One of the most promising proposed solutions, and one which rests somewhere between the two extremes, is a procedure analogous to organ donation (and not unlike existing social-media privacy settings) by which social-media services would prompt users to check a box indicating their postmortem instructions for social-media asset disposition.
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Unfortunately if you were hoping to make this into a high definition mini-media box to sit under the TV, you'll be disappointed.
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Until now, only league and team personnel have had access to the NBA's complete official stats -- media got access last spring -- with box scores that go as far back as its start in 1946-47, individual stats for anyone who has ever played in the league plus advanced statistical breakdowns and rankings of best lineup combinations.
Are they considering a wireless media-link kind of system between the box and the TV?
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Next, Huang showed off 100 Windows desktops grinding through video games, movies, and other rich media applications being supported by a single pizza-box sized server.
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That process is already possible through its Apple TV set-top box, but it is cumbersome and some media companies, such as Time Warner Inc.
Media center software, a streaming set top box and a TV-tuning USB dongle -- Boxee already has a pretty decent amount on its plate.
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Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single-solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable and broadcast content directly to the television.
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Virgin Media in the U.K. is using TiVo's set-top box and software as the cornerstone of its advanced TV rollout to its 4 million subscribers.
So if HD DVD does go away only leaving with Blu-ray, we might not ever see the ultimate HD media experience all in one box.
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Measuring in at 6.5- x 6.5- x 1.97-inches, this 3.2 pound box packs an awful lot of media playing oomph into a ridiculously small enclosure.
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As we all found out, however, users who prefer to roll their own Media Center box (like yours truly) will be left out of the option entirely -- support will only be available for CableLabs certified boxen, which home-rolled are, of course, not.
Only in the world of personal computers could a company like Apple, essentially a has-been reduced to a miniscule market share, introduce a throwback model distinguished only by a differently colored plastic box, and have it treated by the media as if it was a history-making event.
And so in the case of the set-top box you typically would store the video back on the server, either the Media Center server in the home, or the your video provider server back at the head-end.
But Whitehall sources accused Mr Reid of attempting to "box the government into a policy just to satisfy the gaping jaws of the media" - claims denied by the Home Office.
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She is treading where the giants of media and technology -- Time Warner, Bell Atlantic and Microsoft, among them -- have already stumbled (see box, p. 116).
Another person familiar with the talks said the types of new services Apple and the media companies are discussing could be done with Apple's existing technologies, which include its Apple TV set-top box.
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