Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 is being updated and it is now known simply as Roxio Creator 2009. This is Roxio’s premier media creation and authoring package for Windows. Creator 2009 has a new UI and supports HD content from AVCHD camcorders and transfers from HD TiVos for Blu-ray discs with a free HD/Blu-ray plug-in, a $29.99 value (a limited time offer). You can also easily share your content online via a free, secure Roxio web page or via YouTube. Roxio Creator is the only officially endorsed authoring tool for TiVoToGo on Windows.

Through September 30, 2008 you can buy Creator 2009 for $79.99 (after $20 Mail-in Rebate) and receive the High-Def/Blu-Ray Disc plug-in (a $29.99 value) free. So that’s a $129.98 for $79.99.

Roxio issued a press release to detail all of the changes and improvements in Creator 2009:

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We first heard about an OCAP SDK from Motorola last June, but haven’t heard much since then. In the meantime there have been a number of changes, not the least of which has been the rebranding of OCAP as tru2way, as well as a number of CE vendors signing the tru2way MOU with CableLabs. Tru2way really has a lot of traction now and we should see a number of tru2way products on the market by mid-2009.

Well, according to Media Experiences 2 Go Motorola has finally released the SDK to tru2way developers. ME2G has a Q&A with Motorola’s Frank Goddard, and there is a product fact sheet PDF available as well. Tools like this will be a major factor in building a successful tru2way ecosystem.

I received a tip from Harmonium’s creator, Charles Perry, including a press release (below). Harmonium looks like a fairly nice music player, and it is nice to see some new HME working being done these days, despite the dearth of support from TiVo. It supports HD display on the TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD with an HD UI on those systems, as well as displaying album art from ID3 tags in HD, and the screenshots look quite nice. It uses the information in the ID3 tags to automatically sort your collection. It also supports M3U playlists and, nicely, it supports the creation of playlists from within the player itself. It is free and open source, released under the GNU AGPL license, and it is cross platform, running on pretty much any platform with a Java VM. There are also builds designed to run as a service under Windows or Linux.

Unfortunately, I can’t use it. I have over 14,500 tracks in my digital music collection, and all but a handful are AAC (unprotected). Harmonium currently only plays MP3 files via TiVo, so it won’t handle my music. If Charles ever adds AAC support to Harmonium, I’d definitely give it a try. I’m hopeful, since it is only up to release 0.3.1 at this point, still early days. If you have an MP3 collection and a TiVo, you might want to check out Harmonium for your TiVo music streaming. If you do, leave a comment letting me, and other readers, know what you think.

The press release:
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No, that isn’t a redundant subject line, the full name of the new TiVoCast channel is ‘The Watcher On TiVo’. The Watcher On TiVo carries videos from Chicago Tribune TV Critic Maureen Ryan, and would seem to be the content promised in the May announcement of TiVo’s partnership with the Tribune. At the time it sounded like the videos would only be available to Chicago locals, and I wondered in comments on some other blogs why they wouldn’t make them available to all subscribers as it would help promote the Tribune. And it looks like that’s what they’ve done, since Worcester, MA isn’t exactly in the Chicago, IL area.

You can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video -> Browse Other Videos -> All -> The Watcher On TiVo

And I was right about it being basically a TiVoCast with a corresponding Guru Guide. The Guru Guide is available under You can subscribe online or on your TiVo via Find Programs & Downloads -> KidZone Recommendations & Guru Guides -> Featured -> Best Bets from The Watcher The Guru Guide is also available online.

On a different note, I finally got 9.4 this evening and I’ve had a little time to explore. I tried the YouTube feature and was vastly amused to discover the today’s ‘Most Viewed’ video is a ~10 minute clip from the hentai anime New Angel (aka Shin Angel). Not too graphic, looks like it was edited with a meat cleaver, but still amusing. Ah, YouTube.

But I have to say, poking around and playing different videos, it looks surprisingly good on my 61″ DLP. Much better than I was expecting actually, giving the normal resolution of YouTube videos. Well done TiVo. I hope they make the streaming H.264 generic so other sites can use it.

Being able to Review Thumbs is interesting, but I wish it allowed me to sort it alphabetically. That would make it easier to find a specific program. It looks like it is sorted by some ranking system, since there is no discernible order. There are also odd duplications in the list, with the same program or movie appearing twice.

Everything seems to work as I’d expect, I think 9.4 is a nice update.

While the Windows TiVo Desktop is up to version 2.6.2 and it has long had native support for TiVoToGo file playback, and more recently transcoding for TiVo Web Video, and more, the Mac TiVo Desktop has languished at version 1.9.3, lacking most of the newer features. Mac users looking for TTG playback have needed to purchase Roxio products, or use 3rd party applications such as TiVoDecode Manager or TiVo Butler.

However, TiVoCommunity user Dennis Wilkinson spotted a new version. 1.9.4, up for download a couple of weeks ago. It was pulled and the download reverted to 1.9.3, but he did find some interesting additions to the files included in 1.9.4.

/Library/Application Support/TiVo/BindTiVoFileToQTPlayer
/Library/Frameworks/mcac3dec.framework
/Library/Frameworks/mcmpegin.framework
/Library/Frameworks/mcmpgdec.framework
/Library/QuickTime/TiVo File Support.component
/Library/StartupItems/TiVoDesktop/TiVoHDPhotoServer

And the output of “strings /Library/Application\ Support/TiVoDesktop/TiVoDesktop” shows some interesting new strings:

StartHDPhotoServerAtBoot
VideoLibraryName
VideoDirectory

While the features don’t appear to be enabled in 1.9.4, it isn’t uncommon for future additions still in development to find their way, disabled, into releases. These additions seem to indicate the HD Photo Server, which has been part of the Windows TiVo Desktop for a while, will finally find its way into the Mac TiVo Desktop. And the ‘BindTiVoFileToQTPlayer’, QuickTime ‘TiVo File Support.component’ and MPEG encode and decode frameworks certainly seem to point toward native TiVoToGo file playback, and possibly transcoding to support TiVo Web Video and other file transfers to TiVo.

1.9.4 does fix TiVoToComeBack transfers, which was broken in 1.9.3.

On Friday user Lannister80 talked to a TiVo support person who said 1.9.4 was pulled due to a problem and that a new build would be available for download in “1 to 2 weeks”.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.

Roxio sent out an email today with a new set of coupon codes. Since Roxio makes the only officially sanctioned software with TiVoToGo support, they could be useful for TiVo users picking up the software.

Through 9/30/08 save 10% site wide on Roxio.com: SAVE10ROX
Through 8/15/08 save $20 on Roxio Easy Media Creator 10: C10SAVE20
Through 9/30/08 same $20 on MyDVD 10 Premier: MDVDSAVE20

And a couple of non-coupon deals:
While supplies last buy Popcorn 3 and get a free T-shirt.
Through 9/30/08 save $20 when you buy Toast 9 and the HD/Blu-ray Plug-in together.

TiVo has released a minor update for TiVo Desktop on PCs, version 2.6.2. TiVo Desktop still requires the user to manually go into Add/Remove Programs and remove the old version before installing the new one. That’s really unbelievable, IMHO. Modern applications shouldn’t require that kind of user spelunking to update. For that matter, a consumer oriented application like TiVo Desktop really should have an ‘Update’ option within the application itself that would download and install the update - just like Firefox and numerous other applications do. Asking the average consumer to go into Add/Remove Programs is just ridiculous, they could at least include an Uninstall link in the program group menu. It just isn’t very easy and user friendly, which are normally TiVo’s hallmarks. I’m a complete geek and can’t remember the last time an application, other than TiVo Desktop, made me manually remove the old version first. I’m sure it has happened, just not often. (I usually run into it with betas and trial software.)

Anyway, nothing major in this release, it is basically a bug fix and performance release. I’ll have to see if it helps with the issues I’ve been having with 2.6.1. According to a post at TiVoCommunity:

This version has the following improvements in TiVo Desktop:

*Improved Reliability of transfers of large recordings to the DVR.
*Reduced memory usage when transferring recordings from the DVR.

For Plus:
*Improved communications with TiVo when linking to TiVo account and handling web video content.
*Improved handling of web video content when pausing or shutting down TiVo server.

Picked up from TiVo Blog.

Roxio Easy Media Creator is only commercial video editing tool for the PC officially listed as compatible with TiVoToGo files. Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 Suite has an MSRP of $99.99, currently $79.99 with a $20 rebate. But Buy.com is selling Roxio Easy Media Creator 10 Deluxe Suite for just $48.99 after a $30 rebate. The Deluxe Suite has an MSRP of $129.99, so that’s over 62% off MSRP! What makes it ‘Deluxe’, and why the higher MSRP? Because the Deluxe Suite is the full standard Suite plus a Dazzle USB video capture device. So you can buy Easy Media Creator 10 Deluxe Suite for $78.99, turn in the $30 rebate, and have it for just $48.99 - less than the standard, non-Deluxe, Suite. Good deal.

And for the Mac users, Roxio Popcorn 3 is one of the two officially endorsed packages for Mac (the other is Roxio Toast 9, of course). The MSRP is $49.99, but Buy.com is selling it for $29.99 with a $10 rebate - just $19.99.

The deals are only good through 7/20.