TiVo and Netflix

TiVo has recently signed a deal with Netflix to deliver movies on demand. This apears to be the direction that TiVo is moving for the future. In a recent interview , Mike Ramsay, the CEO of TiVo, said of the deal:

"It’s about video rental. Most people these days, at least in this community, are buying music electronically. They’re not buying physical media. And I think the same thing will happen with video. Instead of going to the video store or getting your Netflix in the mail, it’s going to show up in your TiVo. It’s a natural. It doesn’t matter if it takes a day to get there, because Netflix takes a day anyway. People will get used to having a pipeline where content drips through. The transition to electronic distribution will be complete and we won’t be dealing with physical media."

So when is the TiVo on? Not only will it now be recording shows when you are not watching it, but it will be downloading movies in the background at a low rate. Will there be any oportunity to drop into standby, or will improvement in the active mode efficiency be the only path for energy efficiency?

Smoke Alarm Energy Use

A new report on Smoke Alarms from the Australian Greenhouse Office provides some sorely needed base numbers on the energy use of smoke alarms. They measured seven alarms that had an active power range of 0.25 to .5W. Apparent power however was arround 7VA.

Growth of IPGs

According to In-Stat/MDR :

"Interactive Program Guides (IPGs) are becoming the entertainment portal for TV viewers, and worldwide IPG market value is expected to grow to nearly $1 Billion (US) by 2008. IPGs will be the "killer application" for enhanced interactive television services. IPGs will help end-users to find a TV program, movie or sporting event from among listings of thousands of available options, and then make it easy for them to select the program for viewing, tag it with a reminder for later, or even set up a recording to capture the show for time-shifting on a Personal Video Recorder.

Consumer Electronics Products are becoming targets for embedded IPGs that have program listings delivered using broadcast datacasting services, or wireless broadband connection services. Personal Video Recorders will drive this segment."

So will more and more CE devices need to stay in standby active mode in order to download IPG content?

Clockless Microcontroller Technology

An interesting article on a new way of controlling microprocessors that greatly reduces power use. This is of course being used first in portable applications, but there is no reason it couldn't be used elsewhere. Also a nice thermal picture of the two types of processors that is reminiscent of Alan Meier's STB IR picture.

Original article from Philips is here.