TiVo, the popular U.S. television-recording device, is finally arriving in Canada in early December.
The TiVo set-top device, which allows viewers to record shows and skip commercials, will be available across Canada — except in Quebec — through Best Buy, Future Shop, The Brick and London Drug stores for $199. Device owners also need to subscribe to the TiVo service, which has a monthly subscription price of $12.95, with discounts available on long-term contracts.
The Series2 DT DVR can hold up to 80 hours of standard-definition programming, TiVo Inc. said in a press release, and can record one show while the viewer watches another. The device can also be hooked up to a broadband connection, which allows the viewer to remotely program it to record using a computer. The TiVo service also allows users to transfer their recordings onto a laptop, iPod or PlayStation Portable.
The device is optimized for cable viewing, with the multi-channel recording feature not available to satellite subscribers. The TiVo also does not record high-definition television.
TiVo has been a big hit in the United States, replacing the VCR as the television-recording device of choice. Some Canadians have been able to use TiVos bought in the United States but have reported problems as it has not been officially supported by the manufacturer.
The company said the move into Canada is part of the company's overall expansion plan.
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"TiVo's move into Canada represents a natural, important progression for our business as we continue to make sustained progress across international markets," said Joshua Danovitz, vice-president and general manager of international at TiVo.
The TiVo will compete with similar digital recording devices offered by television providers, including Rogers Communications Inc. and Bell Canada Inc., which sell for about $300. Devices offered by television providers, however, only work with that particular company's service.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
SWITCHED DIGITAL VIDEO
What is SDV?
SDV stands for Switched Digital Video, a scheme where not all TV channels are broadcast out from the cable headend to the homes that it serves all of the time. This is attractive to cable companies, because they can offer more TV channels than their cable plant has the bandwidth to broadcast. For example, you cable company may have 10 different channels in your lineup, but only 5 physical channels to send them from the headend to the houses they service. This requires a cable box that can communicate back upstream to the headend and say “I would like to watch ESPN2HD now” and then headend would take that request, assign it to a frequency and then tell the cable box “ESPN2HD is available on xxx,xxx kHz”
What does this mean for the Series 3 and Tivo HD?
At the current time, the Series 3 and Tivo HD is not able to communicate upstream to the cable headend, so it cannot send the request for channels that are assigned to SDV. Users of the S3 and THD will not be able to watch or record any of these channels. TiVo is working on a work around.
Which channels will be converted to SDV?Traditional methods send every channel to everyone, and if no one on your headend is watching that channel the bandwidth is effectively wasted. SDV allows them to turn off that channel when it's not being watched so that another channel can occupy that bandwidth. If a channel is always being watched it will probably never be converted to SDV. So the less popular a channel is, the more likely it will be converted to an SDV channel. See this Multi-Channel news article.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6454447.html
Is this likely to change anytime soon?
The NCTA and TiVo announced that a dongle will be available in the first half of 2008 that will enable the TiVo to work with SDV channels. It will be a USB device that connects to a USB port on the TiVo and then plugs into the cable TV cable. The TiVo could tell the device “I need this channel”, the device would send that upstream and receive the frequency assignment and tell the TiVo where to find the channel that it requested. There was some talk when the S3 first came out of some unused circuits on the motherboard that could be used for this purpose too, but that seems less likely. Recently, TiVo’s CEO discussed SDV while testifying before Congress and sounded very upbeat about TiVo finding a way to play nicely with SDV, but did not mention the S3 specifically. Check out this article on the Tivo Lovers Blog about for more details:
http://www.tivolovers.com/2007/05/10...-to-washington
Here is TiVo's official info on the adapter.
http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/Lau...1-754C3260112A
CableLabs press release about USB dongle
http://cablelabs.com/news/pr/2007/07...es_112607.html
NCTA and TiVo press release
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...nktopagebottom
Of if you want to do something about it, report your missing channels to the FCC.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints_general.html
What about FIOS?
Right now, because of the fact that FIOS uses fiber optic cable to your house, FIOS has no need to deploy SDV – they have all the bandwidth that they need.
Where is SDV located right now?
SDV deployments are changing very rapidly, but according to a recent article in the WSJ (reg required) and a few reports from members, here are the markets that have at least one SDV channel.
Comcast
Denver
New Jersey
Time Warner Cable SDV in 6 of 23 markets including
Austin, TX
Albany, NY
Charlotte, NC
Greensboro, NC
Rochester, NY
San Antonio, TX
Bright House Networks
Tampa, FL
Cox Communications
Northern Virginia
SDV stands for Switched Digital Video, a scheme where not all TV channels are broadcast out from the cable headend to the homes that it serves all of the time. This is attractive to cable companies, because they can offer more TV channels than their cable plant has the bandwidth to broadcast. For example, you cable company may have 10 different channels in your lineup, but only 5 physical channels to send them from the headend to the houses they service. This requires a cable box that can communicate back upstream to the headend and say “I would like to watch ESPN2HD now” and then headend would take that request, assign it to a frequency and then tell the cable box “ESPN2HD is available on xxx,xxx kHz”
What does this mean for the Series 3 and Tivo HD?
At the current time, the Series 3 and Tivo HD is not able to communicate upstream to the cable headend, so it cannot send the request for channels that are assigned to SDV. Users of the S3 and THD will not be able to watch or record any of these channels. TiVo is working on a work around.
Which channels will be converted to SDV?Traditional methods send every channel to everyone, and if no one on your headend is watching that channel the bandwidth is effectively wasted. SDV allows them to turn off that channel when it's not being watched so that another channel can occupy that bandwidth. If a channel is always being watched it will probably never be converted to SDV. So the less popular a channel is, the more likely it will be converted to an SDV channel. See this Multi-Channel news article.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6454447.html
Is this likely to change anytime soon?
The NCTA and TiVo announced that a dongle will be available in the first half of 2008 that will enable the TiVo to work with SDV channels. It will be a USB device that connects to a USB port on the TiVo and then plugs into the cable TV cable. The TiVo could tell the device “I need this channel”, the device would send that upstream and receive the frequency assignment and tell the TiVo where to find the channel that it requested. There was some talk when the S3 first came out of some unused circuits on the motherboard that could be used for this purpose too, but that seems less likely. Recently, TiVo’s CEO discussed SDV while testifying before Congress and sounded very upbeat about TiVo finding a way to play nicely with SDV, but did not mention the S3 specifically. Check out this article on the Tivo Lovers Blog about for more details:
http://www.tivolovers.com/2007/05/10...-to-washington
Here is TiVo's official info on the adapter.
http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/Lau...1-754C3260112A
CableLabs press release about USB dongle
http://cablelabs.com/news/pr/2007/07...es_112607.html
NCTA and TiVo press release
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/st...nktopagebottom
Of if you want to do something about it, report your missing channels to the FCC.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints_general.html
What about FIOS?
Right now, because of the fact that FIOS uses fiber optic cable to your house, FIOS has no need to deploy SDV – they have all the bandwidth that they need.
Where is SDV located right now?
SDV deployments are changing very rapidly, but according to a recent article in the WSJ (reg required) and a few reports from members, here are the markets that have at least one SDV channel.
Comcast
Denver
New Jersey
Time Warner Cable SDV in 6 of 23 markets including
Austin, TX
Albany, NY
Charlotte, NC
Greensboro, NC
Rochester, NY
San Antonio, TX
Bright House Networks
Tampa, FL
Cox Communications
Northern Virginia
Friday, November 16, 2007
CHiNA- clone capital?
China started its cloning trade in the 1980s, and by the early 90s the creations had evolved from cheap textile knockoffs to more brand-specific goods. Cellphones, microchips, toys, cars, even iPhones—there's virtually no high-tech Western product that China's cloners can't copy. Pretty soon, maybe within another decade, cloners would be offering functional duplicates of Intel processors, Viagra tablets and Bosch power tools. Right now the most recent victim is Apple's i-phone.
Copies of the iPhone are now dividing into two categories: the inspired-bys and the wholesale duplicates. The first category includes work-alikes manufactured by well-known cellphone makers, like HTC—one of the largest manufacturers of smartphones—and Sun Microsystems. HTC announced that it will be bringing its "Touch" model to the U.S. this fall. In May, Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz followed in the footsteps of Steve Jobs (and Meizu's Jack Wong) by displaying his own one-off version of a touchscreen prototype at a software-developers convention. Sun's chairman, Scott McNealy, had no qualms about making the iPhone comparison: "We have our own shirtsleeve version of Steve Jobs announcing a phone," he told the audience.
The number of duplicates is also growing. Although Meizu may have gone silent because of fears of an Apple lawsuit—after my visit in Hong Kong, they stopped responding to my e-mails and phone calls—other companies are moving ahead. A few days before Apple's launch, an online video surfaced depicting a sleek new product called the P168 [watch the video below]. The phone came in a black box, marked with both the iPhone and the Apple logos. The video showed the phone being unpacked and operated (the start-up screen also featured the Apple branding). There were features that the iPhone didn't have, such as the ability to operate on two different networks at once; six speakers; and, addressing a major prerelease complaint about the iPhone, a removable battery. I asked my translator if she could find one on the street. They weren't available in Beijing—yet—but a few weeks later, a friend discovered one in Guangzhou. The manufacturer of the P168 wouldn't comment for this story, but the hardware was real, and it worked.
Neither the miniOne, the P168 nor even HTC's model are likely to carry the mystique or quality of the iPhone. But that's not really the point. Those phones will be available to millions more consumers than Apple's product, at a lower price. The rest of the world will accept the clones as if they were the original. That will make them no different than a flood of Chinese products—cars, pharmaceuticals, food, appliances—that are emerging from the shadows and climbing the learning curve to the point that they will no longer be clones at all. They'll be the real thing.
The number of duplicates is also growing. Although Meizu may have gone silent because of fears of an Apple lawsuit—after my visit in Hong Kong, they stopped responding to my e-mails and phone calls—other companies are moving ahead. A few days before Apple's launch, an online video surfaced depicting a sleek new product called the P168 [watch the video below]. The phone came in a black box, marked with both the iPhone and the Apple logos. The video showed the phone being unpacked and operated (the start-up screen also featured the Apple branding). There were features that the iPhone didn't have, such as the ability to operate on two different networks at once; six speakers; and, addressing a major prerelease complaint about the iPhone, a removable battery. I asked my translator if she could find one on the street. They weren't available in Beijing—yet—but a few weeks later, a friend discovered one in Guangzhou. The manufacturer of the P168 wouldn't comment for this story, but the hardware was real, and it worked.
Neither the miniOne, the P168 nor even HTC's model are likely to carry the mystique or quality of the iPhone. But that's not really the point. Those phones will be available to millions more consumers than Apple's product, at a lower price. The rest of the world will accept the clones as if they were the original. That will make them no different than a flood of Chinese products—cars, pharmaceuticals, food, appliances—that are emerging from the shadows and climbing the learning curve to the point that they will no longer be clones at all. They'll be the real thing.
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