pvr

Manitoba Telecom Services-subsidiary, MTS Allstream, on Monday announced the launch of what it claims is Canada's first whole-home PVR service. According to the company, the service, which is offered on its Microsoft Mediaroom-powered IPTV platform, MTS Ultimate TV (available in Portage, La Prairie, Brandon and Winnipeg) for CAN$5:00 a month, allows users to record up to three programs at the same time and play back programs from any connected TV in the home, as well as pause, replay and rewind live TV from their main set-top box. All existing PVR customers have been automatically upgraded to whole-home PVR, the company says.

Interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, said Wednesday that Canal Overseas, the international arm of Canal+ Group, is using its technology to launch a PVR service on its satellite TV platform, together with a Flash-based EPG developed by NDS. The PVR service is enabled by a new version of NDS's MediaHighway interactive TV middleware that allows end-users to transform their set-top box into a PVR by adding an external hard drive. According to Canal+, this is the first PVR service for Canal Overseas markets across the Indian Ocean and the Caribbean, and the service is also slated to be rolled out in French-speaking Sub-Saharan Africa and the South Pacific in the near future.

New York-area MSO, Cablevision, announced last week that it has deployed a remote DVR scheduling and management feature across its entire service area, for customers who subscribe to both its DVR for iO TV and Optimum Online services. According to the company, the new feature, which is accessed via its Optimum.net consumer Web portal, allows customers to fully manage their home DVR's--including finding and recording shows and managing stored content--from any PC or Mac.

The [itvt] editorial team is currently traveling in the UK, and, because of time constraints, we are covering a number of this issue's news stories in round-up/summary form. We anticipate some additional interruption of our regular news publishing schedule in the coming days, so we apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers. Here is the round-up:

Because of the large volume of news generated by the ongoing IBC show in Amsterdam, and because the [itvt] editorial team is currently traveling in the UK, we are covering a number of this issue's news stories in round-up/summary form. We anticipate some additional interruption of our regular news publishing schedule in the coming days, so we apologize in advance for any inconvenience to our readers. Here is the round-up:

Interactive TV and advanced advertising technology provider, OpenTV, said Wednesday that it will showcase a new, external PVR storage solution in collaboration with Seagate Technology in its booth (Hall 1, Stand C81) at the IBC show in Amsterdam later this week. According to the company, the solution, which is powered by the latest release of its Core2 middleware, combines OpenTV PVR technology with Seagate's Showcase storage expander, which OpenTV recommends as a "preferred" external storage device.

Korean MHP, tru2way and Blu-ray specialist, Alticast, contacted [itvt] Wednesday to let us know about its exhibit plans (Hall 1, Booth 1.C35) for the IBC show in Amsterdam later this week.

Among other things, the company plans to unveil what it bills as "the world's first single-middleware, dual-interactive commercialized hybrid receiver," which is powered by its Alticaptor middleware. According to the company, such hybrid receivers "represent the future of broadcasting," enabling viewers to enjoy a "seamless mix" comprised of 1) VOD content and catch-up services delivered through an IP network and 2) high-quality linear interactive HD real-time channels delivered via satellite.

UK-based set-top box manufacturer, Pace, contacted [itvt] Tuesday to let us know that its long-term customer, Scandinavian/Baltic free and pay-TV operator, Viasat Broadcasting, has selected its TDS855NV hybrid HD PVR. According to the company, the box's hybrid functionality will provide end-users with access to a broader range of programming and services, allowing them to receive content in a variety of different ways and giving them increased control over their TV experience.

Interactive TV and advanced advertising technology provider, OpenTV, announced Wednesday the line-up of products and features that it will be demo'ing in its booth (Hall 1, Stand C81) at next month's IBC show in Amsterdam. "There is a fundamental shift in the way people are watching television: now more than ever it is at the center of the home entertainment experience, an extension to the lives of people who watch it," OpenTV CEO, Ben Bennett, said in a prepared statement. "To address this shift in viewing and social habits we are bringing the latest technologies and functionalities in support of next-generation services to the television.

TelstraClear, a New Zealand-based subsidiary of Australian telecommunications company, Telstra, that offers triple-play services in Wellington, Christchurch and Kapiti, said Monday that it has tapped Irish IPTV technology provider, Digisoft.tv, and US content protection specialist, Verimatrix, to jointly develop a hybrid HD DVB-C set-top box with PVR capabilities and support for IPTV that it will offer to its cable customers. The box is intended to compete against the TiVo-based platform that rival operator, Telecom New Zealand is planning to launch later this year.

At the ANGA Cable show in Cologne, Tuesday, Strategy & Technology--a UK-based company that specializes in solutions for standards-based interactive TV (its products include the TSBroadcaster and TSPlayer systems, which are used for the creation and transmission of MHP, MHEG, tru2way and ETV applications; and the widely licensed RedKey MHEG engine)--announced that it has developed what it billed as the first applications to be shown to bring streaming video from the Internet to the TV, under broadcaster control, using the latest MHEG-5 middleware specifications.

At the ANGA Cable show in Cologne, Tuesday, interactive TV and conditional access technology provider, NDS, and Axel Springer Digital TV Guide, a provider of consumer entertainment technologies and EPG metadata, announced that they are partnering to promote "personal TV"--by which the companies say they mean the "rich viewing experience enabled by state-of-the-art DVR's and EPG's"--to German broadcasters and pay-TV operators.

Pleasanton, Calif.-based 180Squared--a company that bills itself as "a team of Microsoft Mediaroom alumni with extensive Mediaroom product and services expertise" (note: Mediaroom is Microsoft's IPTV platform)--announced Wednesday the launch of a Mediaroom solution, dubbed "Mediaroom in a Box," that is geared towards smaller carriers. The company says that, while working with Microsoft to support existing Mediaroom customers, it has also been working towards developing an end-to-end solution that will "help smaller carriers in the US to sharpen their business case around IPTV" and "support Mediaroom as the middleware of choice." "Some new things have been happening in Microsoft recently," 180Squared founder and VP, Amir Littman, said in a prepared statement.

UK-based set-top box manufacturer, Pace, has delivered a PVR- equipped hybrid satellite/IP HDTV set-top to French pay-TV operator, Canal+. Dubbed +Le Cube, the new box features an Ethernet port that Canal+ can use to deliver VOD services; and a 320GB hard disk, capable of recording up to 100 hours of HD programming (note: according to Pace, the hard drive has been engineered to be very quiet). The box also supports USB and HDMI, and has Dolby Digital audio outputs. Its IP connection is designed to allow progressive downloads of VOD content, wherein that content is buffered onto the hard disk.

--Deploys OpenStream VOD Platform with Get Norway