So here is a one we didn’t see coming from a mile 😉
A tipster tells me that Yahoo has started offering Meedio DVR software as a free download to one-and-all, without much fanfare. Isn’t it dandy – that it took just eight days to brand Meedio as Yahoo Go (TV.) (Yahoo had acquired the Meedio technology last week.)
Still you don’t say no to freebies, especially ones that are as good as Meedio. Since it is a Windows only product, I have not tested it out. Maybe I will, but not until this weekend.
Looks good, only compatible with a few TV Tuner cards however. Unless you’ve got one of the 4 or 5 they support you ar SOL for now it looks like.
The software suite looks interesting, at a glance looks very similar to Windows Media Center Edition with additional integration with Flickr and other Yahoo services.
There are A LOT more supported tuner cards, you gotta go to C:Program FilesYahoo!Yahoo! Go for TVtvgraphs, there’s a list of 42 cards that work with MEEDIO in there, don’t see why they wouldn’t work with YTV since the Yahoo Go for TV is just a rebranded, renamed version of MEEDIO.
I paid $44.95 for the MEEDIO PRO back on Feb. 8, now Yahoo gobbles ’em up and it’s FREE. Yeah, that blows, maybe I can hit MEEDIO up for a refund. I got it cause I’ve been foolin’ with HDTV tuners and I found out that MEEDIO is WAY ahead of everybody else’s software front end for HD, much leaner, slicker, faster, etc., I like it a lot.
I notice that there are a few features I have with MEEDIO that aren’t built into YGO4TV yet, but then there are a few things in YTV that my MEEDIO doesn’t have, so it’s a wash. Guess I’ll keep both of ’em .
This makes me wonder if there will be any conflicts of interest now that Yahoo! has their own DVR solution and they also have a deal with TiVo to allow recordings to be scheduled via their web site.
As always though, more competition means better choices for the consumer.
It seems what they are missing is a roadmap to premium HDTV content. Microsoft has already announced CableCARD support through Vista and TiVo has a standalone CableCARD unit due out later this year. DirecTV and TiVo already have a unit, the HR10-250 out that I’ve been using for the past year.
Yahoo! needs to articulate a path to premium HDTV content before I’ll get excited about this technology. It does have Flickr which is cool, but by using the Slickr screensaver you can download all the high res images you want from anywhere on Flickr and easily reproduce pretty much the same experience on your Media Center PC. http://thomashawk.com/2006/03/hot-donkey-introducing-flickr-plug-in.html
As Media Center ships as the default operating system these days (and most who have TV tuner cards would be likely to have Media Center installed) I’ve yet to see the compelling reason to consider this offering over Media Center.
Now perhaps vs. Front Row on Apple where they have no DVR this product might have legs, but, ironically, at least at present this seems to be a PC only offering.
I may be missing something here and will try it out myself when I have some free time but I’m still not sure what part of the market this offering is going after. What differentiates with product from Media Center?
This offering should help Yahoo regain some credibility that they have lost to Google.
Hey Thomas, you’d have to install the YTV and use it to see the difference between YTV and MCE, you might even decide you like the YTV better. I’ve played with the MS Media Center in the stores on their demo setups, don’t actually own it but am thinking of upgrading to the 64 bit cpu and have decided that if the box I buy comes with MCE I’ll install the MEEDIO/ YTV and use it instead. Media center is ok, I just like MEEDIO better.
I believe Yahoo has an HD roadmap, or they wouldn’t have bought MEEDIO. They just aren’t doing a real good job of communicating it right now, in fact I didn’t see anything about HD tuner setup in the YTV homepage, or install. But that may be because I didn’t actually go thru the Tuner setup because when I bought the VBOX HD tuner card I have in my pc I got the wrong one and it’s specifically not recognized by the MEEDIO, and now the Yahoo TV setup wizard. My fault for not reading the VBOX page better. If you or I (users) have a compatible HD tuner card installed I think the HD setup capability of YGO TV would be readily apparent and the setup wizard would walk you thru the process. But the user won’t know that until after the install and going thru the setup, and from a marketing or customer service viewpoint, that’s bad.
But I agree that Yahoo needs to build in and point out specifically and more clearly in the Yahoo Go and TV homepages, and in the install and setup pages, the HD capability of YTV because the MEEDIO software IS an HD front end software package that you need in order to run your HD tuner cards, and analog cards too as well.
I originally found MEEDIO thru a link of recommended front end software on the VBOX website when I bought their HD tuner card, in fact as of 4-26-06 it’s still there, but MEEDIO’s link to their download has been removed since the Yahoo buyout. http://www.vboxcomm.com/software02.htm
So for everyone reading this, I’ve taken the time to build a list of the supported HD tuner cards listed in the graphs page of the Yahoo Go for TV program that I know will work with MEEDIO, and again, I can’t believe Yahoo would have copied the MEEDIO program almost line for line and left the card list in their version of the program if they won’t work with YTV, here’s the list:
ATI HDTV Wonder (HDTV)
AverMedia A16A (DVB-T)
AVerMedia A777 PCI (DVB-T)
AVerMedia AVerTV DVB-T USB2 (DVB-T)
AVerMedia AVerTVHD MCE A180 (HDTV)
Compro VideoMate DVB-T300 (DVB-T)
DigitalEverywhere FireDTV-C-CI (DVB-C)
DigitalEverywhere FireDTV-S-CI (DVB-S)
DigitalEverywhere FireDTV-T-CI (DVB-T)
DVICO Fusion HDTV 3 (HDTV)
DVICO Fusion HDTV 5 (HDTV)
DViCO FusionHDTV DVB-T, DVB-T Lite, DVB-T-Plus (DVB-T)
GDI Black Gold (DVB-T)
Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T (DVB-T)
Hauppauge WinTV Nova-T-USB2 (DVB-T)
MSI Digi VOX (DVB-T)
Nebula DigiTV PCI (DVB-T)
Pinnacle 310i (DVB-T)
TechnoTrend DVB-C card
TechnoTrend DVB-S card
TechnoTrend DVB-T card
Twinhan Vision DTV Ter PCI (DVB-T)
VBox 3550 USB2 (DVB-T)
VBox DTA 151 (HDTV)
VBox DTT 150 (DVB-T)
VBox DTT 160 (DVB-T)
No, I don’t work for Yahoo or MEEDIO, not getting paid for any of this cheerleading, I just like the MEEDIO product and know from using it that it’s VASTLY superior to some, if not most, of the other software frontend offerings, like Snapstream for instance, which loads and has 9 SEPERATE .exe processes running, is a HUGE memory hog, is -S-L-O-W- to respond even with 1GB of memory and bogs down my whole machine just to get an HD picture.
Trust me, MEEDIO is the way to go for HD, and now with Yahoo Go TV it’s FREE!!
Yahoo offering this for free could change the landscape of DVR software. I use SageTV, had tried Meedio a while ago and just wasn’t that fond of it. Things it though, I am into Sage for more than $100 for the server and client software, and was looking into buying more client licenses. With Yahoo releasing this for free, I could seriously reconsider my choices.
I am also in the process of building out a new system for my daughter, and going with a respected but free product like this has changed what I plan on installing on it.
i want get free yahoo go
According to the card support lists provided here, the Fuson HDTV 5 is supported. However, I have the Fusion 5 Lite, yet it (Y!Go) doesn’t detect a ‘compatible’ card installed…
ip address must be us only. then it crashes. not particularly pleasing for those of us who dont live in the goddam u s of a. hello! if its not for the whole world, why not tell people before they download it!!!! arg
This requires a US IP address, if you live outside the US the software will not even start.