Ego TV describes themselves thusly:

Success. Prosperity. Fame. All are a part of your identity - your Ego. Ego TV is a new multi-platform TV network that’s all about prosperity and how to achieve it. Your Ego is your confidence booster that guides you to success. Listen to your Ego. Everyone has an ego.

Frankly just that description makes me never want to be forced to watch an episode of this channel, but out of commitment to this blog I tried to watch the latest episode on the site ‘Malibu U Episode 2′ - and I still regret it. The things I endure for my readers. Anyway, if you do want to watch it, as usual you can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> Ego TV on Veoh.

SomaGirls TV doesn’t sound like a big improvement:

The latest Celebrity news, Make-up styles, and fashion trends.

Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be subscribing to that one either. If you want to, wait for it, you can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> SomaGirls TV on Veoh.

While I’m talking about TiVoCast, what’s happened to some of the older channels? For example, GeekBrief.TV hasn’t updated since early July. And The Watcher on TiVo is decent enough - but is there some major delay? The last episode, which I received just days ago, was talking about ‘upcoming’ season premiers for returning shows - which were returning in early-to-mid July. Not so useful to be told not to miss a premier when it aired last month.

And yet still no Tekzilla.

We first heard about an OCAP SDK from Motorola last June, but haven’t heard much since then. In the meantime there have been a number of changes, not the least of which has been the rebranding of OCAP as tru2way, as well as a number of CE vendors signing the tru2way MOU with CableLabs. Tru2way really has a lot of traction now and we should see a number of tru2way products on the market by mid-2009.

Well, according to Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola has finally released the SDK to tru2way developers. ME2G has a Q&A with Motorola’s Frank Goddard, and there is a product fact sheet PDF available as well. Tools like this will be a major factor in building a successful tru2way ecosystem.

Disclaimer: I’m employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar.

Sling’s integrated Guide feature puts a schedule right on the user’s laptop or desktop computer, making it easy for those who want to watch live programming from their Slingbox-connected home TV to see what’s on and choose a program without the delays of accessing a distant set-top box’s program guide and squinting at text that’s traveling halfway around the world.

A live video buffer right in SlingPlayer will let users pause, rewind, or fast-forward through up to an hour of video, whether or not there’s a TiVo or other DVR hooked to the Slingbox on the other end. Those who do have a DVR can still use its capabilities, but will have the option of pausing, etc., locally, without the delays involved in remote-control signals being transmitted over the net.

Sling Accounts will allow users to store their personalized program guide settings and channel line-ups, favourite channels, and Slingbox IDs and passwords on Sling Media’s central servers. This should eliminate the need to reconfigure SlingPlayer’s settings each time it’s installed on a new laptop, office desktop, or even cybercafe kiosk.

The company says the long-awaited Clip+Sling feature, announced over a year and a half ago at CES 2007, didn’t make it into the public beta. The release of Clip+Sling, which lets Slingbox owners create and share short segments of video from what they’re watching with anyone, is still pending while the company negotiates with content owners and distributors. The 2.0 software, though, will provide the underlying flexibility the company needs to release Clip+Sling and other new features.

Sling Media is also working on a new version of SlingPlayer for Macintosh, which will bring these features to Apple’s platform, but no time frame is available for a Mac update.

On on-going litigation between DISH and TiVo which might impact 4 to 6 million DISH subscribers if the satellite company loses:

What we did was we designed around the TiVo patent and patent law encourages people to be innovative and our guys were very innovative and used some very sophisticated algorithms and so fourth to design around the TiVo patent. I believe we’ll prevail but TiVo, we’re going to have conversations with TiVo one way or the other about how we work together, and again, I’m just stubborn. I know this case inside and out. I’ve sat through trials. I’ve sat through the engineering models. I’ve sat and had the best and the brightest explain this to us, and I’m just stubborn. We don’t violate their intellectual property today, and I want to prove that. And so we’re going to go to the September 4th hearing and see who is right and so far, TiVo has been right.

We’re a month away from the September 4th hearing, when we’ll see the next chapter in this ongoing saga play out.

Disclaimer: I’m employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar, which also has Charlie Ergen as CEO.

EDIT: Reader Mike Turpin points out that you can get the same deal through Amazon.com from the seller BuyNow Incorporated (see the ‘More Buying Choices’ on the right) and avoid the sales tax Buy.com charges in several states. BuyNow Incorporated is really Buy.com, so it is the same deal, without tax for those who would be charged from Buy.com. Thanks Mike!

With video downloads it is always a compromise between speed and quality. For instant gratification you have streaming video, but that’s the lowest quality. Broadband speed limitations restrict the maximum possible streaming bitrates. Downloads can offer higher bitrates, but still require fat pipes to be feasible, and, of course, storage. But even the best download services don’t come close to matching the picture quality of Blu-ray, because they can’t match the bitrates. And don’t even get into bonus features, lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD-MA), multiple audio and subtitle tracks, etc. With most commercial Blu-ray titles using between 30GB or more of disc capacity, we’re not going to be downloading content at that quality in the near future.

So I was a little gratified to see this article in CE Pro, entitled Blu-ray and Downloads: Why Both Are Worth Offering. CE Pro is an industry magazine with a primary audience of consumer electronics professionals, the kind of folks who install custom systems in high end homes. The article focuses on Blu-ray for physical media and VUDU for downloads, but Amazon Unbox on TiVo, iTunes on Apple TV, Xbox 360, PlayStation3, NetFlix, etc, are all possible broadband video options for the consumer. Downloads aren’t about to replace discs for those who prefer a quality viewing experience, but downloads offer the kind of instant gratification that discs can’t match. I think having both available is the best approach, the best of both worlds.

TiVo has said that they’d be focusing further development on the TiVo HD platform architecture, so this comes as little surprise. In fact, we’ve talked about it here before. It’s a shame, though, for those looking for the premium experience offered only by the Series3, with its THX certification, fancier remote, and front-panel OLED display, not to mention larger hard drive.

Before long, we’d hope to see the stock TiVo HD kicked up a notch with its own larger hard drive; as more and more of what people watch shifts to HD channels, a twenty-hour capacity for HD recordings will seem stingier and stingier. Western Digital’s My DVR Expander external hard drive helps, and expansion kits and services from third parties like DVRUpgrade and WeaKnees are great for those who don’t mind modified hardware, but simply put, the average consumer wants to buy a standard product that’s all he or she needs.

So, as we wistfully recall the dear, departed TiVo Series3 (and as aficionados scramble to find remaining stock on store shelves or from DVRUpgrade and other online vendors with small stocks), we look forward to future configurations of the new flagship product, the TiVo HD.

Unfortunately, I can’t use it. I have over 14,500 tracks in my digital music collection, and all but a handful are AAC (unprotected). Harmonium currently only plays MP3 files via TiVo, so it won’t handle my music. If Charles ever adds AAC support to Harmonium, I’d definitely give it a try. I’m hopeful, since it is only up to release 0.3.1 at this point, still early days. If you have an MP3 collection and a TiVo, you might want to check out Harmonium for your TiVo music streaming. If you do, leave a comment letting me, and other readers, know what you think.

The press release:

A NEW MUSIC STREAMING APPLICATION FOR THE TIVO DVR

Harmonium Music Player (http://harmonium.dazeend.org) is a newly released application that streams music from a PC to a TiVo DVR, and is now in an open
beta testing period.

Although there are other music streaming applications for TiVo, Harmonium has features that set it apart:

• Harmonium uses information from ID3 tags in your MP3 files to automatically sort your music collection. (Harmonium honors the Album Artist tag when it is found, so albums that contain songs by different artists or combinations of artists are grouped together.)
• Harmonium supports high-definition televisions and displays album art in large format high-definition when possible.
• Harmonium has integrated playlist support. Native playlists can be created and edited on-screen. M3U playlists are also supported.
• Harmonium is easy to use. Installation is as simple as unzipping a file, editing a few lines of text, and starting the application. Using Harmonium is easy too. Harmonium uses TiVo usage conventions when possible to make its interface familiar to anyone who’s used a TiVo.
• Harmonium is cross-platform. There are distributions prepared that install Harmonium so that it starts on Windows and Linux after reboots. There’s also a distribution that should run on any operating system that has Java installed (including Mac OS X).
• Harmonium is free. Licensed under the GNU AGPL, Harmonium has no cost to use and its source code is available to modify and distribute.

More information including screenshots, downloads, and system requirements is
available from its project web page: http://harmonium.dazeend.org

Back in January Netflix announced a partnership with LG Electronics to embed the Netflix streaming player in various LG products. At the time it was expected to be included in an LG dual-format player, HD DVD and BD, of course HD DVD has since died. Today LG announced the first product to bear fruit from this partnetship, the BD300 Blu-ray player.

The BD300 is a full-featured Blu-ray player with BonusView / Profile 1.1 and BD-Live / Profile 2.0 support, with 1080p DVD upscaling, and, of course, Netflix instant viewing support. Netflix, and BD-Live, support use a built-in wired Ethernet connection. As with the Roku Netflix Player, users will add titles to their queue via the netflix website, then they’ll have instant access to those titles from the LG deck. When a title is selected playback will begin in as little as 30 seconds. You’ll also be able to read synopsis and rate movies from the interface.

The full press release is below:

Jul 31, 2008 00:01 ET

LG Announces First Blu-ray Disc Player With Capability to Instantly Stream Movies From Netflix to the TV

LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player to be Unveiled Tonight

NEW YORK, July 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Building on a groundbreaking technology partnership announced earlier this year, LG Electronics and Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) today announced plans for the first Blu-ray disc player that will have the added benefit of being able to instantly stream a growing library of movies and TV episodes from Netflix directly to the TV.

Available this fall, the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will play high definition Blu-ray discs, up-convert standard DVDs to 1080p and allow Netflix subscribers to instantly stream more than 12,000 choices of movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the TV for no additional charge.

LG Electronics and Netflix will demonstrate the BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player for the first time tonight at LG’s 2008 Summer Line Show at Morgan Library and Museum in New York City. (The event is open to invited media only.)

Instantly streaming content from Netflix to the TV via the LG BD300 Network Blu-ray Disc Player will rely on a wired broadband connection and Queue-based user interface. Netflix members will use the Netflix Web site to add movies and TV episodes to their individual instant Queues. Those choices will automatically be displayed on members’ TVs and available to watch instantly through the LG player. Once selected, movies will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds. With the BD300’s accompanying remote control, Netflix members will be able to browse and make selections right on the TV screen and also have the ability to read synopses and rate movies. In addition, they will have the option of fast-forwarding and rewinding the video stream.

“As Blu-ray player sales are expected to triple in three years, consumers are craving content and seeking a premium home entertainment experience,” said LG Electronics USA President Teddy Hwang. “The BD300 is another LG industry first and provides consumers with an advanced high-def disc player with unparalleled flexibility and networked access for services such as Netflix.”

Consumers craving more content will appreciate the BD Live feature, which provides real-time interactivity for movie enthusiasts seeking extras, new previews or special content while BonusView provides picture-in-picture access to Blu-ray disc special features. To further personalize and simplify the home theater experience, the BD300 includes LG’s SimpLink(TM) technology, which allows users to control similarly equipped LG TV and AV products via convenient on-screen menus or directly from the product itself.

In January, prior to the 2008 International CES(R), LG Electronics and Netflix announced their technology partnership to provide a set-top box for consumers to stream movies and TV episodes from the Internet to the TV beginning in the second half of the year.

“LG Electronics is establishing itself as the innovation leader in consumer electronics, combining the best of broadband and Blu-ray connectivity,” said Netflix Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO Reed Hastings. “LG Electronics was the first of our technology partners to publicly embrace our strategy for getting the Internet to the TV, and is the first to introduce a Blu-ray player that will instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to the TV.”

About LG Electronics USA

LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc., a global force and technology leader in home appliances, consumer electronics and mobile communications. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a wide range of stylish, innovative digital appliances, consumer electronics (digital display and digital media) products and mobile phones under LG’s “Life’s Good” marketing theme. For more information, please visit http://www.lgusa.com/.

About Netflix, Inc.

Netflix, Inc. (Nadsaq: NFLX) is the world’s largest online movie rental service, with more than eight million subscribers. For one low monthly price, Netflix members can get DVDs delivered to their homes and can instantly watch movies and TV episodes streamed to their TVs and PCs, all in unlimited amounts. Members can choose from over 100,000 DVD titles and a growing library of more than 12,000 choices that can be watched instantly. There are never any due dates or late fees. DVDs are delivered free to members by first class mail, with a postage-paid return envelope, from over 100 U.S. shipping points. More than 95 percent of Netflix members live in areas that generally receive shipments in one business day. Netflix is also partnering with leading consumer electronics companies to offer a range of devices that can instantly stream movies and TV episodes to members’ TVs from Netflix. For more information, visit http://www.netflix.com/.

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080731/AQTH518-a
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080731/AQTH518-b
AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/
AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN4,5
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Source: Netflix, Inc.

CONTACT: John I. Taylor of LG Electronics USA, Inc., +1-847-941-8181,
jtaylor@lge.com; or Nathan Friedman, +1-312-397-6009,
nathan.friedman@ogilvypr.com, for LG Electronics USA, Inc.; or Steve Swasey of
Netflix, Inc., +1-408-540-3947, sswasey@netflix.com

Web site: http://www.netflix.com/
http://www.lgusa.com/

Every phone conversation between Ben Stiller’s character, Tug Speedman, and his agent, played by Matthew McConaughey, includes a question from McConaughey as to whether Stiller has received his TiVo or not.

One of the key developments in the film also occurs only when McConaughey tries to find out from the film’s producer why Stiller’s character has not received his TiVo.

To cement its position in audience’s minds, TiVo is also a key part of the film’s climactic scene.

That’s quite a bit of product placement for TiVo in a major motion picture. While I wonder if TiVo may have paid for such placement, in the past they’ve told me that they don’t pay for all of the mentions of TiVo found in TV shows, etc. That it is just organic - so many people in Hollywood have TiVo that they end up putting it in their scripts.

It’ll be a nice boost of brand awareness for TiVo. If they didn’t pay for it, that’s quite a steal.

From the release it just sounds like they’re releasing the first results from the Power||Watch service, which they started putting together last November. Power||Watch consists of a panel of 20,000 TiVo users who have opted in to having personal information gathered. This allows TiVo to associate the viewing data from the TiVo with the known demographic data from the household to provide more valuable data than the anonymous information provided by their Stop||Watch service.

May 2008 Power||Watch(TM) Ratings Service Highlights

– The Power||Watch(TM) ratings service research indicated that, contrary to popular perception, subscribers who have used the TiVo(R) service for more than three years, the “early adopters,” are no more likely to avoid commercials than those who have only been TiVo subscribers for one to three years. Essentially, there is no meaningful difference in the amount of Timeshifted viewing or fast-forwarding between these subscriber groups.

– All demographic segments Timeshift and fast-forward commercials at a high rate, although the specific commercials viewers choose to skip varies. For example, there are significant variances in the amount of time households with children under 12 spent watching commercials for certain product categories during Timeshifted viewing compared to households with adults over 50.

The full press release has more data and more of a breakdown of the initial Power||Watch results.

Picked up from EngadgetHD.

You can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> The Watcher On TiVo

And I was right about it being basically a TiVoCast with a corresponding Guru Guide. The Guru Guide is available under You can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> KidZone Recommendations & Guru Guides -> Featured -> Best Bets from The Watcher The Guru Guide is also available online.

On a different note, I finally got 9.4 this evening and I’ve had a little time to explore. I tried the YouTube feature and was vastly amused to discover the today’s ‘Most Viewed’ video is a ~10 minute clip from the hentai anime New Angel (aka Shin Angel). Not too graphic, looks like it was edited with a meat cleaver, but still amusing. Ah, YouTube.

But I have to say, poking around and playing different videos, it looks surprisingly good on my 61″ DLP. Much better than I was expecting actually, giving the normal resolution of YouTube videos. Well done TiVo. I hope they make the streaming H.264 generic so other sites can use it.

Being able to Review Thumbs is interesting, but I wish it allowed me to sort it alphabetically. That would make it easier to find a specific program. It looks like it is sorted by some ranking system, since there is no discernible order. There are also odd duplications in the list, with the same program or movie appearing twice.

Everything seems to work as I’d expect, I think 9.4 is a nice update.

Of course, the BDA hasn’t just been standing by while this happens, shortly after CH-DVD was announced the BDA announced that they too were considering the Chinese codecs. And taking it a step further, unlike CBHD, which is a ghetto standard restricted only to China, the BDA is considering adding the codecs to the global Blu-ray specification.

And, despite predictions from HD DVD fans that it would ‘never happen’, the BDA has approved several Chinese CE vendors to produce Blu-ray players. And even more players have been announced recently at SinoCES. With most of their major CE vendors cranking out Blu-ray players for the growing global market player availability will rise, while unit costs fall. With a limited domestic market, CBHD will have a hard time competing with the falling BD player costs.

DIGITIMES cites lower costs as the main advantage for CBHD over BD. An existing DVD line can be converted to press CBHD for around USD$800,000, while establishing a new BD line costs around USD$3,000,000. And the licenses required to produce a CBHD player are around USD$8.10, reportedly much less than the equivalent BD licenses. However, a BD production line can take orders for export discs as well, making it easier to keep the line busy - and making money. A CBHD line is only good for domestic disc pressing. And the licensing costs for BD are expected to drop sharply in the coming years. Plus a production line can be shared between domestic and export players, spreading the non-licensing overhead costs over a larger production base.

If the BDA can complete the China-ized version of the BD specification to receive Chinese governmental approval for the format, it should easily squeeze CBHD out of the market just as it did to HD DVD.

Picked up via EngadgetHD.

Picked up from the Blu-ray Stats News Log.

However, TiVoCommunity user Dennis Wilkinson spotted a new version. 1.9.4, up for download a couple of weeks ago. It was pulled and the download reverted to 1.9.3, but he did find some interesting additions to the files included in 1.9.4.

/Library/Application Support/TiVo/BindTiVoFileToQTPlayer
/Library/Frameworks/mcac3dec.framework
/Library/Frameworks/mcmpegin.framework
/Library/Frameworks/mcmpgdec.framework
/Library/QuickTime/TiVo File Support.component
/Library/StartupItems/TiVoDesktop/TiVoHDPhotoServer

And the output of “strings /Library/Application\ Support/TiVoDesktop/TiVoDesktop” shows some interesting new strings:

StartHDPhotoServerAtBoot
VideoLibraryName
VideoDirectory

While the features don’t appear to be enabled in 1.9.4, it isn’t uncommon for future additions still in development to find their way, disabled, into releases. These additions seem to indicate the HD Photo Server, which has been part of the Windows TiVo Desktop for a while, will finally find its way into the Mac TiVo Desktop. And the ‘BindTiVoFileToQTPlayer’, QuickTime ‘TiVo File Support.component’ and MPEG encode and decode frameworks certainly seem to point toward native TiVoToGo file playback, and possibly transcoding to support TiVo Web Video and other file transfers to TiVo.

1.9.4 does fix TiVoToComeBack transfers, which was broken in 1.9.3.

On Friday user Lannister80 talked to a TiVo support person who said 1.9.4 was pulled due to a problem and that a new build would be available for download in “1 to 2 weeks”.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.

But Joshua Danovitz, TiVo’s international general manager, said: “We’re going to make YouTube available free of charge from early next year.”

This is good news, as Seven Network has announced that they will be charging for additional updates, such as enabling TiVoToGo. This announcement indicates they won’t be nickel-and-diming the users for all new capabilities. And this isn’t the only feature coming soon, Danovitz also says that a movie and TV download service, similar to Amazon Unbox in the US, is coming and they’re “pushing very hard” to have it by December 2008.

Picked up from TWICE.

Through 9/30/08 save 10% site wide on Roxio.com: SAVE10ROX
Through 8/15/08 save $20 on Roxio Easy Media Creator 10: C10SAVE20
Through 9/30/08 same $20 on MyDVD 10 Premier: MDVDSAVE20

And a couple of non-coupon deals:
While supplies last buy Popcorn 3 and get a free T-shirt.
Through 9/30/08 save $20 when you buy Toast 9 and the HD/Blu-ray Plug-in together.

While iTWire says of TiVo I think it’s the best choice for Australians who want a PVR that “just works”, they still have some issues with it. And the article counts down their top ten. I’ll take a shot at them.

10. No thumbnails on recordings list

Adam, the article’s author, had been using Windows Media Center so this is something he was used to there. Personally I don’t think it is that useful, the title of a show is more meaningful to me than a random thumbnail image from a recording.

9. Can’t use the onscreen display to flick through EPG

From the description he gives it sounds like PIP, watching one program with a PIP image of what’s on other channels while surfing the guide. I suppose if there is a free tuner and PIP it could be a nice thing to have. But it’d only work if a tuner was free, so it could be confusing for users if it works some of the time but not all of the time.

8. No picture in picture

See #9, I think you’d need this to do it. Since the newer TiVo units have two tuners it seems like it might be possible for TiVo to add PIP. It has certainly been something US users have requested too.

7. No warning against changing the channel when time shifting

While I don’t use Live TV, I fully understand the desire to have this. As long as TiVo flushes the existing buffer when switching channels it would be nice to have some warning if you’re behind in the buffer. One accidental channel change can ruin your day. People have been asking for this since the earliest days of TiVo.

6. Can’t limit a Season Pass to episodes screening at a particular time of day

This is something else US users have repeatedly requested. The most common examples are The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which often have bad guide data and cause TiVo to record all five airings of the same episode. Users have wished for a way to tell TiVo to limit the Season Pass to, say, between 23:00 and 00:00. Sure, you can use manually recordings to work around this, but then you give up many of the advantages of a Season Pass - such as automatically handling conflicts, and doing the right thing when the guide data is correct.

5. Can’t check remaining hard drive space

The Free Space Indicator (FSI) is perhaps the most oft requested TiVo feature in the history of TiVo. Sure, I understand that TiVo’s philosophy of use is supposed to make the FSI unnecessary. But users increasingly expect it as nearly every other DVR on the market has one. And it is a natural thing to look for since legacy recording technologies such as VHS and DVD-R require the user to be aware of the remaining time. And no, there is no technical reason TiVo couldn’t do it. While bit rates can certainly vary, TiVo knows the maximum bitrates. The maximum bitrate is the ‘worst case scenario’, so TiVo can certainly say “There is at least X time remaining”. While I initially didn’t feel the FSI was a big deal, over time I’ve changed my opinion and now I really think TiVo should implement an FSI.

4. No 24 hour skip forward or back in the onscreen EPG

Well, this we know is part of the 9.4 update now rolling out in the US. So hopefully Australia will see this in a future update as well. (Incidentally I still have not received 9.4 on my Series3.)

3. EPG doesn’t indicate which programs are scheduled to be recorded

This is another feature long requested in the US. I don’t understand why TiVo doesn’t do this, it seems like an obvious UI feature. You’d expect to see some indication in the EPG of upcoming recordings, so it is hard to understand why user-friendly TiVo has never implemented this.

2. No ad skipping

He’s basically referring to 30 second skip, which we have in the US as a back door code. It seems the code has been removed from the Australian software, seemingly by Seven Network’s. Since TiVo has included this in all of their US software (even the Comcast software) it seems unlikely that they’d elect to remove it in Australia without Seven requesting it.

1. No streaming content from a computer

The Australian TiVo lacks the networking features found in the US units, such as TiVoToGo (transfers from TiVo), and the associated TiVoToComeBack (transfers to TiVo). The Australian units are expected to receive these features in a firmware update early next year, so this should be resolved then. Though TiVo’s media support is still lacking compared to other media extenders. Hopefully TiVo will expand the native media support to MPEG-4/H.264 and WMV/VC-1 in an update so that everything needn’t be transcoded to MPEG-2. (While 9.4 adds H.264 support for YouTube playback it remains to be seen if they’ll extend it to generic playback support.)

Press release below:

Jul 28, 2008 12:03 ET

LG Electronics, Cable Operators Reach Two-Way ‘Plug and Play’ Accord

Pro-Consumer ‘tru2way™’ Pact Clears Path for Video on Demand, Digital Video Recording and Other Interactive Services

ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J., July 28 /PRNewswire/ — LG Electronics, Inc. today announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the top six U.S. cable operators, supporting the use of the “tru2way™” technology platform for delivering two-way interactive digital cable services without a set-top box.

“This pro-consumer pact means that LG tru2way HDTVs planned for 2009 and beyond will receive the newest interactive cable services, from video on demand to interactive programming guides, in virtually every media market and without a set-top box. Equally significant, it will facilitate the development of a viable, two-way retail market,” said Dr. Woo Paik, LG Electronics president and chief technology officer.

Developed by Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs™), tru2way “plug and play” technology is backed by the nation’s six largest cable companies — Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, CableVision, Charter and Bright House Networks — which together account for an estimated 80 percent of all U.S. cable subscribers and some 105 million homes.

Underscoring the significance of today’s announcement is LG’s role as one of the fastest-growing consumer electronics brands in the United States. A long-time supporter of the CableLabs OpenCable™ initiative, LG Electronics is a leading manufacturer of digital flat-panel displays, digital HDTVs and related digital video products.

Dr. Richard R. Green, president and chief executive officer of CableLabs, said, “With the addition of LG — the latest in a series of MOUs our industry has entered into with leading consumer electronics companies — this again validates our tru2way technology, which employs the same Java-based platform used in mobile phones, interactive broadcasting and Blu-ray HD digital video recorders. Tru2way will allow cable operators, consumer electronics manufacturers, content owners and others to work together to provide creative interactive services directly to the consumer.”

Tru2way technology allows consumers to receive interactive cable services, including video-on-demand, voting and polling, games, and e-commerce in integrated retail DTVs without the need for a separate set-top box.

About LG Electronics

LG Electronics, Inc. is a global leader and technology innovator in consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications, employing more than 82,000 people working in 114 operations including 82 subsidiaries around the world. With 2007 global sales of $44 billion, LG comprises four business units — Digital Appliance, Mobile Communications, Digital Display and Digital Media. LG Electronics USA, Inc., based in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., is the North American subsidiary of LG Electronics, Inc. In the United States, LG Electronics sells a wide range of digital appliances, consumer electronics products and mobile phones under LG’s “Life’s Good” marketing theme. For more information, please visit http://www.lgusa.com/.

CableLabs and tru2way are trademarks of Cable Television Laboratories Inc.

Source: LG Electronics, Inc.

CONTACT: John I. Taylor of LG Electronics USA, +1-847-941-8181,
jtaylor@lge.com; or Nathan Friedman of Ogilvy Public Relations,
+1-312-397-6009, nathan.friedman@ogilvypr.com, for LG Electronics, Inc.

Web site: http://www.lgusa.com/

They’re also offering $1 off three films: The Onion Movie for $2.99, Batman Begins for $1.99, and 27 Dresses for $2.99.

And, finally, we have a Summer Movie Sale. 14 films to purchase, not rent, for $5.99 each: Snatch, Layer Cake, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, XXX, The Glass House, The Big Hit, Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle, The Devil’s Own, Donnie Brasco, The Quick and the Dead, Stealth, Desperate Measures, Cliffhanger, and Still Crazy.

And as a special deal, you can buy both Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle for a combined price of only $10.99 - you buy Charlie’s Angels for $9.99, and then receive a code to purchase Charlie’s Angels Full Throttle for just $1. Details here.

As a side note, I thought I’d mention that The Ultimate Matrix Collection on Blu-ray is now available for pre-order. That’s a seven disc set - five BDs (The three live-action movies, The Animatrix, and ‘The Matrix Experience’) and two DVDs of bonus material. All for $90.95.

She highlights the features of TiVo that have made her, as a non-geek user, a TiVo convert, such as the Season Pass, the advanced search capabilities of WishLists, the Thumb Ratings and TiVo Suggestions. All of the features usually touted as making a TiVo more than just a standard DVR. She also highlights the more advanced features added by connecting the TiVo to a network, but also prosaic things like being able to undelete a program, which while simple is something most DVRs don’t provide.

It is nice to see a blog from a non-geek user about that features they really use, and why they love their TiVo. It is a chance of pace from the usual parade of geeks - myself included.

I figured there might be some interested candidates out there reading this blog and thought I’d share the opportunity.

Picked up from Stephen Mack’s Zeigen.com.

Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny posted a few screen shots of the interface, which confirm what I suspected - there is a PIN to control access to purchase power. It uses the same PIN required for Amazon Unbox purchases, which certainly makes sense. The product screen looks much like a program description screen, and there is Swivel Search-like functionality with ‘View related products’. Shipping and taxes are calculated (I’m presuming it takes into account things like Amazon Prime) and you have the ability to confirm the order with the total to be charged. Or you can change your shipping options, or even save the item to your Amazon web-based shopping cart.

EDIT: I’d requested images of the interface as well, and TiVo got back to me with them today:

Wired’s Epicenter blog’s coverage helps clarify a few things about the implementation. The current implementation will display the product purchase option on the delete screen at the end of a program, similar to the ads that can display there today. While programs can be flagged for specific products, TiVo can also use a Suggestions-style system where it presents products it feels are related, based on the program’s guide data. So the name of a talk show guest may cause books by that person to be offered, etc.

Product Purchase will also be available through Universal Swivel Search, where products related to the search results may be presented for purchase. So if you’re searching for David Hasselhoff you may be offered DVDs of Knight Rider, for example. And there’s more:

It’s not an exclusive arrangement, though, and it’s fair to expect both Amazon.com and TiVo will hop in bed with other players. “We’re always looking at ways to expand shopping options for customers,” says Heather Huntoon, a spokeswoman from Amazon.com.

TiVo’s [Evan Young, Director of Broadband Services] says the company may introduce other commerce partners, but at the moment the focus is on Amazon. “We’re looking to create some initial success with Amazon. They’re already a partner of ours, and they have excellent customer service.”

And although TiVo hasn’t tested the shopping service yet, Young is already hopeful that the initiative can be expanded to include in-program product placements and other ad arrangements.

“We’re interested in talking to programmers as well as advertisers to enable more impulse buys when it make sense,” says Young.

So TiVo could partner with QVC to offer remote-based ordering without the need to call in. Or perhaps partner with a national pizza chain to allow ordering from the TiVo, with prompts to do so in their ads. (Actually, thinking about it, there are websites out there that offer menus for local delivery joints, and sometimes online ordering. TiVo should link up with one (or more) of them and get an HME based ordering system up. It would make compiling an order for all your friends so much easier.) Channels that sell DVDs of their own programs, like Discovery and History, could sell them right at the end of the program, direct to viewers via TiVo. MTV could offer CD sales, or perhaps downloads, linked from videos (Well, whenever they deign to show videos these says.) I can think of many possible uses for this feature.

The hard part would be that, with the current system, you need to have a relationship with the vendor so that they have your payment information on file. If TiVo were to act as a payment broker, or partner with the likes of PayPal to be a broker, they could sign up just about any merchant without the user having to establish those payment relationships. That would really reduce the friction in the system.

TiVo’s Stephen Mack also posted some details on the new feature over at TiVoCommunity:

With that out of the way, here’s what you’ll see with the new feature launching today.

* For Burn Notice, Oprah’s Book Club, and a few other shows, at the conclusion of the show you’ll see a message in the delete dialog box allowing you to purchase related products. (These are similar to existing messages in the delete dialog box.) More shows will come in the future.
* In the future, we’ll create a showcase for upcoming talk shows allowing you to purchase related products.
* In the future, we’ll create a showcase about newly released books, DVDs and CDs.

The second and third items you’ll see next week, and if they’re well received we’ll evaluating continuing with them.

I’m very excited about this new feature — it’s long been high on my wishlist of things that I want when I watch TV, and I’m glad we’ve released this new feature for our customers.

Furthermore, he added:

One other point: Think of this an add-on to the existing advertising delivery methods that we’ve had for a while. Product purchase further enhances things like Showcases, program placement (that’s what we call the related menu items in the delete dialog box), and the Thumbs Up tags on advertisements.

This will be no more invasive than the existing advertising products that you’ve seen already. We don’t intend to put this new feature in any new locations.

In case it isn’t clear, that mean no ‘Buy Now’ pop-ups during actual program content. But they may appear over ads, just as the ‘Press Thumbs Up For More Information’ prompts can do so today. So those who have been worried about big pop-ups in the middle of their favorite show needed be concerned. (Though, personally, as I said in my early post, I think some kind of small, unobtrusive indicator to be able to order in-content items would be cool. But I know some would dislike that, so it should probably be something the user can disable.)

And, finally, TiVo did issue an official press release today announcing the feature.

TiVo will begin offering the ability to flag broadcasts in this way to advertisers and programmers over the coming months. So that ad spot for a new DVD? You could order the DVD on the spot. Tonight’s musical guest on your favorite late night talk show sounds good? Buy their CD immediately. Oprah is hawking another book? Order it before she’s done. The outfit that cool new character on your favorite show is wearing looks good? Buy it for yourself.

You’ll also be able to add items to your Amazon cart and finalize the purchase later, online, if you want some time to think it over.

Personally I think this is fantastic. Just the kind of thing a platform like TiVo allows which is a major departure from what we’ve had to date. I know there have been a few attempts at this kind of thing through various interacting television platforms embedded in cable boxes and the like, but they were always very limited. Based on the Times report, it sounds like this functionality in TiVo could extend to pretty much any product sold through Amazon, which is just about anything.

Sure, I have some reservations. Not having see the implementation I don’t know how the interactivity is indicated on screen. I would hope that it is fairly unobtrusive. And while I don’t really care if anyone wants to overlay purchase option over an ad, just as I think the static ads while fast-forwarding through an ad for that product are perfectly fine, if this will also be available during actual program content it had better be very small, like the ‘camera’ icon you get on many DVD or Blu-ray players when the content has multiple angles available. And, like that icon, the user should be able to disable the indicator completely.

I’m also presuming there is some level of security on the purchase, some kind of PIN or password that must be entered to complete the purchase. While I prefer to keep it off, One Click purchasing on the web is one thing. But it wouldn’t be acceptable on a TiVo where any child or visitor could, deliberately or by accident, place orders.

Neither TiVo nor Amazon are fools, so I’m more than willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that they’ll do a decent job with the implementation. The real key will be how many advertisers and programming providers they can sign up to create the embedded product links. TiVo and Amazon will have to make it easy, and perhaps offer some enticement, as TiVo’s total user base is fairly small. Especially as I’d bet this feature will only work on broadband connected standalone TiVos, and not the DirecTiVo nor the Comcast OCAP units, at this not initially.

As recently revealed, the new 9.4 TiVo update includes Tuning Adapter support, so TiVo users will be ready for the TAs as soon as the cable MSOs make them available. As Bright House, Cox, Time Warner, and others all implementing SDV, the TAs will be increasingly important. Pricing for customers is not yet known, except for Cox which announced plans to provide the TAs to their customers free of charge.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.