Home Theater Specialists of America (HTSA), a buying group representing 62 specialty A/V dealers and installers with $500 million in value have announced that they will be exclusively backing Blu-ray Disc. According to an internal study, 92% of all high-definition disc players sold by members were Blu-ray, while the remaining 8% were mostly combo Blu-ray/HD DVD players.

“The industry looks to HTSA as an expert for custom home theater, built upon a foundation of the top consumer electronic retailers across the country,” said executive director Richard Glikes. “Based on our member research and observations in the field, it is clear that HTSA customers have made Blu-ray Disc their preferred HD format for movies and other packaged video content.”

Sony took the opportunity to jump on the coattails of this announcement:

In a statement, Jay Vandenbree, president of consumer sales for Sony Electronics, Blu-ray’s chief proponent and developer, lauded HTSA’s move. “At a time when ever-changing technology tests just how much one can know about everything, HTSA has chosen Blu-Ray Disc as the format they support. I think it speaks volumes when support comes from those who specialize in home theater, and are closest to the consumer.”

Picked up from Blu-ray.com.

Dave Zatz of Sling Media just dropped this bombshell of a press release into my inbox:

EchoStar Announces Agreement to Acquire Sling Media, Inc.

Combination Will Create Industry-Leading Digital Media Solutions Provider

ENGLEWOOD, Colo. and FOSTER CITY, Calif., September 24, 2007 – EchoStar Communications Corporation (NASDAQ: DISH) announced today that it has agreed to acquire Sling Media, Inc., a privately-held digital lifestyle products company. EchoStar, through its DISH Network®, is the third largest pay-TV provider in the United States. The transaction values Sling Media at approximately $380 million and is payable in cash and EchoStar options. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Established in 2004, Sling Media has been a leading innovator in the digital lifestyle space through the introduction of the internationally-acclaimed, Emmy award-winning Slingbox™ and SlingPlayer™ software. Sling Media’s product line is distributed in over 5,000 retail stores in 11 countries.

In 2006, Sling Media created the Sling Entertainment Group with the mission of developing entertainment experiences and business models that reach beyond the Slingbox. The group also fosters and manages relationships with content creators and owners. Its first initiative, Clip+Sling™, dramatically changes the way consumers socialize around TV by enabling users to clip and share limited segments of their favorite television programming.

“As an early investor in Sling Media, EchoStar has been pleased with the progress and commitment the company has made establishing Sling Media and the Slingbox as powerful and beloved digital media brands,” said Charlie Ergen, CEO and co-founder of EchoStar. “With today’s increasingly mobile lifestyle, EchoStar’s acquisition of Sling Media will allow us to offer innovative and convenient ways for our customers to enjoy their programming on more displays and locations, including TVs, computers and mobile phones, both inside and outside of the home. This combination paves the way for the development of a host of new innovative products and services for our subscribers, new digital media consumers and strategic partners.”

“We are psyched to make this announcement. We have worked closely with EchoStar for more than two years, and have come to realize that both companies have similar entrepreneurial cultures and mutual dedication and passion for creating empowering experiences that benefit the consumer and the media industry,” said Blake Krikorian, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Sling Media. “By combining strategies, resources and technologies with EchoStar, Sling Media will be able to rapidly expand our open multi-platform product offerings, not only for DISH Network subscribers, but for digital media enthusiasts around the globe.”

# # #

About EchoStar Communications Corporation

EchoStar Communications Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) has been a leader for more than 26 years in satellite TV equipment sales and support worldwide. The Company’s DISH Network® is the fastest-growing pay-TV provider in the country since 2000 and currently serves more than 13.585 million satellite TV customers. DISH Network® offers a premier line of industry-leading Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) and hundreds of video and audio channels as well as the most national HD and International channels in the U.S., Interactive TV, Latino and sports programming. DISH Network also provides a variety of package and price options including the lowest all-digital price in America and the DishDVR Advantage Package. EchoStar is included in the Nasdaq-100 Index (NDX) and is a Fortune 300 company. Visit www.echostar.com or call 1-800-333-DISH (3474) for more information.

About Sling Media, Inc.
Sling Media, Inc. is a leading digital lifestyle company offering consumer services and products that are a natural extension of today’s digital way of life. Sling Media’s product family includes the internationally-acclaimed, Emmy award-winning Slingboxâ„¢ that allows consumers to watch and control their living room television shows at any time, from any location, using PCs, Macs, PDAs and smartphones. For more information on Sling Media or the Slingbox, visit www.slingmedia.com.

Contact:
EchoStar: Kathie Gonzalez, 720-514-5351, press@echostar.com
Sling Media: Brian Jaquet, 415-235-4844, jaquet@slingmedia.com

I wonder if this will impact Sling’s work with EchoStar’s competitor, DirecTV?

Well, this is probably good news for Sling - they’ll have some serious backing to continue growing the company.

TiVo Shanan has posted a slew of new videos, what the stars are watching and TiVo promos for the new fall TV season - Back to You, Bones, K-Ville, and Prison Break.
Read the rest of this entry »

Capable Networks, the parent company of sites such as DVRPlayground.com, SlingCommunity.com, and the recently acquired TiVoCommunity.com has expanded their partnership with TiVo upgrade pioneer DVRupgrade.

Under the expanded partnership, DVRupgrade, which is already an official sponsor of DVRplayground.com, will become an official sponsor of TiVoCommunity.com as well as working with Capable Networks on other joint marketing projects.

“DVRupgrade has been an active participant on TiVo Community for over seven years and continues to make significant contributions to the community in the area of TiVo upgrades,” said Ron Repking, CEO of Capable Networks. “The partnership will ensure that this benefit to the visitors to the site will continue into the future.”

“We are thrilled to expand our relationship with Capable Networks,” said Lou Jacob, Founder and CEO of DVRupgrade. “Our business was originally built upon the discoveries and contributions of pioneering TiVo Community members; we appreciate that, and want to ensure that we continue to invest in our long standing relationship by giving back to the community in meaningful ways.”

TiVo is running a special one-month promo from September 20 to October 23 on the 80-hour S2DT - $200 off MSRP. To get this deal you need to order through this special affiliate site. If you look at the standard website it is $99.99. If you still use mostly analog cable, or you have no need for one of the HD boxes, this is a good deal. I’d personally recommend giving serious thought to the TiVo HD or Series3, but at best those are at least $200 more than this deal.

See, I told you there would be affiliate specials from time to time. And, of course, there are still other deals out there.

If you plan to connect any TiVo using WiFi, be sure to pick up the TiVo Wireless G USB Network Adapter.

As always, using TiVo Lovers as your TiVo Rewards referrer is always appreciated.

The new Adobe Premiere Elements Version 4, targeting home users, supports Blu-ray - but not HD DVD. The professional level Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 also supports Blu-ray Disc exclusively, no HD DVD support. These are two of the most popular video editing and authoring packages on the market.

My friend John just tipped me off to today’s Woot deal - a DirecTV/TiVo Remote for $0.99!

This is a second generation remote, what would be a ‘Series2′ remote for standalone boxes. Now, while it is labeled as a DirecTV remote - it has the DirecTV logo on it and a ‘DirecTV’ button instead of a ‘TiVo’ button at the top - it is compatible with all standalone and DirecTV units that use a ‘peanut’ remote. (Everything except the Sony units and the Toshiba SD-H400, which had special remotes.)

So if you’re remote is worn out, you just want a spare around as a backup, or you want a dedicated remote for the kids (make it is ‘KidZone’ remote), this is a pretty good deal.

Note that Woot deals are one-day specials, so act now if you want one (or two, or three…).

John Kohl continues his revival of Galleon with the release of version 2.5.0, which has a number of new features and bug fixes. From the release notes:

Version 2.5.0:
———————-
* Added iPhoto album display capability into Photos application
* Increased album artwork size in music players (HD)
* Fixed built-in Photos application to lay out the grid better for HD.
* Fixed JPG image tag reading for Photos
* Added a new HD Photos plugin that will download, install and run the TiVo Desktop hdphotos
HME application integrated into Galleon similar to what it does for TiVo Desktop.
(you must open TCP port 7111 on your firewall)
* Reimplemented skin resource loading so they don’t use as much memory and cpu
* Added scalable backgrounds that fit the screen in HD mode for pictures and music
* Fixed the HD playbar in the music app so it draws properly
* Fixed layout on music player screen when in HD mode
* Increased font size on music app in HD mode for all screens
* Fixed screen saver on music app to fill the entire screen
* Fixed lyrics downloading to grab from a different source since lyrictracker is down
* Fix MacOS problems (tracker #1760027)
* Upgraded Movie Rentals app to 0.8
* Fixed missing jars in windows installer
* Added service wrapper for unix release and a Makefile to do “make install” or “make uninstall”
* Added a global screen saver framework for all apps that extend BApplication and AppFactory
* Added a bouncing screen saver to display cover art and track title for music player apps

There are a few known issues:

Known problems:
* tracker on music in HD is goofy
* not all galleon skins in HD don’t cover screen–use tivo skins
* still some layout glitches in HD
* still some HD menu highlights are too big for text

Galleon is written in Java and it runs on basically any platform what supports Java - Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX, etc. It is still the premier HME application. You can download 2.5.0 here.

Thanks to Alex of TiVo Blog for the tip.

Michael and Timothy, thank you both for the TiVo Rewards Referrals.