One year with Viiv and still no traction?
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Jan 10th 2007 1:00PM
posted Jan 10th 2007 1:00PM
During last years CES, there was one question that was constantly asked, "What is Viiv?". After one year after it's announcement it doesn't seem like it has gained much traction in the marketplace. While DirecTV also showed a Viiv compatible box at last years CES and there were even reports of the Viiv features on the HR20 last month. Now DirecTV is announcing that Viiv features on the HR20 are currently available as a public beta trial to all DirecTV Plus HD DVR customers. What really makes this interesting is the fact that they claim to be the "largest supplier of Viiv-verified digital media adapters", which can't be good news considering it is still in beta. We can only assume this means it is the only Viiv-verified digital media adapter. With all the media adapters announced who will end up in front? If you can't wait to try it out it's available in the latest firmware which is a manual update.
We had a major corporation give us their roadmap for the future, that included products not yet announced. It included the mention of Viiv in a possible product, but this company admitted, they don't even fully understand Intel's intention with Viiv.
Right now, I think there's more questions than answers.
My only question is, wtf if Viiv? I've never taken the time to look into it, but if they want to sell it shouldn't it be relatively easy to define? What does Viiv do for me that I can't do with something else? I have no idea. Mission failed.