Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

So the worst-kept secret in the consumer electronics industry right now is that TiVo is on the verge of releasing the CableCARD-sportin’, HD-recordin’ Series 3 box — but no one seems to know exactly when you’ll be able to buy one. We heard from Todd the Best Buy employee that the new machines will be in stock on the 17th of this month, and now our friend Dave over at ZatzNotFunny has spotted the highly-anticipated DMR (remember, they’re not DVRs anymore, and TiVo won’t sell you one if you use that terminology) on Circuit City’s website showing an October availability. Now does that mean October 1st? The 15th? The 31st? Well if we knew, we’d tell ya, but at least now we seem to have an actual release window: the Series 3 will (probably) be available sometime between September 17th and October 31st. As usual, we’ll keep you posted as more information comes to light, but if that’s not good enough, you’re always welcome to switch over to satellite and pick up on of DirecTV’s new HR20-700 HD DVRs — thanks to HDBeat, we know that Best Buy will ship you one of those post haste.

Read- Series 3 [Via ZatzNotFunny]
Read- HR20-700 [Via HDBeat]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Breaking with the tradition of beginning nearly all of its product names with the letter “S” (see the recently released Stiletto, Starmates, Sportsters, Stratus and old school S50 for reference), Sirius has announced a new in-home satellite radio tuner known as the Conductor. Instead of lugging your Sirius boombox all over the house, you’ll now be able to hook the tuner directly into your rack-mounted receiver (though you’ll still need to snake that antenna outside) and operate it from almost anywhere in your pad thanks to the handy RF- and IR-equipped remote. The LCD-sporting universal remote can also control up to five other members of your home theater family, and if you’re willing to shell out for an extra Sirius subscription, it has the ability to rock two separate audio zones with a compatible SiriusConnect tuner. (Howard in one room and Martha in the other — does life get any better than that?) Scheduled for a November release, the Conductor system will set you back $150, but if you’ve already got yourself a lifetime sub, this would seem like a must-have item (well, as long as you don’t mind eating the transfer fee).

[Via Orbitcast]

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Filed under: Gaming, HDTV, Home Entertainment

For Microsoft to demo their forthcoming Xbox 360 HD DVD isn’t that surprising; to see them show off some UI mockups, ok, maybe a teensy bit surprising; to hear them give a price? Pretty shocking — but they didn’t, they gave a price range, and a nebulous one at that. HD Beat has it that during Microsoft’s presentation at the North America DVD Forum Conference, the 360’s HD DVD drive was said to “be the cheapest HD DVD player on the market for consumers who already own an Xbox 360 console.” In other words, means it’ll cost you less than a half a grand — which is even less encouraging than what we heard before. Gee, thanks; playing this one close to the chest, are you Microsoft? Don’t make us consult inside sources, because you know what happens when we do.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Remember how TiVo recently sent that letter to the FCC and cable operators telling them to be prepared for the Series 3 rollout, partly because of reports that some providers were refusing to hook up beta testers with the necessary CableCARDS? Well now it looks like the company's concerns may be completely legitimate, as a complaint on the website ConsumerFury contends that Time Warner Cable's Raleigh division responded to a recent customer inquiry on the matter by stating that "Time Warner Cable of Raleigh does not provide support for or allow TiVo devices on our cable network...CableCARDS will only be installed on cable-ready, CableCARD-slot-available television sets." Pretty harsh, especially considering the fact that Time Warner's policy may not even be legal: federal regulations concerning CableCARDS seem to indicate that providers must support them for any unidirectional TV, set-top-box, or recording device connected to a digital cable system. We certainly understand that cable companies see TiVo as a direct competitor to their own DVR offerings, but we're not sure that alienating customers with such a hard-line stance is the best move; after all, isn't a customer who brings his/her own DVR to the table better than no customer at all?

[Via TiVoBlog]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless

Audiophiles, listen up. (Oh, how we do love saying that.) Slim Devices has got something you’ll want to check out if you’ve been on the hunt for a Sonos alternative: meet the Transporter (and we ain’t talking about Jason Statham). Slim’s new wireless audio distribution system moves your music (in WAV, AIFF, MP3, WMA, and FLAC up to 96KHz sample rates) via 802.11g or Ethernet, and outputs in XLR, with optical, S/PDIF, and coax ins and outs. But thats not all, you’ve also got RS-232, infrared, even a clock input port to make sure using and controlling the audio chugging through its Super Regulator-driven 120dB SNR AKM-built AK4396 DAC is a pleasurable experience. They’re not going to let you off easily though, this piece will set you back two grand when it debuts September 18th. Slim Devices will, however, throw you a bone for your hard earned thousands; pre-order the Transporter before it’s released and they’ll toss in a free Squeezebox to say thanks for skipping out on rent (yet again).

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

It's not really clear why the old CableCARD hasn't taken off as expected -- consumers blame their cable providers, who blame the card manufacturers, who blame device makers -- but nonetheless, the technology is far from dead, and now it looks like those long-awaited multi-stream CARDS could be available before the end of the year. CableLabs recently announced that Motorola's "M-Card" has joined Scientific Atlanta's offering in finally earning the organization's coveted "qualified" status, paving the way for such great functionality as picture-in-picture on compatible TVs and multi-channel recording for properly-equipped DVRs. Although the M-Card does improve upon current-gen CableCARDs by delivering access to more than one channel at a time, it is still classified as a version 1.0 device, and therefore won't allow the bi-directional communication necessary for on-demand or pay-per-view goodness. Still, this development is good news for consumers, as it should lead to increased demand for the cards, which will hopefully serve as a kick in the pants for the weak link in the CableCARD chain, whoever it is.

[Via HDBeat]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Prepare yourselves for a slew of new LCD sets from Syntax-Brillian that will be released in the coming months, as the newly-merged company has announced three new series of TVs under the Olevia brand that each consist of numerous different models. Out of the 3-series, 5-series, and 7-series lineups, the most is known about the fives, as these four units -- the 27-inch 527V, 32-inch 532H, 37-inch 537H, and 42-inch 542i -- are shipping immediately. Like the as-yet-unannounced members of the 3-series, these models all sport a 1,366 x 768 resolution, and also feature 8-millisecond response times, 1600:1 contrast ratios, built-in digital ATSC tuners, and HDMI, VGA, and HD component inputs. All that's known about the 7-series, on the other hand, is the fact that its constituent models will all offer full 1,080p resolution and RS232C control capability, along with what's being touted as "Hollywood Quality Video," which either means that picture quality is very good or stifled by DRM restrictions. No pricing or release details are available for any of the 3- or 7-series models -- they're scheduled "to be introduced to the market incrementally through September" is all we can say for sure -- and out of all the 5-series models that are supposedly shipping right now, we could only find a price for the 527V, which you can pick up for $800 or less.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Just days after MovieLink announced that it has licensed technology for burning flicks to DVD, rival download service CinemaNow has stepped up to the plate and begun actually offering consumers this very option. Starting today, about 100 titles are available for download through the “Burn to DVD” beta service, complete with all the interactive menus and bonus features you’d find on a store-bought DVD. Burnable titles start at $8.99, though if you’re looking for the latest releases, you won’t find them here — Disney, Sony, Universal, and friends have only provided older films for the initial roll-out. While MovieLink partnered with Sonic Solutions for its presumed entrant into this space, CinemaNow decided to go with technology based on fluxDVD from Germany’s ACE GmbH. Even though there may not be a lot of demand for the current crop of titles, assuming that the encryption scheme is able to ward off pirates and at least a few folks show some interest in “Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle” and “About a Boy,” among others, it’s likely that newer and more popular films will be added to the library in the near future.

[Thanks, Michael]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

So it looks like TiVo is finally getting ready to roll out the long-awaited Series 3 DVR Digital Media Recorder, and just in the nick of time, it would seem; from what we can tell, consumers are chomping at the bit to start capturing the growing variety of high definition broadcasts available to them, making HTPCs a more attractive alternative as the days, weeks, and months pass with no HD TiVo. Zatz Not Funny is reporting that the DVR giant recently sent letters to both the FCC and major cable operators stating that Series 3 boxes are already being beta tested around the country and will be available "soon," though no actual release date is given. According to the letters, the CableLabs-certified device will sport two separate UDCP CableCARD slots, and TiVo is concerned about reports that certain cable installers have been refusing to provide beta testers with the necessary support -- no big surprise, as the industry has never shown much love for CableCARDs in the first place. Now, of course, we all want to know how TiVo defines the word "soon" -- previous speculation has centered around a September or early October release -- but we've been covering this beat long enough to know that hazarding a guess is pretty much useless, and that we won't find out any more info until the company is good and ready to reveal its launch plans. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Zatz Not Funny]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless, Networking

There are about a million ways to stream music from your PC to other locations in the house, and now Sony has added yet another solution to this lengthy list: the 2.1 channel CPF-IX001 wireless streaming music system. The compact device uses your existing 802.11b/g setup to pull tunes from iTunes, Windows Media Player, Sony Connect, or other applications, and creates a unique IP address so multiple units can operate simultaneously over the same network. To cut down on wire clutter, Sony employed a so-called power line transmission technology that allows the main component to send both juice and audio signals to its subwoofer over a single cable -- pretty handy, especially if you'll be moving the system from room to room.. Expect to see these in stores sometime next month -- although we don't actually know what to look for, because Sony is being a little stingy with the product pics -- for about $300.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Wireless

Home theaters in a box are not for everyone -- most people we know prefer to assemble their entertainment systems piecemeal -- but if you're in the market for such a product, then Philips is offering a fairly stylish new HDMI-equipped system with convenient wireless rear speakers that may be right up your alley. The Cineos HTS9800W is a 6.1-channel package (three 125-watt fronts, three rears, and a 150-watt subwoofer) with a slimline, upscaling DVD player that supports DVD+/-R discs, DivX-encoded video, and MP3 CDs, along with all those Super Audio CDs that we're sure you've been collecting over the years. Not a bad setup, especially for your bedroom or guest house, and it's available now for around $650.

[Via Shiny Shiny]

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Lately it's been the Blu-ray camp cruelly torturing us with product delays, but in a refreshing change of pace, today it's rival format HD DVD's main proponent Toshiba announcing that a next-gen optical disc device won't be shipping as scheduled. Unlike Sony's procrastination in releasing the PS3 and BDP-S1, though, Toshiba claims that it only needs two more weeks to get its RD-A1 HD DVD recorder out the door, citing inadequate inventory stemming from component shortages as the reason for putting off tomorrow's scheduled launch. Since this model, with its 1TB storage capacity and OTA digital tuner, is only headed for Japan anyway, the delay probably doesn't concern the vast majority of our American readers -- nor most Japanese, for that matter, as the $3,500 pricetag will likely dissuade all but the most fervent early-adopters.

[Via HDBeat]

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment, Media PCs

Having been burned oh so many times by the notorious Phantom from Infinium Labs — perhaps the most infamous piece of vaporware this side of Duke Nukem Forever — we’re more than a little skeptical of any company that comes out of nowhere to offer a “media entertainment console” targeted at gamers. And we’re even more skeptical when that company — in this case, Alabama-based Envizions Inc. — claims to have been showing off their console at a major trade show that we attended — in this case, E3 — but somehow managed to keep it under our radar. We’re still going to give the so-called EVO: Phase One the benefit of the doubt, though, as Envizions has just announced October 20th as a solid North American release date for what seems to be little more than a souped-up media center PC out of the box — although the unit comes with one wireless controller, it will only “have console-like features upon future upgrade applications and hardware assistance.” Not a good sign. For $680 you’re supposedly getting a machine with an unspecified processor and RAM configuration (also a bad sign) along with a 500MHz Sapphire Radeon X1600 Pro graphics card sporting 128MB of 800MHz DDR3 RAM, a liquid cooling system, and oddly enough, a built-in fingerprint scanner (to protect all of your valuable saved game-states, perhaps?). Again, we’ll wait until October to pass final judgment here, but lets just say that we’re not going to be the ones throwing down $25 to place a pre-order. Keep reading to check out some of the company’s over-the-top marketing, direct from CEO Derrick Samuels’ MySpace page…

[Via IGN]

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Filed under: Media PCs, Networking

Despite Major League Baseball's disdain for the practice, place-shifting is a hot feature that will only get more popular as it becomes easier for people to stream their content -- and software company SageTV is at the forefront of the movement to make that happen. Less than two months after adding the feature to its media center package for Windows, the company is supposedly on the verge of offering similar "slinging" functionality to open-source fanatics, with GigaOM reporting that we can expect to see SageTV Media Center for Linux V5 announced within the week. Until the official unveiling, not much is known about this product save for its Media Extender support, although we've also learned that Mac users will be getting their own version at some unspecified future date. There are certainly other ways for the Linux faithful to place-shift their content -- we recently saw a rather convoluted how-to on Engadget Mobile which uses MythTV -- but if you're willing to pay for commercial software, it sounds like Sage's upcoming solution will be the easiest way to go.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Wireless, Networking

It’s been over a year since we first spotted Metalink’s draft-802.11n components designed for networked home theater gear, and now it seems that the company has finally found a partner willing to include the technology in a slew of next-generation products. Known as WLANPlus, the chipset family is poised for integration into TVs, DVRs, and DVD players from Chinese manufacturing giant Haier — perhaps best know around here for the pen-like P7 cellphone — which will allow consumers to broadcast multiple high definition streams around the house thanks to draft-n transfer speeds in excess of 200Mbps. The two companies revealed their partnership at this year’s SINOCES, where Haier had several WiFi-equipped TVs on display in a multi-room setup meant to simulate simultaneous streaming in a household environment. GigaOM points out, however, that it may be awhile before we see actual products stemming from this deal hit the marketplace — if we ever see them at all — as Metalink doesn’t seem to be in the best financial shape, having already lost $4.1 million in the first quarter of this year alone.

[Via GigaOM]

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

We know that as a network executive, ABC’s President of Advertising Sales Mike Shaw has a vested interest in the survival of the traditional 30-second commercial, but his recent assertion that consumers don’t really care about the ad-skipping functionality of their DVRs strikes us as being way off the mark. Following ABC’s latest rate-setting powwow with advertisers, or upfront, Shaw opined that he wasn’t sure “the driving reason to get a DVR in the first place is just to skip commercials,” and that the appeal of such devices “really is just a matter of convenience — so you don’t miss your favorite show.” He even went so far as to say that he “would love it if the MSO’s…would disable the fast-forward [button]” on their next generation of set-top boxes, suggesting that “people can understand in order to have convenience and on-demand, that you can’t skip commercials.” Once again, we follow the logic here — commercials do help keep programs we enjoy on the air — but instead of embittering folks by forcing them to sit through ads, maybe Shaw should encourage his advertising partners to follow KFC’s lead and create spots that people actually want to watch. Remember, Mike, that’ll you’ll catch more flies with delicious honey than the sour vinegar you’re currently trying to force down our throats.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

In what may turn out to be yet another crushing blow to HD-hungry consumers, it looks like Samsung could be joining Sony, Pioneer, and, um, itself, in playing the Vista-like Blu-ray delay game that continues to amuse and frustrate us. As of right now, the facts are these: UK tech site Pocket-Lint sent an email to Bite Communications, Samsung’s British PR firm, in order to confirm what we all thought was the BD-P1000’s June 25th release date; instead of a confirmation, however, Pocket-Lint received a surprising reply stating that “unfortunately, the release of the Blu-ray has been delayed until September.” Before you start freaking out, though, keep in mind that at this point details are still very thin — we can’t even be certain if this supposed delay applies to the US launch, or only affects our friends over in Great Britain. As you’d expect, we have our crack team of low-paid interns furiously dialing every Samsung representative we can find a number for, and you’ll be the first to know when we can finally pin someone down on a solid release date, so stay tuned.

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Filed under: HDTV, Home Entertainment

Pioneer launched a slew of HDTV and home entertainment gear this week, not the least of which being their 1080p switching Elite receiver series. Models VSX-80TXV, VSX-81TXV, VSX-82TXS, and VSX-84TXSi have 1, 2, 3, and 4 HDMI source ports, the top two models featuring a Genesis DCDi Faroudja video scaler, iPod integration, XM Connect & Play, and even a USB port on the VSX-84TXSi. Expect to pay between $650 and $1,500, depending on your options and features.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Under heavy pressure in the form of a lawsuit filed by nearly all of TV land’s major content providers, industry giant Cablevision has announced that it will delay the rollout of its networked DVR offering until the service’s legality is confirmed in court. The lawsuit, filed by the four key networks and their parent studios, claims that Cablevision’s plan to store customers’ recorded swag on their own servers as opposed to local set-top boxes constitutes a retransmission of copyrighted material, and therefore violates pre-existing agreements the company has with its providers. Cablevision, on the other hand, argues that networked DVR services are only facilitating “fair-use” of their broadcasts by consumers, who have already paid for any programs they intend to record. The outcome of this suit will be closely monitored by other players in the cable industry as well, because a victory for Cablevision would allow Cox, Comcast, et al. to begin offering their own remote storage — good news for consumers, but perhaps bad news for our old friend TiVo.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Video

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Media PCs, Networking

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

Stop growing? Yes, stop growing. YouTube's success might just be killing them. They've already gained the elusive "mindshare." People are familiar with YouTube. People know YouTube. Any further growth is just an ego-quest; it's not a quest for money and it's certainly not a quest for a sustainable business. Furthermore, added growth might just hinder long-term aspirations. With the majority of their traffic falling into one of two camps: a) illegal traffic (e.g. the much-talked-about "Lazy Sunday" clip) or b) traffic which will never make them a cent, it's time for YouTube to take a step back and ask the question "How do we attract more quality and less quantity?" The answer (as always) is money.

There's an old eBay story (whether or not it's apocryphal I can't say) that goes something like the following: it was when eBay started charging for its auctions that the site became useful. Until that point in eBay's existence, "good" auctions were often hard to find amidst the sea of "bad" auctions. By adding a little money into the mix, serious buyers were able to find serious sellers and vice versa. While not exactly the same thing, it is time for YouTube to start courting quality content producers.

"How might this work?" you say. Well, I'm glad you asked.

This past week I must have watched Judson Laipply's "Evolution of Dance" clip five times. It was funny. It was quite funny, actually. It's a shame that Judson won't get paid for that work. Imagine, on the other hand, if YouTube had placed an advertisement before that clip and paid Judson for every time that clip was watched. Take this a step further. Imagine if you, as a website owner, were also given a cut of the advertising revenue every time someone watched that clip on your website. All of a sudden you've got a system whereby quality content owners are eager to submit their work and websites have an incentive to find the best quality clips to feature on their sites. It's the elusive win-win-win.

There's often an attitude that advertising ruins things. While it's true that ads can be annoying, ads or, more to the point, the money they represent have an uncanny ability to drive quality. By giving people and organizations proper incentive to use YouTube's distribution system, money could help to achieve the goal of making quality content extremely web-portable. This in turn, would drive YouTube's ultimate success.

---

If you have comments or suggestions for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment, Peripherals

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Filed under: Features, Home Entertainment

That’s not to say that YouTube’s success has come entirely from amateur content. Like all newly-emerging
media companies, YouTube has had its run-ins with the established media giants. Earlier this year, YouTube was on the
receiving end of an NBC nastygram which ever-so-politely requested the removal of the cult hit “Lazy Sunday”
(aka The Chronic-what-cles of Narnia” ). The company acquiesced (as is its policy) and removed the offending clip.
Perhaps as a result of this (and other network threats requests) YouTube made some modifications to its
policies in order to avoid future copyright issues. Most notably, the company now limits the length of uploaded videos
to 10 minutes or shorter.

Ironically enough, however, it’s YouTube’s philosophy of small, digestible
content and their willingness to avoid copyright issues that has positioned them to answer the age-old question of
“What is fair use?”

While fair use discussion has, in the past few years, been dominated by DVD
ripping and TV Show “sharing,” YouTube might just find itself at the heart of the another oft-overlooked
aspect of fair use, reporting and education. Just as blogs have re-written the rules of print media, YouTube has
quietly positioned themselves (or found themselves) at what could be the heart of the next major copyright battle:
video clips. You see, spread throughout the amateur videos are a slew of tightly-edited clips designed to illustrate
points. These clips are often the property of a media giant. However, as uploaded and used, many of these clips
represent “reporting.”

For instance, maybe you’re preparing a blog post about the refereeing
in the NBA playoffs. Sure, you could attempt to describe the events in question blow-by-blow. However, that just
doesn’t have the impact of including the video clips. It’s much easier and more effective to just show why href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7iTtjMTUkw"> Raja Bell was suspended for a game or href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFcinlrgojk"> why Reggie Evans is now the most feared man among the male
population. YouTube makes this possible.

In an effort to distance themselves from “works in their
entirety” and thus stay on the righteous side of Fair Use, YouTube has attracted a new breed of
“reporter.” Sites use YouTube to quickly post video proof of the latest current events or examples of their
points.

While, in the past, the RIAA, the MPAA, the NAB, etc. have been able to bully media services that
trafficked in copyrighted material, the same brute-force logic of “It’s mine, you can’t play it” is no
longer applicable with much of the YouTube content. Unlike some of its less legitimate brothers, YouTube is doing
everything it reasonably can to respect the honest rights of the copyright holders. YouTube has shown very little
interest in bolstering its userbase through flagrant copyright violations. YouTube has even been lauded by industry
groups for its responsiveness to DCMA issues. However, that’s not to say that YouTube will bend to the will of
industries.

It’s this compliance with the spirit of copyright law that would make YouTube an awfully tough
opponent should content owners ever try to challenge YouTube’s right to post content. Will big media content owners
cross the line with their removal requests? Will YouTube be forced to take a stand? Will they be the advocates of Fair
Use that we hope they will be when the content isn’t as cut and dry as “Lazy Sunday?” It’s unclear. What is
clear is that YouTube might just have the ability to wrestle back some of the content-rights users have been slowly
losing. Let’s hope they exercise it when the time comes.

---

If you have comments or suggestions
for future columns feel free to drop me a line at theclicker@theevilempire.com.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

So, what happens when you mix Squeezebox 3.0 with Web 2.0? Between setting up the Squeezebox and SlimServer and registering for both the Pandora and SqueezeNetwork services, there's a timely tax to enjoy new tracks. With the exception of online music store links, those familiar with Pandora's Web interface will find the Squeezebox implementation a nearly perfect functional recreation; you can even add songs to the Web-hosted favorites list.

However, the mirroring of Pandora's interface is, to invoke the detective cliché, a bit too perfect. For while Pandora maintains an isolated existence on an island of Flash code online, it yearns to be free among your digital music library via the Squeezebox.

Rather than have to enter the SqueezeNetwork service and choose Pandora to listen to prefabricated channels you've set up on the Web, it would be great to have Pandora generate channels based on whatever song or artist playing on the Squeezebox at the touch of a remote control button. Pandora's API and the company's willingness to let third parties experiment with it -- as evidenced by its blessing a mashup with complementary service last.fm -- could facilitate this integration.

Nevertheless, and in spite of its walled garden and SlimServer's warts, adding the delightful and affordable Pandora service expands the Squeezebox's already impressive functionality to include superior music discovery. Unlike the ills of humanity that escaped from the mythological Pandora's box, this is a secret that deserves to get out.

---

Ross Rubin is director of industry analysis for consumer technology at market research and analysis firm The NPD Group and a contributing editor for LAPTOP. Views expressed in Switched On are his own. Feedback is welcome at fliptheswitch@gmail.com.

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