After a long 13 months, the DOJ has finally approved the proposed XM and Sirius merger. Keep an eye on Orbitcast in the coming hours and days for continuing coverage. (Concessions…? FCC?) After a careful and thorough review of the proposed transaction, the Division concluded that the evidence does not demonstrate that the proposed merger … Read more
A periodic round-up of relevant news… Every episode of South Park online: NewTeeVee Joost to launch browser-based video player: TV Squad Myka delivers BitTorrent direct to TV: Last100 CBC to release programming via BitTorrent: NewMedia Mike
Snapstream has released an update to Beyond TV, the software-based PVR application. Their focus continues to be ease of setup, ease of use and powerful PVR functionality. This version, a free upgrade for existing BeyondTV customers, includes the following significant new features: Record by saved, keyword searches (like Tivo) Frame by frame playback Conflict notifications … Read more
Two calls from beyond the grave came recently from companies defunct… or very nearly so. First, Worldgate turned the Ojo video phone service back on. I haven’t set mine up again yet and can’t say for sure it works, but since the problem was not a technical one, I assume I’ll be back up and … Read more
Toyota’s got you (me) covered on TiVo with a $5 Amazon gift card bribe in exchange for…? I assume whatever email they send containing a coupon code will also contain Toyota Corolla advertising. Most of the spam I receive doesn’t offer anything worthwhile, so I’ll take the cash: The first 5000 people who do this … Read more
Earlier this week Roxio released Toast 9, the only officially supported TiVoToGo decryption method on the Mac. I raised some concerns that v8 still seemed to have difficulty with some content transcoding leading to audio/video sync issues and wondered if v9 corrected or inherited these issues. I’ve exchanged a few emails with TiVo and Roxio … Read more
It’s going to be quiet around here the next few days… Not only is it March Madness (Go Retrievers?), tomorrow’s the move. And I haven’t even finished packing, plus it’ll take me awhile to dig out. However, once I do my home work environment should be much improved. Examples: I intend to upgrade my “walking … Read more
All TV (except sports) is moving to on-demand, right? You can’t successfully have hundreds of thousands of people accessing the same online video at the same time, right? You can’t hold an interactive video event online that’s open to the public, right? Oprah says otherwise. That’s right, Oprah. Very quietly Oprah’s been hosting an online, … Read more