Industry

Netflix Declares Blu-ray Winner

A next generation DVD format war isn’t good for consumers or the industry. When I spoke with Steve Swasey, Director of Corporate Communications, in September he stated Netflix was concerned about a fragmented market and hoped for consolidation. Neflix CFO, Barry McCarthy, touched on this topic during an investor conference call yesterday. In addition to … Read more

Veiled Threat or Veiled Bride?

Veiled Video

Justin Thyme, industry insider and crackpot, provides anonymous analysis and commentary.

Think broadcast flags on steroids. That’s what the MPAA has in mind by embedding a digital information stream directly inside the images you watch on television. The motivation of the MPAA is to place the same sort of broadcast flag mechanism as CGMS-A in a location that requires no special procedures or equipment of the video distributors to enable. Here’s how we bypass this trivial protection and why such weak protections are our friend, not our enemy.

Veil Technologies is mentioned as a specific technology provider to accomplish this task in a MPAA draft resolution being circulated. If the draft becomes law, then consumers will be confront Veiled video within 12 months of its passage. Making devices to bypass Veil could land you in jail for 5 years for a first offence.

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Town Renames Itself DISH

EchoStar found a willing recipient for their absurd DISH City Makeover promotion which launched in August. In exchange for selling out, all 125 residents of DISH, Texas (formerly Clark) will receive 10 years of DISH Network programming. While this promotion officially ended November 1, it appears EchoStar is willing to take on other cities. So … Read more

TiVo Meets With FCC, Talks CableCARD

I don’t have many details on this yet… Last week TiVo attorney Henry Goldberg and Vice President Matthew Zinn met with the FCC Chariman’s Media Legal Advisor. TiVo says: The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the background and status of the development of cable cards and TiVo’s efforts in that regard.

Quadruple Play, Cell-based PVR

Marketing fluff, profit sharing, or really the ultimate in convergence? Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications have just signed a 20 year agreement to integrate all your media and data in a “quadruple play” of services. Sprint, the linchpin of the arrangement, is dropping a cool $100 million to provide a variety of … Read more

WSJ Talks Ads In A Digital World

The Wall Street Journal is running an interesting article covering advertising in a digital video world… go check it out and get back to me. Oh, and do you think the author is aware you can turn off TiVo sound effects? WSJ says: There is no denying that a major transformation in television-viewing habits is … Read more

DirecTV and LG Embrace MPEG-4

DirecTV and LG have announced a partnership to produce set-top boxes capable of decoding MPEG-4 HD broadcasts. As with the phasing out of analog TV, the conversion to MPEG-4 will most likely take some time – your current DTV hardware is safe… for now. Additionally, these new Linux-based LG boxes will support pre-existing MPEG-2 and … Read more

DigitalLife Wrap-up

TiVo Software
TiVo server-based HME apps, show overlap recording intelligence, and bug fixes expected next month with the release of system software 7.2.1 for Series 2 units.

TiVo Hardware
TiVo-branded wireless adapter with secretive X factor processing is on the way.

Netgear DAVE 700
2nd generation media streamer worth a closer look when released.

Creative Zen Vision
Every feature you would want in a PMC, except a practical screen.

Akimbo
By integrating VOD programming into Microsoft’s MCE, they have a fighting chance at survival.

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