PVR News Blog

Yahoo! Go TV will seamlessly bring consumers’ community, as well as content such as digital photos, movie playtimes at local theaters and other personalized Yahoo! services onto the PC-connected television experience.

The new service will allow consumers to take content from their personal computer or from the web and extend it onto the biggest screen in their home. Yahoo! Go TV integrates consumers Internet services, including video search and photos, into the television. Yahoo! will also look to make the company’s music offerings available through this new service. Yahoo! Go TV will also improve consumers’ ability to navigate and find all the content available on their television. For example, consumers will be able to use their remote control to see what’s playing at their local theater or share pictures from a recent vacation with friends, all on their television screen.

The company expects to launch Yahoo! Go TV in the coming months.

“Yahoo! Go TV integrates the home television viewing experience with the leading Internet services that tens of millions of consumers already know and depend on,” said Marco Boerries, senior vice president, Connected Life, Yahoo!. “This is about making Internet technology work for people in their daily lives. We want to give consumers everything they love about the web — the open platform and the ability to find and view what they want, when they want it — on their PC-connected television.”

Key features currently planned for the new Yahoo! Go TV service include:

— Yahoo! Video Search –

— Quickly search, find and view Internet videos using
Yahoo!’s industry leading video search technology

— Yahoo! Photos and Flickr –

— View personalized photo slide shows on the television

— Access images saved on Yahoo! Photos or the local hard
drive

— Easily find and view friends’ albums shared online

— My Yahoo! –

— Access to personalized information and services

— Yahoo! Movies –

— Search for playtimes at local theaters or watch movie
trailers

— Find movies from the DVR, television or DVD player

— Yahoo! TV –

— Full Personal Video Recorder (PVR) functionality,
including trick play features and access to the PC for
storage of content

— Full TV tuning capabilities to control your TV channels

Entrepreneurs can now migrate their direct-response marketing campaigns from the Internet to Television using streaming video infomercials as a result of an agreement between IncomeHarvest and Brightbox Inc.

An infomercial quickly builds customer loyalty and delivers a powerful, focused message so as to solicit a specific, quantifiable direct response. Infomercials are migrating to the Internet due to advances in video-streaming technology - early adopters are maximizing their sales and setting new standards for direct response marketing.

Successful infomercials speak to universal desires: fitness & diet, health & beauty and business opportunity. In addition to offering a quality product, infomercial success depends on:
· Affordability: Stay within the $29 to $999 price-points
· Benefit: Solve a problem; provide maximum benefits
· Credibility: A good host is vital
· Demonstrability: Seeing is believing

Businesses and entrepreneurs now have the ability to create a series of low-cost infomercials and present them in a highly entertaining way.

IncomeHarvest and Brightbox Inc. have expedited the process whereby a business or entrepreneur can partner with a “niche specific� content provider and create a channel with extremely high consumer interest. Brightbox Inc. rapidly creates these channels at very low cost (or no cost, with a revenue sharing agreement in place).

The next channel to be activated is called Gourmet Simply Done!â„¢ and features gourmet cooking programs. The business sponsoring the channel provides flash frozen gourmet foods shipped direct to the consumer. The synergy is natural.

And Brightbox™ (www.brightbox.info), an enhanced TiVo-like “convergence� box, allows these channels to be viewed directly on television.

Brightboxâ„¢ functions as both a Personal Video Recorder (PVR / PDR / DVR) and Media Center - it also supports video conferencing, Karaoke and The Learning Networkâ„¢ which provides over $47,000 in personal and business development content.

The ViXS XCode II-L video processor allows consumers to enjoy high-quality video and advanced functions, such as dual-stream PVR, watch-and-record capabilities and high-speed archiving to a hard drive, storage device, or DVD. ViXS’s XCode II series are the only chips available that can efficiently compress and scale analog video, or re-compress and scale high-definition (HD) digital video, and then transfer multiple video streams for storage or display on any display device. The advanced encoding features of XCode II-L enable it to distribute high-quality MPEG2 video content at under 2 Mbps, resulting in excellent quality video requiring less than one-third of the storage space typically required for DVD quality video.

For more information on PLX PCIe devices and supporting development tools, please visit www.plxtech.com/products/pci_express/default.asp.

LocationFree allows you to connect a base station to a variety of audio visual devices in your home, such as a set top TV tuner, DVD player and personal video recorder (PVR) and stream content to a 12-inch LocationFree TV. You can then access the base station and watch your favorite TV programming, DVDs or PVR content wirelessly in home and over the Internet while on the road.

There is expanded functionality with the new LocationFree Player Pak, which includes a base station and software for viewing streaming content remotely on a PSP(TM) (PlayStation(R) Portable) system or notebook computer. The LocationFree Player Pak is currently available for about $350. The LocationFree TV LF-X11 monitor is available for about $1,500. Both can be purchased at Sony Style(R) retail stores (http://www.sonystyle.com/retail) and at authorized dealers nationwide and online at http://www.sonystyle.com.

More information about LocationFree technology and online support is available at http://www.sony.com/locationfree.

At CES 2006 Seagate will demonstrate a wide range of CE products that use Seagate hard drives, including the new Xbox 360, MP3 players, DVR/PVR systems, digital still and video cameras, handheld navigation systems, TV’s, cell phones, digital still cameras and digital video cameras and automotive GPS systems. The company will also showcase its branded solution products, including its Pocket Hard Drive, Portable Hard Drive, CompactFlash Photo Hard Drive and Pushbutton Back-up Hard Drives, its Mirra Personal Server as well as future concepts. These offerings will be on display at the CES show from January 5-8, 2006 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 3, booth
number 31753.

In another industry first, SkipJam has combined multiple server technologies in a single unit: SMB, DLNA, UPnP and Windows Media Connect compatible servers. These server interfaces allow the widest variety of digital media devices to locate content on the XSS automatically and without any PC or user involvement. The XSS broad server support even includes support for Media Center Extender (MCE) devices such as the Xbox 360, and others which had previously required a Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition personal computer.

“This variety and breadth of server software support is not available in any other stand-alone network server,” said Michael Spilo CEO of SkipJam Corp. “And continues SkipJam’s commitment to supporting the broadest array of mixed analog and digital media configurations.”

The SkipJam XSS is also fully compatible with SkipJam’s own iMedia line of digital media players and hubs, and is automatically recognized by all SkipJam iMedia devices.

Configurations and Backup

The SkipJam XSS automatically self configures, allowing multiple XSS units on the same network without worry of name conflict. The XSS appears as a network drive to all Windows and Macintosh PCs, and can be managed through an easy to use web interface which allows users to configure and manage the massive storage, even remotely.

SkipJam’s configuration tools allow users to split the storage for internal backup of the data, or to automatically mirror between XSS units, so that one unit can back up the other. In either configuration the mirroring is done during low network traffic periods so as not to interfere with multimedia or business operational performance.

Power Management

The SkipJam XSS includes automatic power management which spins down the unit’s hard drives when not in use, increasing drive life and lowering power consumption. The XSS includes an “anticipatory” algorithm which allows the hard drives to spin back up in anticipation of user demand for maximum performance. This “heuristic” algorithm learns user habits and can for example spin up the drives at 8PM, anticipating prime time viewing.

Technology Details:
A high power NAS Device, the SkipJam iMedia XSS includes:
* 1 to 6 drive Raid 0-5 configurable disk array with up to 3 hot-swappable
drives
* AMD Duron processor
* 512MB of RAM,
* 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
* Linux 2.4.30 operating system
* SkipJam X-Stream Server Pack
* SkipJam X-Stream Server Management Software
* SkipJam iMedia Management and Tagging Software
* SkipJam Browser Interface
* 430 Watt low noise power supply
* Compact form factor suitable for home or small office use

Price and Availability

The iMedia XSS is available only directly from SkipJam in 3 configurations: 1.3TB priced at $1399, 2TB priced at $1799 and 3TB priced at $3299.

The Universal Home Application Programming Interface (UHAPI) Forum today announced the availability of Universal Home API specification 1.1 for audio/video (A/V)
technology. In addition to the UHAPI 1.0 functionality, the UHAPI 1.1 specification standardizes the handling of A/V for personal video recording (PVR) functionality that enables playing back to and from a hard disk drive (HDD), including trick mode functionalities. The release of the UHAPI 1.1 directly answers the industry’s need to reduce resources spent on developing PVR capable devices.

Comprised of members from global, industry-leading companies, the UHAPI Forum continues to alleviate costs and time associated with the development of commonly used audio/video functions. To that end, the Forum is developing the UHAPI 1.2 specification that will address digital media adapter functionality in stand-alone devices as well as integrated in devices such as TV or set-top box. The UHAPI 1.2 specification is scheduled to be released in mid-2006.

“Our initial spec, released a year ago, laid the necessary groundwork for us to add many independent functions such as the PVR functionality in later versions,” said Pieter Noordam, chairman of the UHAPI Forum. “With a widened scope, UHAPI 1.1 is applicable to more devices, including 52 million PVR units that are expected to be shipped worldwide in 2009.(1)” The UHAPI specification accelerates a product’s time-to-market by eliminating repetitive programming. It defines hardware-independent and
operating system-independent software interfaces to configure and control audio/video-related functions. The UHAPI 1.1 expands the list of common functions such as fast forwarding and rewinding that can be developed quickly using UHAPI. As a result, the semiconductor and CE vendors can concentrate their engineering resources on developing their own, proprietary feature sets.

MediaREADY 5000 is a living room set-top device that offers PVR (Personal Video Recorder), DVD/CD/MP3 record and playback, email, Internet browsing, media on-demand, TV electronic program guide, karaoke, onboard and home-networked photo and music access and much more. Enabling the joint technology are:

— VWB MediaREADY(TM) 5000 - Connectivity to a wide range of consumer electronics through inputs and outputs ranging from USB and Firewire to component and
composite video. The MediaREADY 5000 includes a wireless QWERTY keyboard, remote control and karaoke microphone;

— SageTV Media Center Software - SageTV Media Center for Linux offers a user interface even technology-challenged consumers find friendly. With SageTV Media Center, users can enjoy advanced functions such as intelligent recording of TV shows based on household viewing habits as well as easy access to home media libraries;

— Hauppauge WinTV®-PVR-150 - An innovative TV tuner that also allows users to watch, pause and record TV shows. The device’s built-in, hardware-based MPEG-2 encoder adds performance by enabling other software-based functions to take place while recording.

Driven by the penetration of broadband into the majority of American homes, home entertainment devices are finally beginning to achieve the promise of convergence that runs the full range of television, removable media (DVD/CD), Internet (email, web browsing and media on-demand), advanced time-shifting (DVR), and network-based storage (MP3, photos and video via local or LAN-based hard drives).

The Vaddis 9 family is a fully digital end-to-end solution for DVD players, addressing a wide range of applications from standalone to portable players. The Vaddis 9 product line reduces system cost by lowering system component count while also reducing system power consumption. The Vaddis 9 systems also offer enhanced playability for scratched disks.

Zoran’s Vaddis 9 product family optimizes DVD player design for the full range of DVD players, from DVD receivers and DVD-VCR combo players to portable players, and automobile entertainment systems. The Vaddis 966 IC, the first processor to be launched within the new Vaddis 9 product family, it targeted for DVD player manufacturers addressing high volume price-sensitive markets. Additional members of the Vaddis 9 product family with enhanced features will be introduced later this year.

It supports DivX Home Theater and Ultra DVD formats. Additional features supported include: JPEG viewing with Kodak PictureCD, playback of Microsoft WMA and compressed audio formats. Vaddis 9 also supports Single Pixel Processing progressive scan technology, via component video output.

MEGA SKY 580 is a Digital TV receiver, fully compliant with DVB-T standard. It allows you to watch live broadcasting sports or TV shows up to high definition quality (1920×1080) on your desktop or laptop PC anytime, anywhere.

Featuring time-shifting and schedule recording, MEGA SKY 580 is not only a DTV receiver but also a Digital Video Recorder which can record any DVB-T programs to HDD either live or scheduled and you can play them later. Don’t wanna miss any exciting sport event while at work? With MEGA SKY 580 exclusive Video Desktop function, any video or exciting sport tournaments can now be shown as motion on a PC desktop background. You can continue working on your spreadsheet or other application in one window while running TV in another. With MEGA SKY 580’s remote control, you can sit back on your comfortable couch and change any channels and settings, like there’s no distance from the PC or TV.

The MEGA SKY 580 makes a great laptop companion. Whether you are in a coffee shop or restaurant or even stuck in traffic, simply plug MEGA SKY 580 into your laptop PC and you can watch live digital TV shows anytime and anywhere. You will never have to miss any minute of your favorite news, sports, or shows even you are away from the TV set.

Key features of MEGA SKY 580:

Watch DVB-T digital TV up to HD Resolution
Schedule/Live Record DTV Programs (PVR)
Listen to DVB-T Digital Radio
Support Time-Shifting
Support Electronic Program Guide (EPG) and Digital Teletext
Support Still Frame Capture (BMP / JPG)
Support Channels Auto Scan
Video Desktop to Display Video as a Motion Desktop Background.
Support Remote Control
Microsoft MCE Compatible
Support Multilanguage Including: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Traditional Chinese