If you believed the commercials, it would be clear that Comcast is the leader when it comes to providing the most HD programming. But anyone who has Comcast as their cable provider knows that the cable giant makes that claim based on the amount of on-demand high-def programming it makes available, not on the number of HD channels it provides.
In a world already saturated with DVRs, Digeo decided this year was the perfect time to launch its own model, with the Moxi HD DVR joining TiVo as independent players in a space increasing dominated by cable and satellite providers' own devices. The Moxi, currently sold only at Amazon.
Some owners of home theater PCs (HTPCs) want as much of the same experience as a typical cable user as possible, which means they need to install CableCards into their systems to access scrambled digital channels and the like. For those whose TV needs are less demanding, a PC with a TV tuner can get you unscrambled cable channels and over-the-air HD stations.
If its superior number of HD channels isn't enough to elicit some envy from cable subscribers, DirecTV is rubbing it in a little more with the official release of an iPhone app that basically lets you control your DVR from anywhere.More specifically, you can search for shows up to two weeks in advance, then record them onto any DirecTV DVR in your home, either as a one-time recording or a season's worth.
You may best know Monster Cable as the company that produces the $80 HDMI cables that Best Buy tries to sell you as being superior to the $10 ones you can find online. But with its GreenPower products, Monster is more concerned with the wasted energy being sucked from electronics components than with sucking money out of your wallet.
The result isn't really that surprising, but it's still an interesting finding. According to a recent Dutch experiment, it turns out that the power of suggestion once again can make unsuspecting test subjects talk themselves into seeing something that isn't thereliterally, in this case.
In theory, CableCards don't seem like a bad idea: Instead of using a set-top box provided by your cable company, you can slide a small card into a device like a PC or TiVo and use that to control your programming options. The first cards were hobbled by their inability to communicate in both directionsable to transmit to the device but not to send signals back from itwhich made features like on-demand viewing unavailable.
For $99, the Netflix Player by Roku was already a pretty good deal for getting on-demand content from Netflix's Watch Now service streamed to your TV. Now Roku has upgraded the device to support HD streaming from Netflix, which should help it answer one of the chief criticisms leveled at the player: video quality that's lackluster on a high-def set.
Major movie studios continue to take baby steps toward offering new films to cable subscribers via premium on demand while the flicks are still in theaters. The biggest test to date will come in a few weeks, when Comcast will bring the new Eddie Murphy/Ben Stiller potential blockbuster Tower Heist to a pair of test markets just three weeks after it debuts on movie house screens.
Its partnership with Skype to bring video calls to its subscribers isn't the only iron Comcast has in the fire at this week's Cable Show. Tomorrow, the cable giant will detail what it's calling its "next generation television experience" for Xfinity TV customers, including a new set-top box and a revamped and more interactive UI.