Expand Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR Storage

As a guy living in Comcast + Motorola country, I was pretty surprised to learn that Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVRs (running SARA) support external drives. I’m only two years behind in the news, but being able to upgrade a stock cableco box is pretty exciting. I could see myself putting up with an inferior interface … Read more

BitTorrent Gets Legit (Yawn)

It’s déjà vu… all over again! Following in the footsteps of Napster, BitTorrent has a new business model: selling (non-pirated) media. Originally announced nearly a year ago, the legit video site launches in a few hours. There’s not really much new or compelling here (regardless of what P2P technology may or may not be running … Read more

TiVo Desktop 2.4 Public Beta Released

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While I was preoccupied in Canada, TiVo released a public beta of TiVo Desktop 2.4. Notable new features include the ability to broadcast “HD” photographs (1280×720) from computer to Series3 TiVo and the ability to transcode several video formats (other than DivX) for transfer to and playback on Series2 units. A less glamorous, but useful, feature allows the software to map beyond the default TiVo folder.

A few gotchas… TiVo has labeled this Preview software, though they document about a dozen known issues (hence my Public Beta label). The ability to transcode video (for TiVo playback OR in the other direction for iPod and PSP playback) requires a Plus codec license: $25. Sorry Mac owners, this is a Windows-only release — Perhaps Roxio will incorporate similar functionality into a Toast update.

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Red-Eye Be Gone!

Here’s one you might have missed. FotoNation has announced the “world’s first” red-eye correction technology for camera phones. It’s an embedded solution that can automatically detect red-eye and correct it.fotonation.jpg The company claims a detection rate of 70-80% with a visible false positive rate of 1-2%. (Note: The photo caption to the right is my own.)

Since my camera phone doesn’t take very high-quality shots, I’m not sure this is something I’d care about. But as camera phones get better (and high-end ones certainly already have), this technology seems like a no-brainer. Back at DEMOfall last September, there were at least a couple of image-correcting companies on site. The one I remember is Photobot, which installs an application on your desktop that scans and corrects (red-eye, brightness, color) any uploaded photos. Just as folks like Thomas Hawk are getting excited about more technology for sophisticated photo-snapping, mere amateurs like myself are getting to take advantage of more automated tools that might just make our photos print-worthy.

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Hollywood Killed Replay But Can They Take On Microsoft?

Shortly after I purchased my first TiVo, a friend of mine wanted to know my thoughts on whether or not he should get a DVR. Like any rabid obsessed TiVotee, I immedietely started gushing over, all of TiVo’s innovative features and about how much of a transformative effect, time shifting has played on my life.

After trying to hard sell him on a TiVo unit for over three weeks, I finally succeeded in convincing my friend to buy a DVR, but instead of going with the TiVo unit I recommended, he went with the ReplayTV 5000. I tried to talk him out of it, but no matter what I said he wouldn’t budge. I showed him the superior interface, I let him test drive my own unit, I tried pointing out that suggestions and wishlists were exclusive to TiVo, I even tried to scare him into believing that Replay would possible stop working, if the company went bankrupt. No matter how hard I tried though, I couldn’t convince him to choose TiVo over that ReplayTV 5000 unit because it had a feature no one could touch. Automatic commercial skipping.

When TiVo first launched, the movie studios completely freaked out over DVR technology. They understood early on, the impact time shifting would play on their revenues and went to great lengths to put a stop to it. Initially, TiVo wanted to partner with the studios, but instead the studios threatened to sue the company, if they even launched their product. Hollywood’s huffing and puffing turned out to be little more than hot air when it came to TiVo, but when ReplayTV had the nerve to introduce automatic commercial skipping, the studios knew they had to draw a line in the sand.

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Content Sluts

Joost Screenshot Are the big media guys turning into content sluts, willing to throw their content anywhere they might get an audience? The big Joost/Viacom announcement makes me wonder. Not that Joost isn’t potentially a wonderful service (I haven’t tried it), and not that big media shouldn’t spread its content far and wide, but it’s … Read more