ScreenScribe

TelstraClear has renamed its soon-to-launch PVR the T-Box Personal High Definition Video Recorder. Long in gestation, the home media device promises to combine the best features of TiVo and My Sky HDi with the HD Holy Grail bonus of 1080p video. Five months ago the telco started demonstrating the T-Box in its Wellington and Christchurch [...]

TiVo users frustrated by filling up their hard drives so fast with HD content can triple their storage for less than half the usual price from this weekend. Customers shortly will be advised of a special deal on the 1TB Western Digital Expander drive: $174.00 (plus $15.00 postage) — or $195.00 off the recommended retail price. Of [...]

TiVo is launching a home networking package that will let owners shift content between the PVR and their computers, iPads and PSPs. It will sell for $129 through the new mytivo.co.nz online shop from this weekend. “It’s a home networking service where one TiVo can talk to another TiVo, or you can take the content [...]

TiVo owners could be in for an early Christmas present: HD and 3D downloads. The licensee of the world’s top-selling PVR, Hybrid Television Services, has revealed to ScreenScribe.tv ambitious plans to not only make TiVo more popular in New Zealand but also to accelerate the rollout of its CASPA video on demand (VOD) service. “It’s [...]

Sky TV and free-to-air broadcasters may not be ready to embrace 3DTV but TiVo has confirmed it will soon offer 3D content on demand. Across the Tasman, TiVo has become the first DVR or PVR to handle time-shifting of 3D broadcasts, starting with the State of Origin series and continuing with the FIFA World Cup. [...]

Magic TV is the pick of the HD-capable PVRs assessed in the latest issue of Consumer magazine. It earns an overall score of 87%, compared with 78% for MySky HDi and Homecast HT92000DTR, and 77% for TiVo’s NZ media unit. All received Consumer’s “tick” of approval, unlike the Zinwell ZMT-640PVR and JC Matthew DVR-320T, which [...]

TelstraClear has just announced an “Alpha version” of its keenly awaited DTR can be viewed in its Wellington store and the reception of its Christchurch office. “As an Alpha version, development is not quite finished but most of the functionality is complete and it looks fantastic,” customers were told in an email today. “We are [...]

TiVo owners can look forward to a far bigger library of on-demand downloads over the media device’s CASPA service but don’t expect to watch any of it in HD for the foreseeable future. “At some point, CASPA will provide HD downloads,” Hybrid Television Services corporate affairs chief Rebecca Blasina told ScreenScribe.tv. “However, it won’t be [...]

UPDATE: Since posting this story, The Dominion Post has reported “software glitches” to be the culprit. TelstraClear has missed its February deadline for launching its DVR rival to TiVo and MySky HDi. ScreenScribe.tv wasn’t surprised to learn this given it has been unsuccessfully chasing TelstraClear for weeks seeking an update on progress. It came yesterday, [...]

NZ Herald columnist Pat Pilcher has given top FreeviewHD recorder honours to the Magic TV DVR. In a four-way shoot-out, he acclaims the MTV3600TD for standing “heads and shoulders above its other Freeview certified counterparts”, praising its large hard drive, comprehensive connections, network connectivity, foolproof installation and sculpted remote control that “easily sets the bar”. [...]