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Saving TiVo through Strangeberry

This new Business 2.0 article (unfortunately, the full text is only available to subscribers or AOL users) describes that while much talk about TiVo has been grim this year, they may be on an upswing, thanks in part to new features developed from their acquisition of the startup Strangeberry.

So far, not much has been said about the Strangeberry-TiVo connection, but this article goes into some of the features the combo will bring to our favorite PVR:

The Wonderful World of Strangeberry

1 Strangeberry software does all the work. It recognizes the format of the content flowing in via TV cable or broadband Internet connection. Designed for easy tweaking, the software will be able to deal with formats that haven't yet been created.

2 The system is TV-centric, rather than PC-centric. A simple graphical interface is displayed on the TV, allowing the user to find what he wants and play it. The huge volume of content can be navigated with a single remote control device.

3 Strangeberry also recognizes where the user wants the content played. It routes the MP3 files to the stereo, but could simultaneously display album covers and music notes on the TV or a laptop.

It sounds great, having a system that builds upon the Home Media Option greatly to turn TiVo into a central entertainment hub that can send stuff from any of your computers to any of your stereo and TVs and vice versa (including sending video to and from your TiVo and PCs!). They also touch on a possible API that will let content companies build apps that can be accessed through TiVo, like voting for American Idol with your remote. If the entertainment companies can put their copyright sledgehammer aside and let TiVo do even half of what they describe, Strangeberry + TiVo could be a whole new revolution in home entertainment. I for one, can't wait to see what they do with it.

The article also paints a pretty rosy financial picture for TiVo, as they near profitability for the first time, which is also good news.

by Matt Haughey August 12, 2004 in TiVo

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