OK, its nearly 2006 so we’ve decided to join the bandwagon of blogging tipsters and make some bold predictions for 2006.

1. TiVo will be purchased by someone else….but we don’t know who. Competition continues to grow and TiVo is going to struggle this year, and will be ripe for a takeover.

2. Vista MCE will be a disaster. As much as I love my MCE box, the basic tech spec requirements for Vista means a lot of upgrading in a marketplace which is actually going smaller in terms of hardware (think mini-PC’s etc that only run at 800-1000 mhz). The need for 64 bit processors and 2 gb of ram will drive manufacturers and users to alternative software, such as Snapstream and MythTV

3. GBPVR will be bought out by a small tech firm. PVR is getting bigger and the guys at GB PVR have a great product that with some more professional help and development money can and will go along way. There are going to be plenty of new companies trying to get in on the DIY PVR market and GB PVR is an obvious buy.

4. Hauppauge will launch 55 new TV turner cards…..well, that’s obvious isn’t it. Expect to see Satellite tuner cards, cable tuner cards, TV cards in mobile phones…you name it, Hauppauge will be there.

5. Lots more built in PVR’s in TV’s.
The standalone box model is going to be threatened this year with more TV manufacturers providing built in PVR’s in their TV’s, as Samsung and LG are already offering. Why compete in the box market when you can try and wipe it out, right?!

This entry was posted on Monday, December 26th, 2005 at 5:58 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.