Cox planning to roll out tru2way STBs this summer
by Steven Kim 
posted Mar 27th 2009 at 7:58AM
nds posts
Can you live without your DVR? Survey says no
by Richard Lawler posted Sep 4th 2008 at 8:09AM
There's no doubt about it, according to a survey by New Corporation subsidiary NDS Group -- you can't live without your DVR. In numbers that likely surprise absolutely no one who has almost forgotten what it was like to have to watch TV only when it aired, DVR owners ranked it second only to cellphones as a tech item they can't live without. That device might be saving your relationship as well (clearly they were not witness to our who-deleted-the-BSG-season-finale breakup of spring '07), with owners saying it makes for a happy home life. Of course, since NDS makes DVRs, we understand why they'd want to make sure everyone knows how vital they've become. More numbers are available past the read link, we'd delve deeper into them but this season pass of Futurama isn't going to watch itself.News Corp hired hacker to pirate DISH Network access cards
by Nilay Patel posted Apr 24th 2008 at 8:33PM
DISH Network and News Corp's satellite subsidiary NDS Group in California have been involved in an industrial espionage lawsuit for years now, but there was some big drama in court today: a hacker by the name of Christopher Tarnovsky (who used the handle "Big Gun," among others) testified that NDS hired him to create a device called "the stinger" that could reprogram DISH Network access cards. DISH lawyers say the plan was to flood the market with hacked cards, which would cost the satellite company $900M in revenue and repair costs. Unsurprisingly, NDS (which supplies DirecTV, among others), says that it hired Tarovsky only to reverse-engineer DISH's cards for competitive reasons, and Tarnovsky himself says that he believes "someone is trying to set him up." Sure, sure -- but no one's explaining why he was mailed mobile electronics from Canada with $20K in cash stashed inside, or why he was officially on the payroll of HarperCollins, a totally different NewCorp subsidiary, for more than 10 years. Sketchy sketchy -- and we thought satellite hacking was dead.Read - Reuters article about Tarnovsky's testimony
Read - 2002 article about Tarnovsky and NDS
NDS partners with VBox to deliver HD pay-TV content to PCs
by Darren Murph posted Jan 9th 2007 at 6:55AM
If you're the type who digs HD, but would rather catch it on one of your two (or more) HD-capable displays connected to your computer, NDS has struck a deal with VBox to bring HD pay-TV content to your PC -- without the need for potentially costly upgrades. The agreement allows PC users to receive "broadcast content on VBox's Cat's Eye PC-TV receiver," which would store / playback footage like any typical DVR, while NDS' VideoGuard PC would provide the obligatory DRM kick to keep content owners pacified. VBox's Cat's Eye Premium is a newly unveiled receiver designed to deliver content optimized for IP distribution, which essentially provides "digital set-top box functionality in a PC environment" by interfacing with the computer's USB port or PCI slot. Content is received in the same way as typical TV owners, but is channeled into your PC via USB / PCI instead of component of HDMI, and it's strapped down by NDS' USB encryption key which is required for the whole rig to operate correctly; in addition, VBox also offers routers and gateways in case you're interested in slinging that content to various machines via Ethernet. Neither NDS nor VBox made mention of just how much this snazzy sounding setup would run PC users, but hopefully we'll be seeing the deal yield some forward progress soon after CES concludes.
