Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… Motorola and Cox begin OCAP trials. (Motorola) TiVo expands interactive advertising with BMW. (TiVo) Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian makes “50 Who Matter Now” list. (Business 2.0) SageTV releases wireless media extender.  (SageTV) NVIDIA SD dual tuner PC card reviewed. (PVRWire)

TiVo Desktop 2.3 Released!

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First announced in November, TiVo Desktop 2.3 has finally been released! This software update is notable for two major enhancements (maybe they should have versioned it 3.0). First, the Desktop software adds support for scheduling of downloads in a Season Pass-esque fashion. Second, if you upgrade to Desktop Plus (at a cost of $24.95) you gain access to TiVo-licensed codecs for MPEG-4 conversion. The PSP and iPod are supported, as they both play MPEG-4s out of the box. Additionally, the licensing fee includes an MPEG-2 codec for PC playback if you happen to need one. You could overpay foreign hackers to slap a custom GUI on ffmpeg, or you could pay TiVo less for more. Support for Windows portable devices (phone, PDA, PMC) is still present and free of charge.

Stay tuned as I dig around in the new software… I’m interested in discovering if previous (unsupported) conversion methods still work, what sort of quality and speed we can expect with the new conversion tool, find out what (if any) changes have been made under the hood, etc.

UPDATE: Some new info…

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Netflix May Or May Not Have A Box In Development

Netflix also may or may not be collaborating with TiVo. However, they’ve earmarked a sizeable 5 to 10 million dollars in 2006 on digital movie distribution R&D. As Netflix isn’t prepared to discuss this further until 1/07, it’s safe to assume the launch of something is not imminent. Variety says: Netflix VP of original programming … Read more

Thousands Of Free TiVos For Father’s Day

In honor of Father’s Day (and publicity), TiVo has partnered with Minor League Baseball and will be giving away up to 1,000 S2 units (via voucher) per market. Agree to a year of service, get a single tuner TiVo free. Add 30 bucks and upgrade to a dual-tuning model. Additional promotions (TiVo raffles) seem to … Read more

TiVo Applies For DVR PPV Patent

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The USPTO has just published TiVo’s Method and apparatus for secure transfer of previously broadcasted content and Method and apparatus for secure transfer and playback of multimedia content patent applications. Within the documents TiVo describes several methods to authenticate customers and securely distribute content via the internet for DVR and portable device playback. I’ve been pleading for some sort of VOD/PPV functionality, so the subscription and billing scenarios are particularly exciting. Content can be flagged by type (free, subscription, PPV), which in turn may specify or limit distribution and viewing. Interestingly, TiVo differentiates their DVR service from the content service/provider. Also of interest… it looks like they’ve documented the TiVoToGo MPEG-2 encryption/decryption keys as SHA-1 of your DVR network adapter’s MAC address. ;)

In another embodiment, whether through the DVR interface or through the website of Service Provider 106, a payment structure can be built into the system such that the user is charged each time a previously broadcasted program content is received by DVR 101. Thus, an additional screen requesting billing or payment information may be displayed to the user to enter in the appropriate information. This information is then supplied to the Service Provider 106 as part of the request for content. Alternatively, the billing or payment information may have been previously supplied to and stored by the Service Provider 106, such that any subsequent request for previously broadcasted program content is automatically processed without presenting another screen to the DVR user.

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TiVo’s Software Update Has a Secret…

TiVo’s KidZone software update (client & server components) includes a new feature to repair personal settings should they get out of whack. How would those settings lose sync, you ask? Hard drive upgrade. While it’s unofficial and unsupported, if you’ve opted in to KidZone or Guru Guides and upgrade your hard drive, TiVo will repopulate … Read more

TiVo’s Case For KidZone

TiVo officially takes the wraps off KidZone today, though if you’ve been paying attention you certainly know of it and may already have it. What you may not know is that TiVo does indeed conduct market research. To support the KZ roll-out, they’ve publicly released selected results of a recent telephone survey. Not surprisingly, the majority (62%) of 1,000 participants are concerned with what children watch on television. Additionally, TiVo builds the case for KidZone with the discovery that 81% of households do not use any form of parental controls and 55% receive no content guidance. The questions that weren’t asked in this survey (surely, they were asked during development) which interest me are what percent of concerned parents would use a service like KidZone and how much would they be willing to pay?

TiVo-Ipsos Research Survey Reveals Huge Concerns About What Kids Watch on TV Over the Summer

ALVISO, CA – June 15, 2006 – TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and the leader in television services for digital video recorders, announced today the availability of TiVo KidZone, a revolutionary new service enhancement that for the first time assures parents that quality children’s programming is always on when their children turn on their television sets.

The launch of TiVo KidZone comes at a time when there is a remarkable surge in childrenÂ’s daytime television viewing over the summer, which is also a time when TV viewing is even more unsupervised by parents and is a source of their growing concern. This fact is highlighted in the release today of a new survey of 1,000 Americans, sponsored by TiVo and conducted with leading international research firm, Ipsos Research, showing that 64 percent of parents of children under age 18 are concerned that their children will see television programming that does not reflect their familyÂ’s values, especially as many of the countryÂ’s children are beginning their summer vacation from school.

“TiVo KidZone answers the many concerns of parents revealed in this survey, by empowering them with a breakthrough new service and by, also giving children a continuous array of engaging, high-quality programming to choose from whenever they turn on their television sets,” said Tom Rogers , President and CEO of TiVo. “TiVo KidZone is offering families a personalized TV area where parents’ own judgments and the recommendations of widely respected national family media review organizations such as Common Sense Media are easily and safely applied to deliver the best children’s television programming.”

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Interesting News Dave Hasn’t Covered

Never enough time… TiVo to expand service beyond Taiwan into mainland China. (LA Times) Smut giants show Hollywood how to fight back. (Business Week) Blockbuster says Netflix patents not enforceable. (Reuters) MovieBeam gets a boost from Magnolia Pictures. (HD Beat) Win a trip to Hawaii and/or a DT TiVo. (TiVo)