PVR UK: PVR (Personal Video Recorder) and DVR (Digital Video Recorder) news, reviews and how-tos for the UK (including Sky plus, TiVo, MythTV and Freeview)

Slingbox coming to a Mac near you

The Slingbox from Sling Media is a vrey neat device that connects to your Freeview/PVR/Sky box etc and streams the video from it over the internet or your home network to your PC or Mac. You can even use an on-screen remote control to change channels or choose recorded programs on your PVR back home! It's been out in the States for a while, but a PAL version will be out in "Spring 2006".

Features

• SlingStream™ is a proprietary streaming technology specifically designed to address varying network conditions while optimizing your video playback experience. SlingStream provides the best possible video experience by continuously monitoring the connection speed and dynamically adjusting the video compression ratios to match your available network bandwidth.
  • NEW Significant improvements to the algorithm in v1.0.4 offer up to a 300% gain in video quality
• SlingRemote™ acts exactly like your real remote control, giving you full control over your viewing experience. From changing channels to setting a DVR to record, you can do it using buttons right on your computer screen. Plus, you can create your own skins for the the SlingRemote so that it looks just like the one at home - or maybe you can finally make your million-button universal remote easy to use!
  • NEW v1.0.4 adds many new remote controls, as well as improved IR codes for existing remotes. TiVo, ReplayTV, Scientific Atlanta, and Motorola owners among other will be thrilled with the enhancements.
   
• The Slingbox Directory shows you all the Slingboxes that are on your network or that you have set up remotely. This networking magic makes it easy to connect to your box without complications.
• Three viewing modes give you flexibility in your viewing style:
  • SlingBar™ - docks SlingPlayer on either the right or left of the desktop, allowing you to watch your television and work with other applications simultaneously
  • Resizable Window - move it around the desktop just like any other application, making it small or large
  • Full Screen - for a real break watch your shows as big as your screen can get
• new Multiple input device support has just been added for v1.0.4. This means that now you can connect more than one device to your Slingbox, and use the SlingPlayer for rapid remote input switching. Discover there's nothing on TV? With the click of a button you can switch over to your DVD changer and watch a movie instead, without ever leaving your chair!
• Extensive customizable settings allow you to fine-tune your viewing experience and view streaming statistics.
  • new Manual Audio & Video Controls — You make subtle changes to your input signal with v1.0.4. You can adjust audio volume, as well as brightness, contrast, saturation, and hue for each input.
  • new  Favorites Bar— Now your favorite channels are only one click away! Place shortcuts to your most frequently watched channels in the Favorites Bar along with a custom icon. You can use any picture on you computer! This is the first of many planned features which allows Slingbox owners to create a personalized SlingPlayer experience.

More Video iPod TV shows

Apple have expanded the list of TV shows that can be downloaded through iTunes with NBC’s "Law & Order", "The Office", "Surface", "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", "Late Night with Conan O'Brien", the USA Network’s Emmy Award-winning "Monk" and Sci-Fi Channel’s "Battlestar Galactica" as well as classic TV shows including "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Dragnet", "Adam-12" and "Knight Rider". A lot of those won't mean much over this side of the pond (apart from "Knight Rider" and "The Office"). Here's hoping it's the original of "The Office " that's on offer and not that dreadful American re-make that totally missed the point.

Apple have apparently sold over 3 million video "items" and have over 300 episodes available for download. Portable video is finally taking off.

Rumours of "Apple TiVo" resurface

Think Secret have an interesting article that points to Apple preparing a Mac Mini-based PVR...

"Apple's Mac mini will be reborn as the digital hub centerpiece it was originally conceived to be, Think Secret sources have disclosed. The new Mac mini project, code-named Kaleidoscope, will feature an Intel processor and include both Front Row 2.0 and TiVo-like DVR functionality."

Read the whole article...

myTV.PVR for Macs

Just to show PC users don't have it all their own way, DesignTechnica tells us 'The myTV.PVR connects to a Mac via USB 2.0, turning the computer into a personal video recorder. It has built in TV tuner and MPEG encoder functions so users can watch live TV in a window or full screen, pause live TV with instant replay and schedule TV recordings on a daily, weekly or once-only schedule. It includes composite/S-Video and stereo audio inputs so users can connect to cable or satellite TV boxes, VCRs, camcorders or DVD players. Users can also record home video tapes to disk in an MPEG-2 format.

"myTV.PVR is possibly the most valuable accessory Mac users can buy. With myTV.PVR, the need for separate TV, PVR and DVD recorders are eliminated," said Scott Naylor, Macintosh Product Manager for Eskape Labs. "College students, business people, even home users will enjoy the way myTV.PVR adds convenience and value to their Macs. For multitasking or simply to conserve space, myTV.PVR is a terrific solution."'

MacMini PVR tutorial

No, this isn't the first Mac mini - PVR tutorial, but new products hand software have made this more interesting than ever before. And, with the best options available, this will be the last Mac PVR tutorial you'll need to read.

Read the full tutorial over at MacMerc.

Apple planning launch of video iPod

Apple Computer has begun production of a new version of its iPod digital music player that will be capable of playing videos, AppleInsider has learned.

Reliable sources believe the iPod could be introduced as early as next week, possibly around the time Apple releases results from its fourth fiscal quarter of 2005.

Although details are scarce, sources who claim to have seen the new iPod describe it as being similar to Apple's 60GB iPod photo player, but several millimeters thinner.

The device reportedly sports a smaller click-wheel akin to that of the iPod nano's, making way for a larger, higher-resolution color display that extends further down the face of the device.

The release of the iPod video is expected to be accompanied by a "major update" to Apple's iTunes music store that will include a significant number of music videos and other short video content.

Apple, which had been updating the "Music Video" segment of its iTunes download service on a regular basis, stopped posting new music video content last month, leading to speculation that a major content update was brewing.

Sources have also recently reported sightings of a new Apple wireless device, which is similar to Apple's AirPort Express wireless base station, but also includes a video out option. However, it's unclear if the long-rumored device will coincide with the introduction of a video capable iPod.

Apple recently introduced an ultra-thin version of its iPod called the iPod nano. According to well-placed sources, the company has modeled to sell 3 million of the players each month during the holiday shopping season.

Update: The aforementioned AirPort Express-like product may be an add-on module for the video iPod that will let users play videos on an external display. It's unclear when such a device would debut.

Source: Apple Insider

Could Apple buy TiVo?

Rumours are rife that TiVo is being watched by several companies looking to take it over. Of these, Apple seems to be the hottest prospect. Reuters has reported TiVos shares rising by 17 percent.

"What we hear on the street is that Apple is interested in their business and that they are a takeout target," said analyst Steven Kroll Jr. of Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co.

TiVo is in turmoil at the moment, and a takeover by a company like Apple would give them some stability, and useful ties into other markets (such as music) where Apple dominates. Apple would have a technology in people's living rooms that would give them a portal into services like iTunes. People could buy music from their TiVo and download straight to their iPods. If the inevitable video iPod could be tied into a TiVo to download video and record TV programmes, that would put Apple in a superb position. On top of that, both companies have similar ideas on making superb user interfaces, and use hardware and operating systems with much in common.

More on Mac Mini

It seems that the Mac Mini is becoming the poster boy of Home Media Centre dreamers: Engadget has a very good article HOW-To: Turn your Mac mini into a media center that goes into a lot of detail. Jeff Peline writes about his experience of getting his Mac Min and hooking it up in My Mac Mini and me, while there is a whole site now dedicated to Mac Minis as Home Theatre boxes at HTmini, in particular a HOW-TO Making your Mac mini into a workable HTPC — Part 1: Mac Mini and Storage options and Making your Mac mini into a workable HTPC — Part 2: Your TV, video converters, and TV Capture devices. Media Center PC World looks at the Mac mini from a PC angle, with Mac Mini – Is It The Best Media Center….PC?

Apple Mac Mini as a PVR?

Well, I get excited by Apple products, as anyone reading this web site will know - beautifully thought out and executed ideas, with that X-factor lacking in so much of the competition. So when Apple launched the Mac Mini, I (along with half the PVR-hacking world, it seems) thought of it's potential in our living rooms. I won't go into all the details (the links are below if you want to read other's take on things), but you can't shoehorn all the bits you need into the case, so you are left with a less than elegant looking solution, and it ends up costing quite a bit ($3000 in one worked-out sytem). My TiVo cost £210, and £250 seems to be the price-point that people are willing to pay for a consumer item that will record TV, no matter how well. All the Freeview PVRs are around this price, even with twin-tuners and a reasonable size hard disk). Shame none of them have that Mac sparkle :(

 

Mac mini - a killer Home Theatre PC in the making?
How To: turn your Mac mini into a Media Center PC
How the Mac mini fits into my life
 

More on Apple and PVRs

In an article entitled  Merrill Lynch looks to 'killer' Apple home media server, The Register talks about the battle that's emerging in the consumer space between traditional home appliance makers and computer manufacturers. Much as I felt in the article New Apple iMac G5 a missed opportunity?, they see Apple as being much better placed than Microsoft to provide a solution for the home.

"It's premature to know which (if any) device will become the centrepiece of the digital family room of the future," the firm said. "Still, we doubt that PCs - even Media Center PCs - will win because they are too complex and unstable. It strikes us as more likely that either (1) the game console will move up market to become the leading device or (2) a new system we dub the entertainment server will be created."

"A 200GB Apple server at a reasonable price and possibly with PVR technology could be Apple's next category killer," the firm said.

New Apple iMac G5 a missed opportunity?

In analysing the new Apple iMac G5, CNet reckons the lack of any TV tuner and PVR functionality are a "missed opportunity", especially when Microsoft are pushing it's Windows XP Media Center:-

Would including a TV tuner card have broken the bank? Digital video recorder functionality is becoming increasingly interesting to technology-literate consumers; TiVo in the United States and Sky+ in the United Kingdom are redefining how people consume TV programming.

Furthermore, Microsoft is forging ahead with its Windows XP Media Center Edition, looking to build on lessons from the past year. In the new iMac, Apple presents us with a fabulous living-room-compatible unit with an excellent display and lots of storage designed for digital media--but doesn't allow for connectivity to the broadcast network.

Sure, you can add an inexpensive box to do this, but you then ruin the sleek all-in-one design, which is what makes this machine so desirable.

I'm surprised Apple haven't plans to produce an "iMedia Center" style Mac (or do they?), as the Apple hardware design team produce kit that's truly innovative - certainly compared to most PCs - and their style would fit in next to a Sony hi-fi in people's living rooms. On top of that, they have the slickest user-interface I've seen on a computer, and huge amounts of multi-media experience. As well as recording TV it could be a great media server, and Apple could leverage people's brand awareness of the iPod. The numbers of units sold would surely boost economies of scale across the Mac range, and they could build on the iTunes service and sell other services into our living rooms. I'm convinced an "iMedia Center" would blow away Windows XP Media Center.