If you’re getting frustrated with the limited feature set of your current set-top box from your cable company, Motorola is showcasing the next generation of set top boxes for the cable industry this year at the CES 2008, bringing their first MPEG-4 box for interactive in-home television programming. The new DCX series set-top boxes support high-def video content, surround sound and can act as a hub to share media between it and other compatible devices in the home.

One of the biggest complaints we’ve heard about DVRs from cable providers is the inability to easily share recorded content to anywhere else other than the DVR itself. The new DCX series boxes allow users to not only share the content with other devices so you can watch it in another room, but it also lets the owners add their own media to the device and share it as well.

As the screenwriters’ strike drags on and those without TiVos are forced to watch reruns, TiVo owners and those of other DVR style devices provided by the likes of cable companies can take stock in the fact they can stretch their original programming a little further than others. This of course does not include viewing commercials, according to a new survey from ABI Research.

The research firm found that DVR technology has reached a point in the market where anyone with this type of gear is getting used to blasting through on-screen ads. Numbers from this survey find four out of five TiVo and 82% of other DVR users skip all or most commercials. Both types are also both likely to record significant amounts of TV per day.

TiVo and Nero, a technology developer which produces ways for the “creation and distribution of content between people, devices and locations,” are teaming up to further integrate the DVR experience into your PC. The agreement between the two was announced today.

TiVo and Nero said the latter will eventually offer software which brings non-mentioned TiVo features to your computer. The two companies see this as a way to capitalize on those who want a better PC-based-DVR like experience. A report published earlier this year suggests an estimated 50.8 million PC TV tuners will be sold worldwide by 2011. No word was given on when this would be made available.

Reports have surfaced that popular DVR company Tivo is getting ready to release a major update to its Tivo Desktop software. This release, which perhaps might occur today, is version 2.5.

A posting on a Tivo user forum by a person known to be a Tivo employee reveals the software will offer “new features & improvements you’ve asked for.” The listed features include support for Windows Vista, support for DixV (DivX?) and Xvid formats for web video conversion and conversion of individual shows from the software’s new playing list to any profile.

Tivo today unveiled a new, lower cost high definition digital video recorder (DVR) in its quest to make HD recording a more economical option. The Tivo HD is priced at around $300 and should be available in early August, though pre-orders are being taken now.

The Tivo HD operates in a similar capacity to the older Tivo Series 3 HD Digital Media Recorder, allowing consumers to record and playback HD television programming as part of a home entertainment setup. This particular DVR allows you to record up to 20 hours of HD or up to 180 hours of standard definition content. It is compatible with digital cable, analog cable and digital antenna (ATSC), furthermore acting as a digital cable ready set-top box which works with many cable providers via its dual CableCard slots.

This is claimed to be the world’s smallest DVR under $3k and we have to admit that we haven’t seen one smaller, especially for under that price. The descriptions on the site lean towards those a little on the sneaky side wanting to video and record with a hidden system and the Black-Box DVR looks like it would be perfect.

Measuring only a total of 2.28 square inches it records at 30 fps and a 640×480 resolution onto an SD card which it supports up to 4GB. It also has a power AV-in port which connects and powers an included CCD quality miniature camera. You aren’t going to be able to take any high quality video recordings with the Black-Box DVR but it’s definitely small enough to hide just about anywhere on your person. Mini Gadgets has this retailing for well under $3k running $499.95.

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ARCHOS recently announced the launch of their new Gen 5 lineup of personal media players leading out with the ARCHOS 605 WiFi as an upgrade to the 604 WiFi model featuring higher quality screen resolution and easier access media content. It features a higher resolution 800 x 480 4.3 inch touch screen, WiFi connectivity and comes in sizes of 4GB flash with an SD card slot or drive capacities of 30GB, 80GB or 160GB.

ARCHOS takes more advantage of the WiFi capabilities with the Gen 5 versions through a couple of new services. On the 605 WiFi users can access the ARCHOS TV Program Guide to view show times and set the device to act as a DVR and record programs with a single touch. The DVR capabilities still unfortunately require a separate base station to make it all possible.

Also new to …

Blue Raven and unveiled a new portable media player featuring a 7″ display and built-in, timed recording capabilities making it a handy pocket-sized DVR. The Mediamate 7080 is one of two new 7000 series portable media players released today by the company, differing only in capacity.

It has an 80GB internal HDD to record up to 100 hours of DVD-quality video, and can do so direct into the device. By simply connecting the MediaMate directly to your media source such as a TV or DVD player with some AV cables it can record without any type of docking device. With the timer you can then set the time that you want to recording to stop and start. The media player can also record voice, play music and view photos.

It houses has a multi-card reader for SD, …