DVR

SlingPlayer Mobile has hit the Android market.

Sling Media's $29.99 app, released Tuesday, lets Android users with Slingbox devices control their home TVs and DVRs to watch live or recorded content on their smartphones.

Users must have a Slingbox Solo, Pro, or Pro-HD device and can connect through a 3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi network.

The new Android version of SlingPlayer Mobile joins the company's other SlingPlayer apps for the iPhone, Palm OS, Symbian, and BlackBerry.

SlingPlayer Mobile offers faster start-up and response times than its other mobile versions, according to Sling Media, and sports a new interface … Read more

I'm a DVR fan from way back. I started by using ReplayTV (of blessed memory), then made the move to Windows Media Center, which has served me well for many years.

However, I'm at a crossroads. For reasons I won't get into here, Windows Media Center is no longer getting the job done. Thus, I have to live with Comcast's ubercrappy DVR or make the move to TiVo.

I've long resisted using TiVo for one simple reason: the monthly service fee. After you buy the box, you're on the hook for $12.95 per … Read more

Sony is working on a follow-up to its PlayStation 3 DVR known as PlayTV, senior producer Mark Green confirmed in a recent interview with game publication Spong.

According to Green, his studio is working on several projects. He balked at mentioning them all but cited the DVR add-on unit for the PS3.

"We're still working on PlayTV, PlayTV 2," he said.

Green stopped short of discussing it further. Regardless, speculation abounds over what may come out of the PlayTV 2. The first PlayTV, which went on sale in 2008 for about $156, allows owners to record and … Read more

There are a handful of ways to record TV to your computer using an external video card or over-the-air tuner. Only one method, however, promises HD-quality recording and an iPad-compatible app for streaming your recordings over the air. It's called the Elgato EyeTV HD, it's Mac-only, and it's available now for $199.

The sandwich-size hardware isn't much to look at, but put it between your Mac and your cable/satellite box and you've got a powerful tool for capturing the TV you're already paying for. The box sports component and S-Video inputs capable of … Read more

I sat down with TiVo CEO Tom Rogers this week, and don't worry: I asked him about the DirecTV TiVo right off the bat. Of all the things you wanted to hear from him, whether it be whole-home streaming, built-in Wi-Fi, Comcast deals, or the origin of the "ba-doop-a-doop" sound, the single most oft-asked question was about DirecTV. You'll be happy to know he did promise a box by the second half of the year, but less happy to know that he wouldn't really get into many specifics about what it will look like. My … Read more

I'm excited to announce our next CNET Conversations guest, TiVo CEO Tom Rogers.

It's been 11 years since TiVo arrived on the scene and, arguably (and alongside ReplayTV, changed the way we watch television. But, as you know, TiVo has struggled to find a broad foothold and cable and satellite companies have chosen to provide customers with their own house-brand DVRs, and have, shall we say, made it difficult for cable customers to venture out into the wilds of TiVo + CableCARD.

Plus, set-top boxes are the new black in the consumer electronics industry, and would-be TiVo competitors like … Read more

You'd need 326 TiVo Premiere boxes to match what the SnapStream DVR can do with just one coax plug.

This SnapStream DVR is basically just a tech demo for now--but it's one hell of a tech demo. Loaded with 50 analog tuners, it can pull and record 50 channels, simultaneously, from your cable feed onto 136TB of storage. That means it's capable of saving 115,200 hours of searchable, recorded TV (or 13 years worth of content to watch).

Put differently, you could record 50 channels in your cable package for 96 days straight.

The system--which SnapStream … Read more

The TiVo Premiere is finally here, and I've gotten a chance to live with it for the past week. Thanks to a late CableCard installation, I'm not quite ready to wrap up the review on the product, but I've seen enough to share some detailed impressions. And it is, in many ways, a tale of two TiVos. Or, more specifically, two sets of prospective TiVo customers. TiVo newbies--those who have suffered with "generic" DVRs from their cable providers and are coming to a real TiVo for the first time--will find themselves getting an all-in-one digital box that's an easy-to-use and elegant gateway to a wide range of TV and online video and audio entertainment. Meanwhile, TiVo die-hards are likely to be disappointed: the TiVo Premiere is merely an evolutionary step-up from previous Series3 and TiVo HD models, not the sort of game-changing product that the original TiVo was. It adds an updated, high-def user interface, universal search option, and faster operation--and not too much else. … Read more

Two weeks after the release of the My Passport AV, an external hard drive designed specifically for use with digital content players and recorders, Western Digital announced the internal version of the same hard drive, the 2.5-inch SATA WD AV-25.

The company claims the new AV-25 hard drive differs from other internal hard drive by providing greater reliability, with a mean time between failures of 1 million hours. It's engineered specifically for demanding, always-on multimedia-streaming applications, and runs cool and quiet.

Apart from that, WD says the AV-25 hard drive meets the requirements of the AV/DVR and surveillance markets by offering universal compatibility, low power consumption, and the capability to simultaneously record multiple audio and/or high-definition video streams.

Other features of the new AV-25 hard drive include:… Read more