In The Interest Of Full Disclosure

Posted on Monday, April 7, 2008 by MegaZone

I mentioned recently that I was laid off on Friday, March 28. Today I started a new job – with Sling Media. I’ll be working with Sling as a contractor, as a Senior Project Manager. Right now it is a short term contract, but I’m hopeful that it may eventually parlay into a permanent engagement. I wanted to mention it as I cover Sling as well as their competitors and related issues. I don’t foresee any changes to the site, though I will probably add a disclaimer to any Sling-related posts to make the relationship clear.

I’d had conversations with Sling on and off for a long time now about potentially joining the company, including in person at CES. And recently the suggestion of working as a part-time contractor had come up as a possibility. By coincidence they contacted me on March 28th, just after I’d been told I was laid off, to see if I was still interested in doing some part-time work. Since I found myself with a sudden surplus of free time we expanded the contract terms beyond the part time work. The timing couldn’t have been better.

Readers of the blog know that I’m a long-time Slingbox user myself, and a big fan of the company’s products and direction, so I’m very excited to be working there. And I’m hopeful that this contract is only the beginning of a long-term engagement.

Posted in General, Site Updates, Sling Media | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Wal*Mart Offering HD DVD Player Refunds

Posted on Monday, April 7, 2008 by MegaZone

Joining Best Buy and Circuit City, Wal*Mart is offering an olive branch for the suckersunfortunates who were left with an abandoned format when HD DVD threw in the towel. Wal*Mart will allow you to return your HD DVD player for a refund – if you purchased it after November 1, 2007 and you have the original receipt. Returns must be made by April 30, 2008, and you don’t need the original packaging – just the unit and receipt. SlickDeals.net has the internal Wal*Mart memo about the returns, you may want to bring that along just in case your local store resists the return. Specifically eight models are being accepted for return, the UPCs are listed in the memo.

From SlickDeals and the WSJ, by way of EngadgetHD.

Posted in Blu-ray/HD DVD | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Freeview No Threat To TiVo Australia According To CNET

Posted on Monday, April 7, 2008 by MegaZone

CNET Australia, responding to an article in MISAustralia / Financial Review, breaks down why they feel that the talk of Freeview in Australia is just a smoke-screen and not a real threat to Seven Network’s deployment of TiVo. The MIS/FI article certainly is full of weasel words like “understood to have said” and “is believed to have”, without citing any hard facts or sources to back up the speculative statements. It really comes across as written by someone with a bias towards Freeview, looking for an angle to pile some FUD on Seven’s TiVo plans.

CNET certainly seems to feel that way as well, breaking down the Australian DVR market and why they feel TiVo will still be a strong brand.

We’re not apologists for TiVo, but we don’t think it’s an amazing idea, given that the marketplace is going to be crowded with plenty of different options come the middle of the year — Foxtel iQ2, TiVo, IceTV, etc. We don’t think “branding” the already available EPG will make much of a difference to whether TiVo launches or not.

The Freeview board is only meeting for the first time this Friday, so their plans are still hazy. It sounds like they’re starting off with nothing more than a branding exercise. They’ll be putting the Freeview brand and logo on their existing EPG and digital channels, and only later will they be offering actual Freeview DVR hardware. It sounds like an effort to forestall adoption of TiVo, which Seven is planning to bring to market in June, as well as slow adoption of the Foxtel iQ2 DVR. Since the Freeview camp won’t have hardware to compete, they’re going to rely on pushing the brand without hardware to back it up and FUD about the competition.

Posted in TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Amazon Unbox And TiVo Provide A Geek His BSG Fix

Posted on Monday, April 7, 2008 by MegaZone

Jeff Haywood of The Grand Rapids Press blogged about a different way to use Amazon Unbox on TiVo – as an alternative to subscribing to a higher tier of cable. Jeff and his wife are big Battlestar Galactica fans (and who can blame them?), which returned for its fourth, and final, season on Friday night. But Jeff doesn’t watch enough content to justify the $20/month additional cost for the Comcast tier that includes The SciFi Channel. So what to do? Jeff’s solution is to purchase the season of BSG from Amazon Unbox:

A day after a new episode is aired, it is automatically downloaded to my TiVo via the Internet for $1.89 an episode. The quality is great, and price is cheaper than subscribing for digital cable for the length of the final season.

Have any of you used Unbox as an alternative to a cable, or satellite, subscription? I wonder how common this is.

Posted in Amazon Unbox, Blogs, TiVo | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

TiVo And Slingbox Are Changing The TV Landscape

Posted on Monday, April 7, 2008 by MegaZone

Jason Fry of the Wall Street Journal has taken a look at how time-shifting via TiVo and place-shifting via Slingbox are changing the TV landscape and the social aspect of TV viewing.“Today my TV is not your TV, and you can never assume the same people are watching the same thing at the same time or in the same way.” And he expresses feelings that are likely common to most DVR users – not wanting to go back to pre-DVR TV viewing, of the power to watch the content you want when you want, and the large behavioral changes their bring to our TV-related habits. But what I found most interesting is his list of five major lessons learned from the first years of DVR use. Give it a read.

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