Most digital media aficionados, especially those who have a thousand or more media files, would love to have a way to “clean up” their media files and update them with the correct metadata.
Rovi, which has an enormous database of metadata for TV shows, movies and music, this week announced the availability of its Personal Media Manager solution, which does just that. It recognizes the media files that are stored on consumers’ PCs and media servers. Then it suggests the correct titles, artists, albums, genres, years, album art, lyrics and other metadata tags. It’s not available directly to consumers, however. Rovi licenses the software and database access to CE makers and online services which embed it into their products.
Typical hardware products that are prospects for the application are network attached storage (NAS) devices, digital media receivers, Blu-ray players, residential home gateways, set-top boxes, external hard drives and digital TV sets. In addition to updating the metadata in consumers’ media files, it allows them to stream and share music, videos and photos stored on devices on a home network. Rovi has not announced any deals for the product.
“Consumers today are seeing their digital media libraries grow considerably as they continue to acquire, create and consume music, videos and photos,” said Corey Ferengul, EVP of product management and marketing for Rovi. “As a result, consumers need an easy way to manage their media collections.” He said device makers and online services can use Personal Media Manager to differentiate their offerings.
Rovi obtained the metadata from various sources such as TV Guide, which it used to own, and AMG. It has, for example, more than 1.8 million pop and classical music albums and 16 million tracks.
Rovi’s secret sauce is its Lasso technology, which identifies the show or tune that’s playing. It identifies and tags content with descriptive information on albums, songs and shows.
The company’s Connected Platform technology can connect consumers to online services and stores that the CE maker or online service specifies. It includes a DLNA player, server and controller, which allows consumers to connect devices running on different platforms to share content. The company said it did not want to sell Personal Media Manager directly but would be happy if someone else would shrink-wrap the product and sell it to consumers. It doesn’t want hundreds of phone calls, it said.
Samsung uses Rovi’s media recognition solution in its handsets. It allows Samsung to develop customizable and localized products that can identify media collections and deliver descriptive music data from Rovi’s database.
Kenwood uses Rovi technology in its in-car navigation system. Users can receive information on titles, artists, albums, files and genres. Personal Media Manager is compatible with Windows, Macintosh and Linux PCs.
A year ago, Rovi announced the Internet/pay-TV Total Guide for set-top boxes and TV sets. It helps consumers find the video they’re looking for from among the thousands that are available. It also allows users to search the Internet, broadcast TV channels and personal content from a single interface. STBs and TV sets with Total Guide are expected to soon be on the market.