You can get it here. This is probably the last beta before the final JavaHMO 2.3 – which will be the last JavaHMO released.
Leon is switching his development work to Galleon, which will use the new TiVo HME interface. He’s already released the first app – an MP3 player that uses HME.
Thanks to TiVo Blog for the heads up.
Extending the home media platform—legally!
By Arthur van Hoff and Adam Doppelt
Arthur is a principle engineer at TiVo and Adam is one of the architects for the HME project.
Interesting article. It may prompt you for a subscription – I got in using BugMeNot.com
This is the best part, at least IMHO:
This initial release is just the tip of the iceberg for the TiVo platform. In upcoming releases, HME will be enabled by default so that all TiVo service users can enjoy the benefits of an open platform. We plan to introduce additional deployment models that don’t require a PC, and in some cases, don’t even require a home network. The HME API will provide access to more DVR functionality, including scheduling, recording, and playback. Stay tuned—you don’t want to miss the show.
When it comes to TiVo, it’s hard to tell whether the hard drive is half empty or half full.
Ramsay is claiming the story about him turning down a Comcast deal is false, never happened.
I’ve been hearing about holographic cards/discs for a number of years now. 5 or so years ago I remember one startup with a website claiming massive storage capacities, and designs for 12cm discs, as well as business card size media. And the media wouldn’t need to spin, as it is scanned by the lasers, etc. A while back they closed down, and the site eventually vanished too.
This has been The Next Big Thing for a while now, but this time there are some big names involved. Maybe it will finally get traction. Though, unless they have some major cost advantage, I don’t see the point in producing 100-200GB discs. Sony has already shown 100GB Blu-ray discs that could be commercialized in a year or two, and 200GB discs in their lab that could come to market after that. If they released a 100GB disc that cost more than Blu-ray, with more expensive HW, Sony, and the read of the BD camp, would just push us 100GB Blu-ray to squeeze them out. I think they’d need to take a quantum leap forward.
Still, while I can see the value as backup media for large systems, now that massive hard drives are so cheap, I don’t really see the need for entertainment. HD isn’t going beyond 1080p any time soon, and 1080i seems more likely as the de facto high end. While HD-DVD is a bit tight (Die already!), Blu-Ray has more than enough capacity for long feature films, with extras, on a 50GB disc – especially if MPEG4 AVC or VC-1 are used (as they likely will be). Even if you had a 500GB disc, studios are reluctant to release entire film series on one disc, since it is a sales issue. Consumers have mental blocks about such things – the studio would, of course, want to charge for, say, three films. But the consumer things “I’m just buying one disc – why does it cost so much more than this other disc?” I know people in the DVD industry, and it was an issue there – in some cases they could put more episodes on a disc, but then people complained that they wanted another $5 – even if the cost per episode was the same or better as other releases, the sticker price was higher.
