Dave Zatz

Movielink’s DVD-Burning Non-Announcement

I’m honestly baffled at the amount of press Movielink got earlier this week regarding their licensing & marketing agreement with Sonic. I saw the story early and passed right over it… after all, DVD-burning had already been announced in April and little to no pricing or DRM information was provided. Oh yeah, they didn’t even … Read more

AT&T Homezone Convergence Box Launches Today

Until AT&T expands their U-Verse IPTV offering, they’ve partnered with Dish in providing a networked DVR which includes home media features and movie downloads. Beginning today, residents in Ohio and San Antonio can rent a Homezone box for $9.99/mo… on top of their existing monthly Internet and satellite subscription fees. I can’t imagine the few … Read more

TiVo Confirms Series3 Testing, Hitting Retail “Soon”

TiVo has notified both the FCC and cable operators that CableCARD compliant HD Series3 units are currently being tested and should be released to retail… soon! Letter says: The TiVo Series3 HD DVR product supports up to two CableCARD decoders. This product acts as two independent single stream UDCP CableCARD hosts within one set top … Read more

Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… TiVo now selling at Radio Shack. (Davis Freeberg) Echostar invests in CinemaNow. (HDBeat) Check out PVR-oriented podcast. (TechLore) Cingular launches HBO series for cellphones. (Reuters) UPnP AV network specs updated. (eHomeUpgrade)

What The Heck Is HAVA?

The place-shifting universe expands next week with the introduction of HAVA, a Slingbox-like hardware device. I rang up Mark Rouchonik, a Director at Monsoon Multimedia, for the details. Mark tells me the major distinction between their device and the Slingbox are LAN multicasting and WiFi features. Multicast doesn’t do a whole lot for me as … Read more

Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… Place shifting companies must license content in the UK? (eHomeUpgrade) UK to outlaw power standby for electronic devices. (Gizmodo) MobiTV lands $70 million investment, plans geographic and technological expansion. (GigaOM) HD-DVD consortium to spend $150 million on advertising. (HDBlog)

Slingplayer 1.3 Beta Released

In addition to the features introduced with Beta 1.2, 1.3 adds a conflict manager (about time!) and an audio only mode (which I’ve enjoyed on my 6700). Be aware the firmware portion of this upgrade will add encryption to your Slingstream – effectively killing Applian’s At-Large Recorder. For complete release details and the public download, … Read more