Technically Speaking

TiVO and Nero, today announced that they have entered into an agreement to further enable the connected digital home by integrating TiVo’s television user experience with Nero’s next generation of PC software.

Under the agreement, Nero will develop a software solution that will bring TiVo features to the personal computer. Capitalizing on the growing PC TV tuner market, it will answer the consumer demand for a trusted
PC-based DVR experience for use with the estimated 50.8 million PC TV tuners that will be sold worldwide by 2011, according to In-Stat research report published in April 2007.

Founded in 1997, TiVo pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Nero AG is headquartered in Karlsbad, Germany and serves the world with regional offices in Karlsbad, Germany (EMEA); Glendale, California, USA (Americas); Yokohama, Japan (APAC); and Hangzhou, China (China).

Technically Speaking, don’t you think it’s a bit behind the 8 ball with most TV cards having the DVR capability already built in? energy drinks

Well that is a new one on me. Eisner seems to think that striking writers should be barking up Cupertino Lane, or rather the home of Steve Jobs and Apple.

Eisner, a well-known critic of Apple (whose CEO, Steve Jobs, is a powerful member of Disney’s board of directors), suggested that the profits may be getting sucked up elsewhere. The studios “make deals with Steve Jobs, who takes them to the cleaners. They make all these kinds of things, and who’s making money? Apple! They should get a piece of Apple. If I was a union, I’d be striking up wherever he is.”

Kind of funny how Eisner is also the head of the experimental online show Prom Queen, a show that I referred to in a post the other day. He states that it’s a “fun project” and that it’s a money loser; not a money maker.

Cavuto, naturally, played devil’s advocate and asked Eisner why he’s sticking with it. “First of all, I’m doing it because I think it’s fun, I think it’s the future, and I think it’s interesting,” Eisner replied, “(but) I’m begging advertisers to give me enough money to break even.”

Begging advertisers to give Eisner enough money. I don’t quite think it is to that level, and I really can’t see Mr. Eisner on his hands and knees begging for cash. Everyone knows the truth.

The truth is that online entertainment, be it audio or video is all headed online. Whether the video realm is making any money now, or in three years (where he pulled that number from, I’d really like to know), it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that television with this strike has only hurried the inevitable. That is the death of television as we know it.

With content online improving every day, there is not a need for people to spend their money on cable or dish. There will be the day when everyone will be streaming shows to that flat screen. You may think that there are shows that are not online. Think again, as even the local news has started to put a majority of their stories if not their entire nightly newscast online.

I wish the writers well in their strike, but either they need to come to agreement quickly, or they will be looking for work. Where? Online for some new media company that does nothing but put content out on the internet. No television station licenses, no FCC, no regulation.

Technically Speaking, shows will (as they are now) be a bit sketchy to start, but once the writing begins to improve, you will see that online video is the way to go. If you really think about it, the shows of the 1950’s weren’t that great, and improved over time.

While I’m at it, here is the LC afternoon post - a great look iPhones and Ron Paul even!

With the writers officially on strike in Hollywood, it appears that it could be the door opening for a gold strike or a beat down. Seriously. The studios are like the record companies, bottom line driven companies and they don’t care about your own safety. Little is it pointed out that these online hired writers would be considered scabs since they would be crossing the picket line.

This is a classic case of 20th century unions meeting 21st century entrepreneurship. The chance that violence could break out over this, might be a bit of a stretch of the imagination, but than again when you take someone’s job by crossing a picket line…. trouble could be looming on the horizon.

Now I’m pretty anti-TV myself. I haven’t really been burdened to watch a television show on time since the invention of TiVo or the DVR. I DVR stuff all the time, and rarely do I watch it. Television has transformed into 3 minute YouTube videos, and I don’t think I am alone.

While there are some that cry - all the content online is pirated or crap, well take a deeper look. If you look hard enough there are online shows that are worth watching. You just have to be willing to search them out. I found one while writing a blog post on PromQueen.tv awhile back.

Technically Speaking, I guess there will be no late night shows for awhile; Jay, Dave, Conan, Jimmy, etc all need a break.

In some select cities, the local news will now be on dedicated YouTube channels. This only furthers my opinion of television’s eventual demise. I believe the set boxes will be around, but I also think that soon they will be all internet powered for content. With companies like Joost and their new CEO, they will push things ahead as far as this goes.

YouTube announced a partnership with an independently-owned TV broadcast network yesterday that will enable five stations to begin monetizing their content online. The agreement with Hearst-Argyle Television will put local TV programming from five markets

What cities? Boston, Manchester, Sacremento, Pittsburgh and Baltimore. Nothing close to the middle of the country yet. Hopefully we shall see these stations maximizing the exposure they will receive shortly via the online distribution network. Once they prove profitable, I can see both Joost and YouTube trying to grab this daily new content up quickly.

Technically Speaking, best investment advice I can give right now is to hold off on any new television purchases. Make use of what you have currently, as the new wave of television will probably require some connections not currently offered on most brands that you can purchase.

Vudu, is going to give Apple TV some competition, and that is good. This is going to be another in the many steps we will be seeing taking place of morphing from regular television to total on demand TV. It has been going that way for a few years now. The only problem is that you had to wait on the cable companies to catch up. Problem #1 in my book.

First off, here in St. Louis we have what is known as charter communications connection problems. It’s actually more like waiting for a charter communications buyout. That in a nutshell describes what is wrong with waiting for the cable service (at least here in the STL) to come up with something that works.

There will be those that argue and state,”But on demand does work, I watch it all the time.” Yes, it probably does work for those that have not had to hassle with a cable company. For those that have had that problem, you know exactly what I am saying.

Gizmodo had some really cool pictures of this new Vudu box. I was reading through the comments, and one of them was complaining about an ethernet jack on the back. Others wanted streaming right out of the box on release.

I say, “It’s a start, just like Apple TV.” Let’s not knock the product until it is out in the masses. I personally would like to try one out. The only problem, I don’t watch much television. In fact I should be doing that now. I have a ton of things recorded on my Dish Network DVR!

Technically Speaking, competition makes better products for consumers. I am liking what I see so far in Vudu, Inc.

I’m going to break it down this morning. Many similar but yet still a bit different topics.

Apple Lands Deal with MGM - Very nice!

Live Sports via the Internet - Everything that I keep saying, as well as everyone else is being formulated this year. Television is going online, and when mainstream America hears the news, they will be “shocked” as always.

Technically Speaking, more in a second.

Here we go, first up of course is more Facebook news.

Facebook - “That Guy” is for sale for $1, and accounts are getting deleted.

Babelgum - It is launching in 1 week. The landscape of television is changing, and it’s changing this year - 2007.

Your Own TV Station - You might want to try this out.

Laptop or Desktop - Rex would like a Macbook Pro.

Technically Speaking, there is probably more soon.

Prom Queen could become the way new shows are viewed coming down the road really quick. Many have said that TV won’t die, but after last night’s post on the Hometown Baghdad series, it appears that this is world wide. People are accepting that television is dying off. This will all be starting on April 2nd, but you can see it at the above link to Mashable’s story.

This is all expected to be announced on Thursday as MySpace has struck a deal with former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. This will be distributed now through MySpace Video.

Technically Speaking, television is dying off slowly, but the pace is picking up.

Want to watch Live TV? This looks interesting at least, but we all know where this is taking us now. Or more like where the tube is really headed very soon. I tried to watch the tube last night. Guess what? I fell asleep. Totally crashed out.

Technically Speaking, that tube is just not for me. Unless it’s the middle of the day and I’m watching something such as a sporting event, I think I’m going to just fall asleep! I find it more interesting right now, looking out my window as it is snowing here in St. Louis on St. Patrick’s Day!!

Green and Black just turned into burnt Orange and Black. Good start up colors if I do say so myself. Channelsurfr left me a comment on my below post about peekVid. They just launched recently and they have a better interface.

Technically Speaking, are there any more of these sites out there?