All PVR

Could this be the solution to our home entertainment nightmares? It’s certainly a step in the right direction. The Sony VAIO LT is an “All-In-One” 22″ Widescreen TV/PC with a DVR (and BluRay). Here’s what Sony has to say about it:

“Watch and record TV - including premium HD cable.
The high performance VAIO® LT PC/TV lets you watch and record analog, digital and cable TV (including premium HD channels2) on a stunning flat screen display. Featuring Windows Vista™ Ultimate (or Home Premium) with Media Center functionality, a remote control, and an optional external cable TV tuner that works with a CableCARD™ from your local cable provider, the VAIO® LT PC/TV lets you watch and record your favorite cable TV broadcasts, including premium HD channels, right from the box.”

“The VAIO® LT PC/TV can serve as your entire entertainment center – it’s all-in-one. The 22″ LCD display2 with XBRITE-HiColor™ technology acts as your HD flat panel TV while the cable TV tuner works in conjunction with Windows Media Center to act as your cable set top box with DVR. And since the VAIO® LT PC/TV features an available Blu-ray Disc™ optical drive, you can enjoy a movie in Blu-ray Disc® format and experience incredible picture and stunning clarity.”
“The VAIO® LT HD PC is sleek, slim and beautiful, but it can also rock some serious power. With an Intel® Core™ 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM and an easily expandable roomy hard drive, the VAIO LT HD PC/TV is super-fast and can run multiple demanding applications simultaneously - such as graphics-intensive games and high-quality TV and movies - while downloading music or running virus-scanning security programs in the background.”

It also comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, built in camera and microphone, wireless LAN technology (802.11 b/g/n), and wall-mounting system.

To make the purchase of this small wonder, you’ll have to shell out $2900 clams. (there’s also a no-frills standard model, without the BluRay drive for $1900).

Visit Sony.

(Mitsubishi Laser TV on Left, Samsung LCD on Right)

Per reader request, here’s a few links to quench your thirst:

Official Mitsubishi Electric Website Press Release
Technology Review (published by MIT): Article 1, and Article 2
News.com (Australia)
Product News (with YouTube video)
GadgetGuy.com (Australia)

For those of you who haven’t heard yet, Mitsubishi will be releasing a HDTV at the end of this year that will be powered by lasers. If you’re thinking of purchasing a big screen HDTV (with which to watch your PVR/DVR) you may want to wait. According to the 2 companies making some of the TV’s components (Arasor International of Australia, and California-based Novalux), these new “Laser TV’s” will dominate plasma technology. Mitsubishi says they’re half the price, weight and thickness; twice as good, and use a quarter of the electricity of LCD’s and Plasma’s.

If you’re curious about how it works, here’s the skinny on the optoelectronic chip-laser technology:
1. It uses pure red, green, and blue lasers to create the image instead of the traditional white lamp. Displaying superior, and more vivid colors than any other display.
2. Lasers last the lifetime of the projection TV, i.e. no burnout.
3. It’s equipped with a Texas Instruments 1080p DLP chip.
4. It’s thinner, lighter, and more power efficient than LCD’s and plasma’s.

Novalux chief executive Jean-Michel Pelaprat said this of the picture: “If you look at any screen today, the color content is roughly about 30-35 per cent of what the eye can see, but for the very first time, with a laser TV, we’ll be able to see 90 per cent of what the eye can see. All of a sudden what you see is a lifelike image on display.�?

That’s big talk. I guess we’ll “see” what they mean in December.

In keeping with this week’s theme, here’s another all-weather HD LCD TV on which you can watch your PVR, spa-side. Produced by Aquivo, it’s so tough it can withstand the force of a fire hose. The reason? It’s constructed with a sealed aluminum frame and special tempered glass. Aquivo is one world’s leading all-weather LCD producers (based in the UK). They make LCD sizes from 25 to 55 inches. All HD or HD Ready.

Special Thanks To: Engadget and Shiny Shiny

The Sunbrite outdoor LCD HDTV is just another way to watch your DVR (or whatever) by the pool, or on the patio. Have your house pre-wired and this TV stays outside permanently. It’s a 32″ super-bright, all-weather, HD LCD TV, with a native resolution of 1366 x 768. Here’s more specs:

“Protective anti-glare, contrast-enhancing and scratch-resistant window protects the screen from rain, dirt and other elements. Special coating protects internal electronics from corrosion. Dual-fan airflow system keeps unit cool and protects the TV from rain, dust and insects.”

It also has a Picture-In-Picture function and stereo speakers. It costs $4195 at Skymall.com.

Now you can watch your DVR poolside, patio-side, or yard-side (and so can all your neighbors). With a diagonal measurement of 120 inches, there’s no bad viewing angle. The screen comes with everything you’ll need to inflate, tether, and store it. It does not, however, include a projector, video source, or speaker system. That’s still not a bad deal for $250. A small price to pay for your inevitable fame amongst family, friends, and neighbors.

Found at: SKYMALL.COM

For a one-time activation fee of $40.00, you can utilize an external hard drive with your Dish Network setup. Connect your HDD to your DN receiver via USB and voila, endless storage for your favorite shows.

Zatz Not Funny! Archive.

XShot is a extension pole on which you attach your camera or video camera in order to take pictures of yourself. No longer do you have to worry about getting your arm in the shot. You don’t have to bother strangers, or worry about them running off with your camcorder. Attach and shoot.

If you’re wondering “How do I carry it around”? Wonder no more. It telescopes from 9 inches to 37 inches. It’s made of stainless steel and fits all digital cameras and many video cameras. Now you don’t have an excuse for getting out and documenting life.

I want to write about two seemingly separate things today, but I am sure you’ll recognize the underlying similarity.

Lets start with Tivo. There are really two ways to enjoy prime-time shows pre-recorded for your convenience. Method One –Choose few of your favorites, tell Tivo to auto-record the season for you, and watch at your leisure. Method Two — Choose all prime-time shows (or over 80%), use dual tuner Tivo (or 2 dual-tuner Tivos) to record them (usually while watching the 3rd or the 5th prime-time show meanwhile). So then what? When on earth do you find the time to watch all these shows? Pull All Nighters, all week? Spend whole weekend watching? Do you really need to watch Everything? Is it humanly possible?

With ever increasing Amount and Quality of media, in the age that most anyone with a camera can produce quality content, I think we need to start learning that you can Not catch them all!

I think we all need to realize that the purpose of Tivo is to Liberate you from TV dependency. Gone are the days that if you don’t watch it live, you don’t watch at all. No longer do you need to choose whether to live your life on your terms or be bound by TV schedule into a strict routine.

Which one is you?

And now I want to touch on the other subject, as promised.

Your probably noticed by now that this blog ain’t engadget, or kotaku or anything like that. My goal isn’t to bring you every and all imaginable news from the world of PVRs, at the average rate of 5 stories an hour. I really doubt that many of you care that Tivo added some new TivoCast content, or that Fox partnered with Brightcove for some Web TV. And if you do care, I am sure you subscribe to several other PVR blogs and you will read it there anyway. One of my missions, is to sift through the noise out there on the Web and bring you the best and most important stories that are changing the Media landscape as we know it. Of course I am also here bring you some useful PVR DIY guides and other prudent information to make your PVR adventuring easier and richer.

So, what’s with the long post, you ask? I felt it was important to put this information about this blog out there, while also taking this opportunity to remind you to use your Tivo responsively.

Enjoy life, folks!

Tivo, Brightcove, Life Balance

We love Veronica Mars show, which migrated onto the recently formed CW.

So, to remind you to watch Veronica Mars with us, and as a sort of follow up to yesterday’s post, did you know that Veronica is available in full color online streaming on the new CW?

Yep, the good folks at CW also use the high quality Move Networks streaming technology, so the quality is most impressive.

I know everyone loves PVR and watching on big TV and such, but this really changes things. We tried some time ago to catch up on some shows, sitting in front of my measly 19″ LCD. I must say, I felt that the experience was positive and even more intimate. There’s something special about two of us sitting close to the screen, which just isn’t there on the big couch/recliner where we normally watch.

But, maybe it’s just me, or maybe you don’t have a PVR or big-screen TV, or even cable/antenna/tv altogether. You can still watch America’s favorite TV from the comfort of your wireless laptop on the porch, or public WiFi down the street.

It’s just shame that CW chose to only include few recent episodes on their site. Hopefully this will improve in the future.

UPDATE: Veronica Mars was canceled? Shame… Hopefully there are some better shows in the pipe, we’ll see.

WebTV, CW

We already brought you some coverage from the rapidly evolving category of Video Search. Those were examples of specialized video searches, such as educational videopedia style searches.

But, for more generic searches, such as when you are looking for specific video clip of presidential debate, or of kids dumping into walls, there are myriad of generic video search engines cropping up.

Some even combine Social aspect of supposed ‘crowd wisdom’ to add to the mix.

My favorites remain Google Video Search and the all time classic YouTube search, but your mileage may vary, depending on type of video you’re looking for.

Here is some more perspective from WebTVWire on this hot topic.

youtube, video search

If you are still struggling with installation of MythTV on latest Ubuntu, even after our handy guide from last week, it’s time to try another approach.

MythDora is a Linux distribution that is pre-built specifically for running MythTV on your box. This distribution is based on excellent Fedora Core 6, which itself is an open source derivative of the Enterprise quality RedHat linux.

For more info, check out MythDora home page, or just check out the handy videos right away.

mythtv, mythdora, dvr 

This is an oldie, but still, for all of you Mac lovers out there, who couldn’t get their Tivo to talk to their Mac, here’s a handy overview from the TivoBlog.

Though your best option will end up costing you money, I find the convenience of DVD backup of shows worth the cost. Besides, all you Mac lovers should be used to spending good penny on software anyhow

[via TivoBlog]

tivo, mac, tivotogo

So what is it? It’s a brand new concept, networks are trying to break out of traditional TV centric approach and embracing more of a digital / internet kind of approach. They goal is to create a mash up of community features with traditional TV show style experience.

A new company out there, called Next New Networks is making it happen. They have already launched 9 channels, and promising to bring that number up to 30 soon.

I think this is a great idea, but I do worry about the Console trouble. With so many sources of content, how will we even remember which “micro network” did I visit this week already and which I am yet to check out.

The only answer, of course, is RSS Aggregators. I already added a tag to my Google Reader (and my Bloglines reader), which marks all shows RSS feeds. If only I had time to actually watch all those 200 shows that have accumulated thus far. Of course, it’s the ultimate kind of PVR, unlimited space and keeps shows available for years, waiting for you to come and watch whenever you ready (with pause and rewind, of course).

Who would have thought just a year ago that we would end up watching TV show via our RSS aggregator!

[via TechCrunch]

I really think everyone should visit Tivo’s Top 25 Season Passes page once a month or so.

Why? To trust the “mob smarts” to help you figure out what are the best shows out there that you should be spending your precious time on.

If you have a Tivo, you can conveniently click through from Top 25 list and get Season Pass for your self, or choose to record one upcoming episode, to give the show a try, without commitment.

tivo