Hauppauge HD-PVR Delayed Until Mid-May

Are you one of the many anxiously awaiting Hauppauge’s new HD-PVR? Hauppauge’s website still indicates the HD-PVR will begin shipping on May 1st, 2008. But, there is new information that says that isn’t the case. Unfortunately, I have confirmed with Hauppauge that the first shipments didn’t begin on May 1st. Instead, the earliest, expected shipment … Read more

Sezmi Demystified

Mari and I sat in on the Sezmi webcast briefing earlier this week and we’ve been slow in covering the news… As it turns out, this gives me an opportunity to provide some clarity in response to the widespread confusion. At a high level, Sezmi (formerly Building B) is a video service with the goal … Read more

Network Remote Control of TiVo (iPhone!)

The latest TiVo hack doesn’t actually require any hacking. Last fall, TiVo partnered up with Creston to integrate the Series3 into their home automation framework. While I haven’t heard anything since, it turns out the hooks are wide open (via Omikron) to any application or hardware on one’s home network – and possibly well beyond by implementing router port fowarding. Until something more polished is developed, the telnet protocol allows you to manually feed a variety of remote commands to a networked TiVo. For example, in the video above, I’m using a terminal application on my jailbroken iPhone as a rudimentary WiFi remote control. There’s some real interesting potential here…

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The Firefly Remote

SnapStream, the folks behind Beyond TV DVR software, offered Team ZNF a look at the Firefly RF media center remote control ($50). While Brent‘s finalizing his review, he shipped the remote back to play with before we give it away on ZNF. The Firefly controls a wide variety of media apps out of the box, … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Comcast Launches AnyRoom: Media Experiences 2 Go Mac Mini as Windows HTPC: Brent Evans Geek Tonic Grand Theft Gamestop: Davis Freeberg’s Digital Connection New Motorola VDSL2 Gateways: Media Experiences 2 Go Teaching Time Warner Clear QAM: Brent Evans Geek Tonic Femtocells, Region by Region: Media … Read more

Stage6, Part Deux?

In a Bob Dylan State of MindOver the past few days buzz has been building over the possible launch of a Stage6 clone. According to the DivxIT.net website, a Stage6 “alternative/cloneâ€? will be revealed on April 29th. If this is true, it would be an exciting development for fans who still crave the high quality Stage6 experience.

This isn’t the first time that someone has tried to hype the launch of a Stage6 replacement. As soon as Stage6 announced their shut down, there was a flurry of fake Stage6 clone announcements. Most of those sites fizzled out before they even got started.

NewStage6.com was the first “replacementâ€? to pop up on my radar. Initially they had a timer counting down until their launch, but today, the site is all but empty. Highlol.com was another website that tried to create buzz around the Stage6 collapse. They promised free HD DivX downloads, but there still aren’t any videos on the site today.

Having already been burned a couple of times, you can understand why I tend to be skeptical about these sorts of promises. With DivX Inc. having come out and denied any affiliation with the site, I can’t help but wonder how far they will let this get before they try to shut it down. On the other hand, because DivX benefits from having more of their content out there, maybe they are really better off ignoring it. Still, if DivxIT does gain traction, DivX might not be so happy about someone copying their site, especially when they don’t seem willing to sell it to begin with. If DivX does try to go the hostile route, I think that they may be up against more than they realize.

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Global Begins HD Broadcasting in Canada

Canada’s national television network, Global, is now broadcasting in HD in the Metropolitan Toronto and Golden Horseshoe areas of Ontario on their Hamilton (CHCH) and Toronto (CIII) affiliates. Global is Canada’s last major nationwide network to start broadcasting in HD. It was facing a June 2008 hard deadline imposed by the CRTC to begin broadcasting. … Read more