Microsoft has released a beta of an Internet TV add-on for its Windows Media Center.  Rather than “record” shows via a TV tuner it downloads them over the web. and adds them to a users’ collection. From the Engadget article:

According to Microsoft, US-based users of Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate will soon be able to download a simple update that will enable them to “enjoy a range of television and video content on their PCs and TV sets [with a Media Center Extender of some sort] without a TV tuner in their PC.” The streaming content will all be ad-supported “by an advertising platform provided by YuMe,” which means that you’ll be getting it gratis.

I wish the devs would update MythIPTV so we could get something as seamless as this in MythTV.

I saw over at PVRBlog that Tivo has announced TTG and MRV (Transfer shows between boxes) support for their HD line of receivers, due in November.  About time, I just hope they’ve sped up the transfer rate for the mammoth HD files - Tivo To Go on my Series 2 box is slow as all hell. Info here.

There’s a new front end for MythTV designed for the Nokia N800 tablet. It’s call MaemoMyth and interfaces with MythTV via the Gmyth libraries. The N800 is pretty low powered as far as computers go, so this could be a great starting point for MythTV front ends on low powered machines.

Check out the project page for more information, links to source code & binaries as well as a video of MaemoMyth in action.