We really haven’t heard much of anything since the TiVo-Nero partnership to develop TiVo software for the PC was announced last November, so it is nice to get some confirmation that things are still moving forward. This confirmation comes via an ITBusiness.ca article on Nero, due to their new Canadian-born Nero Americas president, Richard Carriere. Nero is focused on expanding their products to embrace what they’re calling ‘liquid media’ - content on any device, anywhere, at anytime. And part of that focus includes the TiVo software:

One use-case being carved-out centres around the television. Nero has partnered with TiVo, developers of the popular set-top boxes for recording digital television tailored to personal preferences, and the two companies are working to develop a software solution that brings the Nero engine and the TiVo usability to the PC.

“You’ll have all the power, performance and flexibility of a PC, the strength of the Nero engine, and the TiVo user experience,” said Carriere.

In essence, the digital cable feed could be connected into the PC which could be used as a personal video recorder (PVR), eliminating the need for a TiVo box. Programming could be watched on the PC, or a cable connected back to the TV to watch it there.

“If you look at what’s available from HP or Microsoft today you can do it, but it’s not a very easy user experience,” said Carriere.

The details on the solution, which is expected to launch within the next year, are still being developed, but Carriere says it may open new opportunities for partners in the digital home integration space.

Interesting that they say “the digital cable feed could be connected into the PC”, that would imply that the software will work with CableCARD tuners. I’d rather expect it would. I’m a little disappointed by the “launch within the next year”, since this was announced last November it has already been six months since the announcement. I was hoping that we might see it released in time for the holiday shopping season this year, but I’m feeling more like sometime in 2009 at this point. Of course, we don’t know how complex the development work is - if it is a whole-cloth creation, or a port of one of the existing code bases such as the standalone OS or the cable OCAP/tru2way OS.

As I said at the time of the announcement, I’m still iffy on the PC-based software in general. Media Center PCs haven’t lit the world on fire, and it is a crowded market with established players. Breaking into that market is hard for new comers, as ReplayTV, Meedio/Yahoo, and others have discovered. But TiVo has their strong brand working for them, and Nero is an established player as well. So I’ll be very interested in seeing how it does when it hits the market.

Laplink’s servers were so hammered yesterday due to their free PCmover offer that not everyone who wanted it could get through. So they’ve kindly extended the offer through today. I jumped on it very early yesterday, just after I posted here, and I also took advantage of the low promotional pricing on PC Sync, Uniblue Registry Booster, and Raxco PerfectDisk 8. Their servers were so hammered my order didn’t actually complete until today, so I just downloaded the software a little earlier today. I’ve already run Registry Booster, and my first impression is that it has sped up my system, both booting and starting applications. I’m running PerfectDisk right now, we’ll see how that goes. For $10 I figured why not try it.

So if you couldn’t get in on the offer yesterday, don’t miss out today.

Today, Thursday, May 15th, is Laplink’s 25th birthday, and to celebrate they’re giving away copies of their PCmover product, normally $49.95, for FREE! And in addition to the free copies of PCmover, they’re offering steep discounts on other products, including partner products, such as Laplink Gold 2008 - normally $89.95, for $29.95 or Webroot Spy Sweeper, normally $29.95, just $9.95. And there are others.

But these offers are only good today, May 15, 2008. They don’t say what time, specifically, the offers end - midnight perhaps, but which time zone? - so don’t procrastinate if you want the specials.

Picked up from Zatz Not Funny.

If you have a Hewlett-Packard desktop computer with an AMD processor and are running the factory install of Windows XP, you may wish to know that, as configured from the factory, your computer will stop working, in a way that will do no irreparable harm but may startle you considerably, if you install XP Service Pack 3.

Oddly, this is not Microsoft’s fault, it’s HP’s; they were lazy and didn’t remove an Intel processor driver, intelppm.sys, from the disk image used to create the AMD systems. This is normally not a problem, but when restarting after the application of XPSP3, it becomes one, to the tune of rebooting forever and ever until you stick your foot in the door and boot into safe mode. I ran into this interesting state of affairs this morning.

The fix that worked for me is relatively simple - get into the recovery console and tell it “disable intelppm”, and Bob’s your uncle. There are a few other ways of getting it done, including one for regedit studs. More information is here.

There are also a couple of other things that can cause SP3 to have reboot problems, but that seems to be the most prevalent and it’s the one I have personal experience with, so I figured I’d do a little signal repeating. More info on the other failure states can be found here (and if you follow the links far enough, you’ll end up at the first page I linked about).

In the wake of Microsoft’s failure to buy out Yahoo!, there has been rampant speculation as to Microsoft’s next move, primarily which company they may try to acquire instead of Yahoo!. Facebook is often bandied about in that context, but it probably isn’t surprising that TiVo has popped up amidst the speculation as well. As in this article in Financial Week:

The experience may prompt Messrs. Ballmer and Liddell to seek out home entertainment targets that better fit Microsoft’s culture. The logical choice, said [Stephen Smith, senior managing director at Arma Partners], is set-top box specialist TiVo, since the xBox could serve as the hardware for TiVo’s television-recording software. “TiVo is the Apple of that category,” he said. “And Microsoft could buy it without antitrust concerns.”

Perhaps, and TiVo is working with Nero on TiVo software for the Windows PC. So it might not be as difficult to port to the Xbox 360 as it would at first seem. And Microsoft has repeatedly tried to get into the cable STB software business, without much success. Having TiVo’s OCAP software, already picked up by Comcast and Cox, would certainly help in that arena.

But, really, I don’t see it happening. Microsoft already has Windows Media Center as the 800 pound gorilla in the PC market, and they can bring that interface to the 360 should they want to. I think it is just analyst speculation, looking for someone, anyone, that Microsoft could make a play for.

Roxio is offering a few coupon codes for May and June to save you a little summer cash. The discounts include TiVo compatible software such as Roxio Toast, Roxio Popcorn, and Roxio Easy Media Creator.

Shop Roxio’s website, and use these codes:
* Save 10% on any product – site wide – coupon code: SAVE10ROX
* Buy Easy Media Creator 10 and SAVE $15 USD instantly! – coupon code: 15EMC10
* Buy MyDVD 10 Premier and SAVE $10 USD instantly – coupon code: 10MYDVD
* Buy Roxio Crunch and Save $5 for a price of $34.99 – coupon code: savecrunch5
* Popcorn 3 and Get a FREE Popcorn Tee - while supplies last! Link id: 10550913

The Hauppauge HD PVR USB add-on for PCs was supposed to start shipping May 1st, but it didn’t make it. Brent Evans over at Zatz Not Funny reports that Hauppauge tells him it has been delayed until mid-May at the earliest, as they work on driver issues. As he reports:

* For those with an online order # of 32700-33600 you’re first in line - your HD-PVR should ship by Mid-May 2008
* For those with an online order # of 33601-34600 you’re second in line - your HD-PVR should ship by the end of May 2008
* If you’re order number is after 34600, it will likely be after May 2008.

So if you’re waiting on your order, you’ll have to be a patient a while longer.