MbTV, a C-Cube customer, has Thomson as an OEM...........
e-town.com
ETOWN.COM EXTRA: ONE THUMB BETTER THAN TIVO
ALSO: MS Audio enters next-gen players 2/8/2000
By the staff of etown.com
ONE THUMB BETTER THAN TIVO
February 8, 2000 -- One of the great features of the TiVo Personal Video Recorder system is the "thumbs up/thumbs down" system. If you see a show you like, you press thumbs up on the remote and TiVo will remember what types of shows you enjoy, find them for you on the program guide and even record them. Cool.
Now MbTV Network technology plans to go one step further by designing a system that automatically learns what you like and don't like. It seems even pressing a button is too much for most viewers. According to the company, MbTV's personalization technology puts "your thumbprint on TV."
The system can recommend, record, and delete programs based on your preferences, just like current PVRs. The artificial intelligence built into MbTV identifies who is in front of the TV without requiring them to log in. In a shot at TiVo and rival Replay Networks, MbTV says it protects viewers' privacy since it doesn't require any data to be transmitted from your home. And it doesn't have a monthly subscription, another zinger at the two main PVR sellers.
MbTV is the creation of Metabyte Inc with the backing of hard-drive giant Seagate and Thomson Multimedia, parent company of RCA/ProScan. When will it arrive? According to Thomson, this was a technology announcement, not the introduction of a new product. Since it's so smart, perhaps the MbTV box will tell us. |
