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Over at Crunch Gear and Crave, they’re showing off a new product called the TVix media hub. It looks cool–somewhat like a coffeemaker–but it connects to your TV (via HDMI or other connections) and lets you access your media from your PC. Apparently, it can play 1080p movies, DVDs, music, photos and movies on a built-in hard drive.  It can also be used as a DVR by connecting a tuner adapter, sold separately.

Not a bad idea, but there are lots of other products like it. But is it really worth $520? Who would want to buy this except media geeks and early adopters?

Sure it looks cool and I’d love to play with it, but do I really need it? Check out the manufacturer’s page here for more info.

[Via NewEgg]

[tags] TVix, media hub, DViCO, media extender, DVR, PVR [/tags]

It happens every year. Consumer buy big screen TVs in time for the Super Bowl. They are also well-known for returning TVs right after the Super Bowl is over.

The Consumer Electronics Association said that Super Bowl XLII is expected to drive sales of approximately 2.4 million HDTVs, according to a survey they conducted. The organization says that the Super Bowl has already generated $2.2 billion in HDTV sales this year alone.

In fact, Fox News was saying that people may buy flat-screen TVs now that the stimulus package is going through Congress right now. They pointed out that taxpayers will get back about $1,200, which is enough for a good-sized flat screen HDTV set.

Additionally, Super Bowl viewers are likely to go on the Internet after the game. The survey found that 57% of HDTV owners will go online after the game to view memorable moments or television commercials.

According to In-Stat, the DVR market is growing by leaps and bounds worldwide. They estimate that DVR unit shipments will reach 31.6 million by 2011 worldwide, up from 19.5 million in 2007.

In-Stat also says that TiVo is the top DVR company as measured by total subscribers. The next top providers are EchoStar, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and BSkyB.

Apparently, lots of growth is happening in Europe and Asia. I think most of those are happening from IPTV deployments, since most IPTV services have DVR functionality and IPTV is
growing rapidly in Asia and Europe. As more companies around the world turn to IPTV, DVR usage and deployment will grow–both are intertwined.

Just to clarify, IPTV is commonly defined as broadcast TV delivered via broadband over a closed network, like phone lines (DSL) or fiber to the home. IPTV hasn’t made a big dent here in the U.S. since cable and satellite are the biggest TV providers. But AT&T’s U-Verse and Verizon’s FiOS TV are finally seeing subscribers in the hundreds of thousands here in the U.S. And those numbers will continue to grow. And many of those people will be using DVRs.

[Via In-Stat Press Release.]

[tags] DVR, In-Stat, IPTV, U-verse, FiOS TV, Verizon, AT&T, digital video recorder, research, analysis [/tags]

The L.A. Times has an interview with Tom Togers, the CEO of Tivo. They discuss how Tivo has been evolving into a media/advertiser-friendly company and the future of Tivo. Here are some interesting highlights:

What’s TiVo’s ultimate goal?

What we’re aiming to do is build a dream that going back 20 years ago people in cable and television have been talking about — being able to get anything you want, when you want to see it on your television set. Now, there’s a lot of complications to that. There are different video formats. Some things on TV are sent directly to TiVo. Other things we have to grab off the Internet. Other things involve rights deals with studios. There have been many efforts to persuade people to connect their TVs to the Internet. Most have failed. Is this something people want to do?

People have said to us, “Well, OK, the content is distributed by broadband, but how are you going to get people to connect their broadband wires to their television sets? It’s an unnatural act. People are just not going to do that.” We said that’s just not the case. We have 800,000 TiVo users who have already directly connected their broadband through TiVo to their television sets.

When asked why you want the Internet on your TV, Rogers said that Tivo is working to move just being a recording only device, into something that opens up the “infinite choice in video”.  Plus, he answered the question about whether Tivo would merge or be acquired by another company by saying “…there seems to be just an awful lot of upside to drive as an independent company.”
[tags] Tivo, interview, LA Times, DVR, Amazon, RealNetworks [/tags]

Now that Apple has announced that it is renting movies off iTunes and improved Apple TV, it looks like the rental/download market is getting ready to blow up. According to analyst firm ABI research, video downloads will grow from 215 million in 2008 to over 2.4 billion in 2012. About half of all downloads will be for online movie rentals.

Today, the online movie rental business is slow-going. There’s Amazon Unbox, NetFlix Watch Now, iTunes and a few other scattered video download businesses. Additionally, competition will come physical rentals like NetFlix and Blockbuster, as well as cable and satellite companie. So the competition will be fierce and now everyone’s trying to get a piece of the pie now before a clear video download winner emerges.

Additionally no one is sure what the business model will be: subscription, rent-to-own, rent. And what kinds of restrictions should be set on downloadable movies, such as copying to DVDs or portable media players.

[ABI Press release]

[tags] movie rentals, online movies, iTunes, Apple, Apple TV, video downloads, online movie rentals, Internet video [/tags]

A report from Deloitte & Touche says that 38% of Americans are watching TV shows online. A previous study conducted just 8 months ago found that 23% watched shows on the Internet.

About 54 percent said they are creating their own online content such as photos, videos or music. Most of these are for others to see. In fact, 32 percent said they consider themselves to be “broadcasters” of their own media.

Additionally:

• 54 percent socialize via social networking sites, chat rooms or message boards,
• 36 percent said they use their cell phones as entertainment devices. Just eight months ago, 24% said they did so meaning that usage has grown over 50 percent. Most are using digital cameras, text messaging, and games on their phones.
• 45 percent are creating online content like Web sites, music, videos and blogs
• 20 percent view videos on their cell phones daily or almost daily
• 45 percent maintain a profile on a social networking site.
• 85 percent still find TV advertising to have the most impact on their buying

[Press release here]

[tags] research, analysis, Deloitte & Touche, TV, advertising, mobile, mobile media, social networking,  content creators [/tags]

Just saw this on TechBargains. A Tivo Series 3 for $389.99 after a $200 rebate from Buy.com.

The rebate is good until January 26th, so check it out if you’re in the market for an HD Series 3 Tivo.

[tags] deal, Tivo, Series 3, DVR, Tivo Series 3 [/tags]

Digeo, make of the Moxi brand DVR, said it is laying off almost half of its workforce (80 employees) and that CEO Mike Fidler was stepping down. Fidler is being replaced by president and COO Greg Gudorf.

Even more bad news, is that Digeo will also drop plans to release two new products, the Moxi Multi-Room DMR and Moxi Home Cinema Edition DMR. It will focus on its existing products and an HD DVR. From CNET:

In an interview with CNET News.com, Fidler blamed the shift in strategy on the company’s “inability to deliver some products on time” and “dynamics that occur in the marketplace.”

The company said that it had been spreading its “energies across too many platforms” and needed to refocus. Most of Digeo’s products have been delayed and slow to come to market. And they’ve only been available via some cable systems, rather than directly through retailers.

Sling Media (now owned by EchoStar) announced that it was now supporting BlackBerry smartphones.

The Slingbox allows customers to watch and control their home TV on an Internet-connected computer, or mobile phone including those based on Windows Mobile, Palm OS and Symbian operating systems. Having support for BlackBerry was a long time coming and it should bring some more users to Sling. BlackBerries, however, were never known as multimedia friendly devices, which is probably why it took so long to support them.

There are other ways to get your TV content on the go, but Slingboxes are the best way to actually connect and control your home TV, DVR and other components while you’re traveling or away from your home. However, you must have pretty fast broadband connections in order to make it work. Since you don’t have the videos saved locally to your PC or phone, you do save on storage space, which can be a premium for older smartphones. However, the streaming, live nature of Slingbox makes it only for those with fast connections, like broadband cards or unlimited data plans for your phone.

Here are the ways how I see how to watch your home DVR/TV shows while on the road.

Transferring to Portable Devices. Rather than use a Slingbox, I use Tivo’s Desktop software to transfer shows to my PC. From there, I can burn videos onto a DVD or transfer it to my portable device, like my Windows-based smartphone. The downside? It’s a slow and clunky process–I have to wait for Tivo to transfer the file over my home network, then wait while I burn the show on a DVD. The whole process can take about 1 hour or more.

Portable DVRs. Comcast’s upcoming portable DVR is going after the same market–those who want complete access to their DVRs while away from the home. But the Comcast portable device is the actual set-top. So what happens when you un-dock the device from your home and take it on the road? Will you miss recordings? Will your family that’s not traveling be able to watch TV? Or should this portable DVR be relegated as a second set-top and not the primary one for the home? I guess it’s still too early to tell since the Comcast DVR isn’t out yet.

Network DVRs. This would seem to be a great option since you theoretically wouldn’t need to buy anything. Network DVRs save your shows on your TV provider’s hard drive so you don’t actually need to buy a separate set-top box like a Tivo. Everything is saved out there in the network. The benefits are that you get unlimited storage (well, almost), and access from anywhere. Imagine recording a show like American Idol, traveling to another city, then just logging in to your cable provider’s network DVR via your laptop (or smartphone) and streaming it. All your shows would be available and you don’t need to buy a Slingbox. Unfortunately, here in the U.S. network DVRs are available because of a lawsuit between Cablevision and the TV studios and networks. Things are different in Europe, and maybe things will change here in the future.

I think network DVRs are a great idea and wish that consumers were able to use them. In the short term, I would really like it if Tivo started offering place-shifting (Slingbox functionality) in its boxes. I just don’t feel the need to go out and buy and hook up yet another device to my TV/DVR right now. Perhaps if I traveled more often I would feel differently.

A press release by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said that over 50% of U.S. households own a digital television (DTV). The group predicts that TV manufacturers will post 11% revenue growth, to over $25 billion, from sales of digital televisions in 2007. CEA also is predicting 13% of revenue and 17% unit sales growth for digital television in 2008.

Now keep in mind DTV does not necessarily mean HDTV. DTV, according to the FCC, just means the ability to view digital programming via a built in or external digital tuner.

Nevertheless, consumers in the U.S. are definitely buying more HDTV sets–or at least are planning on buying them in 2008. The Financial Times writes:

“According to research published last month by The Diffusion Group, almost a third of non-HDTV households in the US are interested in purchasing a new HDTV set in the next six months.”

With the analog switch-off happening in Feb. 2009, it’s a fair bet to say that 2008 will see a huge growth in DTV sets.