Hardware
Stupid Comcast DVR Spoils Lost
Dear Comcast,
Thank you for spoiling last night’s season finale of Lost. Because of the key queuing issue with your set top boxes, two separate plot points from the show were ruined. It’s the same problem we’ve written about before, and it’s getting worse.
I pushed fast-forward to skip ahead through the commercials (Tom Rogers was right about the death of the 30-second spot), when the all-too familiar problem kicked in. At first nothing happened, so I pushed fast-forward again. Still nothing. Then suddenly the box kicked into overdrive, blasting through commercials and then through the show itself.
TiVo Q1: Loses Subs, Touts Broadband
During its first-quarter earnings call today, TiVo highlighted its recent broadband moves and positioned itself as a one-stop box for all your digital entertainment needs. Too bad potential subscribers aren’t clamoring to buy the box — the DVR company gained 48,000 TiVo-owned gross subscribers for the quarter, but lost 145,000 total net subscribers.
Our friends at TV by the Numbers have been keeping track with this handy chart:
The company ended the quarter with 1.7 million TiVo-owned subscriptions. Combined with its MSO/Broadcaster subscriptions, there are a total of 3.8 million TiVo subscribers.
TiVo Adds Disney Movie Rentals
TiVo announced today that its subscribers will soon be able to rent Disney movies through their DVRs directly from their TVs. The service will be provided through an arrangement with CinemaNow.
Details like pricing, titles, and when the service will be available were not part of the announcement. Content will be offered in both standard and high definition (though not all titles will be in HD), and will be available for a 24-hour rental period. TiVo has a movie rental arrangement through Unbox, but Disney content isn’t available for download on the Amazon service.
Sony + Tru2way = No More Set-top Boxes?
Sony has joined forces with six of the top cable companies in the U.S. to adopt tru2way technology in its TVs, thus eliminating the need for a set-top box when accessing television and other interactive services. Apple, Netflix, Sezmi and anyone else working on a set-top box should be nervous.
Sony isn’t the first TV manufacturer to jump on the tru2way bandwagon. Samsung, Panasonic and LG have all signed licensing agreements to use the technology in TV sets that will go on sale as soon as the upcoming holiday season. Sony’s participation is a little different from those previous arrangements as it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox, Charter, Cablevision and Bright House Networks that commits everyone involved to using tru2way, sets certain milestones and even allows consumer electronics companies to be more active in establishing the tru2way standard.
Combined, those cable systems reach 82 percent of all U.S. cable subscribers. Now that is an install base.
Who Will Control Your Digital Media?
It’s still unclear is if the digital home will be a consumer-controlled environment or a carrier-controlled one. Samsung said today it is realigning to put its digital media assets in its telecommunications division, but meanwhile Forrester sees Apple moving to unify the broadband networks with the audio visual networks inside a consumer’s home through some sort of hub strategy combined with installation services. In this scenario, the consumer buys the tools used to access and navigate digital content coming from the web, rather than using an ISP-supplied set-top box. Continue reading at GigaOM.
Netflix Set-Top Boxes, Brought to You by Roku
Well, for those of you wondering which small provider would provide the hardware for Netflix’s digital download service, the suspense is finally over. It’s Roku, a startup better-known for making streaming music hardware. Founder Anthony Wood went over to Netflix last year to help build the digital download service, and then worked with team members brought from Roku to help create a device that consumers can hook up to their televisions (using composite or component video cables, HDMI or S-Video). Earlier this year, however, Netflix decided it didn’t want to be a proprietary hardware vendor after all, and so Wood and the team building the set-top box went back to being part of Roku again.
Comcast’s DVR: Still Dumb But Doing Better
A few months back I complained that my Comcast DVR was dumb as it didn’t understand the difference between new and repeat episodes for some shows, which lead to my DVR being clogged with episodes I’d already seen.
TiVo reps told me that their DVR worked better than Comcast’s because it got the episode information from a more reliable source. In order to prove it, TiVo sent me a review unit to try out. So for the past few weeks I’ve been running both DVRs side by side to see how they did in a DVR death match.
And while I was expecting a TiVo blow out — it just didn’t happen. If I complain about something, I should compliment when it gets fixed. And it looks like Comcast fixed the big issue I was having with its DVR. Well, for the most part fixed it.
Vid-Biz: Sling, DVRs, Hulu
EchoStar to Introduce First-Ever Cable Product Next Week; SlingModem plugs into coaxial cable, acts as a modem with the place-shifting capabilities of a SlingBox. (Multichannel News)
Older DVR Users Skip Ads; 52 percent of men ages 55-64 skip ads all the time, compared with just 21 percent of men ages 12-17. (Advertising Age)
New Hulu Metrics; site has served 15 million uniques over the past month — up from 5 million during its first public month, and 100,000 Hulu vids have been posted to 12,000 different sites. (Silicon Alley Insider)
Accenture Buys Origin Digital; consultancy firm will add Origin’s experience with online video to grow its clients’ online, mobile and IPTV businesses. (paidContent)
LG and Samsung Partner for Mobile DTV; instead of competing, the two Korean electronics giants will submit a jointly developed mobile DTV technology to the U.S. standards body, the Advanced Television Systems Committee. (Broadcasting & Cable)
Two Pay-for-Content Plays; online rabble-rouser Loren Feldman to experiment by charging 99 cents for some of his videos; CrushedPlanet to forgo ads for subscriptions and merchandising. (Feldman: CNET; CrushedPlanet: The Hollywood Reporter)
PBS Picks thePlatform; content management company to publish video for PBS.org, PBSKids.org, PBSParents.org, and PBSTeachers.org. (Web Video Report)
Seesmic Hooks up with Disqus; partnership will allow the more than 13,000 blogs run by Disqus to offer video comments. (emailed release)
Essay: Can We Stop with the Video CE Hardware Already?
Silicon Valley is littered with the carcasses of set-top boxes that were going to revolutionize entertainment. Rather than learning from this grim history, however, some kind of failure torch is being passed from one generation of dying-out hardware makers to a new breed angling to take a prize that just isn’t there.
MovieBeam is emblematic of both the failures of video CE’s hardware past, and the futility of its future. After floundering for years, being bought and subsequently killed by Movie Gallery, MovieBeam is now in the process of being sold to Dar Capital for $2.25 million. Is that a bargain or a big waste of time and money?
We’re guessing the latter. The only companies who have shown any success in getting consumers to adopt set-top box hardware for video content on a massive scale are the cable and satellite companies (OK, the telcos are making strong headway, too).
And it’s not like a bunch of no-names have tried.
HP Adds YouTube to MediaSmart
Ever wish you could watch those cats playing piano on the big screen? Then today is your lucky day, as HP announced that YouTube videos will be viewable on its MediaSmart connected devices like the upcoming MediaSmart Connect and MediaSmart TV. Users will be able to log into their YouTube account and browse through videos using a remote control.
MediaSmart is like HP’s answer to the Apple TV, only it will be more open (like that’s hard). The system consolidates music, video, photos and other content into a single menu operated with a remote control.
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