Now through January 31st, save 10% off a TiVo Series2DT or take $50 off a TiVo HD. It is a special offer from TiVo via the affiliate program.

While I was visiting TiVo’s suite at CES, TiVoShanan was there filming the latest episode of The Badoop Badoop Show, and she spent a few minutes talking to me. A short bit of that conversation missed the cutting room floor – I’m at the end of the current episode, at about the 6:49 mark.

Starting today there’s another way to control your TiVo remotely – text message. TiVo, in partnership with kwiry, is allowing you to schedule recordings on your TiVo my texting 59479 (k-w-i-r-y) with messages such as “TiVo the office”. So if you have a phone without a browser capable of using the TiVo Mobile website, or lack a dataplan, you can use text messages.

Details below in the press release:

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Back in August of 2007 Blockbuster jumped into digital movie distribution by acquiring Movielink. However, they’ve failed to set the world on fire with their digital distribution service, trailing far behind Netflix, Amazon VOD, and CinemaNow. CinemaNow has enjoyed a major resurgence since Sonic purchased them in November, and it seems Blockbuster has taken notice.

Blockbuster is partnering with Sonic to bring Blockbuster branded video services to consumers, including the existing CinemaNow content service. It sounds like win-win for Blockbuster and Sonic. Blockbuster gets a successful service which already has a number of deals with consumer electronics vendors, which Sonic gets the Blockbuster brand, which is still a fairly strong brand in the video rental market. It is also a pretty good deal for the CE vendors who have already made deals to bring CinemaNow content to their devices, as they get the strong Blockbuster brand.

I wonder if we’ll be seeing the Blockbuster brand on TiVo, since they currently use CinemaNow for Disney content, and more content is expected.

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In the ongoing patent spat between DISH Network & EchoStar and TiVo there has been another exchange. First DISH Network issued this statement:

DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq: DISH) and EchoStar Corporation (Nasdaq: SATS) issued the following statement regarding recent developments in the TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp. lawsuit:

“We are pleased that the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) granted our Petition for Re-Examination of the software claims of TiVo’s ‘389 patent, which are the subject of TiVo’s current motion for contempt. The PTO found that there is a ’substantial new question’ of patentability as to the software claims in light of prior patents that appear to render TiVo’s ‘389 patent invalid as obvious.”

And TiVo responded with their own statement:

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television products and services for digital video recorders (DVR), offered the following statement today regarding the decision by the United States Patent and Trademark Office to reexamine the software claims of TiVo’s Time Warp Patent:

“EchoStar filed its latest request for reexamination after TiVo asked the United States District Court to hold EchoStar in contempt of the Court’s injunction requiring EchoStar to disable its DVR functionality. An evidentiary hearing on the contempt issues is scheduled to be held on February 17 and 18, 2009.

“EchoStar’s latest tactic follows numerous failed attempts to invalidate TiVo’s groundbreaking Time Warp patent. In 2006, the District Court rejected all of EchoStar’s validity challenges after a full jury trial and the judgment of validity was affirmed by the Federal Circuit in 2008. The USPTO also conducted a prior reexamination of the Time Warp Patent at EchoStar’s request, which concluded on November 11, 2008, with the USPTO issuing a Reexamination Certificate confirming the validity of all of the claims of the Time Warp Patent without any change. EchoStar’s latest request for reexamination is based on a combination of two prior art references that were both already submitted to the USPTO in connection with the earlier reexamination. The USPTO grants most patent reexamination requests. Contrary to EchoStar’s statement, the USPTO made no substantive findings. We are confident that the USPTO will once again confirm the validity of all of the claims of the Time Warp patent.”

Round and round we go…

Slipping a little non-CES news in here, Amazon has a few deals on VOD content. First up are $0.99 rental deals on independent films: The Signal, The Host, Broken English, Jesus Camp, and Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room.

There is a $5.99 digital movie sale with 43 titles. That’s $5.99 to own, not rentals.

And finally, Resident Evil, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and Resident Evil: Extinction are all $7.99 each to own, 50% off.

I’ve caught a couple of short video interviews with TiVo CEO Tom Roger’s from CES. The first I picked up from Reuters’s MediaFile Blog:

The second is from the LA Times:

TiVoShanan has posted the promo video she did for Netflix on TiVo, which appeared on the TiVo itself to announce the feature launch.

Well, would you look at that, TiVo just unveiled an all new search interface – but astute readers will recognize it immediately as a variation of the interface design which leaked back in September. TiVo was kind enough to give me a sneak peak ahead of the embargo lifting so I could grab a few screen shots. I’m already in Las Vegas, so I did this using SlingPlayer from my Slingbox PRO-HD back home. You’ve got to love technology. I certainly didn’t cover all of the possible permutations in the interface, but it is very nice indeed. It is the first real interface which takes advantage of high-definition. I hope more of the TiVo interface is re-written like this, it really looks sharp and the functionality is very nice. I can’t wait to get home and play with it on my 61″ DLP and not just in a SlingPlayer window.

Lots more behind the cut:
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Roxio Monday launched Toast 10 Titanium for Mac OS. This new update to Toast adds a number of features, but most significantly for Mac OS users it includes an implementation of ‘TiVoToComeBack’, video transfers to a TiVo, which they’re calling Mac2TiVo. This has been sorely missing from any official solutions for Mac OS using TiVo owners.

Toast 10 Titanium also includes AVCHD Archive, which makes it easy to burn content form HD camcorders to BD or DVD, Web Video To Go, which allows users to grab video from websites to save locally or transfer to portable devices, place-shifting support which streams content from the Mac to a Streamer application on an iPhone or iPod Touch, and a number of others.

Toast 10 Titanium goes on sale today at http://www.roxio.com/ for $99.99, with special pricing at MacWorld Expo January 5-9. The High-definition/Blu-ray Disc (HD/BD) plug-in, which is required to author BD discs and is normally $19.99, is available free to those who purchase Toast 10 Titanium from http://www.roxio.com/ through February 5, 2009. Toast 10 Titanium Pro is also available for $149.99.

Press release:
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