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baby surrender
Originally uploaded by jalvear
Archive for October, 2007
baby surrender
October 31st, 2007 No Comments
Posted in Administration What Kind of DVR Do You Use?
October 28th, 2007 No Comments
Results will be posted in another week. Thanks for voting!
Posted in Administration The Ice-Tivo
October 26th, 2007 No Comments
Here’s the return of the DVR Bulletin clip of the week.
A classic clip from Nick Cannon’s Short Circuitz show on MTV.
Posted in Uncategorized Western Digital Unveils External Hard Drive for Tivo
October 26th, 2007 No Comments
Western Digital unveiled external hard drives that can be hooked up to Tivo’s Series 3 DVRs and Tivo HD. Its “My DVR Expander” was launched in June 2007 for the Scientific Atlanta 8300 series of HD DVRs for $200 and they are now available for Tivos. The product was Tivo verified and is even on sale on Tivo’s web site.
The 500GB model provides 300 additional hours of SD content or up to 60 hours of HD.
I have a Tivo Series 2, so this isn’t available for me. That’s ok, since this is really for hard-core users that want more space for their HD content. Although 60 hours of HD content still doesn’t seem like enough space for a TV junkie like me.
[Via Gizmodo, TivoLovers]
[tags] Western Digital, Tivo, HD DVR, DVR, HD [/tags]
Nielsen Says DVR Usage at 20.5%
October 24th, 2007 No Comments
According to TV ratings company Nielsen, the number of homes with DVRs more than doubled from last year. The survey also found that the number of households with digital video recorders is now 20.5%, according to Nielsen’s National People Meter sample of U.S. households.
In May 2007, the number was at 17.2%, so it’s come a long way in just a few months. When Nielsen first started measuring DVR usage in January 2006, DVR penetration was about 8% of households.
In August 2007, research company The Leichtman Group estimated that DVR usage was at 20%. Shortly after that research news was published, IBM released its own commissioned study that found DVR usage was at–wait for it–24%.
So Nielsen says 20.5%, Leichtman says 20%, IBM says 24%. It’s all pretty close to me. It’s great to have multiple studies and companies come up with numbers that are similar. I like Nielsen’s since it measures actual usage from a panel of actual TV viewers.
Anyway, looks like DVR usage is definitely picking up, but I wonder if it will slow down since there are more options today. For example, I can still watch the latest episodes of Heroes even if my DVR doesn’t record an episode because of conflicts. I can watch it live on TV, with my DVR, via NBC.com, downloading it illegally on BitTorrent, or through NetFlix’s Watch Instantly service. Plus season one of Heroes is still available on iTunes. And Season two should be up on Hulu, whenever that launches.
So as we get more choices for watching TV, people may find that they don’t need DVRs as much as they used to. As much as I enjoy my DVR, I’m definitely watching TV using these alternate methods.
Posted in research 
fire truck
October 23rd, 2007 No Comments
fire truck
Originally uploaded by jalvear
Posted in Administration SanDisk Unveils PC to TV Device
October 22nd, 2007 No Comments
SanDisk announced a USB product that bridges the distance between a PC and TVs allowing viewers to transfer files from the computer to the device and into a cradle connected to the TV.
The TakeTV Video Player, is meant to make it easy to transfer TV shows and movies from PC to TVs but adds yet another equipment residing next to the TV. I guess until TV sets come with USB ports, we’ll need to have a device like this. The device is available in 4GB ($99) and 8GB ($149) versions.
I’m not convinced that this is the best way to get content to your TV, but it might prove to be quick and a good low-cost way. The alternative is to a) run a wire from your PC to TV b) burn a DVD and play it on your TV or c) use a media center extender like NetGear or even Apple TV.
With the SanDisk method, you can get decent content (without going through BitTorrent) and a somewhat easy way to bridge the famous “ten-foot” gap between the PC and TV.
The bad news? You can’t take protected content, like stuff from iTunes or Amazon Unbox.
SanDisk also unveiled Fanfare, a new online video service where users can download TV shows and movies. Content partners include CBS, Showtime Networks, Smithsonian Networks, The Weather Channel and Jaman.com. Fanfare content will also be downloadable to mobile phones, handheld computers and TVs.
[Via Forbes, SF Chronicle and others]
[tags] SanDisk, FanFare, TakeTV, PC-to-TV [/tags]
Posted in Administration 