Blockbuster has announced today that they will begin delivering movies and TV episodes through TiVo DVRs, bringing over 10,000 pieces of content to all Series 2, Series 3 or HD series devices.
Movie rentals will cost between $2 and $4 USD depending on how new the release is, and a purchase will average $15 to $20 USD.
Additionally, Blockbuster will begin selling TiVo DVRs in all their retail stores.
The move is in response to rival Netflix’s huge push into the movie/TV streaming market, in which it has already signed deals with Microsoft, LG, Samsung, and others.
“Ultimately, our vision is to work with TiVo so that their subscribers can access movies not only through our OnDemand service but also from our stores and through our by-mail service as well,” said Jim Keyes, Blockbuster’s chairman, added.
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For several years Echostar has been involved in a legal battle with TiVo over Dish Network DVRs that were found to be infringing on that company’s ‘Time Warp’ patent. To date every court decision has gone in TiVo’s favor. Now they’ve managed to get the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-examine the patent, hoping to have it invalidated.
Echostar released a statement today saying “We are pleased that the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) granted our Petition for Re-Examination of the software claims of TiVo’s ‘389 patent, which are the subject of TiVo’s current motion for contempt. The PTO found that there is a ’substantial new question’ of patentability as to the software claims in light of prior patents that appear to render TiVo’s ‘389 patent invalid as obvious.”
Since being sued for patent infringement Echostar has redesigned their DVRs to avoid paying TiVo royalties, but if the patent is upheld they’ll owe TiVo $74 million.
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Silicon Image, an innovative chip-maker that helped to pioneer< the High-definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) standard, has revealed its intention to make media available throughout the home on all available displays. The company touted LiquidHD at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The new technology can connect all televisions, Blu-ray / DVD players, games consoles, DVRs and computers to a single home network.
In use, a user could, for example, pause a video game or Blu-ray movie in the living room, and then go to another room in the house and resume play on a different television with just one remote control. “This is presaging a whole new generation of smarter consumer devices that are aware of each other and able to share content across a very cheap commodity network,” Silicon Image Chief Executive Steve Tirado said in an interview ahead of the start of CES.
The company has created a chip that manufacturers can embed in the next generation of television models, while it can offer software development kits for makers of games consoles, DVRs and Blu-ray players. TVs currently on the market can also be used with the system through the use of a small external device.
Silicon Image doesn’t expect to have the first products incorporating LiquidHD on the market until 2010, but has already gotten approval from Fox Studios for the security and content protection used by the technology. The company will form a consortium to develop an international LiquidHD standard and promote it, mimicking the approach used with HDMI. Over 800 manufacturers have adopted HDMI.
