A Preview Of PS3 Firmware 2.30 – DTS-HD MA Is In There

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 by MegaZone

Just last night (or this morning) I posted about word that DTS-HD MA (and the lesser DTS-HD HR) support would be coming to the PlayStation3 in a future release. Well, now comes word that that ‘future release’ will be the next release, 2.30. DTS themselves has confirmed the inclusion of DTS-HD MA in the next PS3 firmware update, to be available April 15, 2008. Again, it is almost certainly going to be internally decoded and output as PCM – no bitstreaming.

The 2.30 update will also include a major overhaul to the PlayStation Store, and it looks a lot better. Joystiq has images of the new store, and PlayStation.Blog has a walk-through video and also confirms the inclusion of DTS-HD MA and DTS-HD HR. Hey, Ben Drawbaugh, would you recommend the PS3 for Blu-ray now? ;-)

Picked up from EngadgetHD.

Posted in Blu-ray/HD DVD, Gaming, Press Release | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

G4′s Attack of the Show’s The Loop Talks To TiVo’s Jim Denney

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 by MegaZone

G4′s ‘Attack of the Show‘ has a segment called ‘The Loop‘, which recently interviewed TiVo’s Jim Denney about TiVo’s new Web Video feature in TiVo Desktop 2.6, as well as the general future direction for TiVo with broadband content, YouTube, the TiVo brand, etc.

Jim did misspeak at one point. He said “delivering content right to your PC via the home network” when he meant “delivering content right to your TiVo via the home network”.

And if you want a really circular experience, and you have TiVo Desktop Plus 2.6, go to Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browser Other Videos -> All -> Attack of the Show’s Daily Video Podcast and sign up for an SP, because this interview is the latest download on that channel. So you can watch Jim Denney talk about TiVo Web Video using TiVo Web Video. :-)

Posted in Broadband, Cable, PC, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Blockbuster Ramps Up Their Blu-ray Efforts

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 by MegaZone

Blockbuster is rolling out Blu-ray to all of the corporate stores in the US and Canada, as well as select franchise locations. They’ll be installing Blu-ray kiosks in over 5,000 stores. The kiosks feature a 42″ HDTV and a PS3 for playing Blu-ray movies, and will help introduce customers to the features and capabilities of Blu-ray, They’re also adding a Blu-ray preference setting to the Blockbuster online rent-by-mail service.

They dropped a press release to tout the changes:
Continue reading →

Posted in Blu-ray/HD DVD, Press Release | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

SlingCatcher Delayed To Later In 2008

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 by MHA

On Wednesday, Engadget and CNET each published an email from Sling Media Vice President of Sales Gregg Wilkes, sent in reply to a user’s inquiry about the SlingCatcher, the company’s planned hardware receiver to accompany the Slingbox line. Mr. Wilkes says the unit will not ship in the second quarter of this year, as the company announced at CES earlier this year, but sometime later in 2008. Here’s an excerpt:

Will the catcher ship in Q2? No. We are upgrading the user experience and making enhancements to the feature set. These may or may not all ship at the same time.

Will the Catcher ship in ’08? All indications point to this happening in 2008.

The SlingCatcher hardware, which first appeared at the 2007 CES and was shown again at CES ’08, will provide a way of watching your Slingbox from another TV, as opposed to the SlingPlayer software, which requires a computer and fast network connection; it can also bring online video to a television. See Engadget’s post or the Crave post at CNET for the full user email and Gregg’s reply.

Check out more of Mark’s recent writing at Mark_TV and TidBITS.

Posted in Blogs, Sling Media | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

TiVo Desktop 2.6.1 Released

Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 by MegaZone

TiVo Desktop 2.6.1 has been released – and anyone running 2.6 will want to grab it. TiVoPony announced the release on TiVoCommunity:

It has improved recovery from interrupted transfers between the PC and DVR, but it also provides an updated Windows Certificate for TiVo Desktop. The certificate used in prior versions of TiVo Desktop is about to expire, so you’ll want to get 2.6.1. Without this certificate update it will not be possible to manually transfer programs from your PC to your TiVo DVR (all other Desktop functionality should continue to work fine however).

I’m glad to hear about the improved recovery, because this has been a major issue for me with TiVo Desktop 2.6 and it was one of the major issues I had with 2.6 while writing my review (which I will finish and post soon, I promise!). Hopefully 2.6.1 will eliminate at least this one issue.

You can download TiVo Desktop 2.6.1 here.

Now, if you’re running an older version of TiVo Desktop and you can’t, or won’t, upgrade to 2.6.1, you still need to update the certificate. There is a certificate updater under the first step on this page.

Posted in PC, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments