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Rumor: Apple in talks with Miglia about DVR capabilities?

March 19, 2007 By Leave a Comment

When Apple TV was launched, arguably the biggest complaint was that you couldn’t record your own shows with it. Now it seems Apple is thinking about doing a HD DVR, but the limitation seems to be the internal 40Gb hard disk.

Enter the USB ports on the Apple TV. What if you could hook up an external hard disk? Miglia seems to provide the functionality Apple is looking for. However, making iTunes recognize that external USB drive may means some serious software integration, and it wouldn’t be in Apple’s best interest to leave Miglia completely independent.

Sources: The Apple Blog, Blackfriars, and MaxDailyNews.

Filed Under: Macintosh, Network, PVR

TiVo launches Amazon Unbox service

March 7, 2007 By Leave a Comment

TiVo Lovers has an article describing a new feature of the TiVo, Amazon Unbox Video Downloads on Tivo. This service allows you to send Unbox content you get from Amazon (either purchased or as part of a special offer) directly to your TiVo, allowing you to watch it on your regular TV.

Not all content is available to be sent to your TiVo, but that probably will increase as this service takes off. Also, there currently is no way to order videos directly from your TiVo, but with the HME environment TiVo has opened the door to anyone to write an application that can do this.

If you register for the service by April 30th, you get $15 credit for movies and TV shows.

Filed Under: PVR

And we’re back…

September 30, 2006 By 1 Comment

That was an interesting three weeks. Without any posts to the blog.

First reason was my mom coming over for almost two weeks. She’s from the Netherlands (as am I originally), and visits almost every year. It’s always fun to have her over, but it’s also very tiresome – apart from doing my day job, I now have a second job as tour guide of the area, and a third job as translator. She’s home now though, safe and sound.
Second reason was my wife (and me!) having to make several trips to a fertility doctor in North Carolina. It’s only about a two hour drive away, but added on to the tour guide and translator jobs, this started to wear me out.

Third reason is a project at work, being several months in the making, decided to go into testing phase. Of course some bugs appear, which need to be fixed sooner than ASAP.

And of course all this happens in a period with exciting stuff going on:

  • TiVo releases the Series 3. And it’s on sale. Very expensive though. And some problems with CableCards (long live our cable companies).
  • The release date for the Nintendo Wii is announced (November 19, 2006). And it’s price ($249). It still looks pretty exciting, and I hope I can convince my sweetheart I need one…
  • I caved and bought a Nintendo DS. First of all because of the cool game Brain Age. And second of all because there seems to be interaction between the Wii and the DS (wireless).

Apart from that, lots of new exciting stuff is happening at home itself. Ubuntu is getting a strong foothold here, and I’ll tell more about the 4 things I needed to be able to do. So far I’ve been able to do 2 1/2… We might be getting a dog, so there goes that free time. But more about those things in a different post.

Filed Under: Linux, Miscellaneous, Network, PVR Tagged With:

What CableCards can do for you

August 30, 2006 By Leave a Comment

Wired magazine has an article summing up the pros and cons of CableCard technology. CableCards are essential to the TiVo Series 3 (it sports 2 CableCard slots), and a recent federal appeals court ruling requires cable companies to support them.

In short:
Advantages:

  • No cable box needed
  • Can be sent through mail
  • No need for kludges like an IR blaster

Disadvantages:

  • One-way system (although CC 2.0 fixes that)

I’m curious to see when Charter… er.. SuddenLink starts to support CableCards…!

Filed Under: PVR

TiVo HD PVR coming September 13th?

August 28, 2006 By Leave a Comment

A rumor is spreading that the new TiVo HD PVR Series 3 will be announced September 12th and will be available September 13th.

Matt Haughey of PVRblog noticed two comments, one on one of his articles and one on the Engadget article with the pictures of the Series 3, stating this. However, despite extensive searches, these are the only claims made to that effect. When Matt posted an article describing the rumor, the poster who posted the rumor-comment revealed himself as MK153, working at Best Buy.

Apparently he has found a reference to the Series 3 in the Best Buy inventory system. It shows an In-Stock date of 9/17/2006, showing Best Buy SKU’s and UPC codes, and a price of $799.99.

How an In-stock date of 9/17 translates to an available date of 9/13 isn’t clear… if this rumor is true, that is great news, but there is the possibility it is just that – a rumor…

Filed Under: PVR
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