Even though a friend purchased a Hauppauge 150MCE card last weekend online, Hauppauge officially announced 5 new capture cards today in conjunction with Microsoft Media Center Edition 2005.
The products are:
Out of the bunch, I think the 150MCE is the big winner. At $70, it’s going to make products like SnapStream’s Medusa a lot more affordable.
News.com had an interesting conversation with Mark Cuban, dot-com bazillionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner, and HDNet founder. He discusses HDTV and his predictions of the future.
It’s well worth it to read it all, but on this we completely agree:
Where are we in terms of consumer demand and price affordability for HDTV sets?
We are in Internet 1998. Not everyone has it, but everyone knows that it’s inevitable that they will.
The Boston Globe has some harsh words in regards to plans to regulate devices that record HDTV and the notorious “Broadcast Flag”.
The Broadcast Flag is a signal that a television channel can send down with an HDTV stream telling capture devices that this stream cannot be recorded. The FCC has required all capture devices produced after July 1st, 2005 to respect the flag and not record programming with the broadcast flag set. Capture devices can record the program at a lower quality setting.
Will it have an impact on PVR technology? Absolutely, says the article. They point out the technology innovation that occurred around recorded music and MP3. With a similiar requirement (e.g. only allowing recording to be in mono, for instance), it’s doubtful we’d have all the products we have today including software jukeboxes, IPods, and online music stores.
Since recording television programming for personal use has been ruled a legal activity for over 30 years now, I do find the broadcast flag requirements bad public policy. I can understand why the movie and television industries want it, but that doesn’t make it right. Based on the sales and price trends for HDTV and PVRs, this will undoubtedly have a big impact, and if the broadcast flag rule isn’t reversed, it will be a bad one.
According to this article in Forbes, the growing number of PVR users are starting to effect the Nielsen Rating system. Nielsen Media, which runs the rating system will react to the trend by creating a separate measure based on recorded viewing.
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Industry analyst company, Jupiter Research forecasts that 80% of PVRs used in the US will be from cable and satellite operators by 2009. Currently, 61% of PVRs come from cable and satellite providers.
Michael Gartenberg, Vice President and Research Director, of Jupiter Research had this advice for Tivo and PC software PVRs:
“Consumers have learned of the value of exclusive DVR features but they lack information about how standalone device’s features differ from cable or satellite offerings. There is hope here for the standalone and PC providers. Forty-one percent of consumers do not have a preference as to where they would get DVR technology or who would provide service. This provides a growth opportunity for the first DVR provider that educates the market correctly.”
(Hat Tip: TVPredictions.com)
Thinksecret has some interesting rumors on the new 60Gig IPod, the biggest of which is that along with music, you’ll be able to view photos on it’s 2″ color LCD screen.
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Idealog has a interesting review of Radioshark, a USB connected radio with software that allows a user to schedule recordings in advance. At a street price of $60-$70, it’s an inexpensive way to record your favorite shows.
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PVRBlog can’t find the Gateway Connected DVD Player anymore on the Gateway product website. Does this signal the end for it as a gateway product?
I have used one for a few months now, and while it does a decent job, there are a couple of issues that have annoyed me. The response time to open the DVD tray right after you power up the unit is very slow and can be annoying to the impatient. DIVX playback is a little flakey at times, especially on the synchronization between sound and video. All in all, it’s been a good device with those exceptions and I’m sorry to see it go.
It looks like the original supplier, GoVideo still has their branded unit for sale, but I believe that there were slight differences between the two products (the remotes, maybe?) that prevented one from using the GoVideo firmware on the Gateway product or vice versa.
One of the best websites for PVR news, PVRBlog has created a spin off blog to help users with their PVR questions. With all the different hardware and software products out there, there are many people left scratching their heads trying to figure things out. As a response, PVRBlog has new service for getting a question answered. It’s called Ask.PVRBlog.com and you can submit your PVR questions to the site authors, and they, long with helpful commenters, will give you the answer on the website for other people who find themselves asking the same question.
It sounds like a great new resource and I’ll be adding it to my links section in the near future. I’m going to be revamping the links a little to add a help section, and I’ll be including Ask.PVRBlog.com along with BYOPVR.com’s very lively and helpful forum section.
The New York Times has an interesting article (free subscription required) on Microsoft’s Media Center Edition, including many of the reasons why it hasn’t been adopted more in the home. While Microsoft claims an impressive 3% of computers come with MCE installed, the majority don’t even realize it when they buy it and few ever hook it up to their television.
Microsoft is resting some of its hope on Microsoft Center Extender, which MS has licensed to Linksys and HP among others. It still will be pricey (the article claims an initial $250 street price), so we’ll have to see how well it it pays off.
(Hat Tip: Lost Remote)
