TiVoCast Has The Answers – AnswersTV Health That Is

Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 by MegaZone

TiVo has added yet another channel to TiVoCast, The Health Channel from AnswersTV.

Our new Health Channel is your comprehensive and trusted guide to everything health.

Broadcast exclusively in HD and available on demand, AnswersTV Health gives you hours of original programming that informs and enlightens through expert advice and compelling personal stories.

AnswersTV has an interesting mix of content, I wonder if we’ll be seeing more of their channels soon:

AnswersTV is the first High Definition Interactive Television Network comprised exclusively of originally produced, broadcast-quality interactive programming.

AnswersTV’s lifestyle programming currently includes Health, Food, Magic, Wine, Pet, Jewelry and Automotive programming. This broad line-up of clearly focused channels educates, informs, engages and entertains highly targeted audiences – on demand.

In addition to TiVoCast the AnswersTV content is available through partners such as Cablevision’s Video On Demand service, Stephens Media Newspaper websites and the Chicago Sun Times.

Subscribe online or on your TiVo via TiVo Central -> Video on Demand -> Browse free videos -> All -> AnswersTV Health

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TiVo Examines Series Premier Timeshifting

Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 by MegaZone

One of the things I missed covering during the week when I was swamped was a press release from TiVo about timeshifting and the series premiers in October. Using data from their Stop||Watch service they made some interesting discoveries. For example, while it had been expected that more people would watch premiers live, in actuality they experienced up to 54% timeshifting. And cable saw a year-over-year increase in viewership.

Six of the seven new network series that premiered in October drew 50% or more of their audience on a timeshifted basis. The highest rated premier, ABC’s Life on Mars, had 52% timeshifted viewing. NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy had 54%, CBS’s Eleventh Hour and NBC’s Kath & Kim both 51%, and CBS’s The Ex List and CW’s Stylista both had 50%. And the news isn’t good for advertisers, as five of the seven premiers had 60% of more of their ads fast-forwarded or skipped, Life On Mars had a 65% skip rate, showing that ratings alone may not be the best measure of ad viewing. Though My Own Worst Enemy and Kath & Kim had the highest skip rates with 67% – not good for NBC.

Todd Juenger, Vice President & General Manager, TiVo Audience Research & Measurement, said, “We would expect to see this level of Timeshifting for an older show with an established fan base, and a new series premier to get most of its viewing Live. The fact that these new series got upwards of 50% of their viewing on a Timeshifted basis indicates that viewers are growing accustomed to recording programs and watching when they want – thereby increasing a program’s total viewership. However, Timeshifting audiences also have the ability to skip commercials, which impacts the efficacy of the ads and the economics of the program, and can have long term effects on how networks evaluate their success going forward.”

There is a lot more data and analysis in the press release, check it out.

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The Fist Single-Sided Hybrid Blu-ray/DVD Discs Coming To Market

Posted on Monday, December 29, 2008 by MegaZone

BD/DVD Hybrid cross section

One of the benefits touted by HD DVD supporters had been the capability of the format to support both HD DVD and DVD content on a single side. Though, with only two layers, this meant a HD DVD15/DVD5 was the result – providing limited capacity on both formats. I repeatedly pointed out that the Blu-ray camp had the capability for the same kind of single-sided hybrid disc, and they had been demonstrated by JVC but not commercialized. Since Blu-ray, unlike HD DVD, uses a different layer depth than DVD it is theoretically possible to have higher capacities – in theory a BD50/DVD9 is possible. JVC demonstated a BD25/DVD9, which provides enough capacity on both formats for a lot of content. However, producing the hybrid discs is more complex and costly, and I didn’t really expect to see them move beyond the lab curiosity phase. What we’ve seen to date are some vendors simply packing a standard DVD in with the BD release to support both formats.

Well, color me surprised. On February 18, 2009 Pony Canyon will release the first BD/DVD hybrid discs, in Japan. It is a box set of the TV series Code Blue. It is a multi-disc set, with the discs being hybrid BD25/DVD9 – a single Blu-ray layer ‘over’ two DVD layers. So it is like having a standard dual-layer DVD and a single-layer Blu-ray disc on one physical disc. The DVD’s red laser sees through the BD layer to see the DVD data, while the Blu-ray’s blue laser reflects from the BD layer and never sees the DVD ‘below’.

The discs are produced by Infiniti Storage Media Ltd. and they’re very similar to the hybrid discs demonstrated by JVC back in 2004. Infiniti is also apparently working on a BD50/DVD5 (2-BD layers, 1-DVD layer) standard with the BDA. A BD50/DVD9 isn’t mentioned, though I’d be surprised if that wasn’t the next step, JVC was talking about that in 2004.

It’ll be interesting to see if this catches on or is just a bit of a gimmick. If it is successful we might see more titles using hybrid discs, which would eliminate the BD vs. DVD purchasing decision. Though I’m not sure it will catch on, since they are more complex to make than BD or DVD alone. Still, as a geek I love the elegance of the solution so I kind of hope it will.

BD/DVD Hybrid layers

Spotted via Blu-ray Stats News Log, which took me to Electonista, and thence to Impress AV Watch. Images from Impress.

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Save Up To 65% On Blu-ray Discs At Amazon

Posted on Saturday, December 27, 2008 by MegaZone

Through January 4th, 2009 Amazon is running a post-holiday Blu-ray sale. 200 titles, up to 65% off MSRP. There are a wide variety of titles and discounts available – there are 71 titles for between $10 and $14.99 alone.

UPDATE: Blu-ray Stats found another Post Christmas Blu-ray Sale with up to 60% off 20 Warner titles.

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XStreamHD Still Plugging Away

Posted on Thursday, December 25, 2008 by MegaZone

We first heard of XStreamHD in November of 2007. They’re working on a system to use satellites to delivery Full HD (1080p) video into homes with 7.1 sound (DTS-HD MA) in ‘Blu-ray quality’. More details appeared in December, and then in January to coincide with CES. I managed to visit their booth at CES 2008 and take some photos and gather more info. They popped up on the radar again briefly in October.

Well, it looks like they’re still out there working away, and they’ll be at CES 2009 next month. As will I, so I’ll try to check out their booth again. They issued a press release to announce a successful test of their transport system using the AMC-16 satellite. This confirms that their technology works using existing FSS (Fixed Satellite Services) capacity, which is part of their plan. They’ll use leased capacity on existing FSS satellites to distribute their content to end users.

Their technology and plans are interesting, but it remains to be seen if a new entrant can carve out a piece of the market. The last to try, Voom, didn’t succeed.

Continue reading →

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