Blu-ray news update

Five consumer electronics companies, Sony, Panasonic, Pioneer, Samsung, and Philips, and five movie studios, Gaumont, Columbia Tristar, Walt Disney, Pathé, and Warner Home Video, have formed a consortium to promote Blu-ray Disc in France. They’re goal is to place 600,000 units in homes by the end of the year (counting standalone players and PS3s), which would mean capturing 90% of the HD player market. Blu-ray currently accounts for 60% of HD movie sales in France, and if the consortium meets their goals that is expected to hit 80%. The original article is in French, translated via Google. Picked up from Blu-ray.com.

New Blu-ray players coming to market to support Profile 1.1 and Profile 2.0 (BD-Live). The LG BH200 ‘Super Blu’ player, which supports both BD and HD DVD will be the first Blu-ray Profile 1.1 unit to go on sale. And it is also expected to support BD-Live as it has an Ethernet port. Sony is expected to update the PS3 to BD 1.1, and perhaps 2.0/Live in their next firmware update. Pioneer will unveil their first ‘full profile’ BD player at CES in January, Daewoo and Denon will also be releasing such players. From Video Business, by way of Blu-ray.com.

Sony to launch new PC Blu-ray drives. Sony will launch a BD-ROM drive in early 2008 for under $200. This is strictly a ROM drive, no burning capabilities. Coming sooner, in November, is the $600 BWU-200S Blu-ray burner. It will burn Blu-ray at 4x, DVD-/+R at 16x, and dual-layer DVD-/+R at 8x. From TWICE.

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Nickelodeon joins TiVoCast, and TV Junkies returns

Go behind the scenes of your favorite Nickelodeon shows to get exclusive interviews, set tours, pranks, and more on the new Nickelodeon TiVoCast. And TV Junkies resumes with new content.

Go to TiVo Central -> Find Programs -> Download TV & Movies on your TiVo, or visit the TiVoCast web page.

Picked up from E. Stephen Mack.

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Ding dong the blog is dead, the TiVo blog is dead…

Recently I said:

Get someone to update your blog with real news – or, failing that, just take it down.

That was directed to TiVo about their official corporate blog. Well, it looks like they’ve taken action – and pulled it down. The blog URL http://blog.tivo.com/ now just redirects to the TiVo homepage, and the more specific http://blog.tivo.com/tivo_blog/ is a 404 now.

I’m kind of sorry TiVo went this route, I was hoping they would revive the blog and put it to good use. And there was some decent, if old, content in the blog. I hope they save those employee interviews and such and re-purpose that content elsewhere on the site. It was good stuff.

But taking the blog down was the right choice to make if they couldn’t commit to keeping it updated.

Thanks to Dave Zatz for the heads up, he noticed it was missing.

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Rob Glaser, RealNetworks CEO, interviews on MarketWatch about Rhapsody on TiVo

RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser appeared on MarketWatch from DowJones and the video is available on BrightCove. The interview starts out discussing Rhapsody on TiVo and then goes into more general issues for RealNetworks.

Picked up from BoomTown over at All Things Digital.

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TiVo Elects Thomas Wolzien to Its Board of Directors

Another press release:

TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the election of Thomas Wolzien to the TiVo Board of Directors. With Mr. Wolzien’s election, TiVo’s board has 9 members of which 8 are independent, outside directors. His appointment is effective immediately.

“Tom has a deep understanding of the media and communications industries and his insights and advice will undoubtedly strengthen our Board of Directors and help our management team develop strategies that will grow the TiVo brand worldwide,” said Tom Rogers, CEO of TiVo. “We are pleased to welcome someone of Tom’s reputation and experience to our Board.”

Mr. Wolzien said, “When you think of game changing initiatives in media, TiVo tops the list. It will be a privilege to work with Tom Rogers and the Board as they direct the continuing evolution of this company.”

Mr. Wolzien, 60, currently serves as President of Wolzien LLC, a firm he founded in 2005 which provides consulting and advisory services to leading companies in the media and communications industries. Prior to that, he was a senior sell-side media analyst at Wall Street research firm, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., where he covered large, publicly traded media and cable companies. Prior to that, Mr. Wolzien worked at NBC in numerous positions of increasing responsibility including Show Producer, Executive Producer, News Vice President, and Senior Vice President of Cable and Business Development. He began his career in 1969 as a news reporter and photographer at local television stations in Denver, Green Bay, and St. Louis. Mr. Wolzien has also been awarded multiple patents for his inventions linking mass media and the web.

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