New Pirates Hope “TV Everywhere” Doesn’t Force Them to Sail Like Joost

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:17:18 EDT

As the video market evolves our view of the landscape further comes into focus and while there still remains much unresolved, the pieces are starting to fall into place. Take The Pirate Bay for example. This marked yet another move towards curtailing piracy – although its ultimate effectiveness is still up for evaluation. And yet, despite the legal troubles plaguing the BitTorrent tracking site (and its founders), a Swedish company (Global Gaming Factory X) announced a deal to acquire the property for cash and shares amounting to $7.76 million – the deal is expected to be consummated in August. Where’s the upside?

The End of Analog

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:03:25 EDT

Today is June 12, 2009 (“formerly” February 17, 2009) and with it comes the end of analog over-the-air broadcasts in the United States of America. This “historic” day doesn’t mean the end of all analog video, mind you, since there are still analog cable viewers, but the digital transition might mean more in the US than some might presume.

Such a notion might seem hard to swallow, especially considering the short and limited run by USDTV from 2004 to 2007. While this was a pay digital terrestrial TV (DTT) service operating in a very limited geographic area, this case nonetheless rema ...

Palm Pre Shortage

Mon, 8 Jun 2009 17:02:22 EDT

June 6^th has come and gone and as a Sprint customer with an expired contract I am still without a Palm Pre. Don’t get me wrong, if circumstances were different this blog’s title would read “My First Impressions of the Palm Pre.” Instead I’m writing about the shortage. Wait…isn’t this the Digital Home Blog? Indeed it is, but rather than focus on the device itself I figured I would write a bit on the implications of these shortages.

There are many “schools” of thought on shortages. From an operational standpoint shortages are usually ...

Where is Sony? And Stretching the Imagination

Fri, 5 Jun 2009 20:10:07 EDT

Both Sony and Microsoft announced gesture related controls for their game consoles, yet if you read the popular press and scan some of the forums you will likely be bombarded by Project Natal and Milo. Just prior to E3 a rumor spread throughout the blogging world that claimed Hulu would find it’s way to the Xbox 360. Wait a minute…can’t you already watch Hulu on the PS3 through the built in browser? Yes, yes you can. So maybe the excitement surrounding, what would ultimately turn out to be a misinterpretation, is more related to Hulu’s stance towards “boxes,” rather than availability. Maybe…but I’m not convinced.

YouTube and Hulu Announcements

Wed, 3 Jun 2009 19:06:31 EDT

It seems a couple of recent announcements related to online video have some implications in the digital home: Hulu announced its Desktop application, which allows Hulu to run as its own application, outside of the web browser, while YouTube announced the YouTube XL concept, making videos easier and more enjoyable to view on a TV. Unfortunately, there are some serious shortcomings to both of these applications which don’t necessarily help move online video to the living room where more people might enjoy it.

While the YouTube XL announcement on the surface seems to support online video on the TV, it leaves out a ...

Network Connectivity Joins the AV Club

Mon, 1 Jun 2009 19:47:51 EDT

Over the past few weeks, a couple of announcements around consumer electronics connectivity have caught my eye. In late April, the DiiVA Interactive TV standard was announced after a year of development, with the backing of mainstream CE manufacturers LG, Panasonic, and Samsung, along with the Chinese government and a number of major Chinese CE manufacturers. The DiiVA standard was designed to integrate HD Video, multi-channel audio and bi-directional data (Ethernet and USB) in a single cable. Then, just last week, the HDMI Licensing group announced the HDMI 1.4 specification, which will integrate Ethernet connectivity within the HDMI cable.

In April 2009 the defendants in the trial against The Pirate Bay (Sweden) were found guilty and sentenced to one year in jail and fined $3.6 million in damages. Seriously, if you name your business/operation “The Pirate Bay” you leave little room for imagination. Yes you could argue the service is only a tool and therefore has no direct ties to the illicit content, but really, do you honestly think with a name like that you aren’t at the very least encouraging piracy? That would be like Craigslist having an “erotic services” section and not expecting illegal sexual activities to ensue…oh wait they did? I digress, but at least Grokster left room for in ...

Highlighting a One Billion Dollar Question, Timely Alerts, and a 47 Year Old Singing Sensation

Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:46:50 EDT

Since there’s been a gap between this and my last blog post I’ve decided to do a short recap of several stories that intrigued this analyst over the course of these past two months. Yes, there were lots of choices when it came to exciting or provocative stories, but in light of this economy what better place to start with than a one billion dollar question? Don’t worry we’ll end with the “feel good story” of the hour so you won’t have to dwell on the economy long after, so without further ado…

Just how much does one year of NFL games cost? About One Billion Dollars

Not too long ago three countries within Asia (New Zealand, Singapore and Australia) pledged their commitment to fiber access by pressing ahead with plans on building national FTTH networks. The aim is to have a wholesale model operated by a single operator for the dark fiber access network.

On the onset, it may appear that a government-backed NGN project is a good aid in creating the right foundation for faster growth and users can be assured of greater reliability in the networks. At the same time, end-user service packages are expected to be more ...

Tru2way Continues to Gain Momentum

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 14:24:23 EDT

Over the past few weeks, there have been a number of announcements from cable operators, middleware developers, and silicon vendors. While cable companies have been promising interactive TV for a long time, it seems that this time it is for real. The latest announcements this week give more insight to the rollout of tru2way by Cox Communications, scheduled for this summer.

A large number of tru2way-enabled set-top boxes have already been deployed, and the largest MSOs in the US have updated a significant percentage of their networks to support tru2way. This flurry of activity follows the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) last year by a num ...

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