Coming Soon To A Living Room Near You . . .

January 9th, 2007 Davis Posted in Media, Movies, Technology, DivX, Video Games, TV, Disclosure - I own stock in co. mentioned, Microsoft, Slingbox, VOD, TiVo |

Time for HDTV Hosted on Zooomr Photo By Thomas Hawk

People have been talking about it for weeks and finally CES has arrived. It’s the blogosphere’s equivalent of a Star Trek convention. Between the booth babes and Sharp’s 108″ HDTV, geeks have plenty to drool over. With so much hot technology being released at once, it’s hard to cover it all, but here are a few of the highlights from the first day of CES.

IPTV support for Xbox 360 - Microsoft’s has spent billions of dollars and years of research trying to break into the living room, but so far has had limited success. With Microsoft Vista offering media center functionality and with the Xbox 360 set to take on a new role as a set top box for IPTV clients, Microsoft is in a strong position to make a play for the digital living room in 2007. As Microsoft’s IPTV plans continue to develop, it will be facinating to see if they use the Xbox 360 as a way to differentiate IPTV from cable. Is it possible that we could one day see Bellsouth renting the Xbox 360 as part of a triple play package? Given how lucrative video game sales actually are, I can see a powerful business model developing here.

Sling Proves They Aren’t One Trick Pony - Sling Media unveiled new hardware called the SlingCatcher. It’s a device that not only allows you to move television from one TV to another, but it also gives you the capability to plug into a laptop or PC and then sling the internet content directly to the TV. This a great move on Sling Media’s part and could be a promising bridge between the PC and the TV. Instead of trying to create their own IPTV service, they’ve instead remained content agnostic. Because consumers are allowed to access any web page or video, Sling has put themselves into a position where they end up offering more internet video content than any other VOD service (whether or not Hollywood agrees ). By focusing on the delivery of video instead of controling the content, it places Sling at an advantage over those who are pursuing closed systems. Not only should this device speed up the convergence of internet and the TV, but it will open up new markets for Sling as they extend their appeal beyond just the busy traveller.

Moxi Shows Off Prototypes Of 2 HDTV DVRs - Digeo may be locked in the battle of their lives with Gemstar TV Guide right now, but that hasn’t stopped them from innovating. At CES, the company unveiled two prototype HDTV DVRs that they expect to have out before the end of 2007. The company is going the stand alone route and will offer the boxes with cable card support. With as terrible as the cable DVRs have turned out to be, there is plenty of room for Digeo to carve out a niche in the stand alone DVR market. Given that TiVo’s series 3 is priced at a cool $800, it will be interesting to watch, if Digeo’s HDTV DVRs add some competition.

Netgear Introduces Super Charged HDTV DVR - Netgear made their splash into the DVR market in a big way by introducing their EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD. What this unit lacks in it’s name, it makes up for with it’s capability. Not only does it offer full HDTV DVR capabiities, but it also allows you to stream music, photos and video on the net directly to your television. It supports nearly every codec including WMV, DivX and iTunes and even allows you to watch YouTube on your TV. It can upscale or downscale video to the optimum resolution for your set. It retails at a slim $349 and debuts in early 2007.