Blockbuster has teamed with Microsoft to bring digital video to mobile devices using Microsoft’s Live Mesh technology. It sounds like this will still be a download service and not streaming, based on the suggested use case of buying content from an airport kiosk to sync to a mobile device to use while traveling. Though you might think otherwise from this quote:

“Eventually, we’ll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an internet connection and a screen,” vowed Blockbuster Chief Information Officer Keith Morrow in an interview with the Dallas Morning News.

When I read “instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen” my first thought is instant streaming access, not download to watch. But that’s marketing spin for you.

Picked up from MarketingVOX.

There’s an interesting article in The New York Times today. Hotel chains have been turning to consumer electronics and computers to help draw in and satisfy increasingly tech savvy guests. Gadgets and gizmos are increasingly present in rooms, lobbies, and lounges in a growing number of hotels. Sheraton has teamed with Microsoft for their Link@Sheraton lounges where guests can perform tasks such as checking email and printing out boarding passes. Westin is placing the Nintendo Wii, with games like Wii Fit, in some of their fitness centers. Gansevoort South in Miami Beach, part of the Gansevoort Hotel Group, is working with Sony to bring Sony computers, PS3s, ebook readers, and more to a new lounge.

There’s some more interesting news in this area that I’ll be able to share soon…

According to this post at The Green Button by Charlie Nilsson, Program Manager for Microsoft eHome Division, Microsoft is working on support for the Tuning Adapter in Windows Media Center to allow MCPC users to handle Switched Digital Video. The Tuning Adapters were approved by CableLabs in July and TiVo has already deployed support. Since the TAs are USB devices, it might seem like PCs would be amongst the first platforms to support them. However, it sounds like it may be a while yet:

Microsoft recognizes the impact of this technology on our customers and partners. We are working to enable support for the CableLabs SDV Tuning Adaptor for Windows Media Center Digital Cable Tuners, ensuring that Windows Media Center users will be able to access switched content.

While we have no further details at this time, we will keep you updated as more information becomes available.

While it is good news that MCPC users will be getting SDV support, I’m sure the users with cable systems using SDV would like to see it sooner rather than later.

In the wake of Microsoft’s failure to buy out Yahoo!, there has been rampant speculation as to Microsoft’s next move, primarily which company they may try to acquire instead of Yahoo!. Facebook is often bandied about in that context, but it probably isn’t surprising that TiVo has popped up amidst the speculation as well. As in this article in Financial Week:

The experience may prompt Messrs. Ballmer and Liddell to seek out home entertainment targets that better fit Microsoft’s culture. The logical choice, said [Stephen Smith, senior managing director at Arma Partners], is set-top box specialist TiVo, since the xBox could serve as the hardware for TiVo’s television-recording software. “TiVo is the Apple of that category,” he said. “And Microsoft could buy it without antitrust concerns.”

Perhaps, and TiVo is working with Nero on TiVo software for the Windows PC. So it might not be as difficult to port to the Xbox 360 as it would at first seem. And Microsoft has repeatedly tried to get into the cable STB software business, without much success. Having TiVo’s OCAP software, already picked up by Comcast and Cox, would certainly help in that arena.

But, really, I don’t see it happening. Microsoft already has Windows Media Center as the 800 pound gorilla in the PC market, and they can bring that interface to the 360 should they want to. I think it is just analyst speculation, looking for someone, anyone, that Microsoft could make a play for.

This issue of Home Media Magazine has an article, ‘Battle of the Boxes‘, which compares the four main options for watching broadband downloaded video on your TV: TiVo, Apple TV, VUDU, and Xbox 360. Overall the article is kind of down on the download services in general:

“Not a consumer interviewed wants to buy another set-top box,” said Richard Doherty, research director for research firm The Envisioneering Group.

I certainly can’t argue with that, I’m loathe to add another STB to my stack. And I’ve said so repeatedly. I think that gives TiVo and the Xbox 360 an edge - people buy them for other functions (DVR & gaming, respectively), and the downloads are kind of a bonus. And when it comes to HD, I have to agree with this as well:

Richard Bullwinkle, chief evangelist for Macrovision, predicts a layering effect. Macrovision has looked at TiVo, Xbox 360, Vudu and Apple TV.

“The best experience on a large TV is Blu-ray,” he said. “None of the download boxes gives you the same experience.”

But I thought what they said about TiVo in particular was unfair.

But download times are long, nothing is available in high-def, and the 24-hour rental period once the movie has started can be problematic.

The download times are roughly comparable to other services - but it, of course, will vary a lot. The TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD have had progressive download since 9.2 - which means they can start playback once enough of a buffer has built up, with no need to wait until it is all downloaded. I’d expect the Series2 to get the same in the next update. (They’re still on 9.1.) And the article makes the 24-hour window sound like a problem unique to TiVo when it is common to all of the download rental services. They don’t mention it when talking about the three other products, so readers who don’t know what will think this is a TiVo limitation. But there is more:

However, Bullwinkle said, TiVo offers the worst quality of any of the movie downloading options he’s tried, and the number of TiVo owners who download movies is small.

Ouch. That especially stings given who it is coming from. Why? For those who don’t know, once upon a time Richard Bullwinkle was known online as TiVolutionary. He was one of the early TiVo employees and their primary online evangelist on forums like TiVoCommunity.com. Back in May of 2002 he left TiVo and went to work for ReplayTV. And now he’s with Macrovision.

The quality issue is largely subjective, so I’ll leave that as may be, but how does he know how many users download movies? I don’t believe TiVo or Amazon release those numbers. Did they do an independent survey of TiVo owners? Where is the data to back up the claim?

But TiVo isn’t the only one to get a little heat in the article. All four products get what I consider to be fairly poor reviews, highlighting their shortcomings. But read the article for yourself.

TiVo also got another mention in this issue, with a small article on the roll-out of TiVo Desktop 2.6. (And I apologize for not having my review of said up yet, the behind-the-scenes work on the renaming took a lot more time than I expected.)

It is a bit ironic that, after the ‘death’ of the format’, the HD DVD studios have released some of the formats strongest titles ever. This has boosted HD DVD’s market share in its final weeks. For the week ended 3/3, HD DVD took a 25% share, with Blu-ray holding the other 75%. This puts them at 76:24 for the year, and 66:34 since inception. HD DVD didn’t manage to take the top selling spot this time around, that went to 30 Days of Night on BD, but it did grab the second and third spots - with the new release Beowulf, and American Gangster, in its second week of release. Beowulf was close, selling 82.52% of 30 Days of Night’s sales. After this, there aren’t really any Blockbuster HD DVD releases left. So I expect their percentage to start falling off again.

This issue of Home Media Magazine also includes an article which states Sony and Microsoft are in talks to bring Blu-ray to the Xbox 360. President of Sony Electronics U.S., Stan Glasgow, said that a Blu-ray drive could be incorporated in the Xbox Elite model, or as an add-on, as originally reported in the Financial Times online edition. Glasgow also said that Sony is in talks with Apple about the use of Blu-ray in Macs.

Microsoft announced, via their Gamerscore Blog, that the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive is being discontinued:

As a result of recent decisions made by Toshiba, Hollywood studios, and retailers, Microsoft plans to withdraw from HD DVD. Xbox will no longer manufacture new HD DVD players for the Xbox 360, but we will continue to provide standard product and warranty support for all Xbox 360 HD DVD Players in the market.

See their post for the full announcement. This isn’t surprising, of course, as everyone is pulling out of the format at this point. But it clears up the uncertainty over timing, as well as laying to rest the rumors about pricing changes, etc, with continued sales. At this point the drives will probably end up on clearance soon. If you have an HD DVD collection the Xbox 360 drive could be a good buy as an insurance policy against future player failures. Even if you don’t have an Xbox 360, the add-on drive also works as a PC USB drive.

Via Engadget.

I’ve seen this in so many places I can’t even remember where I spotted it first yesterday. It seems Toshiba isn’t the only brand-name trying the deep-discount approach to move HD DVD products. Microsoft just slashed the MSRP on their Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on drive from $179.99 to $129.99. And it comes with the HD DVD of King Kong, and the (now pretty much standard) mail-in offer for five free movies. Amazon has it for $119.99.