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DIRECTV Will Link PCs to Their DVR

DIRECTV Will Link PCs to Their DVR

by , 3:20 PM EST, January 15th, 2007

DIRECTV announced on Wednesday that customers with their DIRECTV Plus HD DVR will be able to access pictures and music from their PC with Viiv technology. The announcement was posted by HDTV Magazine and came one day after Apple announced that its Apple TV will ship in February.

"We announced our alliance with Intel at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show and we are happy to be here today, one year later, to show you the fruits of our labor," said Romulo Pontual, executive vice president and CTO, DIRECTV, Inc. "The way people consume media is rapidly evolving and connectivity between digital devices is becoming an essential part of the home ecosystem. DIRECTV understands this evolution and is delivering innovative solutions to make sure our customers stay connected."

The story claimed that the transfer of music and photos is just the beginning and went on to say that, "Later this year, DIRECTV plans to enhance the photo and music experience, as well as provide the ability to stream video from Intel Viiv technology-based PCs via DIRECTV Plus HD DVRs."

This announcement came one day after Apple announced its Apple TV, a device that creates a direct link between an iTunes library and an HDTV with Wi-Fi technology. Apple's business motivation is clear, namely, create a synergy between eventual HD content in iTunes and the HDTV experience, hopefully all on their hardware. In effect, it turns the PC or Mac with iTunes into a vast library DVR and bypasses the traditional broadcast carriers and their equipment. The DIRECTV announcement appears to be another step carriers like DIRECTV are taking to preserve their hardware presence in the living room.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:59 pm Subject: Even Though...

Even though the formal announcement came the day after the appleTV announcement (during CES)... the feature was enabled nearly a month ago... about a week before Christmas.

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Close Name:Guest
Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:40 pm Subject: Too bad its

Too bad its going to be on their DirecTv branded DVR, because that box is a sad piece of engineering. You can have my DirecTV TIVO DVR when you pry it from my cold dead hands.

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Close Name:Mikuro Posts: 457 Joined: 15 Jun 2002
Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:51 pm Subject:

It sounds like with the AppleTV should have been: a two-way device, letting you take movies from your computer and play them on your TV OR record TV to play/store on your computer.

Then again, I could be wrong. I have no idea what "Viiv-verified digital media adapters (DMAs)" means. Sounds like something akin to DRM, but enforced at the hardware level. Am I wrong?

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Close Name:horvatic Posts: 102 Joined: 27 Jun 2003
Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:54 pm Subject: For PC only so who cares

It's for PC's only so who cares. When they develop something that works for the Mac then let us know.

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Close Name:Guest
Tue Jan 16, 2007 12:50 am Subject: Yeah, but it's DirecTV

All their hardware is crap and their software is even worse.

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Close Name:Guest
Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:23 am Subject:

I will second that. My Tivo DTV box is running well after 3 years, I have already had to basically throw a DirecTV version in the trash in that time.

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Close Name:Guest
Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:10 am Subject: It will work on a Mac

Horvatic

You don't have to use the Intel ViiV media server, to access the features on the HR20. See www.dbstalk.com for some alternative options to use with your MAC. There are some solutions that will work properly on some MAC configurations... As well as PC that are not ViiV compatible.

Also DirecTV does play to extended what the HR20 can work with to work more efficently with these other third party solutions.

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Close Name:Guest
Wed Apr 11, 2007 1:03 pm Subject: Tivo and DirectV

The Tivo box was always slow and then came the software "upgrade" which made it almost useless, late 06. I got the DirectV HR20 and have had very little problem with it so far!
As far as getting it to your Mac, Blackmagic's new Intensity card ($250) looks promising if you have an INTEL Mac! Then via Apple TV, and a big FW drive on your Mac, you might have the solution to playing quality HD on your big screen from your Mac via HDMI.

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