TiVo holiday gift promo email

Posted on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 by MegaZone

TiVo’s promo behind the cut…
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Sharp enters blue-laser diode market

Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 by MegaZone

Sharp Corp. has become the second merchant supplier of blue-laser diodes, following Nichia Corp. Sharp said it has already started supplying the diodes to an undisclosed client.

More blue-laser diodes are a good thing. Supply shortages contributed to the PS3′s smaller than planned roll-out, as well as delays on other players. And more supply tends to mean lower costs, which will be helpful in bringing down the costs of the systems. This stood out for me:Samples are available for about $85 apiece. Now, I’m sure pricing is lower in quantity, but that just shows how expensive the components are for both BD and HD DVD and why decks are so expensive at this time.

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Blu-ray Launches Salvo in HD DVD War

Posted on Tuesday, November 21, 2006 by MegaZone

The latest salvo from backers of the Blu-ray high-definition DVD format takes the form of a 30-second HD spot launched as the holiday shopping season gets under way.

With the PS3 finally out, and more BD players on the market, I wonder if we’ll see a pick-up in disc sales through the holidays.

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New TiVo radio ad

Posted on Monday, November 20, 2006 by MegaZone

ZatzNotFunny posted this last week, but I never got around to sharing it here. Dave managed to record the new TiVo radio spot, which seems to be designed to serve the dual purpose of promoting TiVo as a product and as a brand with the new slogan “It’s not a TiVo, unless it’s a TiVo.” Which is kind of dorky, but they’re fighting the trend of people using ‘TiVo’ to refer to any DVR. (Which bugs me a lot too.)

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Video demo of new TiVo features from CrunchGear

Posted on Saturday, November 18, 2006 by MegaZone

CrunchGear was at TiVo’s demo on Tuesday, and they shot some video of the demos. I think the unified search feature looks pretty nifty. It looks like they’re making some other UI changes – note the double menu on the Find Programs screen about 1:15 into the video. I also like the ability to download past episodes for TiVoCast content.

As she’s bopping through the menus I noticed an entry called ‘Recommendations’, and as it is highlighted, notice the secondary menu on the right – Guru Guides, KidZone Guides, What Celebrities Watch, Top 100 Shows, and Most Popular this week. Looks like they’ll be moving a number of TiVo Central Online features right onto the box. Also, under Season Pass Manager, they have Season Pass List and To Do List, but also Download Manager and Recording History – which looks like it has moved out of the To Do List. I always thought that was an awkward place to put it. To Do is future, people don’t think to look there for past history.

The Home Movies / One True Media feature looks dirt simple to use. Definitely Luddite proof for sharing your video with friends and family who may not be PC savvy.

I hope these UI changes make it to production, I like what I see.

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