The MoPR Blog

Is an $800 DVR worth it? It’s a pretty risky move during a rocky economy, but after 10 years of work Digeo is now offering its newest HD DVR to compete with Tivo – but it will cost you. Priced at a cool $800, the dual-tuner Moxi HD DVR can store 75 hours of HD programming and boasts no monthly fee or advertisements.

But with the TiVo HD DVR only priced at $299, will the Moxi be as big of a hit as Digeo expects? Would you pay $800 for an HD DVR?

In the air and on demand. In air on-demand entertainment isn’t just for the traveling elite anymore.  Continental Airlines just announced that it has almost completed installing audio and video-on-demand entertainment systems in coach class for the airline’s Boeing 757-200 aircraft.

The new entertainment system will allow customers to choose from up to 25 movies, 25 short-subject programs and 50 compact discs.

We’re glad to see more features being added to airplanes in a time when scaling services back or changing an extra fee for them seems to be the norm. Remember when JetBlue announced that it would be charging for blankets and pillows?  It’s safe to say that didn’t go over so well.

With with announcement and others, like in-air Wi-Fi access coming to major airlines like Delta, we are wondering what will they come up with next?  In this case, the sky really is the limit.

Good ol’ fashioned TV watching increased in 2008. Nielsen recently reported that U.S. usage of TV, Internet and mobile, also known as the “three screens”, has increased across the board- with the average American reportedly watching 142 hours of TV, viewing three hours of mobile video, and going online for 27 hours.

The A2/M2 Three Screen Report states that “the average time a U.S. home used a TV set during the 2007-08 TV season was 8 hours and 18 minutes per day, a record high since Nielsen started measuring television in the 1950s.”

You CAN take it with you. A morbid yet interesting report from MSNBC earlier in the week says many people under 40 are requesting that their mobile phones be buried with them when they pass away. Some even want their cell phone to ring as their casket is being lowered, like a modern-day Taps. We can’t dig it. Really. Unless you plan on making a few phone calls from the other side, what’s the point?

Well, for one, according to the article,

“People want to surround themselves (or their loved ones) with the things they hold dear, whether that’s their cell phone and headset or some family photos, a fishing rod, a piece of treasured jewelry.

We can only think of one reason to be buried with our mobile phone – and that’s if we happen to wake up, in a casket, several feet below the surface. Hopefully the battery – and signal – would still work.

Video for your iPhone? Well, sort of. 12seconds has released an iPhone application that lets iPhone users shoot video. How? Users take three pictures, record some audio and submit it. 12seconds then turns the photos and audio into a video and post it for you. We couldn’t find any examples of an iPhone video on the company’s web site but we will download the application, give it a try and report back. Until Apple relents and starts offering video on iPhones, this might be our only hope.

We’re famous! In case you didn’t hear from us via Facebook, Twitter or email, here’s our appearance on Good Day Oregon last month that featured our Museum of Mobility History, all seventeen minutes of it. Watch it below or click here.

Watch MuMoH on Good Day Oregon in Game Videos |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Photo courtesy of: See El Photo.

Mobile entertainment has reached a new level: TiVo access from your smartphone.

RIM and TiVo announced recently their partnership to produce customized TiVo services to the BlackBerry wireless platform.

Can you imagine TiVo for your phone?  Well, not yet.

For now, the service is only providing mobile access to your video content- meaning you can research which shows are coming up or schedule recordings on the go. The partnership eventually hopes to develop software applications that will revolutionize mobile access to video content. Meaning? Your BlackBerry and your TiVo will become close friends, essentially communicating to one another, and turning your BlackBerry into your wireless TiVo remote.

This is the first of many steps that will eventually bring us mobile video-on-demand straight to our phones. If we can already link the two to set up recordings and program shows, doesn’t that only mean that we are getting closer streaming TiVo recordings straight to the BlackBerry?

If all goes off without a hitch, I see this as an instant success- the wireless remote portion of it at least. The idea of being able to amend your TV line-up on-the-go is perfect for TiVo customers.  Just found out that the season premiere of House is on tonight?  Worried about forgetting?  No problem.  Simply pick up your BlackBerry and schedule away.  There really isn’t any arguing that this is a useful tool for BlackBerry and Tivo users.  However, I’m more curious about the future of their partnership is going.  If in fact they do eventually deliver TiVo programs straight to your smartphone, will people watch them?

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I think lounging on the couch and watching your favorite recorded show on an actual television is far superior to being crouched over a computer screen, and now, even a mobile phone.  No computer or mobile can compare to the viewing experience of your own living room.  But perhaps we are straying more and more from this idea?

In a recent national survey of over 2,000 teenagers from Harris Interactive and CTIA, a majority (52 percent) of teens agree that the cell phone has become the new form of entertainment. And when asked what should be included in the future generation of cell phones? One of the main additions teens wanted to see was a video player.

So does this mean we will be seeing more people glued to their tiny cell phone screens, headphones in and oblivious to the outside world?

I have to ask the question again:  What ever happened to watching television on…well…an actual television? Would you watch an entire recorded program on your cell phone?  And worse, have I become (gasp) outdated? Let us know where you stand.

Network TV may be coming to an end.  Well, so says Tivo CEO Tom Rogers.  In a letter addressed to shareholders on July 30, Rogers mapped out the issues, and potential failure, of network television.  The main concern being advertising, and how products like Tivo have nearly dissolved the delicate balance between advertisers and networks.

“We are very worried for the industry… Because we do not believe as a whole that it is responding urgently enough to the massive dislocations these new dynamics will create . . .  Easy commercial avoidance in the next two to three years will create such an overwhelming challenge to the economics of television that it will rock the very foundation of the industry…” said Rogers.

So what’s the solution?  Rogers says it’s creating ad solutions.  And I agree.

As television audiences are whizzing past commercials, thanks to Tivo and other DVRs, advertisers are beginning to wonder what they are spending their money on.  It feels very similar to what is going on right now in the newspaper industry.  Why would advertisers spend precious budgets on a print edition, when the online source is viewed more widely?

But with television, there is still a way to draw in advertisers.  Creative ideas like product placement and digital ad overlays are becoming the industry’s new alternative to commercial advertising.

Product placement is nothing new to the television industry and is an advertising method that has been used for years.  However, with the “fast forward” button glued to the fingers of audiences, product placement is now being recognized as a necessity to the advertising world.

Next time you’re watching an episode of “Flavor of Love”, check and see what flavor has been paid for.  Are they sipping on Pepsi or Coke?  And on “Desperate Housewives”, what cool car can they be seen driving around Wisteria Lane?  My suspicion is that these products will increase almost exponentially as the television revolution continues to leave advertisers in the dust.

But the other alternative that is making waves within the industry is digital ad overlays.  RGB Networks’ Jeff Tyre recently published an article highlighting the importance of digital ad overlays stating that the “value of overlaying text, graphics and images and full-motion video has been proven by broadcasters, who for years have used overlays for various applications, such as branding content with their logos, providing real-time supplemental information such as stock market tickers and local weather updates, as well as schedule-based supplemental advertising information.”

So as ad sales continue to decrease, pay close attention to the changes that will be taking place on your big screen.  Are more actors typing on Macs?  Are you seeing more of an increase in car ads popping up in the right hand corner of your TV?  Viewers be prepared; there is a definite change in the advertising industry taking place…and it’s up to YOU to determine if it will prove successful!