I  love my TiVo Series 3.  It has a great Spousal Acceptance Factor (SAF) and though the price was crazy high, it has run flawlessly in our family room for months on end and I can't seem to fill it up with content.  

If you're interested in a Series 3, TiVo has a great deal at $499.99 + free TiVo Wireless adapter here.

Now if they can just get that whole TiVo to TiVo sharing feature running again...

To quote Allen:

The demo of LiveStation, which showed a good-quality picture from the BBC in the midst of a bandwidth-hogging tech show, has another thing going for it - its ability to leverage Microsoft's new Silverlight platform to create "content experiences" based on LiveStation's streams. Has interactive TV finally found its way to the consumer?

It's a good question, and I look forward to Skinker's public beta.  I've been playing with Joost as well, both are fine examples of what can be done.  It did occur to me that the Joost UI could be done in Silverlight, making it accessible everywhere the Silverlight client resides.  But for me, content is more important than the medium.  And my Slingbox is safely tethered to my TiVo for PVR supports for now. :)

I've received so many inquiries and kudos about the Silverlight name, logo, and brand video internally and externally that I thought I'd post the real story of how it came together.

• Naming research was completed in Q3 2006.  We decided to hold it for a special event at a later date.  "WPF/E"- the codename of Silverlight was intentionally unappealing to keep mainstream consumers from installing it until we had good feedback from the developers/designers during the alpha (CTP) preview.
• Brand work was done by my team working with an outstanding design firm I'll mention here once I have clearance to do so (by them).  We kicked this off in October, and went through many iterations before landing on the animated logo and final frame lockup.  If you don't like the frame, you can blame me Long :)  The orb is a plasmic energy being held into shape by an unseen force, where it spins and flows, almost organically.
• The brand video was done by Phoenix Edit, a group of ex-Industrial Light & Magic wonks out of San Francisco.    The goal was to show many different Silverlight-enabled scenarios woven together – designer/developer collaboration, personalized e-commerce, devices, user-generated video, viral sharing, and the network effect on sales. We intentionally avoided excessive use of text or voiceover so the video will translate globally as we kick off events around the world. For the line, "Light up the Web" - you have me to blame.  It's more about illumination and blazing a trail vs. blazing anything else ;)
• The music in the brand video is by my friend and prominent UK DJ Andy Hunter. The song is “Go” off his album, “Exodus”.  Andy consulted on the project and the remix, and has considerable street cred touring with DJ Tiesto. His songs have been used in The Matrix games, and multiple movie/television show. Andy is now on Nettwerk records working on his next release.
• Customer and partner engagement was tightly synchronized.  During initial briefs, partners were shown a slide announcing the final name as "X-Plat Player Plug-in for Browsers" in Microsoft logotype, a self-deprecating way of noting that we knew the name had to be cool and were on the ball (ironically or sadly some thought that was the actual name!).  We'd show the logo without the name, and always used the name "WPF/E" in our discussions and external communications.
• For the press announce, named companies didn't even know the final name until a matter of hours before the release hit. We intentionally didn't publish any brand elements internally and had about a dozen people total that had access.  The product management team got really tired of hearing me talk about secrecy and except for a few small nits that went unnoticed, they really did us proud.

Some day I'll post the evolution timeline of the logo if others are interested.

Every year, the publishers of Videography, DV, Digital Cinematography, and Television Broadcast magazines get together at NAB and announce the "Best of Show" award winners in multiple categories.

The Best of Show Awards are given in recognition of outstanding achievement in the advancement of the art and science of video technology, include the Videography Vidy Awards, the longest running NAB awards program, the Television Broadcast Top Innovation Awards, the DV Black Diamond Awards, and the Digital Cinematography Premiere Awards.

"To receive an award, a technology is evaluated by our panel of editors and industry experts," says NewBay Media Video Group Vice President/Group Publishing Director Doug Krainman. "The winning technologies reflect innovation and engineering excellence.

I'm elated to note that Microsoft Silverlight was the recipient of a coveted DV Black Diamond Award, in such esteemed company as Apple Final Cut Studio 2.  Congrats to the entire team!

Dan is one of the top movers/shakers in the online media space.  A veteran of Web 1.0, EVP of StreamingMedia.com and and Chairman of the Streaming Media conferences,  he recently started a blog and people are taking notice.  I first met Dan back at Streaming Media West 2001, in-between Steve Ballmer heckling me on-stage for using my wedding video in an end to end demo :). 

Dan gets our strategy with Silverlight for the media space.  Customers want a solution with the quality/reliability of Windows Media, standards-support of VC-1, and the interactivity only available from another provider today:

While the higher cost of creating and delivering in Flash over Windows Media has not stopped too many in the past, it has stopped some content creators from wanting to spend two to three times more just to use the Flash streaming format... If Silverlight truly does allow content owners to create, encode and deliver content faster and cheaper while providing the same if not better user experience than Flash streaming, then Microsoft is going to have the advantage in the long run.

Almost every broadcaster I speak to is looking with whetted appetite to the moment they can deliver HD video on the Web in a reliable and effective manner.  While everyone talks about the rapidly dropping price of bandwidth on the Web, we seem to neglect the actual cost of retraining designers to be developers (or vice versa), the production costs associated with creation of more complex, experience-centric websites, and the plain fact that more bits flowing through the "tubes" of the internet = more congestion, particularly at HD rates.  This is why we're investing so heavily in Silverlight for media, and adding new features such as SSL (https://), the same technology used to protect your credit card information, will now be used for over-the wire encryption of progressive streams from Windows Server code name "Longhorn" to Silverlight.  A certain broadcaster said they needed it and were concerned about proprietary protocols of other solutions that were recently reverse engineered.

Dan Rayburn - Subscribed.

Hot on the heels of our annoucements at NAB and the overwhelming response, I'm happy to announce the Silverlight team is growing again.  If you want to be a part of the next wave of media experiences and help to build the business to create, deliver, and experience RIAs, new job opportunities exist for the following job roles:

• Sr. Product Management - Enterprise & Solutions Engagement
• Sr. Product Management - Server & Services Engagement
• Silverlight Business Development & Deployment

All jobs are located in Redmond, WA.  Qualified candidates should have minimum of 5 years in the industry, MBA preferable with experience in the enterprise streaming and/or content delivery space.  Excellent customer/partner references are a must.  Skiing and/or 'boarding experience is a plus.

If you're interested, feel free to contact me at LinkedIn or send me email at sean@seanalexander.com with "INQUIRY:" in the title and your resume/VC. Or come find me on LinkedIn if you prefer.

The positions are located in Redmond, WA and will require some travel, about 4 days a month. It's important to note these are senior positions, with large impact on the business working directly with partners, customers, and product team to  ensure we're meeting the needs of our customers in the years to come.  Mac+Windows enthusiasts appreciated. ;)

Hot on the heels of last night's Top 10 for Silverlight, the other product making major waves at NAB is Microsoft Expression Media Encoder - a template-based video publishing tool for Silverlight and more. Expression Media Encoder supports live and on-demand video encoding and is a feature of Expression Media (our upcoming Digital Asset Management tool based on the lauded iView Media Pro).  Tim Sneath has a great writeup on the encoder here. 

Top 10 Questions about Expression Media Encoder

1. What video formats can I import with MEME?
   A: QuickTime, AVI, WMV, and any other format with a well-formed DShow filter.  Yep, we did the extra work to support the QT API's and are showing it working on the show floor.  If you have QT installed, it will work.
2. What can MEME do with Silverlight?
   A: MEME can quickly add chapter points with thumbnails and publish out your video into WMV/SMPTE VC-1 - no coding required.  Then just add the Javascript and video to your site and away you go.  You can also do basic enhancements - add a transparent .PNG or .GIF as an overlay, add leader/trailers, crop and even do A|B compare.
3. Can I encode for devices?  Web sites?  Streaming servers?
   A: Yes!  We'll include device profiles for outputting just the video for now ;)  Silverlight works with any web server as well as the more efficient Windows Media streaming platform. Profiles are just .prx same as Windows Media Encoder. 
4. What about live support?
   A: Another big hit at the show is EME's ability to handle multi-angle, multi-source video.  You'll be able to do pre-roll from local disk, then output, even archive to disk.  Yes, I think some vloggers will find this handy for both live broadcasting and on-demand.
5. Tell me more about these templates?
   A: The beauty of Silverlight apps is that they can be written with Javascript + XML (XAML).  As a result, the chrome/skin/templates can be created in Expression Blend (or other tools, even notepad) and then swapped- much like blog site, website, or powerpoint templates. This feature is a huge hit at NAB.  We're showing how Blend can be used to create  template easily from scratch, then use the template in EME. 
6. Expression Media is available for Mac and Windows.  What about EME?
   A: EME is a Windows-only product and was actually built with Expression Studio- it's a WPF-based application. 
7. How fast is encoding with Expression Media Encoder?
   A: Very fast- about the same as WM Encoder but we know time is money in encoding, so we're working with Intel spin-off and Red Herring darling Tarari to add hardware acceleration!  Tarari's boards are used by major broadcasters and post houses to encode today.  With EME, Tarari is seeing up to 15x faster encoding times when compared to software only solutions. Just drop the board into a PCI slot and away you go
8. Can EME run on the server?
   A: Yes! EME is scriptable, automatable, and templatized (is that even a word?) so you can integrate it into your server workflow.  We think some user-generated content sites may find this interesting for example where long encoding times mean customers leave your site.
9. Will EME support output to other formats?
   A: We're considering it based on feedback. We know there's a demand for better, simpler transcoding tools, and EME is really optimized for Silverlight which uses VC-1 (as well as older.  Silverlight could add more formats, but when you consider the entire package is 1MB in size, just adding another video codec could increase that by 50%. Keep the code tight! 
10. What is the coolest feature of EME?
    A: For me, it's the A/B Encode Compare feature. Today most tools require you encode the entire file, then review the quality. Then tweak - a huge time sink.  EME will improve the quality of videos in general because you can encode a segment or snippet you define (such as a high action sequence) and then review.  You can even wipe back and forth in the frame, reviewing side by side the original and compressed, or even multiple encoder settings side by side to get the best quality possible. The metadata features are pretty cool too.
11. Does Expression Media Encoder replace Windows Media Encoder?
    No.  EME is a new product, optimized for fast and simple publishing of video on your website with Silverlight. WME continues to be made freely available at www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia EME will cost about $299.

Finally coming up for air now after 10 hours of press briefings for nearly three days, I can finally talk more here about Silverlight:

Top 10 Questions About Silverlight and Media

1. What media formats do you support?
   A: WMV7,8, 9/SMPTE VC-1, WMA, MP3
2. What is SMPTE VC-1?
   A: WMV9 - now an open standard recognzied by the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and shipping in all Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives.
3. Will Silverlight work with my current Windows Media?
   A: Yes, it most definitely will work with your existing Windows Media
4. What do I have to do to add Silverlight to my site? For Mac and Windows playback?
   A: Once the beta ships in two weeks, all you'll have to do is drop a little .js and XML into your page and away you go. 
5. Can additional formats be added for playback?
   A: No, part of the appeal of Silverlight is the small package size- 1MB, includes everything it needs for video and audio, animation, graphics and AJAX-based programmability to boot!
6. What companies are supporting Silverlight?
   A: Major League Baseball, Brightcove, NetFlix, Frog Design, AvenueA/Razorfish, Akamai, and many others are among the names announced. 
7. How easy the install really going to be?
   A: How does 3 clicks sound for XP users?  Vista users have one more click by default due to the user account feature.  Web pages can be wired up to do in-line install and auto-refresh after you're done.
8. Can you really do 720p HD video?  What 3D video card do I need?
   A: Definitely.  About a 3ghz P4 class processor will work, regardless of video card. We've done some really neat processor optimizations. All the demos shown in the booth at NAB were run off a mid-range laptop.
9. Why does resizing/scaling of apps "snap" differently in Safari/FireFox/IE?
   A: It all depends upon the way the browser renders.  I won't make any qualitative comment as your mileage may vary.
10. Will Silverlight work with my existing web server?  What about live streaming?
    A: For on-demand, yes! Run it on Darwin, Apache, whatever you're running.  Of course, you'll get a few added benefits with Windows Media streaming- reduced bandwidth costs, faster seeking, etc.
11. Where can I learn more?
    A: Right now you can learn more at www.microsoft.com/silverlight.  The community site will go live at www.silverlight.net.  The Beta "Cruise" starts on April 30th.  

The Windows Media Player team released a new plug-in for FireFox.  Good for them!

You can see the video here.  (Note, I won't be offering Silverlight-based videos here until beta ;))

Note: Silverlight doesn't use video acceleration (such as Aero-enabled PCs) for Silverlight.  That's one of the ways we keep everythng consistent between applications.   Also resize rendering is dependent upon the browser's capabilities and refresh rate. 

As I speak, we're propping websites to introduce Microsoft Silverlight to the content creation and media community.  What is Microsoft Silverlight?  It's our solution for delivering media experiences with audio, video, animation, and interactivity cross-browser (e.g. Firefox, Safari, IE) and cross-platform (Mac and Windows).  Why are we doing it?  We've been listening to customers about the growing evolution of digital media as more than a destination, but an integral part of experiences on the web. Just like in the gaming community, user expectation of what makes a good web experience are increasing.  But then so are the costs of delivering those experiences.  Silverlight will address the rising costs of creation and rich media delivery  in two key ways- providing a consistent set of tools for development and design teams building applications for the Web and Windows, and support for lower cost of delivery of audio and video experiences when used with Windows Media Streaming - a benefit widely known in the industry (more on that later). 

But it's about more than a browser plug-in.  It's about the ecosystem.  On Day 1, Silverlight will work with the millions of Windows Media and VC-1 assets available on the Web.  It will work with Windows Media streaming servers, a much more efficient and responsible use of bandwidth on the web when compared to less scalable or bloated mechanisms such as progressive download.  The average viewer watches less than 20 seconds of a video that gets downloaded.  When the video is 5 minutes long, and the entire video still gets delivered, that's a waste.  It's like turning the fire hose on to fill a paper cup.

So, we're making new investments for Creation and Distribution of Silverlight media as well, including:

- Expression Media Encoder for publishing live and on-demand video on the Web that works on Mac and Windows, all using customizable templates for web UX.  Oh and guess what- it's going to be pluggable, supporting import of QuickTime, AVI, WMV, and any other well-formed DShow-based video format out of the gate, and publishing with the industry-recognized SMPTE VC-1 (WMV-9) format.  (SMPTE is Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers).  WMV today provides a single-codec solution that scales and is used from Archive to Mobile in a re-editable format.  Expression Media Encoder can also be run on the server.

- Hardware accelerated encoding support with Intel spinoff Tarari's Accelerator boards.  Time is money in the encoding world- you can encode significantly more content more cost-effectively, up to 15x faster for HD, and around 8x faster for SD content when dropping one of these boards into your server.

- Expression Blend - A new design tool for creating interactive experiences consistently for the Web and Windows, Blend will also support the creation of templates, "skins", or applications that can be published with Expression Media Encoder.

- Windows Media Streaming - New features to be made available in Windows Server code-name, "Longhorn" can increase scalability by up to 2x over Windows Server 2003.  The cost benefits of streaming are well known as well. If you want DVD-like functionality with Fast streaming, ability to jump to any point in your video instantly, a proven system for ad-insertion, and mature support for live streaming, Windows Media Streaming delivers today a reported 3-4 times the scalability of other solutions.  And we're going to make that even better.  Details on the NAB show floor and here shortly.

- IIS7 Media Pack - For those customers who plan to deliver progressively downloaded applications and media, IIS7 will include bit-rate throttling to more effectively deliver downloaded media.

One of the great things about Silverlight is that it plugs right into the existing Windows Media ecosystem. All the millions of hours of content available in Windows Media on the web will be able to be downloaded or streamed. 

Early customer support for Silverlight has been amazing.  Content providers including Major League Baseball, NetFlix, and even Web 2.0 darling Brightcove have announced support along with a growing list of partners.

Two weeks from now, you'll hear a lot more about the whole developer and designer story at MIX 07. We're just talking about the media aspects right now.  I'm going to be very busy with press and partner meetings over the next few days- but will do my best to touch base here. 

Last week, IP delivered television got a little closer to reality or a lot closer to irrational Web 2.0 exuberance when Amazon and TiVo flipped the switch enabling Amazon customers to send movies ordered from Amazon.com directly to your TiVo Series 2 or Series 3 boxes.  My wife and I took this for a spin last week, renting a few movies, including one with the $15 credit you get as a TiVo customer.  There's a few things I like about the service, and a lot I don't. 

What I like

• Convenience of ordering a movie from home or work
• Integration with Amazon.com is easy enough
• Ability to send to any TiVo in my home, or supported devices
• Selection is respectable
• TiVo Integration is simple- 'Amazon Unbox" shows up as a new Folder in Now Playing

What I don't like

• Lack of a subscription program. 
• No "Season Pass" purchase for TV programs
• No easy way to search/filter movies by MPAA rating
• On TiVo, no progress meter or estimated time until your movie is ready to start playing
• No HD downloads
• No 10' movie browser on Tivo.  All movies must be browsed & ordered with a PC
• Encoding is fuzzy
• No option to get the movie sent on DVD/HD-DVD as well

While this is definitely a step in the direction of convenience, if Amazon is serious about this business model, I hope they're working on a subscription program and/or considering a deal with NetFlix or Blockbuster directly (NetFlix acqusition anyone?).  I'm not likely to buy a $14.99 movie when $3.00 more a month gets me a subscription pass and HD movies on Blockbuster.

A few of you have been asking where I've been and why I've been so quiet about digital media. Has blogging become passe? Am I spending too much time reading Scoble? (no) or Pirillo (no)?   I am Twittering though - delivering bite size bloggables. Perhaps I joined Michael Gartenberg in returning to the "private sector"?  No again. I've been working heavily on exciting things we're going to unveil at MIX07.  If you're involved in digital media delivery on the web, you're going to want to see what we unveil at the show.

For the past six years, I've been involved in different aspects of digital media, dating back to Windows Media Player 7 and beyond.  With every release, a debate roiled internally - are we an experience or a platform?  More effort over time was put into creating an experience with Windows Media Player (as our customers were asking for), but the developer platform never saw much in the way of major leaps forward.  OCX updates were modest, load times were unacceptable to customers on web pages, and it was too complicated to create compelling and differentiated experiences.

Not for long.  We've been listening.  Taking notes.  Asking questions. Understanding what's needed to go beyond what's available today for delivering media-enriched experiences on the Web.  And MIX is where you're going to here more about that.  I have emails reporting that the media experience in www.vista.si from Microsoft Slovenia  beyond delivering a full Vista desktop emulator in "WPF/E" runs faster than some web-enabled experiences.

So at MIX, we're going to step it up with sessions dedicated to those focused on rich digital media delivery on the Web. You'll learn how to use new tools coming such as Expression Media Encoder, and how to use new features with Windows Server "Longhorn". Our team will be there- engaging in the conversation across a broad range of topics. 

Yesterday, I a podcast for the Mix website where I'll talk some more.  I'm going to be doing a lot of talking soon.  I'm also doing the first-day keynote at Streaming Media East. (Note to Dan Rayburn, I look about 10 years old in the picture on the site)

I'm also Twittering now.  The RSS feed is here.  Feel free to add me to your list if you dare.