Tomorrow, July 13th is a big day for TiVo Australia owners with 12 brand new on-demand TV channels. The new channels will be ad-supported or “sponsored” with the first channel announced – Bella TV being sponsored by Cadbury. Bella TV will be a dedicated channel targeted towards women, so the Cadbury sponsorship makes a lot of sense with plenty of chocoholics out there.

As for the content of the other 11 channels, we’ll have to wait and see tomorrow as TiVo has been quiet on what they’ll include. 

The new channels will be part of the CASPA section of TiVo and require users to have a CASPA wallet. This effectively means to access the new IPTV channels, you’ll need to hand over your credit card, despite the channels being free. For those TiVo owners who haven’t yet got a wallet, it’s also required to download the Movies, TV Shows or Music content from CASPA.

More info @ TiVo Australia

Video-on-demand movies rental services are everywhere these days, but how many people actually use them ? While the promise of having movies streamed instantly, no late fees and no car trips to deal with minimum wage video-store clerks sounds great, it’s often hamstrung by internet download usage caps.

Microsoft has the Zune Video Marketplace on Xbox 360, the Sony have Playstation Movie Store and TiVo has CASPA. Whilst there’s differences of price, resolutions, catalogue and instant-start vs download first, ultimately the only one that’s actually practical to use is CAPSA. Despite being a much smaller company, Hybrid Television Services, licencees of TiVo in Australia, have been able to successfully negotiate deals with key Australian ISPs to allow video downloads to go unmetered.

Sure CASPA only offer SD quality movies (at the moment), but wether its 2-3GB or 6-7GB your downloading, if it counts towards your monthly download cap, it will restrict your ability to use the service. By having an unmetered solution, the real cost of renting a movie is the rental price.

I’m a big fan of the 1080p instant-on streaming (when it works) that Zune offers, but realistically it means I have to then spend $5-$10 for additional data blocks. This means the real price for renting a movie wasn’t $5 or $6 but rather closer to $15. So the inconvenience of going to the video store may be a pain, but its still more economical that paying the real cost of convenience, plus you can rent the highest quality blu-ray version.

Given broadband data caps are a fact of live for most consumers, the real question here is how two of the largest tech companies, Microsoft and Sony, have been unable to achieve the same unmetered deals for all customers. Even ISPs like Westnet that have been able to negotiate unmetered Xbox demo’s, trailers, arcade games and updates have an exception that excludes Zune video.

If your hoping this madness will end with the introduction of the NBN, you’ll be sadly mistaken. The deals announced for the first rollout areas like Tasmania still maintain data caps. So the dream of instant on high definition video from the the comfort of your couch is still about as close as that magical unicorn with a money tree strapped to its back.

Leave a comment and let us know about your experience with VOD services and if you use them or still visit the video store.

A WebM/VP8 live stream is now available via the Flumotion Demo Site. You need to install a browser that already supports the WebM format, such as a Nightly Build of Mozilla to view the WebM stream in the Demo Site.

I tested the WebM stream with the Mozilla developer preview with varying results. Sometimes the stream would play fine, while other times it suffered from choppy playback. Whilst the demo site doesn’t specifically list it, I tried the latest build of Chromium which is supposed to support the new format. The video image appeared, but did not playback.

It’s very, very early days, so it’s important to remember that this is more proof of concept rather than an actual service you’d visit each day. That said it’s a good start, something keep an eye on.

You can try it yourself at Flumotion’s demo site. For more info check out Flumotion’s blog.

Update
I’ve had confirmation from Hybrid TV PR, makers of TiVo in Australia, that TiVo users will still be able to browse CASPA content without a wallet (registering), but won’t be able to download. This is the current situation, which begs the question, why the email if nothing has changed?

TiVo owners will be familiar with the CASPA menu item that provides access to video on-demand content. This is currently open to browse, but requires signup before downloading even free content, this is about to change.

In an email message to TiVo owners users yesterday, TiVo is now requiring users to create a CASPA wallet (i.e. hand over your credit card) to even browse the store. If users can’t preview the content before signing up, I’m not sure how they are expected to know why they’d want CASPA in the first place.

Thanks TiVo, but I’ll pass. Now I have a dead menu item, not the best user experience. Just let me hide CASPA and I’ll be happy.

More @ TiVo

Announced on the 5th of March, YouTube had added audio transcription to videos in an effort to increase accessibility. Just hover over the CC button in the player, then select the ‘Transcribe Audio’ option. Available in 50 different languages, it’s an ambitious venture from Google. One that could potentially open up videos to truly world-wide viewing.

The Transcribe audio feature is currently in beta and they’ve certainly got some work to do. I tested it on one of my videos (obviously have an Australian accent), it got this sentence completely wrong.

In the example below, I actually say the words:
“Hi this is Jason from Wodonga Australia and I think the story of the decade has..”

YouTube Translate interprets what I said as:
”but is this just in from would over a stray a and I think the story of the day Kennedy has”.

Clearly it’s not even close, naturally I wasn’t expecting 100% accuracy here, but this translation is so far off, it’s completely unusable. Have you experienced the same results ? 

More @ YouTube and the YouTube Blog

Well only a few days after Valentines Day, we’ve got a breakup on our hands. This morning TiVo announced it will be discontinuing it’s Blockbuster movie rental service.

“Blockbuster Movie Service on TiVo will be permanently closing on Friday 5th March 2010”

There is some important information about the closure of the service.

1. Existing customers will have the balance of their accounts refunded automatically.
2. Blockbuster movie rentals will disappear from the TiVo interface.
3. Movies will continue to be released up until the shutdown date.

The IPTV battle is a tough one that TiVo and CASPA On-Demand will really need to step it up, to have any chance at all. First of all there’s iTunes, with a massive library of content. But more importantly is the newest entrant..

Through the Zune Video Marketplace on Xbox 360 consoles, users can rent and buy movies in both SD and HD quality either by downloading first, but also streaming. The difference here is that Microsoft offers 1080p quality, 5.1 surround sound movies that start streaming instantly using their Smooth Streaming technology.

With the rapid adoption of large HDTVs, high definitely content is becoming a must for consumers. Neither CASPA or Blockbuster offers / offered a HD version. Also in Australia, the number of Xbox 360 owners, is many magnitudes the size of TiVo owners.

If you had to choose, what IPTV service would you use ?

Update

Well the big decision is in, iiNet have won the case. Here are some quotes from the court room.

"iinet has no control over bittorrent system and not responsible for bittorrent system."

The fact there is worldwide piracy "does not necessitate or compel a finding of authorisation, just because it is felt there is something that must be done."

iiNet "was entitled to safe harbour" as it had a policy on infringement, even if its policy didn’t stand up to AFACT’s standards

"copyright occured as result of use of BitTorrent, not the Internet" said Justice Cowdroy

The end result is, the case is closed, AFACT has to pay for iiNet’s costs. 

Today is one of the most critical days in Australian Internet history. From the Federal Court in Sydney, Justice Cowdroy is set to hand down his decision on the iiNet copyright violation case. If you not familiar with the case, a collective of movie studios have banded together to create a law suit against iiNet, protesting that iiNet didn’t do enough to deal with ‘known offenders’. These are people who download and distribute movies and tv shows, of which copyright belongs to the movie studios.

Today’s decision, due at 9.30am AEDT, will set a precedent for how all Australian ISPs will prosecute offenders in the future. It’s also likely that today’s decision will be appealed from whichever side looses. Remember there’s billions of dollars at stake here, so it won’t be settled easily.

Personally I hope some kind of middle ground can be reached.

itnews is doing live coverage of the days events using cover it live. Follow along at http://www.itnews.com.au/News/166296,iitrial-judgement-day-live-coverage.aspx

You can also follow along by watching the #iiTrial hashtag on twitter.

January 26th is approaching fast. Australia Day is the day where we celebrate everything that makes this great country awesome. Apple and more specifically iTunes is having a sale to commemorate the occasion.

“We all know “our land abounds in nature’s gifts but this year it also abounds in music, movies, TV, audiobooks, apps and podcasts. At fair dinkum prices, iTunes has pulled together the best Australia homegrown entertainment to help you celebrate the national holiday and commemorate our local legends. Browse through and make your Australia Day one to remember.”

The reality is your not gunna save much, but hey, if its a couple of dollars that can go towards some drinks or meat for the BBQ, then that’s gotta be a winner.

[iTunes Link]

More @ Engadget

One of the nicer features of TiVo is the ability to schedule recordings remotely from any web browser. The TV Guide used for remote scheduling belonged to Yahoo, in association with channel 7. While technically it worked as advertised, the user experience was pretty poor. Slow page load times and far too many screens required to actually make the recording happen. Furthermore there was never any control for season passes, so TV shows had to be set for recording one at a time.

Launched yesterday is a brand new beta for remote scheduling – TiVo Genie. This provides all the functionality a TiVo owner could want. A very slick ajaxy TV guide, quick access to record shows, the ability to add season passes, even A’La Carte choice from upcoming episodes of your favourite shows.

Mobile users also have remote scheduling in their pocket with a mobile-formatted site. Sure, not as nice as a dedicated app, it’s a nice start. It also provides access to search, guide, 1 click record and more.

My only complaint is that TiVo only grabs updates about every hour, so you have to think ahead of time. It’d be nice if the TiVo received a ping from TiVo Genie to grab updated recording information.

Check it out @ http://genie.mytivo.com.au

The old Yahoo7 TV Guide.

More @ YouTube blog

Sure the iPhone app store started the mainstream trend, but almost every mobile platform now has an app store.

Despite this the first episode seems very heavily weighted towards iPhone apps. Not too surprising given it’s popularity.

Patrick Norton’s the host of AppJudgement, and while I usually like Patricks work (like on DL.TV back in the day or HDNation), but this show could really have used a fresh host. Sorry Patrick.

Anyway, if your after mobile app reviews, without spending the money to try them out, check out App Judgement on Revision 3.

Update: Episode 2 is now out and features David Prager as the host, so perhaps we’ll see a rotating roster.

NineMSN and its partners produce a lot of content, more and more often that content is video. So it makes sense that there’s a visual way to navigate all of this content.

Head on over to http://video.ninemsn.com.au/ to check it out for yourself. Simply wait for the “Most Popular” video thumbnails to load, then moving your mouse will pan across the video wall. To view a video, simply click the thumbnail and your watching.

Tip: To get back to the video wall, simply hover over the “Video” graphic in the top left and you’ll see a “Back to HomePage” link.

Thanks to a friendly linker, this morning I was linked to this new-ish site from NineMSN. I’m not sure how long this has been around, if anyone knows, please leave a comment and let me know.

Whilst YouTube Channels haven’t historically been the most beautifully designed sites in the past, YouTube are beginning to roll out new layouts to users. For those who don’t like change, Google have accommodated with a revert button.

Customisations options are plentiful, yet still reasonably restrictive. There’s some pretty bad template themes to choose from, or you can (and I suggest you do) create your own. The biggest addition is the ability to upload a background image, similar to twitter’s implementation it wraps around your content (see top image).

Overall a welcome change to YouTube channels, if you haven’t checked out the techAU YouTube channel before, then head over to http://youtube.com/techaudottv.

It’s no secret that YouTube as a business is costing Google a lot of money in bandwidth bills. They’ve trialled some different advertising methods over the past year or so in an effort to translate eyeballs into $$. They’re latest attempt is this large overlay ad when visiting YouTube Australia or http://youtube.com.au

What are your thoughts ? Too much ?