I doubt this will shake up the market much, but it’s nice to see continual distribution innovation in the market. For 20 bucks (ouch), you can order and receive a copy of any World Series game on DVD within days of broadcast. For under $20/mo you could grab all the games with a DVR.

Press Release says: Major League Baseball Productions and A&E Home Video have teamed up with CustomFlix Labs, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc., to offer Amazon.com and MLB.com customers each game of the 2006 World Series(R) championship between the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals through the CustomFlix DVD on Demand service. Each game is available for pre-order and shipped within days of the completion of that game.

The CustomFlix DVD on Demand service manufactures DVDs on demand, immediately after a customer orders them. This offers networks, studios, and other content owners such as Major League Baseball Productions and A&E Home Video the ability to offer their content on DVD directly to millions of Amazon.com and MLB.com customers without the cost or risk of carrying inventory.

(Thanks, HDTiVo!)

Folks in San Antonio are getting a free TWC upgrade today in the form of “Start Over,” a service that lets you restart a show in progress using an existing digital cable box. It’s not exactly a full fledged DVR, but it’s an interesting spin on the “network DVR” concept for folks who don’t get (both figuratively and literally) DVRs. Video is not stored locally, but rather stored at the cable company headend. My guess is the service utilizes technology Motorola picked up with their Broadbus acquisition, namely the B-1 Video Server which uses DRAM for denser storage and greater video “ingest” speeds.

“Start Over” has been active in South Carolina field tests for some time and hasn’t drawn the ire of networks/studios like CableVision’s network DVR has — looks like Time Warner has been proactively making deals, rather than making proclamations.

I do wonder why the marketing gurus didn’t come up with a better branding… While descriptive, “Start Over” sounds like an episode of daytime talk or a support group slogan.

San Antonio Express News writes: While Start Over lets viewers rewind and pause programs, they cannot fast-forward or use Start Over to skip commercials. And, initially, only a portion of Time Warner’s programming can be restarted. The company must negotiate agreements with the networks it carries and with content producers like Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema before it can make shows Start Over-enabled. It wants to avoid legal troubles like cable provider Cablevision Systems Corp. experienced this year when studios and networks sued it over a new video-on-demand service. The service, experts said, will appeal to the 65 percent of Time Warner digital customers who don’t pay up to $9 extra a month for the company’s digital video recorder.

Never enough time…

• Apple planning satellite radio integration? (Orbitcast)
• $4k gets you a Blu-ray + HD DVD media center PC. (EngadgetHD)
• Slingbox Pro receives 4/5 star review. (PC Mag)
• YouTube faces copyright penalty of $150,000 per clip? (LA Times)

I hear ya… You want to know who Mari is. I’ll have a proper intro up in the next day or so. Stay tuned! -DZ

Several news organizations are reporting that YouTube has wiped nearly 30,000 videos from its site after a Japanese audit fingered the clips for copyright infringement. Aside from the rights management concerns, this brings up an interesting issue for those who upload and store content on remote servers: When content isn’t stored locally, it isn’t under your control…

In this case it may have been perfectly reasonable for YouTube to remove 30,000 files, but these situations won’t always be black and white. There’s a growing trend towards moving our content off local devices — online word processing applications, photo storage sites, even under-development Network DVRs. While remote storage has its benefits, there are also disadvantages that shouldn’t be ignored. The ability for providers to delete files at will is one of them.

(more…)

For those of you thinking about picking up a new LocationFree device, you’re in for a bit of a wait. The Slingbox competitor, originally due next week, has been delayed and no new release date was announced. As long as they don’t ship with exploding batteries or a rootkit, we can wait — right?

AP writes: She said more tests were needed to adapt its remote controller to more models of DVD recorders and other machines the product will connect with. When asked about risks to its reputation by delaying a product, Eto said Sony decided a delay was better if the product will be compatible with more of the latest models.

(more…)

So Macworld events and speakers have been announced… and I’m wondering why the heck is Kevin Smith presenting? Disney did retain control of the Miramax name and film library (including Smith’s Clerks & Chasing Amy) when they split with the Weinstein brothers last year, though his films have yet to show up on iTunes. Is this part of an Apple movie push in support of iTunes, iTV, and perhaps a larger movie-centric iPod? Or am I reading to much into this and event sponsor IDG is just looking for some entertaining speakers?

Never enough time…

• New Sony LocationFree LF-B20 with WiFi reviewed. (CNET)
• Is that a laser in your TV, or are you just happy to see me? (Australian AP)
• Nielsen’s commercial/advertising tracking effort stumbles. (NY Times)
• Another day, another web site streaming pirated TV. (WebTVHub)