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Get TiVo without a TiVo box

The moment many have long awaited has arrived: Comcast cable customers can get TiVo on the cable company's own DVR set-top boxes.

TiVo is now available as a software download, which means no new piece of hardware for current customers and no waiting around for hours on a technician.

It's the first time TiVo's been available on non-TiVo hardware. Motorola says its DCT6412 set-top box is one such model. Technical trials began in December 2006, and market trials will begin this spring, the companies said. What they're not saying is how much the service will cost. … Read more

Hands-on with the Hava Gold HD

It's been a year since we were first introduced to Monsoon Multimedia's Hava device, a placeshifting product that delivered a handful of features--Wi-Fi connectivity, multicast functionality, and Windows Media Center integration--not found on the category-leading Slingbox. Hava went on to release its flagship product in late 2006, and the company has since licensed the technology to Pinnacle, which sells a Hava clone called PCTV To Go.

At CES 2006, Hava was showing off a new entry-level product called the Hava Gold HD. It's housed in a different enclosure than the Hava Wireless HD, and it loses that … Read more

wiDock: Why not?

Silex Technology America's new wiDock is a pretty hip iPod dock that lets you sync your iPod wirelessly (if you just can't wait for that feature to show up in the iPod itself) via a built-in 802.11b/g module. Its 3.5mm stereo audio and S-Video outputs let you use the wiDock with your home stereo and television set, as well. The dock also has an IR sensor on it that lets you control playback with a standard Apple Remote. Not a bad product at around $120, though maybe not as cool as one with wireless USB, … Read more

Sherwood receiver delivers HDMI 1.3, next-generation lossless audio

The Sherwood Newcastle R-972 will deliver HDMI 1.3 connectivity, six HDMI inputs, lossless audio decoding (Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio), and a graphic onscreen user interface when it's released in August for $1,500. (Note that the back panel image shows four HDMI inputs, but Sherwood has pledged that the shipping model will include six.) The product becomes the first officially announced receiver we've seen that incorporates all of those bleeding-edge features. Its step-down model, the R-872, offers similar HDMI and lossless decoding capabilities with "only" four HDMI inputs and a text-only onscreen interface, … Read more

Samsung shows off new Blu-ray player, has HDMI 1.3

Samsung was the first to roll out a Blu-ray player last year, and now they're the first company to roll out a standard form-factor player with HDMI 1.3. The new BD-P1200 offers many of the same features as last year's BD-P1000: 1080p playback; DVD upconversion to 720p, 1080i, and 1080p; and a stylish design. The BD-P1200's HDMI output is also compatible with the consumer electronics control (CEC) format, which should enable compatible products to send commands between each other--for instance, a CEC-compatible TV could send commands to the BD-P1200 and tell it to turn on and … Read more

An adapter for all kinds of media

At CES 2007, Zyxel announced the DMA-1000, a digital media adapter for serving up multimedia files from the PCs in your home to your home entertainment system. The small adapter resembles a wireless router and, in fact, supports both wired and wireless connections via Ethernet and 802.11g Wi-Fi. In addition, it offers a USB port so that you can play files from any USB-based storage device, such as a flash thumbdrive or an MP3 player.

The DMA-1000 supports high-def streaming (1080i) and includes an HDMI connector, as well as S-Video. Unfortunately, 802.11g throughput is insufficient for HD streams, … Read more

Warner details combo HD DVD/Blu-ray disc

As reported last week, Warner Brothers announced yesterday at CES its introduction of a new disc format that will contain both HD DVD and Blu-ray versions of the same movie, so it would work with either type of player. Warner calls the new format Total HD.

The studio fleshed out a few more details at the press conference. It announced that major retailers Best Buy and Circuit City, along with online retailer Amazon, will stock the discs when they appear in the second half of this year. It also specified, according to Reuters, that the discs could be either single- … Read more

What? You still want more Macworld goodies?

If you're still eager for more photo and video content from yesterday's bonanza at Macworld, look no further.

Video: First Look at the iPhone. Declan McCullagh braves the hordes of Apple fanatics to actually get a look at the hallowed iPhone, despite the fact that Jobs & co. won't actually let anyone touch it. Video: First Look at Apple TV. Unlike the iPhone, the Apple TV box was actually on hand for visitors to get their grubby fingers on it. Here's Declan's take. Video: Apple TV at Steve Jobs' keynote. It wasn't webcast, but … Read more

Catch ya on the flip-side

Warner Bros. will be making some of its films available on "Total Hi Def" DVDs, which are, ingeniously, HD DVD on one side and Blu-ray on the other.

The combo discs are the same size as always but contain both single and dual layers for both formats. A Total Hi Def DVD can have 15GB or 30GB on the HD DVD side and 25GB or 50GB on the Blu-ray side.

The Total Hi Def DVDs (THD DVDs? THDs?) will begin appearing some time after July, in conjunction with normal movie-to-DVD release schedules, Warner Bros. said at CES.

The … Read more