Hasta La Gadget!

According to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek, e-commerce behemoth Amazon is preparing to launch a set-top box this fall, in hopes that you’ll consume all of your content through its spin on the now-common device. The company is already working hard to push its Kindle line to consumers, and this box would be for people who don’t want to deal with the fanciness of Apple products, the gaming nature of Microsoft’s XBox, the half-baked Google TV or the little engine that could, Roku.

Yes, this is a crowded market, but Amazon has something that these other companies don’t have, which is warehouses full of things to sell to people while they watch TV. I imagine that you’ll be able to shop as you would online or on your mobile device, right on your TV set. That means that the temptation to pick up that new TV, while you’re watching your old crappy one, could overcome you during a show. One button click and a new TV could be on the way.

Think of it as Home Shopping 2.0. With some interesting programming to watch, of course.

Instead of acquiring a smaller company that already has its own product in the wild, Amazon has decided to build this in-house, under its Lab126 umbrella in Cupertino.

Amazon has been building up its content viewers by bundling it with Amazon Prime shipping for free, trying to entice anyone who is already spending regular money with them to try other things out. What shipping has to do with free movies and TV, I don’t know, but customers seem to be happy with it thus far.

Reasons for doing a set-top box are obvious, with its original content being the most popular on the platform since it launched. As Amazon finds its way to more niche shows that it can present exclusively, the reasons to grab an Amazon-branded device for your TV makes more sense. In the same way that Apple leverages each of its devices to sell new ones, Amazon is learning how it’s done. It also doesn’t help that it has millions of shoppers visiting its site daily looking for new things.

Some could say that Amazon is late to the game, but I see Jeff Bezos and company taking smart, calculated steps to capitalize on mistakes made by others, much like it did with the Kindle, staying close to a purer paperback-esque reading experience.

[Photo credit: Flickr]

It is rather interesting to see just how times have passed, that it would not make much sense at all just two or three decades back, if you were to ask your neighbor or friend, “Just how fast is your smart TV?” Well, there was no Smart TV all those years back, and to make matters worse last time, TVs were fat and chunky CRT models, instead of coming in a svelte form factor of today, which tend to lose more and more of their bezels along the way, too. Well, time has certainly brought its fair share of advancements in the world of TVs, where Smart TVs are now the norm for most living rooms. HiSense has stepped forward to the task of rolling out their fair share of Smart TVs, and recently introduced VIDAA, which is a stunningly simple, elegant, yet immensely powerful User Interface (UI) for Smart TVs.

In fact, HiSense hopes that with VIDAA, they are able to deliver easy, intuitive operation of advanced Smart TV features as well as its functionality. VIDAA is capable of simplifying and enhancing a passive, lean-back consumer experience with a new simplified remote control, where they will also see intuitive channel surfing working alongside a quartet of distinct content “silos”, making life a whole lot easier for the entire household to access desired content.

At the VIDAA’s major launch, HiSense’s four silos were specially designated by a specific button on the remote, which represented Live TV, Video On Demand, Media Center for personal content, and Applications. You will be able to navigate easily among the silos and view uninterrupted content as images slide into view. This is a spanking new kind of user interface which was specially designed in order to align with the passive nature of the 10-foot, lean back experience, where it will definitely favor consumption-friendly TV over complicated and controlled interaction. In a nutshell, HiSense has re-invented the Smart TV, hence delivering the world’s fastest Smart TV along the way.

Press Release
[ HiSense introduces world’s fastest Smart TV copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

In today’s first-quarter earnings letter, Netflix announced a $12-a-month plan that doubles the current limit of two simultaneous video streams to four simultaneous feeds plan.

A while back, I told you guys about the release of DirecTV’s top-of-the-line HD DVR, the Genie. Shortly after that announcement, I got my hands on one of the boxes, and have been using it as my main DVR for the last 6 months or so. I figured now that I’ve been using it for a while, I’d share some of my experiences.

I’ll start out by saying that I’ve been a DirecTV subscriber for over 10 years now, so I’m pretty familiar with all of the receivers and DVRs they’ve offered over the years. I have to say that their hardware and software has truly come a long way in that time.

The Genie itself is a fairly non-descript black box, with touch-sensitive blue backlit controls on front. But under the hood, it’s a real powerhorse. This single box is capable of recording not one or two shows at the same time, but five. This means it’s almost impossible that a conflict will ever prevent you from missing a show. If you want to take advantage of the whole-home capability of the Genie, there’s a small network adapter box called a DECA that sits on top of the Genie, which basically creates a LAN over satellite wiring so it can stream content to other locations in your home.

On the back of the Genie, you’ll find a single satellite Coax connector, an Ethernet port, HDMI, S-Video, Composite and Component outputs, as well as a coax digital audio output. There’s also an SATA port for adding more hard drive space, a USB port (for future use), and a phone jack (which isn’t really necessary if you have it hooked up to the Internet). It’s also got an IR port so you can add an IR receiver inside of a media cabinet, though the remote supports RF mode, so this isn’t really needed.

Thanks to its generous 1TB hard drive, you’re able to record up to 200 hours of HD programming or 800 hours of SD. I’m an avid TV and movie watcher, and so far, I’ve yet to fill up more than 20% of the Genie. Despite recording dozens of HD programs each week, most of the time, I’m only using about 15 to 18% most of the time. I’ve even saved some movies and programs from many months ago that I haven’t gotten around to, since I never have to worry about running out of space. And the live TV buffer is great, constantly recording up to 90 minutes of programming, so you can even record a program which started as much as an hour and a half ago – assuming you were tuned to that channel.

The HD DVR capability is as good as I’ve experienced on any box, with fast, responsive play, pause, fast-forward and rewind controls with four selectable speeds. There’s also the ability to jump in 15 minute increments if you want to quickly jump ahead. It’s also smart enough to jump back a second or so when you resume playing from fast-forwarding, accounting for your reaction time. It also supports frame-by-frame, slow-motion playback, a 30-second skip and a 6-second replay capability.

Searching for programming on the Genie is fast and easy, with an interface DirecTV calls “Smart Search.” This allows you to alphabetically search for programming based on program name, actors and even directors in one unified view. The interface is even smart enough to sort the results based on popularity. For instance – keying in a “W” brings up “The Walking Dead” right at the top of the list.

You can record individual programs, set up a series pass, and decide whether or not you want to record new episodes, repeats or both. There’s also the ability to record extra time at the beginning or end of a program in case you’re recording a show which might be delayed by a sporting event – as happens with The Amazing Race virtually every week.

To Record a program directly from live TV or the program guide, simply press the orange “R” button on the remote, and to record the entire series, press it a second time.

The Genie can also recommend programs on the basis of your viewing history. While the interface for this is nice and easy to use, I found the results to be pretty hit or miss. My wife and I mostly watch shows like Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad, but most of the recommendations I got were for reality shows – presumably because when we do record those, there are more episodes of those programs than the dramas we watch. To be honest, I didn’t get much value out of these recommendations.

On the other hand, the contextual recommendation capability is absolutely brilliant. You can be looking at the details for a specific program or series, and you can get recommendations related to that show or movie. You can even choose programs based on the same cast or crew.

The Genie also provides access to DirecTV’s library of Pay-Per-View and On Demand programming. I’ve always liked how they integrate the titles of movies and shows directly into the interface, so you can immediately access the show without digging for it inside of deeper menus.

There’s also direct access to a full On Demand library for premium channels like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz – assuming you subscribe to these services. Keep in mind that On Demand programs require a broadband Internet connection, and if you have a slow connection, you might have to allow the program to buffer for a while before watching. I have a fast cable Internet connection, so this wasn’t a problem for me.

Additional, though less frequently used bells and whistles of the Genie include a picture-in-picture capability, as well as YouTube and Pandora support. All three work admirably, but are pretty utilitarian in their interfaces.

PIP is handy at times, but if you’ve got YouTube or Pandora on other devices, these versions are nothing to write home about. That said, it’s great to be able to occasionally access these services without having to switch to another device. You can also access photos and music stored on PCs on your network if you’ve connected the Genie to your home computer network.

One of the nifty things about the Genie is that when you add on the whole-home DVR service is that it allows you to fully replicate all of the capabilities of the main unit in other rooms. All you do is plug in a small digital adapter box called the “Genie Mini” in each room with a TV, connect it to the satellite cabling and your TV, and you can watch anything from the main DVR. You can even pause a show in one room and resume it in another. In addition, you can record and manage programs from other rooms as well. It’s really just like using the main Genie box.

In order to use the Genie, you’ll need to have a SWM compatible slimline dish from DirecTV, and in my case, they came out and upgraded my old giant 5-LNB dish to a more compact SWM dish. The Genie also offers support for receiving 3D programming, and I can confirm that even if the TV hooked up to your main Genie box doesn’t support 3D and other TVs in the house do, you can still watch 3D on those other sets.

The Genie integrates with DirecTV’s mobile apps, available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone devices. These apps allow you to search for programs remotely and set them to record even when you’re away from home. They also offer limited support for playback of some content directly on your mobile device – though it would be nice to be able to use the apps as a true Genie client. There’s no technical reason this can’t be done in future – but there may be licensing limitations which prevent this.

Overall, I’ve been extremely impressed with the Genie. It’s much faster and more stable than my past DVRs, and certainly way more capable. Its user interface is easy to use, fast and responsive, and it really does provide tremendous flexibility – especially in a multi-TV home.

The five tuner capability has eliminated the worry about potentially missing a program that is only run once – which used to happen to me during my busy Sunday night programming schedule. I can’t tell you how nice it is to never have to go in and adjust the priority of recordings, because it’s really a non-issue for all but the most voracious of TV viewers. Plus, its seemingly unending storage capacity gives you the freedom to truly watch a program when you want – even if it’s six months later (assuming it’s not a PPV program which can have an expiration date.)

You can find out more information about the Genie and how to order or upgrade to one over at DirecTV.

Disclosure: DirecTV provided the equipment for review in this article. However, all reviews are the unbiased views of our editorial staff, and we will only recommend products or services we have used personally, and believe will be good for our readers.

Animator Leigh Lahav gave her husband Oren a wonderful birthday present that should warm your hearts: she recreated the opening credits of famous TV shows but remixed them to include all of his family and friends as cast members. If you watched a television in the past five years, you’ll definitely enjoy this. More »