The new issue of Home Media Magazine is out, complete with the Nielsen VideoScan numbers for the week ending 1/27. This time around Blu-ray took 82% of the high-def media sales to HD DVD’s 18%. Four weeks into the year that puts Blu-ray at 77% year-to-date, and at 64% since the inception of both formats. For the third week in a row, HD DVD failed to land any titles in the Top 10 High-Def Sellers list, giving Blu-ray a clean sweep.

There is also an interesting article on the format war outside of the US. High-def player adoption outside of the US has been much slower, due to higher player pricing and a later introduction of both formats. It also shows the importance of the PS3 to the format war. For the top five European countries, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, high-def player shipments for 2007 are estimated to be 160,000, with 668,000 projected for 2008. By comparison, 2.36 million PS3s shipped in 2007, with 5.37 million expected in 2008. The PS3 certainly plays a large role in Blu-rays market dominance in European high-def media sales, even more so than in the US. In 2007 Blu-ray took a 3:1 sales lead over HD DVD for media sales in Europe. But that doesn’t match the 5:1 advantage in Australia, let alone the 9:1 advantage in Japan, which makes the 2:1 advantage in the US look not so bad for HD DVD by way of comparison.

Following yesterday’s ruling in favor of TiVo regarding EchoStar’s violation of their patents, DISH Network Corporation issued the following statement:

We are pleased the Federal Circuit found for us on Tivo’s hardware claims, but are disappointed in the Federal Circuit’s decision on the software claims. The decision, however, will have no effect on our current or future customers because EchoStar’s engineers have developed and deployed ‘next-generation’ DVR software to our customers’ DVRs. This improved software is fully operational, has been automatically downloaded to current customers, and does not infringe the Tivo patent at issue in the Federal Circuit’s ruling.

All DISH Network customers can continue to use their DVRs without any interruption or changes to the award-winning DVR features and services provided by DISH Network.

We intend to appeal the Federal Circuit’s ruling affirming the $94 million jury verdict.

Though it seems that TiVo doesn’t agree with DISH’s assessment regarding the injunction, based on a comment quoted by CNNMoney.com:

“EchoStar has made a series of statements over the years related to the infringement of the TiVo patents that turned out to be both false and misleading,” the company said in a statement. “At this point it doesn’t really matter what EchoStar says by way of further self-serving statements. It matters what the courts say - and the courts have spoken.”

TiVo’s law firm Irell & Manella LLP also took the opportunity to tout their roll in the ruling in a press release:
Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend Amazon Unbox offers sale pricing on rentals of Rush Hour 3 and Mr. Woodcock at $2.49 each and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Eastern Promises, and The Simpsons Movie at $2.99 each. I miss the $.99 rentals.

You can also download the first episode of Lipstick Jungle for free, before it airs on TV. And the first episode of the FOX Reality show Paradise Hotel 2 is also a free download.

After yesterday’s announcement that the TiVo Series3 is being EOL’d, I had a few questions about the future of the S3, and the heir-apparent, the TiVo HD.

- Will work continue on the Series3 to enable M-Card CableCARDs, or will it remain S-Card-only now?

- One of the lesser known features of the S3 is support for Crestron home control systems. In the past I’ve been told this is an S3-only feature, not available on the TiVo HD. Now that the S3 is being EOL’d, will this software support be brought over to the TiVo HD?

- Will the S3 ‘Glo’ remote continue to be produced and offered for users who prefer it?

- Are there any plans for additional TiVo HD models, say with 250GB drives?

I sent these off to my contact at TiVo and I’ll see what TiVo has to say about these issues. Are there any questions on your mind in light of the EOL announcement?