Zatz Not Funny!

All your digital media goodness.

The ruling is in: Within 30 days, all infringing Dish DVR functionality must be disabled and TiVo’s initial award comes to about ninety million big ones. The market should be interesting tomorrow AM and EchoStar is sure to appeal. If you’re just tuning in, you can catch up here — otherwise check out the official court ruling below.

UPDATE 1: TiVo and EchoStar respond with dueling press releases.

UPDATE 2: EchoStar is granted a stay, cause for more press releases

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Payday Advance from $100 to $1500

Never enough time…

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  • Record every new fall season show with BeyondTV. (SnapStream)
  • Hand’s on with the MPEG4 HD DirecTV receiver in LA. (DBSTalk)
  • Portable Sirius receiver outed by Crutchfield. (Orbitcast)
  • How-to replace dead drive in a DirectTiVo. (Engadget)
  • RealNetworks to offer open source support for WMV on Linux. (ZDNet)

Host a TiVo House Party

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I’m not entirely sure what this is all about, but Tupperware TiVo lovers can now impress their heathen friends with corporate support comprised of “special programming, exclusive offers, and entertaining tips.” Provide your email, and they’ll get in touch when applications are being accepted.

TiVo House Party:

  • You spread the word, share the love, and show your passion for TiVo.
  • You enjoy entertaining with family and friends.
  • Now you can do both by hosting a TiVo Party! Apply to join a select group of TiVo insiders.

(Thanks PW!)

Never enough time…

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  • SlingBox launched in Sweden, resold by sat provider. (Sling Media)
  • Fox further fragments industry with movie downloads. (PVRWire)
  • No winners predicted in HD DVD, Blu-ray battle. (Yahoo)
  • MeeVee lands $8 million investment. (TechCrunch)

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Like a variety of publications and blogs, I came across Verizon’s DVR press release yesterday. However, instead of speculating how the telcos will battle the cablecos with new features or getting hung up on the underlying technology I’ll give you two different reasons why this a significant announcement.

I assume many of my readers are TiVo owners. As such, you realize these “new” media features (multi-room viewing, music & photos from PC) have been available for years to those of us in the club. Which brings me to point 1: A mainstream company (Motorola, by way of Verizon) other than TiVo is providing set-top box to set-top box multi-room viewing functionality. In addition to TiVo’s intuitive and powerful interface, much of their competitive advantage has been offering home media features… which are now being commoditized by competitors (Moxi and SciAtl are others).

Point 2 has to do with pricing. While we’ve seen two tiers in some cable markets for a HD DVR versus a SD DVR, charging for specific DVR features has never been as clear cut as it is now with Verizon’s new model (unless we count TiVo’s abandoned HMO fee). Pay $12.95/mo for X & Y, or pay $19.95/mo for X, Y, & download Z. This is just the beginning of a cell-phone á la carte pricing model era for DVR service (those wireless carriers plan to get in on the action as well: Verizon, Sprint, etc).

Not that I want to spend my day debating or correcting other blogs (and I know I make my fair share of mistakes), but I feel compelled to report the 6416 is not Verizon’s first DVR and in fact this model is currently deployed in many locations. Additionally, I wouldn’t characterize moving shows in-home from one room to another or onto PC TiVoToGo-style as “place shifting” though that is arguable. Maybe.

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Slingbox, TiVo, X Games 

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