There’s some good news and there’s some bad news. I’ll give you the good news first. Digeo, the shepherds of the Moxi DVR experience, has escaped bankruptcy and liquidation. With what I assume have been slowing cableco sales and poor retail sales, Arris (ARRS) has stepped in and essentially bailed them out for a mere … Read more
I’ve always held a somewhat skeptical view of the industry’s bold OCAP and tru2way proclamations. Which is why I find Glenn’s recent comment notable: Given how poorly this worked, I’d be starting to tone the death knell for OCAP/tru2way at this point. The cable industry missed the self-imposed July 1 deadline, and by quite a … Read more
Since EngadgetHD has yet to post a round up of their CEDIA coverage (the show floor is still open), I wanted to highlight some of the Media Center news. I can’t say it’s lived up to Ben Drawbaugh’s predictions or my lofty expectations. As I tweeted after Microsoft’s off-site event earlier this week, “The news … Read more
According to Windows Media Center blogger Chris Lanier, a new OCUR CableCARD firmware update is coming soon that will enable support for cable company switched digital video broadcasts via tuning adapter hardware. There will also be an additional change that allows for “less DRM on non-flagged CableCard recordings.” So expect this to be one of … Read more
Beginning in 2010, cable provider RCN will deploy TiVo as their primary DVR. While RCN has a smaller footprint than say a Comcast or Time Warner, this is pretty significant as the cable plant engineering requirements should be minimal… I believe they’re just re-purposing retail TiVo hardware with some RCN UI branding tweaks and charging … Read more
While I dig pay television content and broadband, I can’t say I always dig the cable company. Historically, I haven’t had the greatest experiences with things like billing or installs. Those installs, in particular, have been a recurring pain point. With a 25% no-show rate, the possibly high contractor who had to be escorted out … Read more
After finding a few minutes to scan TiVo’s quarterly call transcript what stands out, other than hoarding $200+ million in cash, is what appears to be a slippage in the delivery of a new DirecTV TiVo DVR. 2009 has become 2010. CEO Tom Rogers, via Seeking Alpha:
DIRECTV not likely to rollout until early next year
We’ve pointed to that timeframe in early next year
our expectation is early next year that the DIRECTV new product will be available
I can’t say I’m surprised. And have been suggesting for some time that it’s unlikely we’d see the renewed DirecTV+TiVo relationship bear fruit this year.
Twitterrific Comes Roaring Back Into The iPhone Twitter App Wars
As someone who paid $10 for the original, I’m glad the upgrade was free. But they may have introduced extra complexity and reduced usability in how they implemented the expanded feature set. I’m a bit torn between it and Tweetie. Wish I could pick and choose features (and performance) from the two to design the perfect client for me. I’ll continue to play with it a few more days, see if it grows on me and as I get more familiar with the UI.
MiFi is a mobile broadband game changer
Two questions: 1. ) Does Verizon show you your data usage in your online account? Since they’re charging overages, I’d want to keep tabs on bits transferred. 2.) Can you recharge this via USB? 2a.) Does it come with a car charger? Seriously considering swapping my Sprint aircard and Cradlepoint router for just one device. Could be overkill most of the time, but less overall clutter when on the road. Keeping it charged is my only concern.
More about TiVoToGo & Multi-Room Viewing Copy Protection (CCI byte Explained)
Except all the Series2 units don’t use CableCARDs and are not subject to Cable Labs. I think I recall Pony mentioning some sort of Macrovision flagging as well. Of course, the rational was a bit odd. I believe the context was since they provide Series2 units with DVD drives they were bound by Macrovision regulations. But it seems to me they didn’t have to adopt it across the board. I think it’s just as likely they did it that way to keep the content industry at bay. Who knows!
CableCARDs: Cause for Joy, and Pain
Some factual errors and omissions here… CableCARDs are NOT tuners, they are separable security devices. Multristream cards (M-Cards) support dual (or more) hardware tuners/tuning. Also the fees are all over the board. My 3 CableCARDs were installed free and some franchises don’t require truck rolls, though many (most?) do. Additionally, card rate varies. I think Comcast’s official policy in my area is the first card is free and additional cards are $1.50/mo which may or may not come with an ‘additional outlet’ (AO) fee. However, all three of my cards are free ‘rentals’ and I’m not charged outlet fees.
In addition to consumer confusion or ignorance, CableCARDs used in current retail boxes do not provide two-way services like video on demand (VOD) or handling switched digital video (SDV). However, the future (perhaps) lies in tru2way – a common platform to enable that. However it may also require you get stuck with the crappy cableco UI on your third party device, like HDTV. And you mention things dying out, yet tru2way is just getting rolling… and all the major cable-cos and many CE vendors have signed on.
Lastly, there was a move afoot to meet the FCC’s separable security mandate via software, rather than hardware pairing/authentication. Not sure where that stands.
