By David Ponce

Kids get bored, and when they get bored they like to play with whatever is within their reach. That’s often going to be your electronics, and you know there’s nothing quite like starting the day by discovering a drool covered iPad with a cracked screen. Better to keep the little ones entertained with a decoy device, one that actually does something cool, like the Kid-Tough Portable DVR from Fisher Price. It’s a bit more than a DVR, since it’s capable of playing back whatever it records through its 3.5inch screen and stereo speakers (or headphones jack if you value your ears). And the recording is done by connecting it to your TV via composite connection. We’re not talking high quality stuff here, but I doubt your 3 year old will complain that he can’t see all of Katie Couric’s wrinkles. Parents can set the device to record up to 24h in advance and even manually sort the recorded shows so they can be easily found and played back later. Onboard storage gives you 2h of recording time,but this can easily be expanded with a MicroSD card.

Available in May for $150.

By David Ponce

Even though it’s a dying business, cable TV is still strong enough to support a robust ecosystem of devices like the quintessential PVR: TiVo. And recently the company announced the release of their top of the line machine, the TiVo Premiere Elite. It comes with a hefty 2TB hard drive and 4 (count’em) tuners, which allows you to record 4 shows simultaneously while watching a 5th! The large hard drive will let you store up to 300 hours of HD content, which is twice the amount of the next highest-end machine. What’s more (like other TiVo boxes), the Premiere Elite “offers access to streaming services like Netflix, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Blockbuster On-Demand, and Amazon Instant Video.”

As you may know, the TiVo service isn’t free and is in addition to the cost of the machine itself. So $20/month gets you the service (or a one-time $500 lifetime fee), plus $500 for the Premiere Elite… plus whatever you pay for digital cable.

Remember we said dying model?…

[ TiVo Premiere Elite ] VIA [ Geek.com ]

By David Ponce

Without getting into a lengthy diatribe about the tectonic changes the entertainment industry is (and has been for quite some while) going through in order to deliver its product to us, let me just remind you about the impact of just one of these companies: TiVo.  They basically introduced the DVR to market and changed the way we interact with what we watch.  Gotta go pee?  Pause live TV and do it!  Of course, TiVo’s been around some time and the landscape around their pioneering product also changes, so they’ve been hard at work on their latest generation box, the TiVo Premiere.

The TiVo Premiere is a DVR reloaded.  Not only does it connect to your existing cable it also plugs into your Internet, opening the door to a bunch of new possibilities. “[Possibilities] like instant streaming from Netflix, downloads from Amazon Video On Demand, YouTube videos, music from Pandora and much more—all on your HDTV.”  The Premiere is able to record up to 45 hours of (up to) 1080p HD video and is available for $99, when you sign up for a 1-year service plan of $19.99 a month

Except of course if you happen to read OhGizmo!… and have some luck!  See, TiVo is giving a TiVo Premiere box away, with a year’s worth of $20/mo. service.  Below are the essential highlights from the rules, but we’re linking to the full fineprint below.

Rules: 1) Leave ONE comment on this post.  We’re not doing the comment a day on this giveaway. 2) It’s open to legal US residents 18-years of age or older. 3) The sweepstakes begin at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (“EST”) on December 16, 2010 and ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on December 23, 2010 (the “sweepstakes period”) 4) This is more of a request of mine: please leave more than “comment!” or “I’m in!” You won’t be disqualified if you don’t, but it makes us editors smile a little when you put in more than an iota of effort into your comments.  These giveaways are, after all, an effort to get you all lurkers to get talking a little more on the site.

[ Full sweepstakes rules ]

By Shane McGlaun

One of the features that I like about my DirecTV DVR is that I can access it via my iPhone and set shows to record from anywhere I can get a Wi-Fi or cellular signal. The DVR doesn’t even have to be connected to my Internet connection to use the app.

Dish Network has announced its own remote access program called simply Remote Access. They even offer an iPhone App just like DirecTV. The service allows users to access their DVR from anywhere in the world and schedule recordings. The catch with the Dish Network app is that the DVR has to be connected to the Internet.

Once accessed users can browse a 9-day program guide or search programs by genre, title, or channel for shows and record them. Only specific DVRs are compatible including the coming ViP 922 HD, 722k, 722, 622, and 612HD. The service is free of charge and available to all subscribers with compatible hardware.

[ Dish Network ]

By Jonathan Kimak

This is a fairly neat looking and rather discrete video recorder. The CamBall is a miniature digital video recorder that can record MPEG-4 video in 320×240 or 640×480 resolution. It can store up to 8GB of data on a tiny SD card(and it looks like the card is sold separately).

And like many great gadgets, this one is currently only available in Korea, for around $200 US. And while my Korean language skills are limited to 0 words, my looking at a photo ability has discovered that this spy ball also has an underwater case(might be sold separately) for taking videos while you’re snorkeling or scuba diving.

There is also an alternate version that comes with an mp3 player built in.

[ CamBall(Korean Website) ] VIA [ Ubergizmo ]

This post is syndicated with permission from Gadgetoholic.com

I am a DVR nut and record everything — even if I plan to watch it right then. I like to let the show get about 15 minutes ahead of live TV so I can skip all of the commercials. I also have kids so we tend to collect gobs of Dora episodes as well. When we start running out of space on the DVR, everyone gets nervous that their programs will be deleted.

Hitachi has announced some new hard drives that are aimed at the DVR user in its CinemaStar line. The more interesting of the two new drives is the CinemaStar 7K1000.B. This drive has a massive 1TB storage capacity and can hold 247 hours of MPEG-4 encoded HD video and support ten simultaneous data streams. My pathetic DVR drive can only hold 30 hours of HD programs.

In addition to the 1TB behemoth Hitachi also announced a CinemaStar 5K320 that uses CoolSpin technology. CoolSpin allows for a quieter and more efficient drive that Hitachi claims is one of the most power efficient and quiet hard drives available. Both of the new drives have mechanics designed to run 24/7 without failure and can operate in expanded temperature ranges to allow operation in fanless DVR designs. The CinemaStar 7K1000.B will be available in August and the 5K320 will ship in September. I would like to see Seagate bring its newly announced and sufficiently massive 1.5TB drive to the DVR market as well.

Via Gadgetoholic