Digital Home Thoughts: Macrovision Reinvents Itself With A Media Guide

"Rovi's first consumer product should be available in various HDTVs next year, and among the new jazzed up looking guide you can expect a full DLNA client that is designed to be a single access point for all of your content. This includes internet sourced content like Slacker radio, YouTube XL, BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand, and CinemaNow; as well as anything you might have on your PC like pictures, music and even videos."

For the longest time, I have always associated Macrovision with restrictions. Restrictions on the games I would buy for my computer. Restrictions on the CDs I would listen to. Restrictions on the DVDs I would watch. It seems that Macrovision has decided that it no longer wants to be a restriction, but an enabler, and wants to celebrate its change of heart by changing its name to Rovi. With the new name comes a media guide called "Liquid" which from the looks of it appears to be a media content aggregator. Think of a guide that ties together all the ways you can access media, over the net or locally, add a touch of social networking for recommendations and a flashy interface and you have Liquid! Some of you might be saying that Boxee and its brethren already do much the same thing and you would be right. But with the backing behind Rovi, you can expect to Liquid available on TVs, instead of an installed program for your computer.