Macrovision renames to Rovi, launches Liquid Media Guide

Macrovision changes name but new offer remains the same

17 July 2009 6:32 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The company formerly known as Macrovision has said that it will be changing its name and launching a new Media Guide that promises to revolutionise the way we choose what to watch on television in the future.

First discussed back in March, the company has formally outlined a new interface that builds on the Neon interface previously announced back in March, called Liquid along with changing the company name to Rovi, presumably in an attempt to ditch all those anti-copy memories..

Rovi plans to roll out its "Liquid" Media guide - read electronic programme guide (EPG) to manufactures like Sony in the future, allowing consumers the chance to connect to content found on the Internet as well as digital content stored at home.

"The new media guide solution is comprised of three distinct, but integrated solutions: a Television Content Guide, a Broadband Content Guide and a Personal Content Guide", a spokesman for the company told Pocket-lint.

In what must be a big day for the company, it has also announced a deal with Blockbuster to integrate access to Blockbuster OnDemand content, a deal that could be tied with Samsung's announcement of a similar deal with Blockbuster earlier in the week, although that hasn't been confirmed by either company.

Rovi has said that it is also working with Roxio CinemaNow, Slacker radio and YouTube XL, a website that is optimised for watching YouTube videos on large displays.

The company plans to use metadata stored in every programme to store favourites and make recommendations for undiscovered content. The guide also stores user profiles, so each member of the household can retrieve a personalised guide each time he or she turns on the TV.

The Liquid guide is designed to be able to connect to social network applications, such as Flixster using data to pull in recommendations from friends and the cloud.

The Liquid guide is planned to be available for CE manufacturers in early 2010 according to Rovi, however earlier comments from the company to Pocket-lint in March suggest that Sony might be the one of first company to launch a TV set with the new interface, although Rovi has confirmed to Pocket-lint that the electronics company hasn't yet bought the new offering.