Operation Aussie Sling

It’s been fairly well documented that you can Sling television feeds around the world, but Hobotech Ron and I wondered what type of quality one could expect outputting that signal to TV. So in the name of science, we broke several international laws to conduct an intercontinental experiment. Ron loaded up his Dell laptop with the SlingPlayer and viewed my Washington, DC-based Slingbox feed from his home in Canberra, Australia. As you can see above, video quality was decent on his rear projection TV with a consistent 320kbps-350kbps download bitrate (which is about what I get here in the US). We believe the limiting factor is not distance, but rather my DSL upload speed which is capped at 384kbps.

Ron says: I hooked it up to the RearPro via S-Video and my wife and I watched it for quite a while and came to the conclusion that, while less than perfect we would be quite happy to watch it, if it provided us with material we couldn’t get from any other source. A little bit like food, while one might prefer a steak, a hamburger will usually do quite well if that’s all that’s available!

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TiVo Desktop Mac Universal Binary Released, Video Enabled

TiVo quietly updated their Mac Desktop software from version 1.9.2 to 1.9.3 as a Universal binary. While this isn’t huge news, it does indicate TiVo hasn’t entirely forsaken Mac users and that development is ongoing. Perhaps we’ll still see OS X TiVoToGo support this year.

UPDATE: Dennis Wilkinson has discovered and documented how to enable an unsupported feature of the new Desktop software… Macs can now send MPEG2 video to TiVo! How cool is that?

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TiVo Wireless Adapter Deals

Alex over at TiVoBlog discovered the TiVo-branded wireless adapter selling at Buy.com for $44.99 with free shipping. Dell is coming in at a low 39.95, but they’re charging shipping (this week) for orders under $50. Amazon and TiVo.com have the adapter in stock at the $49.99 list price. If you have an impulse control problem … Read more

BeyondTV On Mac Mini

Want to turn your Mac mini into a PC DVR using BeyondTV? All you need is Boot Camp, Windows, and an external tuner. Why? Because we can! Not to mention this is tons cheaper than EyeTV. If you’re pining away for HD tuning on that Mac mini, you’ll also need an external drive to keep up. Of course the next step is seeing if the SnapStream folks can get this to work within Parallel’s virtualization software…

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Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… One man’s experience with the MPEG-4 decoding Dish ViP622 HD DVR. (Extreme Tech) MSOs urged to quickly enter portable media market. (Cable Digital News) Wired publishes a static guide of online video services. (Wired) Yahoo unveils tech news and reviews site. (Yahoo) Davis Freeberg breaks down Netflix v. Blockbuster and beats down … Read more

ABC’s Free Television Experiment Begins

Today’s the day… ABC launched their two month trial (5/1 – 6/30) offering free web rebroadcasts of current, prime time television series. Unlike most streaming content, you do not need Windows as ABC is broadcasting via cross-platform Flash. Of course free is just another word for advertising, but it competes well with $1.99 iTunes downloads. Assuming all goes well, ABC is planning on tweaking the model and relaunching with the fall television season.

Check it out here!

Do I need to watch all of the advertisements?

The advertisements are placed at various points during the show. You cannot advance the show beyond that point until you have watched the ad for at least 30 seconds. You may see a maximum of four advertisements per show.

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Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… ReplayTV settles patent dispute, licenses audio technology. (Press Release) Consumer Electronics Association calls on industry to educate consumers. (CEA) Media center software SageTV adds place-shifting. (SageTV) Well-designed customer experiences are good for business; TiVo is one example. (Business Week) Blu-ray prototype stores 200 GB. (jkOnTheRun) VDC mobile television service reviewed. (Brighthand)