Macrovision becomes Rovi, announces CE media interface

Best known for its anti-piracy technologies, Macrovision has been reborn as Rovi and announced the “Liquid” user interface for CE devices – designed to combine television, internet and personal content.

Rovi also intends to offer to Blockbuster OnDemand content and services directly through the Liquid guide, which will be released to CE manufacturers in early 2010 as an entire package or individual modules.

The Liquid guide is comprised of three integrated modules: a Television Content Guide, a Broadband Content Guide and a Personal Content Guide. The Broadband Content Guide offers access to full length television and movie content, from both free and paid services, as well as additional content including “Internet video, popular music, social networking and other Internet destinations” including Flixster, Slacker radio, Roxio CinemaNow and YouTube XL. The Personal Content Guide offers access to users’ media collections, along with a yet to be defined ability to share content.

Similar to TiVo, Liquid is designed to learn your preferences – storing favorites and recommending content. It goes a step further by storing user profiles for each member of the household.