The news from CES this year was pretty slow for us in the TiVo world. TiVo’s big announcement was a new version of the OS and desktop software that will support using RSS feeds to automatically pull video through your computer and into your TiVo. As the amount of free video online expands, this feature should become pretty useful. Here are some examples – hopefully, many more to be produced:
So this feature will essentially complement the TiVoCast package with more feeds. You’ll be able to pick from the suggested feeds, or add your own. TiVo does plan to continue to partner with recommended video producers at the TiVoCast level, and those feeds will get higher priority in the interface.
TiVo is also making progress on the TiVo-Comcast software rollout, and showed TiVo DVRs for Mexico and China that are in production, plus models for Europe and Australia that will hopefully be produced soon.
Seagate, manufacturer of our favorite DB 35 drives for DVRs, showed the next version of their DVR line: the PipelineHD. The PipelineHD Terabyte drive will reportedly have three platters, and be available this summer.
The big news at CES this year was, again, HD. There were so many huge HD screens around that you didn’t even realize their significance this year. Except for the 150 incher from Panasonic – that was pretty amazing.
Beyond that, the one product that caught our eye was an HD DVR from Gefen. The great feature of this unit is that it can record from HDMI or component, and totally respects HDCP, according to the manufacturer. So this would work with an HD receiver for cable, satellite, or anything. It has no internal tuner at all. The problems: $1000 price, 80 GB hard drive, and, worst of all, it’s not made by TiVo. While this definitely will be useful for a niche market, we don’t expect it to be a big seller.