HP backs both rivals in DVD horse race

Posted on Friday, December 16, 2005 by MegaZone

Hewlett-Packard has announced it will support both contenders to be the next generation of DVDs, a change of tack that could raise the chances of an expensive format war.

Hmm – HP blinked? Or is this political pressure on the BDA to push them to adopt iHD early on?

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TiVo Rocketboom launch delayed

Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 by MegaZone

According to the official TiVo Blog, the launch of the Rocketboom downloads has been delayed:

Update: Thanks for all your enthusiasm around the Rocketboom launch—we know that many of you have been looking forward to your first download today! Unfortunately, it looks like we’ve hit a couple of bumps in the road on Rocketboom trial and won’t be able to launch this just yet. I will definitely keep you posted as I have more information.

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Toshiba to delay HD DVD player launch

Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2005 by MegaZone

Toshiba said on Tuesday it will delay the year-end Japan launch of its next-generation HD DVD players to address copy protection issues, potentially undermining its advantage as the first supplier to put such machines on the market.

The crumbling sound you hear is HD-DVD’s market time advantage over BD eroding further.

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Watching a Child Who’s Grown Up With TiVo

Posted on Monday, December 12, 2005 by MegaZone

This is a good article in The Wall Street Journal Online. The author has a three year old son, and they bought a TiVo the week he was born. So he’s always known TiVo and to him that’s just how TV is. It is an interesting article and it made me think about the future of DVRs and what will happen when a critical mass of people have them.

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DirecTV DVR buyers beware

Posted on Monday, December 12, 2005 by MegaZone

The WeaKnees Blog is reporting that people have have specifically requested a TiVo from DirecTV (the R10) are being sent the new NDS DVR instead (the R15). Most likely due to the phone drones treating ‘TiVo’ as a generic term and not as a specific product. It may help to specify the R10 and clearly indicate that you do not want an R15.

So you may be better off buying an R10 at retail if available. If you have to order one state the models clearly and get it in writing, so you can return it if the screw up.

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