Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… Time Warner Cable to test “Start Over” service in Greensboro. (News Record) Discovery Channel content arrives on iTunes. (Apple Insider) Movielink and CinemaNow suck. (Thomas Hawk) Pioneer Inno XM2GO video review. (PC Mag) Netflix adds Blu-ray option. (Hacking Netflix)

Blockbuster Leaks TiVo Partnership

As I originally reported, TiVo and Blockbuster has had a partnership in the works. TiVo inadvertently revealed the deal first, and Blockbuster just returned the favor… They’ve prematurely published the TiVo Blockbuster promotion web page. Oops! Additionally, TiVo.com has launched their page and reactivated the Blockbuster bundle shopping cart links (here, here, and here). This … Read more

MovieBeam On The Cheap, Only $49

MovieBeam, originally priced at $249 plus $30 activation, dropped to $199 without an activation fee about a month into sales. As I wrote, that price still struck me as barrier to entry given the per-movie rental fees. Well, how does 49 bucks sound? MovieBeam’s online media account manager sent me a note to spread the … Read more

Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… TiVo and do-it-yourself television. (CNET) $9.99/mo commercial-free BabyFirstTV debuts. (Associated Press) Apple FrontRow and QuickTime updated. (AppleInsider) Why the world doesn’t need Hi-Def DVD’s. (NY Times) EchoStar 1Q profit down on TiVo victory. (Business Week)

Sling Media Applies For Patents, Alludes To SlingCatcher

Sling Media’s three Slingbox technology patent applications submitted last June have hit the US Patent Office database. Of particular interest is an allusion to the inevitable SlingCatcher device, a hardware appliance designed to receive streaming video for television display without requiring an intermediary computer. I imagine Aussie Ron can hardly wait!

The local clients can be any number of device types, including but not limited to desktop and notebook PCs, Web tablets, PDAs, embedded clients built expressly for the purposes of decoding the streams of the personal broadcaster, and other devices capable of receiving and/or playing a media stream over a network.

As with the local clients, the remote clients may include any number of device types, but not limited to desktop and notebook PCs, Web tablets, PDAs, embedded clients built expressly for the purposes of decoding the streams of the personal broadcaster, and other devices capable of receiving and/or playing a media stream over a network.

Read more

Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… Blu-ray is doomed. (PC Magazine) T-Mobile Europe to ban heavy data usage. (jkOnTheRun) Commercial server-hosted MP3 HME application released. (MP3tunes) Microsoft unveils beta of Windows CE 6 operating system for embedded devices. (CNET) GE debuts one-second ad targeted at PVR users. (PVRWire) Warner Brothers to team with BitTorrent for movie sales. (Engadget) … Read more

TiVo Partners With Brightcove To Deploy Internet Video

Rocketboom not doing it for you? TiVo has announced a partnership with Brightcove to distribute Internet video. Sounds neat, but I’m still waiting for a Hollywood feature film VOD service.

Interesting factoid: One article stated there are ~400,000 TiVo units on broadband.

Associated Press says: The deal with Brightcove Networks Inc., to be announced Wednesday, means some TiVo users will soon have not only TV shows to record, but also Internet-based videos from Brightcove’s content partners. “This is the first partnership for us to get content directly to the TV set,” said Brightcove’s founder and CEO, Jeremy Allaire. Allaire said TiVo and Brightcove would pick an as-yet-undisclosed set of Web-based programs to debut in June on TiVo’s Internet-connected, Series 2 digital video recorders. The companies said the programs would be offered for free initially, but may carry advertising. The two companies later plan to provide a way for content producers using Brightcove to have their material distributed to TiVo machines. The content providers could decide to charge for the content, the companies said.

Read more

MovieBeam Drops Price, Gets First Positive Review

I guess sales aren’t so brisk, as only a month after launch MovieBeam has dropped hardware pricing $50 (to $200) and done away with the $30 activation fee. Will it matter? Somehow I don’t think so… their pricing model needs some serious tweaking if they’re going to compete with a large, installed base of cable … Read more