LG & TiVo Breathe, Breathe in the Air

Posted on Monday, October 10, 2011 by MegaZone

Adobe Logo A spot of news from last week that I never quite had time to cover, Adobe last Monday announced that LG and TiVo partnered with them to bring Adobe Flash based applications to their platforms via Adobe Air. Over 100 digital home devices already use Air and Flash, including Samsung Smart TVs. So these announcements will expand the ecosystem. A little selection from the press release:

“We are excited to be the first TV maker to support Adobe AIR on our Smart TVs bringing rich, Flash-based applications to millions of customers today,” said Kyungsik Kevin Lee, vice president, Visual Display Business, Samsung Electronics. “With the dramatic advancements in AIR 3, Adobe continues to push the envelope with innovative new features that will enable powerful 3D gaming apps and other next generation app experiences on televisions soon.”

“LG is working closely with Adobe to bring Flash-based applications with AIR to LG Smart TVs in 2012,” said Youngjae Seo, vice president, Smart TV Team, LG. “We can’t wait to see what kind of application experiences three million Flash developers will bring to our customers with AIR 3.”

“The availability of AIR will give us the tools to deliver better functionality, more features and a rich, seamless experience that our users expect from TiVo products,” said Jim Denney, vice president and general manager, Product Marketing, TiVo. “We look forward to the development of a rich ecosystem of multi-platform applications to make the TV experience even better.”

See the full release for more. I am, of course, most interested in how this will apply to TiVo. The TiVo Premiere is already using Flash for the HD UI and newer apps, like Hulu Plus. (Some of the older, legacy apps are still using the Java-based HME framework.) But the TiVo Premiere hardware supports Flash Lite, a reduced version of flash for lower powered embedded systems. Will this new announcement apply to the existing TiVo Premiere? Or might the new TiVo Premiere Elite and forthcoming TiVo Preview be using newer SoCs that would support the fuller Flash/Air experience? I’m not sure, but I’m hoping this means we’ll see new versions of the apps, and all new apps, across the Premiere lineup. Ideally I’d love to see TiVo open an app store for third party apps, and open up the platform to developers to explore.

Oh, and if you’re ready to bash Flash – just stop. Flash as a platform is extremely rich and powerful. While it has had some issues, all platforms do. Most of the problems users experience with Flash apps on the web are due to the app developer, not the Flash platform. In recent releases Adobe has made great strides in improving the performance and stability of the Flash interpreter as well. In the long run I expect it will fade out and be replaced by a collection of technologies many refer to as ‘HTML5′ – HTML5 proper, JavaScript, SVG, CSS, etc. But it isn’t going away overnight. Remember Flash itself displaced Java Applets and Shockwave back in the day. That’s just how it goes.

And all of that aside, Flash on embedded platform is not the same beast. Devices like TiVo and the smart TVs use hardware with dedicated Flash support, not a software interpreter on a generic CPU like a PC. And the platforms are generally more limited in what they’ll support – only what the hardware can decode. So it is a much more focused environment. So Flash isn’t the root of all evil that I’ve seen many make it out to be. It is a logical choice as a platform with many advantages in an embedded environment. Embedded Flash support is much easier to come by these days than embedded ‘HTML5′ support, for example. Especially as HTML5 is still a moving target as the standards evolve.

Posted in DVR, HDTV, Press Release, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sellout.Woot! – Clickfree 500GB Portable Backup Drive Just $54.99

Posted on Monday, October 10, 2011 by MegaZone

Clickfree 500GB Portable Backup Drive Sellout.Woot! is offering the Clickfree 500GB USB 2.0 Portable Backup Drive for only $54.99 + $5 S&H. You can choose from Black, Blue, Fuschia, Green, Purple, or Red if you like to color coordinate your backup drive, and they work with Windows or Mac OS X.

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Woot! – Cisco Valet 300Mbps 802.11n USB Network Adapter Just $6.99!

Posted on Monday, October 10, 2011 by MegaZone

Cisco Valet USB Network Adapter Today’s Woot! deal is useful if you have an old computer using 802.11g and you want to bump your network to pure 802.11n and dump 11g compatibility for the increased performance. The Cisco Valet 300Mbps 802.11n USB Network Adapter supports 802.11b/g/n, and speeds up to 300Mbps on 11n, with WEP, WPA, & WPA2 encryption. And it is only $6.99 + $5 S&H.

Somewhat unbelievably, it looks like MSRP when this launched was $135.98, and Amazon is selling them for $24.99.

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The TiVo Premiere Elite is in Customer Hands, TiVo Community Starts Analysis

Posted on Monday, October 10, 2011 by MegaZone

TiVo Logo The TiVo Premiere Elite is available for order from Amazon, BestBuy.com, and WeaKnees (and their Amazon store), but the fastest way to get it is still the old fashion way – brick & mortar. And they went on sale at physical Best Buy stores Sunday, at least those with a Magnolia showroom. Though it may be too late now, reports are that many, if not all, Magnolia locations only received two units and many of them sold out quickly. (Looks like WeaKnees sold out too, the next batch ship 10/14.) But before they did, a number of people got their mitts on them, including a number of TiVo Community members.

And, as the community members love to do, they’ve starting poking at it and documenting the features, changes, specs, etc.:

Software Level:
- shipping software is 14.9b-01-7-758 out of the box.
- current software is 14.9.AB4-01-2-758

Flash Player Version: mainline3/2011.07.06.0601
HD Menu Software Version:1-9/2011.08.31-1134

New functions/features:
- MoCA support (Ethernet to Coax bridge)
- Caller ID support if phone line attached (not verified)
- Premiere to Premiere streaming enabled

Hardware differences from base Premiere:
- (details of system board here)
- Base memory doubled. Single IC providing 1GB DDR2 SDRAM.
- Disk drive is 2TB (make?). Default recording capacity shows up to 318 HD hours or 2774 SD.

Observations and/or “obvious” functions missing:
- Installing new software level seems to be faster than Premiere.
- Recording conflict screen only shows one conflict.
- Network screens updated to show MoCA info and additional screens added.

Upgrade info:
- eSata port available. No reports of anyone trying an external drive yet. Ditto Comer tool.

The Caller ID is especially interesting since none of the Premiere units have a modem built-in. And the Series3 & TiVo HD, which do have a modem, don’t currently run the 14.x software. Yet the on-box message is:

Do you want the Tivo Box to identify a caller’s name and number when the phone rings while you are watching a program?

Note: Caller ID messages can only be displayed when a phone line that supports Caller ID is attached to your DVR.

So are the older units getting an upgrade with this feature, or is it only for the Premiere family with the USB Phone Line Adapter to provide the data? The TiVo Premiere offered through Suddenlink offers Caller ID, but only if you’re using their VOIP phone service. So this seems to be different.

They’ve even started opening up their brand new boxes and taking photos of the guts. And a couple of new screens. The Premiere-to-Premiere streaming is working, and it even works for copy protected content that doesn’t work with Multi-Room Viewing. I think we need to agree on a term for streaming – I’m going with MRS, as RCN calls this Multi-Room Streaming. MRV is the old copy-based system, MRS is the new streaming system.

The Premiere Elite is also more energy efficient, drawing only 19-20 watts.

And a nice surprise, it seems the Premiere Elite has enabled the second core. Compare these lines from the kernel on a Premiere running 14.8 to a Premiere Elite running 14.9:
14.8: Linux version 2.6.18-5.1 (build@buildmaster64) (gcc version 3.3.4) #1 Wed Mar 16 02:53:03 PDT 2011
14.9: Linux version 2.6.18-5.1 (build@buildmaster93) (gcc version 4.2.0) #1 SMP Wed Sep 21 18:32:42 PDT 2011
SMP is Symmetric Multi-Processing, which means multiple cores are enabled.

I am planning to get a Premiere Elite myself. But I’m leaving town Thursday for WDW for a combo mini-vacation and a planning meeting for my wedding there in February, so I’ll probably order when I return since it wouldn’t be here in time to setup before I go anyway. On top of that my Slingbox PRO-HD seems to have died recently. I’m hoping it is just the power supply, that happened once before, but I haven’t had time to deal with it. Anyway, once I do have it I’ll give my own run down as well.

Posted in Amazon, DVR, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

RCN to Launch TiVo Premiere Q & Preview in Washington, DC in mid-November

Posted on Sunday, October 9, 2011 by MegaZone

TiVo Logo Over on the DSL Reports forums RCN’s Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations, Jason Nealis has detailed their plans to roll out the TiVo Premiere Q quad-tuner DVR and the TiVo Preview non-DVR extender for whole home use. The plan is currently to begin deployment in Washington, DC in mid-November, expanding to additional RCN markets later. The roll out will occur in multiple phases, and initially only a bundle of a Premiere Q and a Preview will be available.

The rollout for the products will be done in phases. The first phase will be a TiVo whole home bundle. This package will consist of 1 RCN TiVo Q with 1 Preview. For a bundled price that has not yet been finalized.

You can then add on previews at a fee (yet to be finalized)

If you have a premiere and wish to KEEP your premiere and have it work within the BUNDLE for Multi-Room Streaming then that will be supported, You Premiere will drop to the price of a SECOND DVR in the home and that premiere MUST be hardwired to qualify. Then you premiere will become part of the Whole Home DVR family.

Again, MOCA is the engine that makes this run, the plan is that most Q’s installed will be hardwired to your router. If that can not happen then a ActionTec ECB (ethernet coax bridge) will be utilized to light MOCA throughout your home.

This is the scope of Phase 1 of the launch. Pricing should be finalized within the next couple weeks as well.

Phase 2 :

Preview in a standalone mode

Phase 3 : (Not approved yet) : Adding a Preview to your account
that has a Premiere.

RCN’s official policy is that all units must be hardwired via MoCA or Ethernet. They will not support WiFi, because, as Jason put it:“The reason is Multiroom Stream will not work over Wireless, It will suck.. Thus breaking up. pausing, kinda like trying to watch a movie over a analog modem connection.” I have to beg to differ, a good 802.11n network should be more than enough – average speeds are better than Fast Ethernet or MoCA 1.1. And a good dual-band 802.11n network should be excellent. Of course, I can see why RCN would take this blanket stance from a support perspective. Customers trying to stream over 802.11g or a poorly configured 802.11n network, will probably have trouble and it is too much to ask RCN to deal with. But what RCN doesn’t know won’t hurt them, I expect experienced users could setup an 802.11n bridge. It should all look the same to the box.

Jason also reports that the TiVo iOS app will work with the TiVo Premiere Q, but it will not work with the TiVo Preview. Since the Preview is a non-DVR STB which is really just a ‘Live TV’ tuner and a streaming receiver box, and the app is primarily about managing recordings that’s not a big surprise.

Still no word on when we might see a TiVo Preview at retail to go with the just launched TiVo Premiere Elite. I hope we don’t have to wait too long, the Preview would really increase the value proposition of the Elite. But, as we haven’t yet seen an application for a waiver, and the FCC would have up to 90 days to rule, I don’t think we’ll be seeing the Preview at retail this year. I don’t think it will be covered under the waiver issued for the Premiere Elite itself as it explicitly names the Elite. I’m planning to pick up an Elite, but I’d also pick up a Preview, maybe two, if available. Please TiVo, don’t make us wait too long. I know you might be concerned about networking issues impacting streaming, etc., but you’re already restricting sales channels for the Elite and requiring customer education. Surely you can do the same for the Preview. Make it happen. Soon.

In the meantime, RCN customers will be able to begin benefiting from the Preview in mid-November and I expect Suddenlink and even Charter will follow later in the year if they keep to their plans.

Thanks to Sam Biller for the heads up.

Posted in Cable, DVR, TiVo | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments