Dave Zatz According to TechCrunch, Amie Street has licensed Nettwerk’s catalog. First to launch will be the new Barenaked Ladies album. Amie Street provides DRM-free MP3s with an escalating pricing scheme: Tracks are initially free and increase in price in relation to download numbers, capped at 98 cents a pop. I wonder what Dale Dietrich’s take is? … Read more
Megazone dropped me a note that Amazon Unbox on TiVo has been enabled. I immediately registered and ordered A Scanner Darkly ($3.99) through Amazon’s web site – video to be shipped direct to my Series3 via the Internet. Within just a minute or two the download began…
If you register on Amazon to link your TiVo box(es) before April 30th, you’ll receive a $15 video credit. So we’ll find out pretty quickly (and for free) if the size of the library and if the video quality (SD) are both sufficient.
Macrovision put out a press release indicating that their copy protection is making its way into a variety of online download services. Netflix, BitTorrent, Movielink and Instant Media will all employ Macrovision’s Analog Copy Protection (ACP) technology as part of their distribution of movies and videos on their websites. Macrovision’s ACP technology helps online video … Read more
I love my Xbox 360 (with video download service) more and more each day. Tomorrow, South Park will be available in HD and for free (two weeks only). While 16:9 HD cartoons won’t change my life, it’s pretty cool to see high def content finding alternate avenues onto our televisions. (Note to Comedy Central: Not … Read more
In an attempt to save energy nationally, Congress has extended the period of Daylight Savings Time here in the US. So we’ll be springing ahead a few weeks early this year. I’ve received several news alerts in the last week regarding TiVo and DST, a few of which caught my attention…
And even V-C-Rs and Tivo which don’t have built-in updating devices
But be prepared to reset your computer clock, too — and the clocks on your TiVo, BlackBerry and anything else electronic that depends on time.
TiVo units do have the ability to receive updates via dial-up or broadband and I don’t recall ever setting the time on my DVRs, so I did a little digging around. From some posts on the TiVo Community Forum (here, here, and here) it seems like:
What the heck is up with Lost? Honestly, I think I’m about done. I’ve lost interest in getting answers to their mysteries… the bits they’ve revealed aren’t so mysterious (or compelling) anyway and they’ve killed some of my favorite characters such Ana Lucia and Ecko (not to mention we’ve barely seen any Locke recently).
The first season was absolutely amazing, some of the best television ever — I guess it’s no surprise they couldn’t keep that level of quality (and my interest) going forever. There are two lessons here: 1. Mysteries and horror are better left off screen. What we don’t know is more scary, more perplexing, and thus more engaging. 2. Movies have a distinct beginning, middle, and end (which I prefer)… whereas television shows drag on collecting advertising dollars as long as possible (which I don’t prefer).
Stop reading NOW if you haven’t watched the most recent episode…
According to the Wall Street Journal (via non-subscription sites), Blockbuster is in “advanced talks” to pick up Movlielink for under $50 million. Movielink, of course, is an online movie download service (using Microsoft’s video format and content protection, like rival CinemaNow). They were a pioneer in this space (long before iTunes and Netflix showed up) and were actually created by the studios, which most folks either don’t know or seem to have forgotten:
Movielink is owned by a joint venture of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios and Warner Bros.
The purchase strikes me as a positive move for both companies… assuming they can pull it off. Movielink gets an audience (they’re pretty much unknown outside my geeky circle) and Blockbuster gets an immediate online download presence to compete with Netflix.
We can’t have a media extender conversation here at ZNF without mentioning existing TiVo boxes. Though, at this point, it’s really a tale of two cities: Series2 and Series3 units. Networked Series2 units offer multi-room viewing (MRV), allowing the transfer and playback of recorded shows from one TiVo to another within the house. While we’ve … Read more