Rupert, you clever bastard...

[vansmack]

A direct shot at TiVo, Comcast/Time Warner, and the other major networks....and one that might work!
 
 January 6, 2006
 DirecTV to Get Early View of Fox Shows
 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
 LAS VEGAS, Jan. 5 (AP) - In a further erosion of the decades-old model for distributing TV shows, subscribers of DirecTV will be able to pay to download some Fox Entertainment Group programs to their digital video recorders up to two days before they appear on television.
 
 Under a deal announced on Thursday, fans of "The Shield," "Rescue Me," "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" and "30 Days," all of them series on the FX network, will be able to pay $2.99 for early on-demand access, provided that they have DirecTV's latest DVR.
 
 In addition, several series from Fox's broadcast network, including "24" and "Prison Break," will be made available for up to a week after national broadcast at a cost of 99 cents.
 
 The on-demand programming will be available starting in March, the companies said, and will be offered as part of DirecTV's video-on-demand service. Fox and DirecTV are both controlled by the News Corporation.
 
 Several networks, studios and technology companies are experimenting with ways to deliver programming to viewers, but most deals provide shows only after they have been broadcast the traditional way.

[vansmack]

Since somebody out there is going to care (and this is the best news I've heard in a a while):
 
 CES: Tivo Series 3
 
 http://www.livejournal.com/community/tivolovers/
 
 zonereyrie
  06:29 pm - TiVo shows Series3 HDTV Cable Card unit at CES
 
 ATTN: The original image links are getting swamped - so if you have trouble, there are a number of full and partial mirrors listed here: http://www.tivolovers.com/253205.html And I'm open to anyone else mirroring.
 ---
 
 Sorry for the delay, I got a later start today than I'd hoped, my bad. I went straight to TiVo's booth and I've been here for a while now, looking around and taking photos. I got a personal tour from TiVoPony of all the new stuff, most of which I can share. :-) Through the marvel of unsecured WiFi I'm coming to you from their booth. The biggest thing they have on display is the Series3 box. The Series3 is the CableCARD HDTV unit, which is due out in mid-to-late 2006. And let me tell you, it is a *SHARP* looking box! Very sleek design, very nice. I have photos, I'll get them up ASAP, but I didn't want to wait to post.
 
 The unit has two CableCARD slots on the back and it will support Multi-Stream (CableCARD 2.0) or Single-Stream (CableCARD 1.0) cards. If you have multi-stream then you only need one card, but as long as only single stream cards are available you can use two of them. Yes, the unit is dual-tuner - actually, like the HD DirecTiVo it can use any two of the tuners it has, and it has six. 2 cable tuners, 2 ATSC tuners, and 2 NTSC tuners. Yes, it supports digital and analog cable, digital ATSC OTA, and analog NTSC OTA.
 
 The only inputs the unit has are a coax cable in and a coax antenna in. There are no RCA or S-Video inputs on this unit. For output it has HDMI, Component Video, S-Video, and Composite Video. It has optical digital audio out, as well as RCA stereo out. Like the Series2 units it has 2 USB ports, and it also has a 10/100baseT Ethernet jack built-in. The unit also still has the modem, which seems increasingly archaic. :-) Oh, yeah, I almost forgot - it also has an external SATA port. ;-)
 
 The unit has front panel controls clustered on the right, and a nice display in the middle with a very cool feature - it displays the title of the show(s) tuned at the time, so you always know what it is recording at a glance. There is also an output indicator that indicates if the unit is outputting in 480i, 480p, 720p, or 1080i - and it can be set to any of those. It can also be set to pass-through, so it will send the shows to the TV in whatever format they were received.
 
 The remote ls also sleeker - a slick update of the Series2 peanut with minor changes for HDTV (such as an aspect button). But the big change is that the remote is backlit! It is also weighted and has a ridged pattern on the back towards the base, so there is VERY distinct tactile feedback as to having the remote the right way around in your hand. So those who dislike the peanut because of the ambiguity should be happy.
 
 The box unit still encodes analog content as MPEG2, like the current units, but it supports playback of advanced codecs such as MPEG4 AVC/H.264. This will open up the possibilities of broadband content using more efficient codecs, including HD downloads.
 
 The photos are currently uploading to http://www.megazone.org/Photos/CES2006/TiVo/ - I'll fix the permissions as soon as they're all up so you can see them. Warning, they're HUGE since they're 5 mega pixels, I don't have time to make thumbnails at the moment. I'll do that later - I noticed some of them are a bit blurry, I'll take some more and upload those as well.
 
 Oh, and remember that SATA port? TiVo will also be selling an external SATA drive for easy storage expansion, and they have that on display here too.
 
 I have more, I'll post it in a moment. :-)
 
 EDIT: To clarify, it supports analog cable, even any digital cable channels sent in the clear, without CableCARD. You only need CableCARD for any protected digital channels, to handle the descryption. And since all digital cable systems in the US *must* support CableCARD - it is an FCC mandate - then it should work with all cable systems, analog or digital.
 
 I also got a bit more info, the chipset used in the Series2 supports VC-1 (aka WMV9) and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, along with MPEG-2, so it has all the same codecs as HD-DVD or Blu-ray. When I asked if it was using a Broadcomm chip I was told that would be a good guess.
 
 There is also another URL for the photos: http://www.megazone.org.nyud.net:8090/Photos/CES2006/TiVo/SMALL/ - and if anyone else wants to mirror them, please feel free - just give me some credit. If you want to repost them in your own blog, site, etc - please COPY them to your server, don't kill mine. :-)
 
 As for price - nothing has been announced yet, that's still To Be Determined.
 
 I have more photos which I'll be uploading shortly.
 
 EDIT 2: Oh, one other tech detail I forgot. The S3 is still using IDE drives internally, only the external drive is SATA. Also, the external drive is not removable in the conventional sense. Once it is connected, the OS makes it part of the file system and shows may be recorded using both the internal and external drive - as in the SAME show may have its bits scattered on both. If you disconnect the external drive the unit will cope with it, but any shows recorded with any data on the external drive will vanish. So it isn't something you connect, record to, then take to another unit to watch the shows.
 
 As for CPU, RAM, etc. I don't have that info yet, but I'll ask.
 
 Anything else? :-)
 
 EDIT 3: See this entry for more info on the photos - more uploads and mirrors. Also, to permalink to this post, use http://www.tivolovers.com/252572.html as the best direct link.
 
 EDIT 4: Greetings Slashdotters. :-)
 ---
 ATTN: The original image links are getting swamped - so if you have trouble, there are a number of full and partial mirrors listed here: http://www.tivolovers.com/253205.html And I'm open to anyone else mirroring.
 Current Mood:  excited
 Current Music: CES buzz
 
 Tags: ces, series3

[BookerT]

i don't know what any of that tech mumbo jumbo means, but i will ask you this, vansmack:
 
 are you excited for the return of kaitlin cooper? and is it just me or was she like 9 years old when we last saw her?

[nkotb]

Kaitlin's been a long-running joke between my wife and I.  It just kills me that they still mention her every now and then, instead of just letting her vanish so like many other second-tier TV siblings.  
 
 

Originally posted by BookerT:
  i don't know what any of that tech mumbo jumbo means, but i will ask you this, vansmack:
 
 are you excited for the return of kaitlin cooper? and is it just me or was she like 9 years old when we last saw her?

[markie]

Tivo series  3
 
 Pictures and everything. It means you can record two HD shows at once and then watch them later on GGW's laundry apparatus.
 
 Its a really geeky vcr.

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by MTB-Markie:
  Tivo series  3
 
 Pictures and everything. It means you can record two HD shows at once and then watch them later on GGW's laundry apparatus.
 
 Its a really geeky vcr.

and with cable card you wont need to have the set top box the card will plug directly into the tivo, in some ways this is a media pc killer...

[vansmack]

Originally posted by BookerT:
  i don't know what any of that tech mumbo jumbo means, but i will ask you this, vansmack:
 
 

One thing at a time.  
 
 TiVo Series 3 is a huge leap - put simply, it means that with the new TiVo, every cable and non-cable subscriber alike can record 2 shows at the same time, like DirecTV subscribers have been able to do for sometime. Only this box will record your shows in High Definition or standard definition.  You no longer need a separate set-top box from your cable company plus a TiVo.  It might actually save TiVo from going bankrupt.  For those that currently have a Comcast DVR - you'll see what I'm talking about when TiVo powered DVR's are delivered to your homes in March (hopefully).  The software is so much more powerful then what you have.
 
 It also has MP4 codecs for internet playback.  It will be interesting to see how they incorporate this, but expect Yahoo or Google to offer TV on demand via the internet from the major networks to your TV through your TiVo for $1.99 a show.  
 
 Combine that with TiVo to go features available to non-DirecTV TiVo's (sending shows to your PC for burning, reading your MP3 files on your computer for playback through your stereo) and  this box is the ultimate media center.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by BookerT:
 
 
 are you excited for the return of kaitlin cooper? and is it just me or was she like 9 years old when we last saw her?

Thank god they're doing something.
 
 Johnny was too similar to the Oliver twist (bu-duh, ting!) from season 1 - and that bombed in my eyes.  
 
 Viewers are tired of the Ryan and Marissa mature relationship, and Seth and Summer get along too well.
 
 They tempted Sandy, made Kirsten a drunk, killed off all the elderly's, and Jimmy has to be gone for a while now.
 
 I thought Luke would make the triumphant return for a story line, and then Haley's show was cancelled so I figured she would come back to save the writers, but I never expected Kaitlin.
 
 Excellent job here - when you're in trouble, go young and sexy.  That always keeps me watching.
 
 I'm envisioning a mature, different;y written Seth and Summer spin off here away at college a la Felicity for next season with Kaitlin taking a bigger role while Ryan works for the Newport Group and Marissa goes to OC Community College.
 
 The only thing that could keep Seth local is killing off a parent, and I don't see that happening.

[nkotb]

Haley has been on every new Fox show since the OC premiered.  I hope they keep her gone; her manish torso freaks me out.
 
 

Originally posted by vansmack:
  then Haley's show was cancelled so I figured she would come back to save the writers

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Do we have any idea what Tivo Series 3 will cost? I was about to buy Lifetime Pass for my series 2 but now I'm not going to.

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  One thing at a time.  
 
 TiVo Series 3 is a huge leap - put simply, it means that with the new TiVo, every cable and non-cable subscriber alike can record 2 shows at the same time, like DirecTV subscribers have been able to do for sometime. Only this box will record your shows in High Definition or standard definition.  You no longer need a separate set-top box from your cable company plus a TiVo.  It might actually save TiVo from going bankrupt.  For those that currently have a Comcast DVR - you'll see what I'm talking about when TiVo powered DVR's are delivered to your homes in March (hopefully).  The software is so much more powerful then what you have.
 
 It also has MP4 codecs for internet playback.  It will be interesting to see how they incorporate this, but expect Yahoo or Google to offer TV on demand via the internet from the major networks to your TV through your TiVo for $1.99 a show.  
 
 Combine that with TiVo to go features available to non-DirecTV TiVo's (sending shows to your PC for burning, reading your MP3 files on your computer for playback through your stereo) and  this box is the ultimate media center.

so wait, I will be getting a new DVR from comcast? i dont have to ask for it or anything? i can already record two hd programs at once

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Julian, faux celeb-porn CONNOISSEUR:
  Do we have any idea what Tivo Series 3 will cost? I was about to buy Lifetime Pass for my series 2 but now I'm not going to.

All rumors:
 
 It's supposed to be here around Mid-Late 2006.
 
 The early indications are between $500 and $800. (personally, I can't see it being that high if they really want to compete with a free DVR, especially a free DVR powered by TiVo from Comcast).
 
 When Series 2 first came out, if you bought one in the first few months, you could transfer your Series 1 Lifetime to a new Series 2.  No word, but I expect them to do something similar.

[Julian, Alleged Computer F**kface]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  The early indications are between $500 and $800. (personally, I can't see it being that high if they really want to compete with a free DVR, especially a free DVR powered by TiVo from Comcast).

That's ridiculous. There's no way I'd pay that much.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
  so wait, I will be getting a new DVR from comcast? i dont have to ask for it or anything? i can already record two hd programs at once

Not yet.  I expect this to push the Comcast/TiVo DVR stuff back a little bit.  Originally, TiVo was expected to put Series 2 type DVRs with Digital Cable scramblers in the homes of Comcast subscribers.
 
 But with the FCC requiring Cable Cards from the major companies by 2007, I expect this new TiVo to be the answer.  It doesn't make any sense to roll out Series 2 type DVR's for 3-6 months just to turn around and roll out Cable Card powered DVRs in mid to late 2006.
 
 So I'm guessing that Comcast will offer to put TiVo Series 3 DVR's in the homes of HD subscribers in the same fashion the offer DVRs now - $5 a month or whatever it is.  But not until the fall.
 
 The March thing was what was supposed to happen on the Series 2.  If you're HD, don't bother and wait for Series 3.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Julian, faux celeb-porn CONNOISSEUR:
  That's ridiculous. There's no way I'd pay that much.

If you don't have HD, I wouldn't recommend it either.  Would $299 be worth it to you to reocrd two shows at the same time?
 
 Or what if Comcast offered you one for $10 a month?