TiVo’s latest newsletter:

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TiVo has added two more channels to TiVo, both from Veoh obviously given their names, Ego TV on Veoh and SomaGirls TV on Veoh.

Ego TV describes themselves thusly:

Success. Prosperity. Fame. All are a part of your identity - your Ego. Ego TV is a new multi-platform TV network that’s all about prosperity and how to achieve it. Your Ego is your confidence booster that guides you to success. Listen to your Ego. Everyone has an ego.

Frankly just that description makes me never want to be forced to watch an episode of this channel, but out of commitment to this blog I tried to watch the latest episode on the site ‘Malibu U Episode 2′ - and I still regret it. The things I endure for my readers. Anyway, if you do want to watch it, as usual you can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> Ego TV on Veoh.

SomaGirls TV doesn’t sound like a big improvement:

The latest Celebrity news, Make-up styles, and fashion trends.

Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be subscribing to that one either. If you want to, wait for it, you can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> SomaGirls TV on Veoh.

While I’m talking about TiVoCast, what’s happened to some of the older channels? For example, GeekBrief.TV hasn’t updated since early July. And The Watcher on TiVo is decent enough - but is there some major delay? The last episode, which I received just days ago, was talking about ‘upcoming’ season premiers for returning shows - which were returning in early-to-mid July. Not so useful to be told not to miss a premier when it aired last month.

And yet still no Tekzilla.

We first heard about an OCAP SDK from Motorola last June, but haven’t heard much since then. In the meantime there have been a number of changes, not the least of which has been the rebranding of OCAP as tru2way, as well as a number of CE vendors signing the tru2way MOU with CableLabs. Tru2way really has a lot of traction now and we should see a number of tru2way products on the market by mid-2009.

Well, according to Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola has finally released the SDK to tru2way developers. ME2G has a Q&A with Motorola’s Frank Goddard, and there is a product fact sheet PDF available as well. Tools like this will be a major factor in building a successful tru2way ecosystem.

I think Wednesday must have been a slow news day in Illinois. WCIA Channel 3 decided to do a little filler news piece on the DISH Network vs. TiVo patent suit. It’s a little chopping on the details, not surprising for a <3 minute light piece on a lawsuit that has run for a few years. The main focus seems to be the threat that DISH Network could be ordered to disable their DVRs in the field if they’re found to be in contempt by the court. (Personally I don’t see that happening. If DISH were ordered to disable their DVRs I foresee a very quick license agreement with TiVo to keep them on.) The story also appeared on the associated IllinoisHomepage.net and in their discussion forums.

Disclaimer: I’m employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar.

DISH Network just reported their most recent financial results, and Reuters’ MediaFile blog has several quotes from DISH CEO Charlie Ergen on a variety of topics. But the one I was most interested in, and likely of most interest to readers of this blog, was on the ongoing lawsuit with TiVo:

On on-going litigation between DISH and TiVo which might impact 4 to 6 million DISH subscribers if the satellite company loses:

What we did was we designed around the TiVo patent and patent law encourages people to be innovative and our guys were very innovative and used some very sophisticated algorithms and so fourth to design around the TiVo patent. I believe we’ll prevail but TiVo, we’re going to have conversations with TiVo one way or the other about how we work together, and again, I’m just stubborn. I know this case inside and out. I’ve sat through trials. I’ve sat through the engineering models. I’ve sat and had the best and the brightest explain this to us, and I’m just stubborn. We don’t violate their intellectual property today, and I want to prove that. And so we’re going to go to the September 4th hearing and see who is right and so far, TiVo has been right.

We’re a month away from the September 4th hearing, when we’ll see the next chapter in this ongoing saga play out.

Disclaimer: I’m employed by Sling Media, which is owned by EchoStar, which also has Charlie Ergen as CEO.

Thanks to my friend Jer for the heads up on this great deal. Buy.com is selling the TiVo-approved Western Digital 500GB My DVR Expander eSATA External Hard Drive for just $131.99 - and that’s with free shipping. That’s a great deal, Buy.com has the list price as $179.99 and TiVo.com still lists them for the old $199.99 MSRP. This is the only eSATA drive officially sanctioned by TiVo for use with the TiVo Series3 and the TiVo HD. I’ve had one connected to my Series3 for quite a while and it works great.

EDIT: Reader Mike Turpin points out that you can get the same deal through Amazon.com from the seller BuyNow Incorporated (see the ‘More Buying Choices’ on the right) and avoid the sales tax Buy.com charges in several states. BuyNow Incorporated is really Buy.com, so it is the same deal, without tax for those who would be charged from Buy.com. Thanks Mike!

They may not be ebony and ivory, but as I’ve said in the past, Blu-ray and video downloads can live together in perfect harmony. When I see people saying things like ‘Blu-ray is DOA’ because downloads will kill it, I tend to either snicker or roll my eyes, or both. Because, while I agree that someday downloads will probably kill off physical media, that day is years away. Many years. People point to music download services, like iTunes, as an example - and I’ll point out that the vast majority of music is still sold on physical media, and downloads have a long way to go before they kill CD. (I buy all of my music via download, CD is a last resort.) And video downloads are many times the size of music downloads.

With video downloads it is always a compromise between speed and quality. For instant gratification you have streaming video, but that’s the lowest quality. Broadband speed limitations restrict the maximum possible streaming bitrates. Downloads can offer higher bitrates, but still require fat pipes to be feasible, and, of course, storage. But even the best download services don’t come close to matching the picture quality of Blu-ray, because they can’t match the bitrates. And don’t even get into bonus features, lossless audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD-MA), multiple audio and subtitle tracks, etc. With most commercial Blu-ray titles using between 30GB or more of disc capacity, we’re not going to be downloading content at that quality in the near future.

So I was a little gratified to see this article in CE Pro, entitled Blu-ray and Downloads: Why Both Are Worth Offering. CE Pr