« September 2003 | Main | November 2003 »

Cris Collinsworth: TiVo on the Road

Today's New York Times asked 11 celebrities what technology they would like to see invented, and former player and current football commentator Cris Collinsworth wants a TiVo that will let him take recordings on the road. He mentions DVD, and there is a standalone unit that can do that for him, but he also mentions DirecTivo, which Pioneer's burner does not do.

Of course, the current functionality he asks for is already in Windows Media Center XP and SnapStream. Maybe after high-profile people like Collinsworth and low-profile people like me have asked for it, TiVo might listen to its customers?

October 30, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Pioneer DVD Recorder with Built-In TiVo

According to Gizmodo, it seems like the Pioneer DVD player/burners with built in TiVo are finally out, after being in the pipeline for several months.

October 28, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Why PVR Technology is good for marketers

AdAge has a new article, "Why PVR Technology is good for marketers" that explains how products like TiVo will revolutionize the marketing industry and give them a tremendous opportunity for further product placement, adverts on the services themselves, and other ways to move away from 30 second TV spots that weren't working all that well in the first place.

All the sturm und drang around personal video recorders should come as no surprise to readers of this column, who were warned more than three years ago that PVRs meant "treacherous times ahead for programmers and the marketers that depend on them." But let's parse the warning a little more carefully. In fact, TiVo and other PVRs are a boon to marketers. It's only the broadcast networks that are in trouble.

October 28, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Drawing PC, TV and Stereo Into an Entertainment Loop

The New York Times published a nice introductory article today about the ongoing convergence between TV, PCs, and Home Theater systems: "Drawing PC, TV and Stereo Into an Entertainment Loop".

It serves as a good overview of many products covered here in the past: the Prismiq media player, the Gateway connected DVD player, and TiVo's Home Media Option, and hints at things to come from the likes of Microsoft, Toshiba, and Linksys.

October 23, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

AOL's Mystro PVR brewing

Earlier this year, the New York Times carried an article about AOL/Time Warner's plans to enter the PVR market, both with the DVR box for Time Warner customers, and with a new service called MystroTV.

A few months later, details about the Mystro service began to leak out. It may be pay per view video-on-demand plus Television DVR functionality in addition to broadcast TV on demand. That last one's a new feature. Imagine a system with every major network show from the past few days stored on your box and ready to go at the touch of a button. It'd be like having the ability to TiVo everything over a shorter time frame.

Whatever Mystro may turn out to be, it sounds like the wheels are in motion. Time Warner is advertising a few openings on the Mystro marketing and development team as they gear up for test marketing in Green Bay.

It'll be interesting to see what a huge company that owns multiple channels, the largest internet service provider on earth, music labels, and studio assets can do with a magical box sitting in your living room.

October 21, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack

Emily Bell, Guardian Unlimited

Emily Bell, editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited, weighs in with an opinion piece about the impact of PVRs with respect to TV program scheduling. While not too much new ground is covered here, it is important to note how executives of major media organizations understand that their world is changing.

The ability to pick and store programmes at random leaves schedulers with an insurmountable problem, and presents the challenge of marketing in a noisy and fragmented environment. The concept of building an audience could, in a few years, be living on borrowed time. Our loyalties no longer belong to the schedule but to individual programmes in a way mainstream broadcasters thought would never happen.

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Media | Emily Bell: We're all in charge now

October 20, 2003 in Op-Ed | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Dell To Sell DirecTV DVRs

Starting next month, Dell will begin selling Dell-branded DVRs with DirecTV service. The device looks to be a DirecTiVo receiver and pricing starts at $99 with the usual 1-year service agreement. The move furthers Dell's recent push into the consumer electronics/home media market, adding to other Dell-branded devices such as an iPod-competitor MP3 device and LCD-based televisions.

October 20, 2003 in Products | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

NYT on Tivo vs. Cable

Seth Scheisel has a good piece in the NY Times about the impact of cable companies who are bundling in PVR capabilities into the newest digital cable set-top boxes. It is all bad news for Tivo.

In the end, Mr. Palermo was turned off from TiVo by the prospect of having to connect all kinds of wires and adding a new box to his home entertainment system. So, instead, he ordered a relatively new product that his cable company, Time Warner Cable, a unit of Time Warner, has been pitching: a set-top box made by Scientific-Atlanta with a DVR already built in.

I'm trying to frame the current competition between the standalone PVR manufacturers with the incumbent providers within the framework of Harvard Business School's Clayton Christensen's theories involving "disruptive technologies." It is clear that hard-disk based media recording is disruptive, but executing on that is the challenge that Tivo may have sadly missed.
NY Times - Can Cable Fast-Forward Past TiVo?

October 19, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (27) | TrackBack

O'Reilly TiVo Giveaway

If you're interested in picking up a free TiVo, book publisher O'Reilly (who released the excellent TiVo Hacks) is giving away a fully upgraded TiVo. The questions aren't easy, but then it's not a normal out-of-the-box TiVo on the line.

October 18, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

TiVo squashing commentary?

A story at Fast Company illustrates that sometimes TiVo executives may not take kindly to articles critical of them.

Of course that all said (and read), it looks more like a small disagreement between fans critical of the company (I would put myself firmly in that group too) and an executive that did take the time to contact them directly (which, regardless of his message, was a noble act).

October 17, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Top 10 Season Pass Recordings

In their occasional newsleter, TiVo has released the top 10 Season Pass recordings by TiVo owners.

1. Friends
2. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation
3. The West Wing
4. Sex and the City
5. ER
6. Survivor: Pearl Islands
7. Will & Grace
8. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy
9. CSI: Miami
10. Alias

What I would like to see are some more detailed and varied stats -- how many of those shows are actually watched within a week? What are the Top 10 most recommended shows? What are the Top 10 shows that are instantly deleted without watching?

October 16, 2003 | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

DVRs for the masses

Red Herring has a great article about the DVR space, the major players (surprise: TiVo isn't #1), and where the market is headed in the future. The main thrust of the article is all about the recent trends of free DVRs provided by cable and satellite companies and their embracing of the technology to bolster customer retention (the same companies that once considered them the "napster of TV").

DVRs have not moved beyond 4 percent household penetration level in the U.S. but pay-TV providers are betting the technology will become a major force. They intend to dish out an estimated 15 million DVRs into consumer homes over the next few years in one of the largest examples of push marketing ever.

October 16, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

/. reviews "Hacking TiVo"

Looks like a great read, but please consider Raffi Krikorian's book first.

...the tricks come fast and furious: TiVo as a way to browse photo galleries. TiVo pulling down the current weather and presenting the radar maps. TiVo printing Caller ID information on the screen when someone calls. By the time you're done with the book, you'll be wondering what there is that you can't do with it. And that, to me, is the sign of a truly great instructional book.
...
To say I learned things in this book is an amazing understatement. Just to know that some of these things are even possible with my TiVo guarantee how I'll be spending the next few hundred dollars, buying larger drives, getting a cache card, and wiring the machine for ethernet. And Yes, it tells you how to get the shows off of your TiVo onto your computer's hard drive.

Slashdot | Book Review: Hacking TiVo

Oh, by the way...this is a photo of the author.

October 16, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

B Sky B pushing PVRs

BskyB has launched a STG20 million campaign to drive sales of its new digital video recorder Sky Plus (Sky+). ... It will feature three 40-second spots in which a variety of celebrity couples are used to demonstrate how Sky+ transforms television viewing. The couples -- Bruce Forsyth and Kelly Brook; Ronnie Corbett and Alice Cooper; and Noddy Holder and Simon Callow -- are shown living together and debating what to watch on television.
ElectricNews.net:News:For the record 15 October

I can't see these adverts as I am in Japan but it will be interesting to see if TV advertising for a TV service will propel PVRs further into the English market.

October 16, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

TiVo time warp

Jason Kottke found out how living in a TiVo time warp can be hell sometimes (it's laugh-out-loud funny).

October 15, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

AOL 9 integration with TiVo

AOL has been talking about their integration with TiVo for the past few months, but now that version 9 is out, I decided to give it a spin.

I'm an advanced internet user, so I'm not really used to AOL, but I can see why family members have used it for years. Where I typically use 5-6 specialized, small applications to perform certain functions and use a a few dozen websites to gather information, AOL 9 has them all one-click away, if you're not already bombarded with features popping into windows upon login. I'll limit this mini-review to strictly TiVo features though.

First off, I had to hunt around for the TV listing features. I missed the small "What's On TV" in the left quick start bar and instead found "TV Listings" under the Services menu. After clicking, I got the following basic TV grid:

Viewing the current TV listing grid

Once you've found a show you want to record or get more information on, you simply click the title to launch another window with program info. That looks something like this:

Getting info on an episode

The small "Record on my TiVo DVR" link next to the TiVo icon is all you need to click to start the remote recording process. The URLs to launch the record functions are all in the form of: http://mercury.tivo.com/tivo-record/main.do with various URL parameters appended, but entering the exact URL directly into any browser gives a 404. After an intermediate step of logging into my TiVo account, AOL stored my info and would immediately shuttle me off to the following page of recording options:

Choosing from recording options

After enjoying the 3D bubbly graphics of AOL 9, the crude HTML form elements were a bit of a visual let-down. One thing I didn't like (that you can't see in the screenshot) is the default for all new recordings was to create a season pass for something, when most users don't want to do that. For the purposes of this demo, I set mine to only record this single episode, and to cancel any other recordings (thankfully it defaults to "only if no conflicts are found"). After telling it to record this and email me about it, the final screen ended the process:

Confirmation screen of chosen recording

After this, I just closed the 2 or 3 windows that popped onto each other during the process (I personally hate that, but I suppose AOL users are used to it), and could select from other programs in the grid or start a search. I received an immediate email on my AOL account stating the recording was set, and later I got another email saying it was successfully set on my TiVo and I also got a new message on my TiVo indicating the recording was made via AOL.

AOL vs. Home Media Option

Overall, the experience was very similar to the Home Media Option's Remote Scheduling feature, but the experience is definitely smoother with the integrated AOL platform. Going through the identical process of recording an episode on the TiVo site directly, I noticed it felt like it took a couple more steps, but was otherwise identical in terms of features and options available. On the bright side, the AOL feature is free with an AOL account (something 20 million people already have), whereas the TiVo feature was part of the $99 HMO package.

Overall, a nice integration for a cheaper price than direct from TiVo, and something other portals (like TVguide.com) or internet service providers may offer someday.

October 14, 2003 in Product Reviews, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

FCC about to vote on broadcast flag

The EFF is calling for action on the FCC's upcoming decision on the broadcast flag. Here's a FAQ on the broadcast flag, but the short story is that if this passes, all new PVR hardware and software is subject to the approval of the Motion Picture Association of America before going to market in the US.

This means that a technology like TiVo, that customers enjoy but networks are afraid of, might not have ever been approved. It certainly means that things like cheap home theater PCs and software like SnapStream would likely not go to market, since they allow the direct recording of TV shows and movies into digital formats. The passing of the broadcast flag could put a stop to a lot of innovative things going on in the PVR space.

I'm sincerely hoping the FCC lets the market continue unhindered and will be writing a letter to share my point of view.

October 10, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

KiSS DivX Player

A post on Gizmodo has renewed my DivX interest. KiSS Technology has upped their DivX playing box and introduced the KiSS DP-558. Not only can it play DVDs, but also DivX 3.11/4/5, XviD, CDs, MP3s, Oggs, and a lot more. Ethernet ports on the back allow you to stream, and it also has a 80GB hard disk to record television programs onto.

October 9, 2003 in Products | Permalink | Comments (18) | TrackBack

Gamespot's PSX OS test drive

Gamespot's got a short review of the PSX OS, including a screenshot. [via waxy]

October 9, 2003 in Gaming Consoles | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

TiVo's Good News

A couple weeks ago, TiVo's stock took a big hit on rumors that DirecTV would drop out of their partnership. But recent news of a new partnership with the Fox network (Rupert Murdoch now owns DirecTV as well as Fox) has spiked TiVo's stock right back up. There's still a small chance Murdoch may merge DirecTV with his other satellite network (which offers its own DVR units).

October 8, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Home Theater PCs set to explode?

CNN reviews Snapstream and sums it up best:

I have seen the future of television, and it lies within a computer.

This review (we reviewed Snapstream too), coupled the recent PSX launch, simple front-ends like this, and posts like this (from a venture capitalist, no less), it's looking more and more like predictions such as these could come true:

There will be a Home Theater PC in most living rooms within 5 years

I'm surprised there aren't more startups springing up to capitalize on the combination of cheap hardware and the shareware and opensource programs out there to do it all.

UPDATE: eHomeUpgrade has links to a cool home theater PC that's like a shuttle PC on the inside, but looks like a standard mini-stereo on the outside.

October 8, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Interview with MovieBeam execs

After I posted about MovieBeam last week, their PR firm was kind enough to extend an interview invitation with a MovieBeam executive. I fired off ten questions and got the responses a couple days later. While some of the answers approach marketing soundbites, I was glad to hear several of the technical questions I had answered as it paints a more complete picture of what they are offering. Check it out:

Matt Haughey, PVRblog: I'm impressed to see that Moviebeam will be offering content from other studios aside from Disney. I imagine it was difficult to coordinate that. What studios will also be carrying films on the MovieBeam box?

MovieBeam: MovieBeam will offer movies from almost all major studios, including Dimension Films, Dreamworks SKG, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Miramax Films, New Line Cinema, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Touchstone Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Walt Disney Pictures.

MH: I couldn't find out from the details available what sorts of things Moviebeam is doing about film ratings. Are there systems in place to only show G and PG films unless a password is entered (like say, when I'm not home while my kids are)? Will the offerings be most popular G rated through R rated films?

MB: Parents can set weekly spending limits and restrict access to selections based on Motion Picture Association of America ratings - all by using a simple on-screen guide. Also, there will be no adult content.

MH: Companies have been talking about video on demand for going on ten years now, but this looks like the first viable application that could meet with broad mainstream demand. Is Disney seeing this as long-term venture to replace movie rental houses moving physical product like DVDs and Tapes?

MB: MovieBeam is part of a portfolio of services that we have for delivering movies to the consumer in the home - it augments current home movie viewing options but delivers even more value to movie fans. Over the years, Disney has used the power of technology to enhance the way consumers experience entertainment, adapting our content and our delivery accordingly. With the MovieBeam service, we have yet another opportunity to expand the movie-viewing options for consumers. We have been and will continue to provide product to video/DVD rental and retail outlets.

MH: I could imagine that with a system like Moviebeam in place, coordinating release schedules with DVD release might be less important. Do you someday see Moviebeam offering films that are still available in theaters or only recently out of theaters? Would Disney, et al, be comfortable moving more business into direct home VOD in leiu of theater chains?

MB: For current movies, windowing will vary title by title. Generally speaking, MovieBeam will offer titles in their "VOD" window: some titles will be available same-day or near to the VHS/DVD release date, while others will be offered in the traditional PPV window.

MH: With the explosion of the internet and constantly advancing home theater technology, security is a big focus for Hollywood these days. What sort of uses will be allowed for the Moviebeam content I've paid for?

MB: Once rented, movies can be watched multiple times during the 24-hour viewing period.

MH: Will the movies stick around forever on the box, or can I tape them legally to a VCR or recordable DVD?

MB: MovieBeam offers an ever-changing lineup of 100 movies, including New Releases and other Popular Favorites, all available twenty-four hours a day at the touch of a button. Each week the MovieBeam service automatically refreshes its offering with up to 10 new movies.

MovieBeam does not support the recording of movies off the set top box. The receiver features significant encryption and security systems and is enabled with analog copy protection capabilities.

MH: I'm intrigued to hear about how the transmission system works. It doesn't use cable, ethernet, or satellite, but instead uses an antenna. Is this an HDTV offshoot or something proprietary that Moviebeam developed in-house?

MB: The MovieBeam process works by first converting movies into data files, then these files are turned into a stream of bits which are inserted invisibly into a conventional television broadcast. The MovieBeam receiver separates the stream of bits from the television programming, reconstructs the files and saves them to the hard drive for later viewing. All movies are digital quality.

MH: If I'm buying content over the air, I'm concerned with my personal information being secure. How will security be handled in these devices? Is there an encryption standard being employed to protect my account info?

MB: Any personal information is transmitted over a conventional phone line.

MH: What is the video quality and format like, is it close to DVD quality or does it approach HDTV quality? Is the audio going to high digital quality? (5.1, DTS, etc)

MB: All movies on MovieBeam are digital quality. The MovieBeam Receiver supports "Surround Sound" via both Dolby® Prologic and Dolby Digital (AC3).

MH: How is the movie storage done? The box looks pretty small in the photos, so I couldn't imagine this is hard drive based. Do the movies stream over the air when starting playback or are they all stored locally?

MB: The MovieBeam receiver - manufactured by Samsung Electronics - is a first-of-its-kind device that automatically receives movies, stores them on its 160 GigaByte hard-drive, and gives consumers the opportunity to view them on their schedule.

I want to extend a big thanks to David and the MovieBeam folks for giving me the chance to do this interview.

October 6, 2003 in Products | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack

Sony PSX!

Sony's hybrid PVR and game platform, the PSX, has launched.

Annouced are two models, the DESR-5000 and the DESR-7000. The 5000 comes with a 160GB HD, and an MSRP of 79,800 yen, whereas the 7000 has a 250GB HD and a price of 99,800 yen. I know there are other details but I will wait until I see some English PR or news.

The FAQ in Japanese is here. Some more specs are here.

Ah, the US wire services are finally getting their content out:
Reuters | Sony PSX Console to Hit Japan Stores by Year-End

Sony Global Press Release - Sony PSX.

October 6, 2003 in Gaming Consoles | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Gateway Connected DVD

Gateway's Connected DVD player looks amazing with an impressive feature list. For $199, you get a progressive-scan DVD player, it plays DVDs, VCDs, and MP3 discs, it's got a card slot that accepts wired or wireless connections to put it on your network, and you can stream music, photos, and video from any PC to your TV.

There are a dozen or two products that let you stream photos and music to a TV, but few stream video. I'm moving to a new DirecTivo system in a few weeks and will lose my Home Media Option, so I'm seriously considering this. About my only worry is the PC software required (I'm assuming it's PC-only), and the speed of my wireless home network being fast enough for DiVX streaming. That said, I'm probably going to pick one of these up and will hopefully post a review in a few weeks.

update: after buying one and using it for a month, I posted a full review.

October 6, 2003 in Products | Permalink | Comments (241) | TrackBack

Adage on TiVo's survival

It seems the thoughts our minds at PVRblog are on everyone else's too. Adage.com's article "Will TiVo Survive the Revolution it Wrought?" discusses how TiVo might fare against the cable and satellite giants that are poised to take their market right out from under them.

It's looking more and more like a serious problem everyday. Companies are grabbing off the shelf parts and programming clones of TiVo's functionality and either giving them away or pricing them so cheaply that buying a TiVo and paying a stiff monthly fee is a fool's proposition. But how on earth can TiVo stop the downward spiral? [via marketingwonk]

October 6, 2003 in News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

TiVo, the DVD

To help spread some religion, TiVo, Inc. has produced a DVD entitled "TiVo, TV your way" that it is giving away in hopes of spreading some evangelism. Apparently the 1 million subscribers it will have by year's end (according to an article at AdAge.com) is not enough.

We've captured some of our subscribers' passion in a brand-new DVD called "TiVo, TV your way" ... This DVD will give your friends and family an entertaining introduction to TiVo and some of its original service features. And by meeting real TiVo subscribers, they'll hear first-hand how TiVo changes lives.

I just put my request in for one -- but if you get it before any of us at PVRblog do, then send it our way!

October 6, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

TiVo on steroids

According to an article in The Globe and Mail entitled "DivX is ready for its sequel. Is Hollywood?", DivXNetworks may be making a comeback.

DivX is still only a little way along the road to media redemption, however, and could yet falter. But the company is beginning to tout some successes, having recently inked a deal with consumer-electronics giant Royal Philips Electronics for a DivX-certified DVD player, now available in Europe. It has also partnered with News Corp.'s 20th Century Fox to encode films for a newly launched airline movie-rental service.

...

Using a DivX-compatible DVD player, consumers can play back files stored on their PCs, either through discs burned from computer files or by way of a direct connection such as an Ethernet port. That means hundreds of hours of programming could be stored and retrieved from a computer at will by consumers, creating a TiVo-like digital video recorder on steroids.

I am personally waiting for the day that TiVos and other PVRs start using variable bit encoding and better codecs a la DivX (MPEG-4). Right now, the amount of space a television show takes up on your TiVo is set by the quality you set the recording to be (unless you are a DirecTiVo owner, at which point you have no choice) -- by using variable bit encoding, higher motion sequences could use higher bitrates, and lower motion sequences use lower bitrates and therefore space. On average, you probably would then be able to record more "stuff" on your PVR.

update @ 6 Oct 2003 10.25am : One correction -- the TiVo does use VBR when you turn on the "save disk space" option (thanks to paul for correcting me on an obvious mistake). However, it would be interesting to see DivX become more ubiquitous and have TiVos move from MPEG-2 to DivX. Argueably for the same quality recording, a DivX file would take about half of the disk space freeing your PVR to record more, allowing companies to advertise more space in their recorders, etc. Just need a hardware DivX encoder, or a better CPU in all our boxes.

October 6, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Comcast launches PVR

In what could be another nail in the coffin of TiVo, Comcast is test marketing a PVR (that also includes video on demand features). As the nation's largest cable provider with over 21 million subscribers, if they launch this service nationwide, it may very well spell doom for TiVo, Replay, and other standalone PVR makers.

October 5, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBack

Which TiVo Is the Right One for You?

Occasional contributor to this site, Raffi Krikorian, has a great new article at O'ReillyNet: "Which TiVo Is the Right One for You?."

Raffi breaks down all the current choices offered by TiVo, including what features you get, what you can hack, and how hard it is to upgrade each box. It boils down to a great how-to if you're about to pick up a TiVo, or are thinking about getting one.

October 3, 2003 in How-To, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

New DirecTV Satellites

A further sign of DirecTV's success and expansion, the company has ordered two satellites from Palo Alto-based Space Systems/Loral. The satellites, valued at $220 million, will serve additional national coverage and as backup to DirecTV's existing infrastructure. They will be launched within the first two quarters of 2005.

October 2, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Media Center 2004 Computers Shipping

We reported the release of Media Center 2004 on Monday, but here's the skinny on the upcoming models that will feature it.

Dell has added the Media Center option to its Dimension line of products, specifically the 8300, 4600C, and 4600.

The Dimension 4600 with Media Center starts at $999 and comes with a Pentium 4 2.6ghz processor with a 800mhz front side bus and Hyper Threading, 512mb of DDR400 SDRAM, an 80gb 7200rpm hard drive, a 16x DVD drive, integrated Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, a 64mb ATI ALL-IN-WONDER 9000 video card with remote control, and a 17" CRT monitor.

Gateway has updated its line of Media Center-based desktops as well as adding a new all-in-one line called the 610 series. The 610's range from $1499 to $1999 and come with a 17" LCD panel.

Of particular interest is Gateway's update to the Media Center with Plasma TV series which truly bridge the home media experience with desktop computing by adding a 42" plasma TV to the package. This line has been around for awhile, but the hardware updates and the new Media Center release make this rather intriguing product.

The base model, the S, is $3599 and comes with the 42" plasma tv and a 500S PC with a Pentium 4 2.4ghz processor (800mhz front side bus and Hyper-Threading), 256mb of DDR333 SDRAM, an 80gb 7200rpm hard drive, a 128mb NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200G video card, integrated Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and a 48x CD-RW/DVD combo drive.

HP is shipping its line of Media Center 2004-based desktops, the m300 series.

$999.99 gets you a m300 with a Pentium 4 2.4ghz processor with a 800mhz front side bus and Hyper Threading, 512mb of DDR333 SDRAM, a 48x CD-RW/DVD combo drive, a 128mb ATI Radeon 9200 video card, integrated Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and an 80gb 7200rpm hard drive (no monitor included).

HP has also added the Media Center 2004 option to its line of zd7000 notebooks.

The base zd7000 Media Center configuration starts at $1999 ($1899 with a $100 mail-in rebate) and comes with a 17" WXGA+ screen (1440x900 resolution), a Pentium 4 2.66ghz processor, 256mb of DDR SDRAM, an 80gb 5400rpm hard drive, an 8x DVD drive, and a 64mb NVIDIA GeForce Go 5600 video card. The zd7000 also weighs in at a whopping 9.3lbs and is 1.8" thick.

Toshiba is shipping its P25 series notebook.

A bit pricier, but more powerful, the P25 goes for $2799 and comes with a 3.0ghz Pentium 4 processor, 1gb DDR SDRAM, a 17" WXGA+ screen, a 64mb NVIDIA GeForce FX Go 5200 video card, an 80gb 5400rpm hard drive, a DVD burner, and integrated 802.11a/g WiFi. The P25 is also a 9.9lb beast that's 1.8" thick.

Not to be outdone, Sony is taking pre-orders for the RZ44G Media Center desktop.

October 1, 2003 in Windows Media Center XP | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBack

Chernin of Fox/News Corp. realistic on PVRs impact

MediaDailyNews has an interesting piece on Fox/News Corp Pres./CEO Peter Chernin who, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communicopia XII Conference in New York City on Tuesday, sounded very realistic about the impact of PVRs on his business and how they are working to find ways to benefit from

"I don't think what it's challenged is advertising. I think what's challenged is the three-minute pod of sort of bland 30-second commercials. I think it behooves all of us to work aggressively to think of different ways to get different messages out," Chernin said.
...
"The challenge is how do you manage the transition in a way that you don't give up your main business. So we're going to be focused, on the broadcast advertising side, in making sure we maintain those revenues and grow those revenues and look at the targeted PVR ads as gravy on top of that for certainly the next three to five or six years," Chernin said.

"It's a pretty easy thing to come to grips with in that we're not going to stop it," Chernin said. "If one side of the company said that we'd prefer to live without PVRs. Well, you know what, too bad. You're not going to live in a life without PVRs."

I'm happy to see executives at this level who understand the demand and the impact of PVR technology on TV viewers. If it means that the advertisers have to work harder to get their messages out, then too bad for them. Advertisers have had it far too easy for far too long, in my opinion. Will it really take "3-5" years for interactive advertising (via PVRs or other 2-way media) to become more than just "gravy on top?"

Chernin: News Corp. Embraces PVRs, Tests And Integrates Ad Strategies

October 1, 2003 in News | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

35hr DirecTiVo for $50

As rumors about DirecTV dropping TiVo and sliding marketshare to the Dish DVR continue, the pricing wars have begun. Circuit City is offering Hughes 35hr DirecTiVo receiver for $50 after rebate, which is $200 off the regular price.

Hopefully soon DirecTV will realize the power of TiVos in their market and just give them away free to new subscribers.

October 1, 2003 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack