whatever powers the new extenders should ultimately end up intact on the 360. He didn’t know (or wouldn’t say) if that meant this fall or down the road, but he seemed fairly confident all new functionality would be retained in any 360 update.
After working 13 days on the road, followed by 48 hours of R&R (Halo 3-style), I’m ready to get back to some blogging. It’s obviously been a very exciting couple weeks at Sling Media (my place of employment), so here’s a quick roundup of September news in chronological order: Sling Collaborates with DirecTV on NFL … Read more
I managed to break away from my work-related responsibilities for about 30 minutes last evening and attended a pre-pre-DigitalLife event. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, and the Ford Sync SUV running Microsoft’s Auto software didn’t even sport a MS logo to photograph. On the flip side, it didn’t sport a BSOD either – which seemed to be the running joke. Poor Softy.
The hit of the show was the open bar Guitar Hero III playable demo… with wireless guitar (finally). I didn’t bother waiting in line to jam, but I did quiz the rep: