pvr
Gadgets
1:04PM Nick Broughall | Back when the latest iteration of Foxtel’s iQ launched, one of the most interesting aspects was that there was a 4th HD digital tuner inside, except it was just lying there like some kind of fairytale princess waiting to be woken up by a digital Prince Charming.
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] More »
Foxtel Activating That 4th Tuner In Your iQ2
1:04PM Nick Broughall | Back when the latest iteration of Foxtel’s iQ launched, one of the most interesting aspects was that there was a 4th HD digital tuner inside, except it was just lying there like some kind of fairytale princess waiting to be woken up by a digital Prince Charming.
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] More » 
Entertainment
TiVo HD Coming to DirecTV Next Year
12:15AM Mark Wilson | TiVo and DirecTV have a chaotic history, but now that it’s all straightened out, the two companies can move forward to release new hardware. Now they’re planning a follow up to the HD DirecTiVo, the aging, discontinued HD TiVo platform for DirecTV that used inefficient MPEG2 encoding. Expected in the second half of 2009, the new TiVo HD will support MPEG4 recording and newer TiVo features like Swivel Search. As a former TiVo user who’s now running an HR21 with a less than optimal interface, I can only see more DVR options as a good thing. [Zatz Not Funny] More »
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3:58PM Nick Broughall | In case you missed it today, there’s a big conference happening in Europe called IFA at the moment. And while we haven’t yet seen the Panasonic presentation, the guys from Trusted Reviews did, and they scored a photo of the presentation slide for Panny’s new Blu-ray recorder. Although when we say new, we mean new to Europe, not new to Australia – the DMR-BW500 has been out in Australia for a couple of months.
But is it the same device? Eagle-eyed reader Anthony pointed out that the slide Panasonic showcased at IFA explicitly says that it features BD-Live technology, which we know for a fact that the Australian version doesn’t. Considering you need an Ethernet port (or inbuilt Wi-Fi, I guess) plus some dedicated storage on board to be able to use BD-Live, it would mean that the DMR-BW500 for Europe would have different hardware to the Australian model.
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Is Panasonic’s European BD Recorder Better Than Ours?
3:58PM Nick Broughall | In case you missed it today, there’s a big conference happening in Europe called IFA at the moment. And while we haven’t yet seen the Panasonic presentation, the guys from Trusted Reviews did, and they scored a photo of the presentation slide for Panny’s new Blu-ray recorder. Although when we say new, we mean new to Europe, not new to Australia – the DMR-BW500 has been out in Australia for a couple of months.
But is it the same device? Eagle-eyed reader Anthony pointed out that the slide Panasonic showcased at IFA explicitly says that it features BD-Live technology, which we know for a fact that the Australian version doesn’t. Considering you need an Ethernet port (or inbuilt Wi-Fi, I guess) plus some dedicated storage on board to be able to use BD-Live, it would mean that the DMR-BW500 for Europe would have different hardware to the Australian model.
More »
Home
TiVo Auto-Delete Flag Returns (Thank God It Was Only Star Trek)
9:30AM Matt Buchanan | In case you didn’t already know, broadcasters can slip “flags” into TV shows telling your DVR to not record it or to delete it when it hits an expiration date. TiVo users last had a run-in with the auto-delete flag a couple years ago (Media Centre users had a more recent taste), but it looks like it’s back and haunting Star Trek fans. More »
Entertainment
PlayStation 3 PlayTV is Non-Transferable After All
6:54AM Mark Wilson | When we heard that PS3 PlayTV DVR recordings would be transferable to PSPs and PCs, we we’re absolutely thrilled, proclaiming, “For the first time in a long time, we want to grab Sony and kiss them square on the lips.” Well, put away the Binaca, because Sony has taken back their promise for undisclosed reasons. More »
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1:44PM Nick Broughall | All you city-dwellers out there – spare a thought for your poor, unfortunate rural brethren. For while you dine on the feast of High Definition delights afforded to you from Foxtel HD and the free-to-air TV channels, they have to rely on Austar, which has decided to take the “slow and steady and maybe not at all” approach to HD.
According to Australian IT today, Austar CEO John Porter has stated that launching HD channels on Austar probably won’t happen any time soon, as they are struggling to find a financial model that will actually make them money from new subscribers.
Although – just to confuse us all – he then stated that they will probably still release a HD-capable PVR in the 3rd quarter of 2009, although they may not accompany the hardware with any HD programming.
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HD On Austar? Don’t Hold Your Breath
1:44PM Nick Broughall | All you city-dwellers out there – spare a thought for your poor, unfortunate rural brethren. For while you dine on the feast of High Definition delights afforded to you from Foxtel HD and the free-to-air TV channels, they have to rely on Austar, which has decided to take the “slow and steady and maybe not at all” approach to HD.
According to Australian IT today, Austar CEO John Porter has stated that launching HD channels on Austar probably won’t happen any time soon, as they are struggling to find a financial model that will actually make them money from new subscribers.
Although – just to confuse us all – he then stated that they will probably still release a HD-capable PVR in the 3rd quarter of 2009, although they may not accompany the hardware with any HD programming.
More »
Entertainment
1:45PM Nick Broughall | The free-to-air networks this week got together and officially announced that they are planning on bringing the Freeview brand to Australia. Awesome. My hands are fighting back the urge to start clapping as I type this.
For those not in the know, Freeview is a UK branding exercise that covers free-to-air digital television. It essentially offers all the FTA networks digital TV offerings under one easy to remember brand name, essentially so that it can compete better with pay TV.
Considering the success Foxtel is experiencing at the moment, this is actually a good move for the FTA networks. Freeview will act as a standard that various DVR manufacturers will be
able to adopt to ensure that they can provide an accurate EPG for home
entertainment recording. This will allow other PVRs to seriously compete with the likes of TiVo and Foxtel’s iQ2 box.
Freeview will incorporate 15 channels from the FTA networks, including the high-def channels and the upcoming SD multi-channel offerings, and is tasked to drive up the digital offerings available on free-to-air TV.
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Freeview Officially Launching In 2009. Yawn.
1:45PM Nick Broughall | The free-to-air networks this week got together and officially announced that they are planning on bringing the Freeview brand to Australia. Awesome. My hands are fighting back the urge to start clapping as I type this.
For those not in the know, Freeview is a UK branding exercise that covers free-to-air digital television. It essentially offers all the FTA networks digital TV offerings under one easy to remember brand name, essentially so that it can compete better with pay TV.
Considering the success Foxtel is experiencing at the moment, this is actually a good move for the FTA networks. Freeview will act as a standard that various DVR manufacturers will be
able to adopt to ensure that they can provide an accurate EPG for home
entertainment recording. This will allow other PVRs to seriously compete with the likes of TiVo and Foxtel’s iQ2 box.
Freeview will incorporate 15 channels from the FTA networks, including the high-def channels and the upcoming SD multi-channel offerings, and is tasked to drive up the digital offerings available on free-to-air TV.
More »
Software
TiVo 9.4 Summer Update Hitting Boxes This Month
6:10AM Gizmodo US Edition | It looks like TiVo’s 9.4 Summer Update has been released ahead of schedule and will supposedly be hitting every box by month’s end. This update brings six new features, two of which actually seem really useful for most TiVoers. Folders will now have the option to be played or deleted, and the guide can be viewed at any time (while watching live TV, a recording, or even a download, but obviously not during menus). Since TiVo’s 9.4 priority page hasn’t been posted yet this update should hit your box as a total surprise while you’re sleeping. [Zatz Not Funny!] More »
Entertainment
6:02PM Nick Broughall | We knew it was happening, but Channel 7 today officially launched the Australian version of TiVo. We weren’t there, but we’ve grabbed a copy of the press release and had a read of Asher Moses’ piece on SMH, and have to say that we’re not inspired.
For a start, the press release is full of smacktalk. Now, I know Channel 7 enjoys the smacktalk, but in a press release? Have a read for your self:
“The TiVo HD DVR brings you all the features, and more, that until now were only available to pay television customers. Why pay monthly fees for pay television when 56% of pay television viewing is on the free channels anyway?”
But the real disappointment isn’t in the press release. It’s in the details. Like the fact that some of TiVo’s core features will be gimped at launch, only to be switched on at a later date for a fee in the “tens of dollars”.
TiVo Gets Announced… Does Anybody Care?
6:02PM Nick Broughall | We knew it was happening, but Channel 7 today officially launched the Australian version of TiVo. We weren’t there, but we’ve grabbed a copy of the press release and had a read of Asher Moses’ piece on SMH, and have to say that we’re not inspired.
For a start, the press release is full of smacktalk. Now, I know Channel 7 enjoys the smacktalk, but in a press release? Have a read for your self:
“The TiVo HD DVR brings you all the features, and more, that until now were only available to pay television customers. Why pay monthly fees for pay television when 56% of pay television viewing is on the free channels anyway?”
But the real disappointment isn’t in the press release. It’s in the details. Like the fact that some of TiVo’s core features will be gimped at launch, only to be switched on at a later date for a fee in the “tens of dollars”.
Home
8:58AM Nick Broughall | If reports from the Financial Review are correct, we’ll soon be able to play with our very own peanut controller when TiVo launches in Australia in mid-July.
Aside from the obvious dilemma of where to spend your money (there’s some new phone launching on July 11, remember?), the mid-July timeframe does work with the previous announcements that Channel 7 made about it launching before the Olympics.
The box itself is likely to cost somewhere around the $700 mark, which isn’t exactly cheap for a DVR. Seven are likely to promote the box’s superior EPG functionality in order to justify that price, although we’ll wait to see how it’s implemented ourselves before we recommend on whether you should spend the money.
The other interesting point made in the Fin’s article is that Harvey Norman are likely to have an exclusive distribution arrangement for 3 months, before it will be available in JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith’s shops.
I’m sure there are important factors influencing that decision, like scratching the backs of old mates and heavy advertisers, but I think Channel 7 may be overestimating TiVo’s appeal in Australia. Personally – I’m very intrigued, but I would need to see some obvious advantages in TiVo’s local implementation before I dropped 700 big ones. Especially now that Foxtel’s iQ2 is on the market.
UPDATE: Pete Blasina over at GadgetGuy.com.au is reporting that the launch date is officially July 15. Considering his relationship with Channel 7, I reckon this is pretty much guaranteed.
[MIS Australia and GadgetGuy]
TiVo To Land In Mid-July At Harvey Norman, Cost $700
8:58AM Nick Broughall | If reports from the Financial Review are correct, we’ll soon be able to play with our very own peanut controller when TiVo launches in Australia in mid-July.
Aside from the obvious dilemma of where to spend your money (there’s some new phone launching on July 11, remember?), the mid-July timeframe does work with the previous announcements that Channel 7 made about it launching before the Olympics.
The box itself is likely to cost somewhere around the $700 mark, which isn’t exactly cheap for a DVR. Seven are likely to promote the box’s superior EPG functionality in order to justify that price, although we’ll wait to see how it’s implemented ourselves before we recommend on whether you should spend the money.
The other interesting point made in the Fin’s article is that Harvey Norman are likely to have an exclusive distribution arrangement for 3 months, before it will be available in JB Hi-Fi and Dick Smith’s shops.
I’m sure there are important factors influencing that decision, like scratching the backs of old mates and heavy advertisers, but I think Channel 7 may be overestimating TiVo’s appeal in Australia. Personally – I’m very intrigued, but I would need to see some obvious advantages in TiVo’s local implementation before I dropped 700 big ones. Especially now that Foxtel’s iQ2 is on the market.
UPDATE: Pete Blasina over at GadgetGuy.com.au is reporting that the launch date is officially July 15. Considering his relationship with Channel 7, I reckon this is pretty much guaranteed.
[MIS Australia and GadgetGuy] 