In case you forgot, Sezmi plans to roll up live broadcast and pay TV along with web videos, on-demand movies and DVR functionality in a single, easy to navigate set-top box. Needless to say, this is a tall order, and most of us probably relegated Sezmi to the vaporware bin. However, trials of the product have begun in LA and a $US25 million cash infusion from investors has given the project new life. In fact, it seems that Sezmi spent the last year working out deals with the likes of Sony Pictures, MGM Studios, Paramount Studios, Warner Brothers, Lion’s Gate Entertainment and Universal Studios for on-demand streaming, and ABC, CBS, CW, FOX, NBC, Turner, MTV Networks Discovery Channel, Telemundo and Univision for TV content.

Sezmi plans to offer a tiered pricing plan that starts with Sezmi Select, the entry tier, which will offer all local channels (in SD and HD) as well as access to on-demand content for $US4.99 per month. Sezmi Supreme will include cable and local channels for $US24.99 per month.

[Sezmi via Variety and Zats]

I like how they justify it:

There is time date stamp for the record, you can get the most authentic evidence for a variety of illegal behaviour. Ideal for CIA agents, police, detector, and spy agency.

That sounds about right, because we all know that CIA agents shop in Chinese crapware sites. The $US243 Pinhole Spy Toothbrush Hidden Camera DVR records 640×480 video in AVI format, using its internal 8GB flash memory. According to their product site, it looks exactly like a real electric toothbrush. It also looks like a whole bag of hurt to me. [Omejo]

The Cell Regza is Toshiba’s upcoming uberTV containing the Cell processor (you know from the PS3). After recording eight shows at once, you’ll have a lot of content to watch. But it won’t be listed like TV Guide.

Well, at least not in Roaming Navigation view.

Instead, the shows are grouped by relationship — common threads like genre, title and hours of original play. The more overlapping qualities, the closer the thumbnails are sorted to one another.

At first, the idea of sorting by title similarity sounds a bit ridiculous, but for those who watch CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI:NY, CSI:Indianapolis and CSI:Millersburg, OH, it’s probably pretty handy — especially if they watch Law & Order, too. [Tech-On]

TiVo’s approach here is direct and clear: This is a basic scheduling app, for searching for, reading about, and marking content for recording, in situations when you can’t get to a computer—though a good mobile app can keep a lot of people away of TiVo’s TV interface for good. It’ll work with Series2 or Series3 standalone TiVos, and BlackBerrys running OS 4.2.0 or later, and should be available in App World starting this morning. [TiVo]

But first, the extender: The Moxi Mate is a small $US399 ($199 for now) extender box that plays back recordings from your Moxi HD from afar, over your home networked. It’s not all that feature-rich—no wi-fi built in, no scheduling of recordings, no support for more than one Moxi Mate at a time—but if your goal is to stream your Moxi library around the house, at least you now have a way to do it.

Anyway, about that library. Although the hardware on the main box hasn’t changed, Moxi’s software update, which should seed tonight, gives your box the gumption it needs to take onboard much larger drives via the e-SATA port, as well as a new optional browsing interface called Grid Guide, which gives users a more familiar, cable-guide-like experience than Moxi’s novel—but good—regular UI. Another, smaller update is Switched Digital Video support by way of an adaptor, if your cable company’s into that kind of thing.

At any rate, the core offering hasn’t changed, it’s just grown an extender: the whole system has the same strengths—a strong interface, good performance, and clear superiority over cableco boxes—as well as the same weaknesses—dependency on PlayOn for online streaming, the learning curve— so unless Moxi Mate tips the scales for you, or you’ve got $US1000+ to drop on storage to build an absurdly large video bank, your current impressions probably still stand.

Well, the good news is that the digital prince will be rolling out to iQ2 boxes around the country starting next week to activate the sleeping 4th tuner. Once it’s been woken up, Princess Tuner Number 4 will allow you to record two channels at the same time as watching a third channel live (at the moment you can only record two and either watch one of them, or watch something already recorded to the HDD or watch one of the On Demand movies or shows).

All iQ2 subscribers should be getting the update rolled out by December 1, but you won’t be notified when it’s been upgraded. It’s also a staggered rollout, so you’ll just have to keep trying to record Futurama at the same time as The Daily Show and Star Trek Voyager to see if you’ve been updated yet.

[Foxtel]

Initially, BlackBerry smartphone users will gain the convenience of being able to discover what shows are on and schedule television recordings while away from the living room and on the go. Future collaboration between the companies will focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content.

Hopefully that “future collaboration” part isn’t too far off.

RIM & TiVo Partner to Provide TiVo Mobile Entertainment Services on BlackBerry Smartphones

ALVISO, CALIFORNIA and WATERLOO, ONTARIO—(Marketwire – Sept. 11, 2008) – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ:TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM), a global leader in wireless innovation, today announced a partnership to bring customised TiVo services to the BlackBerry® wireless platform.

The new relationship brings TiVo and RIM together to develop a variety of mobile entertainment services that marry RIM’s leading BlackBerry® smartphones with the content delivered to consumers through the Emmy-winning TiVo® service. Initially, BlackBerry smartphone users will gain the convenience of being able to discover what shows are on and schedule television recordings while away from the living room and on the go. Future collaboration between the companies will focus on software applications that further simplify mobile access to video content.

“TiVo subscribers will soon be able to wirelessly control their TiVo DVRs using a BlackBerry smartphone – anytime, anywhere – and that is a powerful example of how our respective technologies can complement each other to serve our mutual customers,” said Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO of Research In Motion. “As the BlackBerry smartphone continues its evolution as a modern lifestyle device, the importance of home entertainment integration will continue to grow and TiVo will be the key in providing consumers with greater flexibility in accessing television content.”

“TiVo continues to transform and revolutionize the way people control and watch television and broadband video,” said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo Inc. “RIM and TiVo share a commitment to great user experiences, which cause our products to become seamlessly integrated into the consumer’s lifestyle. We also share a vision for the future of mobile entertainment services and we look forward to a variety of future innovations as a result of this relationship.”

The first software application from RIM and TiVo is expected to be available later this year.