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)

Next XBox works with Windows MCE

Microsoft have unveiled their next generation XBox, called the XBox 360, due for Christmas. As well as being an impressive gaming system, it's been designed to work with Windows MCE (Media Center Edition). It will allow you to watch programmes recorded on your MCE box (or live) on the XBox 360, by streaming the video over your home network. There will be a free software update for Windows MCE 2005 to allow this.

Free Windows Software Update Will Make Digital Music, Videos, Photos, Standard and High-Definition Television and Movies Available Through Xbox 360 at the Touch of a Button

LOS ANGELES, May 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2005 in Los Angeles, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) today announced it will release a free software update to Windows(R) XP Media Center Edition 2005 that will enable customers to take advantage of the Media Center Extender technologies built into Xbox 360(TM) gaming systems to access and enjoy digital entertainment anywhere in the home. Every Xbox 360 will have Media Center Extender functionality built in and available out of the box. The Media Center Extender functionality, coupled with the software update for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, will provide customers with seamless access to digital music, video, photos, and standard and high-definition television and movies on Media Center Edition 2005-based PCs through any Xbox 360 game console in the house.

"Microsoft continues to advance its vision of digital entertainment anywhere," said Will Poole, senior vice president of the Windows Client Business at Microsoft. "The combination of the world's most powerful gaming console, Xbox 360, with a Media Center Edition 2005-based PC results in an unprecedented home entertainment experience for our customers. By seamlessly integrating Microsoft's premium entertainment devices, we are greatly enhancing the ways in which our customers will experience entertainment in and around their homes."

Microsoft(R) Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 offers people around the world the widest range of entertainment experiences on the PC. Customer and industry support for Media Center Edition 2005 has never been stronger, with sales of Media Center PCs eclipsing the 2 million mark in April. In addition, there are more than 90 computer manufacturers and 7,000 system builders shipping Media Center PCs in 13 countries, with 20 additional markets planned by the end of the year. Media Center PC customers also can access more than 35 industry partner content and service providers across the globe via the Online Spotlight feature of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Inclusion of Media Center Extender technologies in Xbox 360 represents Microsoft's latest effort to provide consumers with seamless access to the same great experience provided in Media Center Edition PCs on any TV in the house. The Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 experience will be accessible on Xbox 360 systems by pressing the green button on the new Xbox 360 remote control. And, for the first time ever, the extender technologies that are built into Xbox 360 will enable customers to enjoy high-definition entertainment. For example, Xbox 360 will let players stream high-definition TV and movies stored on Media Center PCs, allowing them to watch a high-definition sports event while they chat with friends in other parts of the country who are watching the same game. Or they can receive a friend's invitation to play a game while watching live television.

"By integrating diverse technology expertise and innovations across the company, Microsoft is able to deliver rich digital entertainment experiences that consumers have been asking for," said Robbie Bach, chief Xbox(R) officer at Microsoft. "The Windows XP Media Center Extender technologies in Xbox 360 will make the living room a place where both experiences seamlessly converge and are easy to enjoy."   Xbox 360 is the future-generation video game and entertainment system that places users at the center of the experience. Xbox 360 will ignite a new era of digital entertainment that is always connected, always personalized and always in high definition. Xbox 360, in addition to including Media Center Extender technologies, features the Media Blade, which will allow customers to select Remote PC to access the digital photos and music they have stored on any Windows XP-based PC.

Availability

The software update to Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 that enables Media Center Extender functionality in Xbox 360 is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2005. It will be available as a free download to current Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 customers, as well as on new PCs. Xbox 360 is scheduled to be available this Christmas holiday season.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

NOTE: Microsoft, Windows, Xbox 360 and Xbox are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Telewest Broadband sets out its telly vision

TV-on-demand expansion and analogue switchover plans confirmed

May 12, 2005 - London, UK - Telewest Global, Inc. today announced plans   to transform its TV service, giving consumers greater access to, and control   over additional digital programmes. Key elements of the transformation include:

• Completed rollout of TVOD by early 2006
• Significant expansion of on-demand programming; and
• Phased analogue switchover

The cable company outlined the expansion of its television-on-demand (TVOD)   service, following its initial launch in January, confirming that it intends   to complete the national rollout of TVOD to over one million digital TV customers   by early 2006.

Telewest Broadband is also widening the range of on-demand programming available, boosting the existing movie service, which now shows over 200 current and library titles. The extended TVOD service will include the best of the previous week's programmes, including 60 hours of BBC content, at no extra cost to customers.

There will also be a mix of free and subscription services including popular TV series, music videos and niche content. Additional agreements are confirmed with Flextech, Nickelodeon and adult programming (including Playboy and TVX Fantasy channels), while negotiations with other programmers continue apace.

Following the initial launch of TVOD in Bristol, Telewest Broadband will make the service available region by region throughout the second half of this year, starting with 26,000 customers in Cheltenham who are set to receive the service in early July.

Telewest Broadband also announced a phased analogue switchover programme, aiming to migrate its remaining 171,000 analogue TV customers to digital by the end of 2006, supporting government plans to switch off the national analogue TV signal by 2012. Telewest Broadband has the highest percentage of TV customers taking digital, currently 87%, of any cable company in Europe and North America.

Eric Tveter, president and chief operating officer at Telewest said: "We are transforming TV as we know it by giving consumers both a superb choice of programmes and the flexibility to watch them whenever they want. We don't ever want to hear our customers say there's nothing on the box or that   they have missed their favourite programme.
 
"And while digital TV goes from strength to strength, analogue has finally had its day."

Out of those customers who already have access to the TVOD service, over half have already watched a movie. Saturday evening is the most popular time to choose a movie and the top selling films to date are The Stepford Wives, 50 First Dates and King Arthur. The highest selling evening to date was Valentine's night, when our romantics in Bristol chose The Ladykillers as their number one movie choice!

The TVOD service gives customers instant access to a vast library of films and TV programmes, available via the remote control and existing set top box. It provides the same controls as watching a DVD or video - once a programme is selected, customers can watch it when they want, pause, fast forward and   rewind.

Telewest Broadband is investing around £20 million in the development of TV-on-demand and personal video recorder (PVR) services in 2005. Telewest Broadband's 160Gb PVR service, which includes three tuners and is HDTV compatible, will be available in the second half of 2005.

Consumers can find out more about Telewest Broadband's bundle of digital TV, broadband internet and telephone services at www.telewest.co.uk.

TiVo co-founder honored with innovators from leading technology companies for fundamentally changing how consumers watch TV

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo TIVO, the creator of and leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today that TiVo Chairman, CEO, and co-founder, Michael Ramsay will be honored at the DEMO@15 conference as one of DEMO's 15 World-Class Innovators. The honors were given to innovators whose technologies launched at previous DEMO shows and still remain relevant and significant today.

Honored alongside Ramsay will be other industry luminaries including Marc Andreessen, chairman of Opsware, Marc Benioff, chairman & CEO of Salesforce.com, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, and EMC Corp. Executive Vice President, Howard Elias.

"TiVo has fundamentally changed the way people watch television. It has transformed mass-market broadcast television into a personal viewing experience and forever altered our expectations as to how we will consume mass media," said Chris Shipley, Executive Producer of the DEMO Conference. "As TiVo made its foray into the market, DEMO was pleased to be a showcase for the technology and is glad to honor Mike now for his vision and leadership in transforming this market."

Ramsay co-founded TiVo in 1997 with Jim Barton, with the vision that television should fit the viewer's life, not the other way around. A pioneer in creating the digital living room, TiVo has put convenience and control into the hands of consumers via the digital video recorder (DVR), which enables viewers to pause live TV and watch programs on their own schedule. TiVo has continued to innovate by expanding beyond the DVR to bring consumers all the content they love -- whenever and wherever they want.

As of October 31, 2004, there were approximately 2.3 million subscriptions to the TiVo service, and the company's existence has fundamentally changed industries ranging from entertainment to advertising, causing TiVo to become a household brand.

"The DEMO conferences have always been a launching pad for emerging technologies, and I am honored to be recognized alongside these industry visionaries," said Ramsay. "DEMO enabled us to showcase our vision to create a digital living room that would enable consumers to control digital entertainment at their convenience. I am thrilled that that vision has become reality."

TiVo recently announced TiVoToGo(TM), a new feature that enables subscribers to take their favorite shows with them on their PC wherever they go. The company also recently announced its next-generation service strategy, code named "Tahiti," which includes an open platform that will enable third parties to develop applications and distribute content to the TiVo subscriber base. By opening its platform to developers, TiVo will add new value to the TiVo Service, and open the floodgates for other innovative services and applications on the TiVo platform.

uk.com
    About TiVo Inc.

    Founded in 1997, TiVo, a pioneer in home entertainment, created a brand new category of products with the development of the first digital video recorder (DVR). Today, the Company continues to revolutionize the way consumers watch and access home entertainment by making TiVo the focal point of the digital living room, a center for sharing and experiencing television, music, photos and other content. TiVo connects consumers to the digital entertainment they want, where and when they want it. The Company is based in Alviso, Calif.

    About the DEMO Conferences

    The annual DEMO conferences focus on emerging technologies and new products, which are hand-selected from across the spectrum of the technology marketplace. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow's cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launch pad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Handspring, and U.S. Robotics, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. Each DEMO conference features approximately 70 new companies, products and technologies. For more information on the DEMO conferences, visit http://www.demo.com/ .

    The DEMO community also benefits from the award winning DEMOletter. A weekly e-newsletter designed to reach the people who are creating companies, building products and launching new ideas, DEMOletter provides smart insight and analysis of entrepreneurial business issues.

    This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to, among other things, expectations for future third party development of the TiVo platform and the expected benefits and increased value from this third party development. Forward-looking statements generally can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as, "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "intend," "estimate," "continue," or similar expressions or the negative of those terms or expressions. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary materially from those expressed in or indicated by the forward-looking statements. These factors include technology changes, new developments in the Company's product and service offerings, increased competition, changes in business strategy or development plans, future subscription growth, ability to attract and retain qualified personnel, compliance with existing and future governmental regulations, future litigation costs, and financial results, and expectations for future profitability, as well as the other potential factors described under "Factors That May Affect Future Operating Results" in the Company's public reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2004, as amended, and the Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarters ended April 30, 2004, July 31, 2004, and October 31, 2004. We caution you not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect an analysis only and speak only as of the date hereof. TiVo disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

    NOTE:  TiVo and the TiVo Logo are registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. in the United States and other jurisdictions. TiVoToGo is a trademark of TiVo Inc.

© 2005 PRNewswire

Peer-to-PeerTelevision the way ahead?

Atzio have announced their Peer-To-Peer content distribution technology. As any user of bittorrent or similar P2P networks will know, it's a great way to distribute files co-operatively and save the content provider from huge bandwidth problems. Each file is divided up into many pieces, which can be dowloaded from anyone else, where-ever they are. This means that instead of the content provider having to deliver all content to every user, the more popular a file is, the more places there are from which to download it, and the bandwidth costs are shared between everyone who wants the content.

Atzio's Peer-to-PeerTelevision model distributes content (which uses Digital Rights Management to prevent unauthorised copying) using their "Data Storming" technology to a custom client , which allows users to select programs from the content providers library, downloading them for viewing later.

The BBC are looking at P2P as a means of distribution of their Creative Archive - the idea being that as we've paid for the BBC's output, we should be able to get access to it whenever we want. P2P distribution of the programmes is the only practical and financially viable way of achieving this.

Click more to read the press release...

Atzio Technology Announces Arrival of Legitimate Peer-to-Peer Television

Secure, Effective Data Swarming Method of Content Delivery over Internet Benefits Content Providers

LOS ANGELES, California – (August 30, 2004) – Atzio Technology today announced the availability of the company’s Peer-to-PeerTelevision™ technology, which enables Internet Television. Atzio is offering the first legitimate peer-to-peer television network platform, which uses data swarming to allow faster downloads yet gives content providers firm control of their valuable property.

The platform creates an efficient new distribution channel, allowing studios, networks and independent content providers to securely and cost-effectively distribute movies, video and television programs to consumers over the Internet. Because Atzio’s platform maximizes the power of today’s broadband connections, content providers will use it to deliver DVD-quality content to targeted and mass audiences without the need for expensive new high-speed infrastructure.

“Atzio is the first company to offer a legitimate peer-to-peer platform designed for the “Personal” and “Time-shifted” television concepts pioneered by Tivo and Netflix,” said Cedric Van Rossum, co-founder of Atzio Technology. “Broadband plus television is a powerful combination. Once our customers have set up a system based on the Atzio platform, their subscribers can easily order available movies and television shows, which will be downloaded for viewing at their convenience.”

With the Atzio distribution model, when video is released by a content provider, it’s packaged for Internet distribution, protected by Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology and added to the content producer's broad online catalog of titles. A registered, paid-up subscriber or other end user can browse the catalog and choose a video, which is then automatically added to his or her personal wish list (or queue). An Atzio technology-powered server then signals the end user’s Internet Media Receiver (IMR) to transfer the content over the Internet. (IMRs are set-top boxes, media center and other PCs, and other IP-enabled devices.)

The movie is then downloaded via Atzio’s patent-pending ‘data swarming’ techniques. These are designed to take advantage of network bandwidth and parallel processing so that very large video files can be transferred quickly and effectively.

The company’s Peer-to-PeerTelevision™ technology works by splitting a large video file (such as a movie) into a large number of digital “chunks.” Each chunk will be distributed to peers (the IMRs of end users who have paid for the specific video file). Each peer will then ‘propagate’ its chunk of the video file to another, using a portion of the upstream bandwidth available to each peer. Atzio’s technology then reconstitutes the chunks into a whole file in a relatively short time. This technique creates an extremely efficient ‘large pipe’ that allows content providers to serve the network with fewer servers, reducing their distribution and administrative costs.

Atzio’s platform meets the technical and business requirements of content providers for a secure distribution network. Industry-proven encryption and DRM technologies will keep the content secure, with no file sharing possible among end users. Content providers will reap the benefits of peer-to-peer technology without being forced to release content on “unfilterable” networks that don’t exclude illegitimate content.

The new technology is targeted at studios, television networks, independent content providers, e-commerce sites and online music stores (expected to also offer video content in the future.) Advertisers will be able to reach desirable customers with product previews and marketing campaigns.

“Atzio has created truly personal Internet television, offering a personal queue like Netflix, with time shifted delivery like Tivo,” adds Van Rossum. “Our developers are engineers who love movies—and have zero tolerance for piracy.”

Atzio's platform will be available soon to content providers, beginning with beta testing in the last quarter of 2004. The Atzio platform will be available for purchase as a software module and will also be available for licensing. Pricing information is available from the company.

About Atzio Technology

Atzio Technology provides efficient and cost-effective distributed content delivery solutions enabling Internet Television. The Company has developed the first professional data swarming network optimized for Video and TV content. The Atzio solution marries legitimate peer-to-peer technology with the “Time-shifted” and “Personal TV” concepts, providing the ultimate in choice, cost, convenience and flexibility to the end-viewers.

Atzio Technology is a privately held company founded by engineers from Cypress Semiconductor, Siemens and many other technology leaders. The company is headquartered at 2400 North Lincoln Avenue, Altadena CA 91001. More information is available at www.atzio.com.

New Philips DVD recorders announced

Philips has unveiled its strongest ever range of DVD Recorders to date, with the six-strong line equipped with unique functionality that makes DVD+R/RW recording easier than ever before.

The new range includes Philips’ first DVD-recorders to feature built in Hard Disk Drives that uniquely allow the viewer to access and retrieve content from the product’s six-hour memory buffer, guaranteeing you’ll never miss a favourite programme – even if you forgot to press record.

To cap off an impressive array of unique features, Philips remains the only manufacturer to feature the GUIDE Plus + Interactive Programme Guide.

DVD725H and HDRW720
Spearheading the line-up are the DVDR725H and HDRW720 combined DVD and Hard Disk Drive recorders that are equipped with 160GB and 80GB hard disk drives respectively, storing up to 250 hours and 130 hours of footage.

Viewed programmes are automatically stored on the adjustable six-hour Hard Disk Drive buffer and these can be retrieved, watched again, transferred to the hard drive or simply recorded onto a DVD+R/RW disc. When recording onto the hard drive, Flex Time allows you to time-shift and watch the programme from an earlier point, while the recording continues uninterrupted. It is also possible to watch a programme stored on the hard drive while another is being recorded. Thanks to Instant Replay you can immediately repeat exciting or memorable TV moments at the press of just one button.

When the Autorecording feature is activated the DVDR725H and HDRW720 automatically starts recording in the background, even if the TV is switched off.

High Speed Archiving transfers favourite recordings easily and quickly - up to 20x the original recording time - onto a DVD+R/RW disc with the press of just one button, providing a simple and efficient method of archiving footage, while at the same time freeing space on the hard drive.

For ultimate convenience both the DVDR725H and HDRW720 also benefit from the GUIDE Plus + Interactive Programme Guide.

The full-colour GUIDE Plus + IPG is completely free and enables on-screen recordings up to seven days in advance. Users can sort by category such as movies and sport and then begin recording onto the hard drive or disc simply by pointing and clicking the remote control.

DVDR610, DVDR615, DVDR520H and DVDR630VR
The new range starts with the entry-level DVDR610 and step-up DVDR615 that offer up to eight hours recording. The DVDR520H is the lead-in DVD recorder/Hard Disk player with its 80GB HDD allowing up to 130 hours of recording time. Like the DVDR725H and HDRW720, the DVDR520H offers Instant Replay and Pause Live TV functionality and one-touch recording from the hard drive to DVD disc at x12 speed.

The DVDR630VR is Philips’ first DVDR/VCR, combining the benefits of a Long Play/record Nicam stereo VCR and DVD+R/RW recorder that allows up to six hours recording on a disc.

Connectivity is extremely generous with RGB Scart and i.Link present on all models except the DVR610, while the DVDR630VR also features progressive scan enabled component video output.

Availability and pricing
* HDRW720, available now, £550
* DVDR725H, available September, £650
* DVDR520H, available September, £450
* DVDR615, Available August, £280
* DVDR610, available August, £250
* DVDR630VR, available October, £400

www.philips.com

Freeview in 4 million homes

The BBC has released figures showing that Freeview is now available in an estimated 4 million homes, ensuring that the BBC's digital television channels, radio networks and interactive services are available in over 13 million UK households.

In total, there are now nearly 4 million more homes with digital than before the launch of Freeview in the autumn of 2002.

Full BBC press release.

e.Digital and Fusion announce new portable PVR

e.Digital Corp. and Fusion Digital Technology Ltd have announced a portable Personal Video Recorder for downloading audio and video content from Fusion's range of digital TV receivers including the Digifusion FVRT200 (twin tuner 80 Gb digital video recorder (DVR)), the Digifusion FRT200 (twin tuner DTT set-top box) and the Digifusion FRS200 (twin tuner DTH set top box). The pPVR is scheduled to be unveiled at Mediacast 2004 in London May 25 - 27 at Fusion's booth #D12.

It will feature an integrated back-lit LCD screen, MPEG2 and MPEG4 playback, will accept MPEG2 streams from appropriate Digifusion set-top boxes to store on it's HDD, a 20Gb Hard Disk Drive (up to 40 hours of video programming) and can download music and video from an analog source or from the Internet via a PC.

Hauppauge Gives Away Thousands of DVDs in Massive Lord of the Rings Promotion

Hauppauge Digital is giving away thousands of copies of the new "Lord of the Rings" film, "The Return of the King", on DVD in an exclusive UK promotion starting this month. The new film, scheduled for release on 25 May, will be free to UK buyers of Hauppauge's PVR and MVP products until the end of July.

London, England (PRWEB) May 14, 2004 –- Free DVDs for buyers of PVR and MediaMVP products. Hauppauge Digital, the world leader in TV-on-a-PC products, is giving away thousands of copies of the new "Lord of the Rings" film, "The Return of the King", on DVD in an exclusive promotion starting this month. The new film, scheduled for release on 25 May, will be free to buyers of Hauppauge's PVR and MVP products until the end of July.

The promotion, which is exclusive to Hauppauge Digital in the PC marketplace, is expected to generate huge interest in the company's WinTV PVR-250, WinTV PVR-350 and MediaMVP products which add TV and VCR capabilities to PCs and allow playback through a network to a TV.

Buyers of the products, which start at £99.99 inc VAT, will receive The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - (Theatrical Version) - Two Disc Set, valued at £27.99 in exchange for their purchase receipt and the bar code from the product packaging. A rebate form is available at http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/pages/promotions.html.

"We are delighted to be able to announce this exclusive promotion for PC owners," said Yehia Oweiss, Managing Director of Hauppauge Digital. "We are recognised as the world leader in TV entertainment for PC owners, with technologies that not only allow owners to watch TV on the PC, but to pause live TV and to schedule recording to disk. With eleven Oscars to date for the first two Lord of The Rings movies, it seems appropriate that we can offer this epic new DVD as the biggest promotion we have ever launched."

The DVD will be free with Hauppauge's WinTV PVR-250 (£129.99 inc); WinTV PVR-350 (£159.99) and MediaMVP (£99.99) products purchased between 14 May and 31 July 2004.

InterVideo Unveils PC/CE Convergence Solution for OEMs at SBS

Single Software Solution Enables Manufacturers to Quickly Introduce PCs With InstantON CE-like Home Entertainment Functions With Remote Control of TV, Video, Music

InterVideo(R), Inc. (Nasdaq:IVII), a leading provider of middleware solutions for consumer electronics and PC manufacturers, announced today that it will begin delivering its innovative InstantON technology to OEMs and PC system producers for barebone and notebook systems that will begin appearing on the market in Q2 of this year. Produced by nearly a dozen manufacturers, these systems will provide customers with all of the benefits of a consumer electronic (CE) device on a PC. During demonstrations at the System Builder Summit (SBS) here this week, computer manufacturers and system integrators will see how they can quickly and economically incorporate InterVideo's technology to offer consumers InstantON-based systems with all of the features and capabilities of a complete home entertainment center and a personal computer.

InterVideo InstantON is a modular solution that is a new concept in PC/CE convergence. InstantON delivers TV, radio, music, videos and burning to DVD with the fast, CE-like access and the remote control consumers expect. With InstantON, systems instantly spring to life with a push of the button. People can watch DVDs and home VCDs, browse photo albums, and listen to rich surround sound music or watch TV. With the advanced PVR capabilities, InstantON can be used for time-shifting TV programs so users can pause and replay live TV as well as record favorite shows for later viewing. The software is enhanced with basic editing and DVD burning tools that allow users to cut, merge and split recorded TV programs and videos. Edited videos can be quickly burned directly to a DVD disc for viewing in their living room, on their laptop or shared with family and friends.

InterVideo InstantON's dual-boot configuration, which is being incorporated into systems from Fujitsu, Sharp and others, allows a single PC to be used for both computing tasks and entertainment. Without launching the standard Windows(R) OS, all of the multimedia activities consumers have come to expect from a complete home entertainment center can be accessed using a remote control, similar to a CE-device. When consumers want to use the PC to access their work-related files or the Internet, they can easily move into the Windows mode which requires the full Windows load time.

"In today's hyper-competitive environment product differentiation and time-to-market are major concerns for computer manufacturers and system developers," Andy Kuo, managing director of InterVideo Europe, noted. "As a result, barebone system manufacturers such as AOpen, Jetway, MSI and ASUS as well as notebook producers like Quanta, Wistron, and Uniwill have begun offering InstantON-ready products to their OEM and system customers. The new breed of InstantON-based PCE products give the consumer the best of home entertainment and computer work processing in a single economic solution."

InterVideo InstantON incorporates the reliability and power of InterVideo WinDVD(R), and LinDVD(TM) the playback/navigation software selected by industry leaders for their PCs and high-end CE devices. The Instant Media Technology (IMT) technology incorporated in the new Linux(R)-based software integrates the BIOS, OS, power management, and noise control with InterVideo's media playback/recording/editing technology, enabling consumers to enjoy the Instant access and remote control-only CE experience on their PC. In addition, the PVR functionality is based on InterVideo's award-winning WinDVR(TM) and LinDVR(TM) products for viewing TV on a PC with time-shifting functionality, giving the user complete control of their TV experience.

By including remote control support for the multimedia features, InstantON makes moving from one entertainment application to another as fast and easy as changing the channel on a TV set. Users simply push the Play button to watch DVDs, VCDs, and home videos with outstanding clarity; listen to music with rich surround sound; and watch or record TV programs -- all from the comfort of their living room couch.

Kuo noted that InstantON represents the true beginning of PC/CE convergence that people increasingly demand for their digital homes. "Even people who have never used a computer can use the remote control-only solution for their entertainment and never bother with a keyboard or mouse," he added. "They can enjoy their videos and music, take advantage of the TV/PVR functions, use the digital video recording and Web capabilities; and if they want to take a break, they can use the PC capabilities for their school, office and home work processing."

Availability

InterVideo InstantON is currently available from InterVideo only to OEMs for evaluation and integration and is not sold as stand-alone retail software. The modular nature of the product enables OEMs and middleware developers to create customized solutions and to incorporate only the features that are required for a particular device. InstantON includes the OS, BIOS, drivers, modules (engines), applications, user interface and remote controller. InterVideo also offers consulting services to assist OEM and integrator InstantON customers with product planning and customization, hardware driver fine-tuning, inter-company software integration, planning test procedures and product updates.

About InterVideo, Inc.

InterVideo is a leading provider of DVD software. InterVideo has developed a technology platform from which it has created a broad suite of integrated multimedia software products that allow users to capture, edit, author, burn, distribute, and play digital video. InterVideo's software is bundled with products sold by the majority of the leading PC OEMs. The company is headquartered in Fremont, CA with regional offices in Europe, Taiwan, China and Japan. For more information, contact InterVideo at 510-651-0888 or visit the company's Web site at www.intervideo.com.