LG and ARM have announced a partnership that will see the former’s HDTVs use the latter’s ARM11 MPCore multicore processor and ARM Mali GPUs. The system will allow for not only high-definition 1080p processing but video-on-demand, voting and polling, games, and e-commerce without the need for a separate set-top box.
TiVo have pushed back their DirecTV TiVo DVR plans to early 2010, rather than the second-half of 2009 as originally suggested. Revealed in the company’s quarterly financial call – in which TiVo confirmed that they had made a net loss of $4.1m in the three month period – no official reason for the delay was given.
Adobe have announced hardware and content partners who will adopt the Adobe Flash Platform on internet-connected HDTVs and set-top boxes. Demonstrating a range of widget and HD streaming media capable devices at the National Association of Broadcasters Show this week, Broadcom, Comcast, Intel, Netflix, NXP Semiconductors and others have all signed up for the platform.
Cable subscribers, especially the Verizon folks should be fairly familiar with MoCA (multimedia over Coax Alliance) technology as networking platform to stream multimedia though coaxial cable. No? How about the Zeevee box that is capable of livecasting any internet-based video from PC-to-Tv with similar technology? If we are getting there, here’s another piece of MoCA-based SoC (System-oc-Chip) invention from Broadcom to take on industry’s first HD STB devices piggybacking coax cable infrastructure into a whole-home media distribution network.
Funai looks forward to beat the godfather of DVR, step ahead of Tivo to launch tru2Way integrated dual-tuner set-top DVR. Announced back in May, the company exhibited its tru2way STB platform with DVR, dual decode, NTSC, ATSC and various network capabilities at the Cable Show in Big Easy; today, they have further confirmed its plan to mass-produce the tru2wy box during the third quarter of 2009, but the timing will hinge on CableLabs’s approval.
We’ve talked about Panasonic’s new CableCARD, the tru2way before, however, the devices are going to see the light of day very soon. Specifically, Chicago and Denver will be the cities privileged to get the tru2way-enabled VIERA HDTVs first.
Have you ever been lied to and ignored by cable service provider when asked to gather CableCARD installation on your HTDV or Set-Top box? They sure have interesting ways and unheard of excuses to avoid the topic. If you are new to CableCARD and insist of its service, they’ll probably throw you the technicality or excuse of system incompatibility, and then push the company’s HDTV tuner instead. What they hardly explain to customers is the current CableCards’ inabilities only miss the costly and no good subscription of VOD premium movie services. You are more than fine unless you live in a few unfortunate cities that employing SDV on HD channels. All these hassles with CardCARDS will soon to change with tru2Way.
Robust interactivity and powerful multimedia processing System-On-Chip will soon feature on next generation IPTV set-top boxes, IP cable set-top boxes, and Blu-ray players thanks to the availability of Sigma Design’s SMP8644. The company has announced its highest performance SOC yet promised to deliver feature-rich SOC at CEATEC show this week. Tru2Way, BR Profile 2.0, Dual SATA-2, USB, Ethernet controller, NAND and NOR flash module controllers are among many features integrated in SMP8644 SOC.
If I were to list one basic feature I’ve always wanted for my TIVO is an integrate User Interface with Picture in Guide (PIG). Little has changed with its interface over the years, picture is obstructed by grid-style onscreen guide while navigating though user menu to retrieve list of recording show or change settings. Competitors such as DirectTV, Dish Network and Cable service carriers have long offering DVR with PIG. That soon to change; Tivo is cooking up a user interface with a complete new look- Featuring PIG with ability to display picture while peruse user guide.
No sight of Series 4 with Tru2way just yet but Tivo has announced a brand new premium DVR that comes with extra large recording capacity at Cedia 2008. The XL size of Tivo HD now featured 1TB of storage space (over 150 hours of HD programs), Glo remote and THX-certified just like the S3.
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