Virgin Media TiVo connected television box
informitv’s William Cooper explains why Virgin Media’s claim that it will blow other connected television products out of the water is long on promise but short on specifics or specifications...
Virgin Media, the British cable television company, will launch a new broadband connected television service with a set-top box powered by TiVo. The high-definition digital video recorder will be 3D compatible and will include a terabyte of storage.
A year after entering into a strategic partnership, Virgin Media and TiVo say they have developed a unique converged television and interactive service bringing consumers in the UK the best in television entertainment, be it broadcast, on-demand or online. Virgin Media boldly claims it will blow other connected television products out of the water.
The announcement from Virgin Media is long on promise but short on specifics or specifications.
It will include a terabyte of storage, which with the falling cost of hard drives is becoming standard for set-top boxes. Satellite competitor Sky has offered boxes with a terabyte of customer storage, with a further half a terabyte reserved for operator use.
The box will include a dedicated internal modem able to deliver HD video and other online services “without impacting customers’ regular broadband connections”.
Virgin Media suggests, without justification, that competitors connected television products “rely on just one central broadband connection” and argues that this makes it “difficult for families to watch online television or television on-demand and take advantage of the internet at the same time”. This implies, but does not state, that Virgin Media will reserve bandwidth for connected television services over and above that allocated for general broadband usage.
The interface is understood to be similar to the latest TiVo Premiere digital video recorders, using Adobe Flash for presentation.
While Virgin Media has been highly critical of the YouView initiative from British broadcasters and competing broadband service providers, there is no indication as to how open the new Virgin box will be and whether it will provide a market for third-party applications or access to other web services…
Read more at informitv.com
© informitv 2010. All rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.