Last week, Ravisent Technologies announced a technology partnership with Oren Semiconductor, which sells DSP-based digital television demodulator ICs to manufacturers such as Sony, Hughes, and Global Telemann Systems for use in TVs, VCRs, PC cards, and set-top boxes. Ravisent and Oren say they will jointly develop complete broadcast reception and playback solutions for delivering HDTV broadcasts to consumers using the current generation of personal computers.

According to Zenith, the orginator of the VSB digital transmission system behind over-the-air broadcast of DTV and HDTV, "there will be no urban-rural 'digital divide' in the delivery of digital television (DTV) service." The company says that this is thanks in large part to ATSC VSB translators that it has developed.

Hard-disc–based digital video recorder (DVR) products (aka PVRs or personal digital recorders) such as those sold by TiVo and ReplayTV have been getting a lot of press lately, but only a modest share of consumer dollars. In the few short months since DVRs hit the shelves, ReplayTV has already bailed out of the manufacturing business, and the ultimate fate of TiVo is still unkown. In spite of its shaky start, the DVR category is slated to take off in the next five years, according to a new report from the Yankee Group.

Last week, TiVo found itself the focus flurry of unwanted media attention as a new report was released by the Privacy Foundation detailing at length how the TiVo system collects personal data. The report also reveals what the Privacy Foundation found while comparing a TiVo PVR's actual behavior under test with the company's stated privacy policy. The Foundation says that it and University of Denver Privacy Center have recently completed a fourth independent investigation of the TiVo device.