A few retailers have begun offering TiVo’s 180HR dual-tuning Series 2 model for online purchase. So if you’ve been pining away for KidZone, now may be a good time to get in. The 80HR DT units can be purchased directly from TiVo with bundled pricing, or bought outright through Costco ($319) or Best Buy ($349) minus the $150 rebate. Amazon, Buy.com, and Circuit City don’t have the boxes in stock yet. Don’t forget that all TiVo activations require a 1 year commitment, though they also come with a 30 day money-back guarantee.

FYI The dual-tuning models work best in homes using analog cable without a cable box and it doesn’t work at all with satellite installations or even plain antennas. Consider yourself warned.

Google has developed a system that uses a PC microphone to eavesdrop on a co-located television. “Big Brother” determines what you’re watching to present relevant web information, social applications, and more targeted advertising… that you can’t quite see from the couch, anyway. Monitoring TV viewing habits actually seems less invasive than archiving search data (in the event of any DOJ subpoenas) as long as you use pseudonyms around the house.

Google says: We showed how to sample the ambient sound emitted from a TV and automatically determine what is being watched from a small signature of the sound — all with complete privacy and minuscule effort. The system could keep up with users while they channel surf, presenting them with a real-time forum about a live political debate one minute and an ad-hoc chat room for a sporting event in the next. And, all of this would be done without users ever having to type or to even know the name of the program or channel being viewed.

(Thanks, Todd B!)

Those of you with Series2 units… go sign up for system software 7.3! Expect up to three days before TiVo peeps manually load your priority request. The major enhancement is the release of KidZone, a feature adding a managed and insulated partition for children. Kudos to TiVo for delivering on time — several months ago Bob Poniatowski assured me that KZ would be released in June and here we are.

Only TiVo offers TiVo® KidZone so you’ll never be surprised by what your kids are watching. And, it’s all included as part of the TiVo service. By signing up for the TiVo KidZone priority list, you will ensure that you are one of the first families to receive TiVo KidZone as soon as it’s available in our next service update.

TiVo KidZone creates a child-friendly environment on your TiVo® DVR. In
KidZone, only age-appropriate channels and recordings are available. Children cannot set up new recordings or change any settings on the DVR. On DVRs that are equipped with a DVD player, children cannot play DVDs in KidZone.

UPDATE: If you signed up earlier today, you should be able to update your TiVo to 7.3 by forcing a connection. Check out TiVo’s KidZone Quick Start PDF for an overview. If you have a broadband connected TiVo you can choose and modify programming selections via your Series 2, otherwise you’ll manage recording options online. In addition to KZ, you’ll find a nice little enhancement to quickly delete multiple recordings without waiting for individual confirmation. I also noticed many graphical network logos have been pushed down, though that might be independent of 7.3.

For a sneak peak at TiVo’s Guru Guide recommendation and scheduling service, check out the pre-release web pages here. The initial batch of (working!) guides include suggestions from Sports Illustrated, CNET, Entertainment Weekly, and Billboard. For the moment, you can only access Guru Guides via the TiVo webpage, though I suspect once KidZone functionality arrives (soon) we might see TiVo-based registration. TiVo has also launched What They’re Watching, a related feature of celebrity programming recommendations.

(tip via megazone)

Still no surprises here… Shortly after Cablevision announced their intentions to roll out a network DVR, studios and networks filed suit to block the service from ever seeing the light of day. While Cablevision begged for mercy and filed a countersuit, additional plaintiffs joined the fray. So where do things stand now? Cablevision has agreed to put the network DVR on hold until October when everyone gathers in court. As I wrote in March, the sticking point here is whether or not a network DVR constitutes “on demand” retransmission which would require additional licensing agreements and fees. A networked DVR service makes a lot of sense, but it will be buried… possibly before it gets to court.

Reuters says: Cablevision said in March it would launch a service later this year that allows customers to record and store programs on Cablevision’s network servers rather than on hard drives that are part of set top-boxes like those made by TiVo Inc. and others. The company said it met with lawyers for Hollywood studios and television network plaintiffs in court on Wednesday and agreed to an expedited schedule of legal actions that will allow a hearing to proceed by the end of October.

As with most patent applications, Scientific Atlanta’s usage of the English language here is barely comprehensible. Their topic appears pretty broad — covering VOD and multi-room PVR interfaces as both separate and integrated entities, though references to communication protocols are specific to cable company transmission technologies (QAM, for example).

Video-on-demand (VOD) services, which are well known in the art, enable viewers to request various media services from an operator. The requested media services, such as movies, etc., are then provided to the viewer’s set-top terminal (STT) for viewing. In the event that the STT includes a personal video recorder (PVR), the movie or other media content instance can be recorded on the PVR for later viewing. The PVR can be used in a multi-room (MR) setting, as described in the cross-referenced patent applications. In that regard, if the viewer has a television (TV) in different rooms at the viewer’s location (e.g., home, office, etc.), then each of the TVs at the viewer’s location can access the PVR, thereby enabling MR-PVR. The various embodiments, disclosed herein, provide approaches in which MR-PVR services and VOD services are integrated to provide a consolidated interface for a viewer to select either VOD services or MR-PVR services.

Never enough time…

• Hands-on with Bose Quiet Comfort 3 noise-cancelling headphones. (Gizmodo)
• Ericsson enters IPTV battle. (CNET)
• Google video player released for Mac. (TUAW)
• Major League Baseball bullies Sling Media. (Gear Log)
• ABC backs off on DVR ratings fight. (Broadcasting & Cable)