Zodiac Demo's tru2way-Based Movie Guide (NEW)

Interactive TV software company, Zodiac Interactive, is demo'ing a new, tru2way-based ITV movie guidance application at the NCTA Cable Show in Washington, DC this week. The demo is taking place on tru2way set-top boxes from Advanced Digital Broadcast (ADB). According to Zodiac, the new guide, dubbed the Interactive Television 2.0 Movie Guide, uses movie data feeds from Macrovision Data Solutions in order to display detailed information that cross-references movies, cast members, genres and more. "Our Data Solutions deliver in-depth relational databases of descriptive entertainment metadata and editorial content covering movies, television, music, and games," Corey Ferengul, Macrovision's EVP of product management and marketing, explained in a prepared statement. "The demonstration of our Data Solutions on Zodiac's ITV Movie Guide highlights the ease and simplicity of integrating our metadata technologies on tru2way platforms and devices. The result is a compelling movie discovery experience for
consumers, enabling them to connect with and enjoy even more content while reaping the benefits of tru2way interactive applications."

Zodiac claims that the guide offers intuitive navigation through movie descriptions, cast and credits, and actor information, and will also show the end-user lists of similarly themed movies to the one they are currently accessing information about: in order to promote ease-of-use, everything ties back to the "Main Movie" screen, the company says, and the "Exit" button always returns the user to a full-screen viewing experience. The new guide runs on top of PowerUp, Zodiac's framework software for tru2way. Zodiac bills PowerUp as providing a common platform of open API's and libraries that allows for a wide range of applications to be developed and to work together across multiple tru2way components, including authoring tools, middleware/stacks and set-tops; and as providing operators with easy access to various plug-and-play "Interactive Television 2.0" services such as advanced guides, EBIF applications and TV widgets (including local restaurant listings, click-to-call services, games, photo-sharing, weather, traffic, sports scores and local news). "We're excited to be launching our Interactive Television 2.0 Movie Guide at The Cable Show this year," Zodiac COO, Alexander Libkind, said in a prepared statement. "PowerUp is the middleware software, if you will, that ensures all tru2way applications look and act the same, regardless of the tru2way components the operators choose. And now with our Movie Guide, we can demonstrate with our valuable technology solution providers, Macrovision and ADB, the capabilities and ITV advanced services that our framework can provide, including advanced Movie Guides."