Sky+ viewers have had advanced search through the TV service’s mobile app for a while. Starting today, they’ll get that experience through their set-top boxes. Sky is rolling out an update to Sky+HD receivers that introduces as-you-type search, with unified results that include both live and on-demand shows. The upgrade will take a few months to reach all subscribers, but the days of slow searches may soon be at an end.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: Sky
Satellite TV in Ultra HD quality is no longer just a dream: following a successful test broadcast this week, KT Skylife has unveiled a roadmap for offering 4K TV to its subscribers. The Korean provider plans to trial one channel of UHD content in the efficient H.265 (HEVC) video format next year, with a full commercial launch due in 2015. Widespread availability will depend on KT Skylife’s ability to clear regulatory hurdles, CEO Jae-chul Moon says. The real challenge, however, may be finding customers with Ultra HD TVs. While prices are falling quickly, there’s no guarantee that 4K sets will be commonplace in two years’ time.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Source: The Korea Times
As powerful as the Hopper DVR can be, it largely exists in an app vacuum: to date, only official releases like Dish Explorer and Dish Social have had access. Dish is giving its set-top box some much needed flexibility, however, by offering the Hopper’s APIs to third-party developers. The expansion lets non-Dish mobile apps control the Hopper directly, whether it’s switching to a live show or scheduling a recording. Thuuz Sports (shown above) is the first app to take advantage of the APIs, although we wouldn’t expect a flood of releases afterwards — Dish is screening developers for privacy issues and “other considerations.” Still, the move represents a rare level of openness in an industry that frequently insists on self-branded software.
Filed under: Cellphones, Home Entertainment, HD, Mobile
We got a peek at DirecTV’s Genie system just a few weeks ago with promises of a system that would both suggest related shows and optionally record them unbidden. It’s here, and it’s being joined by some rebranding. The company’s flagship HR34 DVR has been relabeled as the Genie and makes the new software its centerpiece, with those five tuners letting even the chronically uncommitted take new recommendations as seriously as they like. As before, simultaneous viewing is otherwise the biggest angle: there’s support for up to eight RVU-capable TVs hooked up at once, two shows playing on one TV and up to four TVs watching the same show. You’ll have to be a new subscriber to get the video recorder under the Genie moniker, although we don’t see too many existing customers dropping everything to get that symbolic distinction.
Continue reading DirecTV Genie DVR and interface launch with advice for the indecisive
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
DirecTV Genie DVR and interface launch with advice for the indecisive originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 22:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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DirecTV paired its HD interface with the five tuner, RVU ready HR34 Home Media Center DVR back in March, so what will it do next to take advantage of the multiroom boxes with five tuners and massive hard drives? The answer is Genie, a new feature / rebranding that should be very familiar to TiVo users, since its aim is to find other shows you might be interested in and store them on the DVR without being prompted. The folks at Solid Signal and DBSTalk have had an early preview of the fall software update that will enable it, and have both posted hands-on impressions.
Once the user enables the feature, after a few hours it begins episodes of shows similar to the ones they already watch and recording them automatically. The feature uses hard drive space that’s already reserved for DirecTV’s video on-demand (so user accessible recording space is not impacted) and works in selections available from VOD. Watching a program at your leisure VOD-style, setting up a series recording for a new favorite or blasting it from your drive is just a click of the remote away on the DVR or one of its multiroom extenders. Helping viewers discover new content is a field suddenly filled with competition, from the social networking based to Dish Network’s Hopper that records everything on primetime network TV and even filters out commercials. That Genie can let you watch already recorded episodes right away and pull from any broadcasts its finds may give it a leg up, but so far we haven’t seen recommendation systems good enough to promote switching from one service to another. Hit the source links for more details on how it all works, along with a video preview, also embedded after the break.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
DirecTV HR34 DVR ‘Genie’ recommendations and autorecording get previewed ahead of fall launch originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 22 Sep 2012 19:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Sky+ has been on a bit of a tear refreshing its set-top boxes, and it’s not about to stop now. When ready, a new update for the satellite TV provider’s devices will let you undelete recorded programs; deleted shows are now moved to a separate space and only removed permanently either through age or if you really, really don’t want to watch. If you’re more interested in watching content that’s always available, both Anytime and Anytime+ will be rebranded as On Demand, while the Sky Guide is adding a dedicated store tab for movie rentals. Catch Up TV is also nearing with the update and should aggregate the last week’s worth of shows from Sky in addition to BBC iPlayer, Demand 5 and ITV Player. The gotcha, as we know all too well from these kinds of firmware revisions, is the timing. You’ll have to have either a Sky+ HD 1TB box or the Sky+ HD DRX890 to get the upgrade early on, and Sky is staggering its deployment in a move that could leave some subscribers twiddling their thumbs.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Sky+ update allows undeleting recorded shows, more on-demand and future Catch Up TV originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
DirecTV has quietly updated both its iPad app and HR34 DVR with a variety of new features for Satellite-loving customers. The application will now resume from where you left off, comes with a much improved search function and best of all, a direct line into the company’s support forums. Meanwhile, the HR34 swallowed a software package that included Pandora, a YouTube landing page and more readable closed captions amongst a raft of other nips and tucks. The former will be available through the app store, while the latter should have arrived on your box overnight, well before you start on that CSI marathon.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
DirecTV quietly updates iPad app, HR34 DVR originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Aug 2012 14:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Viacom’s frenemy, DirecTV, has announced that it suffered a net loss of subscribers for the first time in its history. The revelation came in its second quarter filing, which claimed that the exodus is actually a purge — due to a tighter credit policy and a change of focus toward “higher quality” customers. The dip in numbers hasn’t hurt the balance sheet, however, with revenues up seven percent to $5.65 billion, leading to a net profit of $604 million. This time out, there’s no reference to the recently-minted deal to keep Viacom’s stations on the service, believed to be in the region of $600 million per year — but we expect it to appear on the books in the next quarterly report.
Filed under: Home Entertainment
DirecTV waves goodbye to 52,000 subscribers in first ever net loss of customers originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
We’d probably all agree the Internet is the real revolution of the modern era, but today marks an older, parallel milestone that also brims with significance. On July 10th, 1962 — back when JFK fretted over Russian missiles in Cuba and Bob Dylan sang In My Time of Dying — NASA pelted the Telstar 1 satellite out into orbit, following a team effort by AT&T, Bell Labs and the British and French post offices. Two days later, the world’s first transatlantic TV signal made its way from Maine to Brittany, via a quick stop-over in the heavens, and a new age of international communication was born. Kennedy forgot his troubles for a moment to tidy his hair and grin at France, who replied with a chirpy performance by Yves Montand. It didn’t last long: Telstar 1 gave up its spherical ghost after just a few months and 400 transmissions, but by then, of course, the message had been delivered.
Continue reading July 12th, 1962: the day two continents smiled at each other
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Science
July 12th, 1962: the day two continents smiled at each other originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 12 Jul 2012 07:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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