I found a video that serves as an introduction to PVRs targeted to U.K. viewers.
It’s really about how to choose a PVR, and gives a general overview of features you can expect to find. Good for newbies only, however.
Sling Media, the makers of the Slingbox placeshifting device, was sued by an inventor of a wireless speaker system. Stuart Mershon, who invented a system that transmits audio via a wireless network, said that Sling Media’s Slingbox infringes on his patent.
Sling Media’s co-founder Jason Krikorian, said that the allegations were “totally without merit.”
According to Cnet, and other sources, Daylight Savings Time is changing this year which threatens to affect lots of gadget owners that rely on calendars and accurate times.
Daylight savings will begin three weeks earlier this year, and last one week longer. So consumers may start to worry if their devices don’t record programs correctly.
Fortunately, Tivo said it has updated their software to recognize the new DST. However, if you don’t have Tivo, you may want to check with your local cable provider and ask them if DST is correct on your box. Or if you have a stand-alone box, check your manufacturer’s website.
Last week, I signed up for Tivo Guru Guides, which gives you recommendations from “gurus” like TV Guide, Vogue and Sports Illustrated. They also offer package recommendations like the one currently being promoted about, the Valentine’s Day Guru Guide.
Tivo says this Guru Guide records some of the “world’s most romantic movies”. It’s all very heavy marketing, but I’m a sucker for marketing pitches.
So I signed up for it.
I’ve never tried Guru Guides before, so I’m excited at the content. But what I didn’t like was that I had to give up my privacy. When signing up for the Valentine’s Guru Guide, Tivo presented me with some privacy policy agreement (which I didn’t read). Nevertheless, I agreed to all of it in order to be part of their Guru Guide.
This privacy thing was interesting so I found an entire page that Tivo has dedicated to their privacy policies. Here’s a list of all of them:
Policies
Website Privacy Policy
Website Terms and Conditions (PDF)
TiVo Privacy Policy (Updated May 2006)
White Paper Submitted to the Federal Trade Commission, May 3, 2001 (PDF format)
TiVo Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy
TiVo Inc. Trademark Requirements
Service Agreements:
TiVo Service Payment Plan Terms and Conditions
TiVo Service Agreement For all Series1, Series2 and Series3 digital recorders.
TiVo Multi-Service Discount Agreement For multiple service subscriptions.
TiVo Basic and TiVo Plus Service Agreement For Pioneer and Toshiba DVD products with TiVo service
Terms and Conditions of the TiVo RewardsTM program (As Updated October 12, 2004)
Terms and conditions for TiVo Service Gift Cards
Er, Tivo must have lots of lawyers. Why so many privacy policies and terms and conditions? Having it all in one page really brings out the sheer quantity.
Anyway, I’ll report back tomorrow on the Valentine’s Day Guru Guide suggestions and tell you how it works.
Tivo, DVR, PVR, privacy, digital video recorder, personal video recorder
SageTV announced that is was supporting AMD’s “Live” media PC solution.
Not a real big deal, since AMD Live (like Intel’s Viiv) is just a marketing concept that allows people to know that their chips and supporting hardware can be used in making media center PCs.
The partnership between Tivo and Comcast has important implications for Tivo. If successful, it can show that Tivo software can be used in third party hardware.
This can open up a new revenue stream for Tivo and keep it from becoming extinct.
DVR functionality is definitely becoming mainstream and turning into a commodity. Already, many set-top box manufacturers are including basic DVR functions, like pause, rewind and fast forwarding. So the big way that Tivo can differentiate itself is through its branded extras, like “Season Pass”, “Guru Guides” and “Wishlist”. As well as its user interface, with the sounds, graphics and little TV logo.
Much like Apple, Tivo knows how to leverage its marketing and design in order to create a successful product. Tivo also knows what users like and what features are important. Other DVR manufacturers are just playing catch-up when it comes to extra features.
Tivo also wins by integrating the DVR with cable functions, like pay per view ordering and on-demand Comcast content. Integrating the cable box with the DVR will be so common in a few years, that stand-alone DVRs will become a thing of the past.
And that’s why I believe that many Comcast users will switch to Tivo-enabled boxes in droves. Pay a little extra per month, get rid of Comcast’s DVR and get Tivo instead.
If Tivo succeeds with the Comcast partnership, then it point to this success in trying to convince other satellite and cable partners–like AT&T, Dish Networks or maybe even DirecTV–that they can integrate their software into other DVRs.
Already, Tivo is branching out from selling Tivo boxes and subscriptions into other lines of business including:
Tivo must continue to expand, find more business opportunities and innovate. Otherwise, any other company can come along and topple Tivo from the top.
In the market for a basic Tivo? I just found out that Radio Shack is giving away an 80-hour Tivo Series 2 box for free!
One warning, however. It’s available in-store only, not online. (But here’s the link anyway.) (Amazon also has the same deal, apparently.)
One more warning. It’s not a dual-tuner. But this is a great as a spare Tivo for the bedroom or den. And don’t forget that you can upgrade the hard drive, if you’re handy with a screwdriver and don’t mind voiding your warranty.
Bonus: If you’re looking for a dual-tuner, Tivo.com has an 80-hour Series 2 dual tuner for $69.99.
Bonus #2: If you’re waiting for the price of Tivo Series 3 DVRs to drop, read this.
Virgin Media said that it was changing the name of its personal video recorder (PVR) from TV Drive to VPlus box. Marketing Week in the U.K. says that the name now will compete with rival company BSkyB’s Sky Plus service.
According to the article:
Sky refuses to comment on Virgin’s use of the “Plus” name, but executives are said to be amused at the cable company’s “nerve”.
Sky’s PVR launched in August 2001 and recently announced it had over 2 million PVR customers.
Ever wish you can take your DVR shows on the road? One enterprising user described how he loaded his video iPod with shows that he recorded off his DVR.
He just used a “$5 cable” to hook up his iPod to a hotel TV (with RCA inputs) and was watching The Daily Show, 30 Rock and Battlestar Galactica.
Ok, I noticed that the cable actually costs $8.99, but it seems like it would work just fine.
Too bad you can’t use it to record TV shows onto an iPod.
Engadget has some news that Archos is making a mobile DVR, the Archos 704 with WiFi. Although the product hasn’t been released yet (and apparently was revealed by the FCC!), rumors abound that the 704 will have a TV tuner built-in. And it will have a bigger screen than previous products, 7″ rather than 4 something inches.
Apparently, the FCC broke Archos’ confidentially request and posted pics of the Archos 704 Mobile DVR.
Tivo and Amazon teamed up today to let customers download movies and TV shows directly to their Tivo boxes.
In a test of the service, Amazon’s Unbox movie downloading service will deliver shows to a few hundred Tivo users. Later, Tivo says any of its subscribers will be able to buy and download content using their broadband network.
This is the first service to allow purchases and downloads directly to a DVR.
This is also the first time a movie downloading service is made for watching on a TV rather than a computer screen.
Competitors, like Wal-Mart, CinemaNow, Movielink, Netflix and iTunes requires that customers download files on a computer.
Sorry, Comcast and DirecTV/Tivo users—this won’t work on your machines.
Amazon offers downloads of recent movies for about $14.99 and episodes of TV shows for $1.99.
From a story on USA Today:
How the service will work: TiVo users will go to Amazon.com to sign up and designate where they want movies and TV shows they buy to be sent. Unbox will send purchases to two TiVos, two Windows PCs or one of each. The PC then can load the video on up to two portable devices using Windows copy protection (no iPods). Buyers can burn DVD copies for backup, but they won’t play in a DVD player. The Unbox service also keeps a record of purchases and will send backup copies if needed.
Perhaps now is a good time to get rid of Comcast and DirectTV DVRs and get the Series 2 Tivo.
[Via Tivo Press Release and Gizmodo]
Amazon, Unbox, Tivo, DVR, PVR, Netflix, digital video recorder
LG released the next version of its HDTV with an integrated HD HDVR in Korea, and I hope it comes to the U.S. soon. Having an built-in DVR helps to avoid the problems of having a separate cable/DVR box, since the LG units can accept CableCards.
LG’s new LCD TVs have dual HD tuners so you can record two channels at once. But apparently they skimp out on the hard drive storage space. There are various sizes (from 37″ to 60″)
Yes, it’s true. Tivo knows when you skip ads.
Tivo knows when you’ve been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake.
A story on SFGate talks about Tivo’s new DVR ratings service called StopWatch that was announced last week. In it, a Tivo representative says this:
“I promise with my hand on a Bible that your data is not being archived and sold,” said Todd Juenger, TiVo’s vice president and general manager of audience research and measurement.”
Um, well at least not individually. Tivo is definitely capturing information from a sample of 20,000 users for its ratings service, however. And I think that’s OK.
But really, your medical records are probably being used in research without your knowledge. Again, it’s used in aggregate form. But medical researchers often use medical records to retroactively look at how care was performed, for example. Aggregate data is OK for most things, so why not for Tivo?
A few years ago, Tivo announced that the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction was the most watched moment, with the most rewinds, during the Superbowl. So Tivo definitely knows what’s going on.
But privacy advocates worry if Tivo can sell individual data. Or release it to the government if they ask for it. After all, Google was cooperating with the U.S. government last year to hand over its search data.
Juenger says in the article:
“If we were subpoenaed by the Justice Department, we would be literally incapable of saying what an individual user was watching,” Juenger said. “It would be impossible.”
But Tivo says that advertisers want more detailed data and they are looking into using a sample of subscribers where personal data will be part of the data.
Hmm. Tivo is swearing it is keeping individual privacy a secret. Should we keep them at their word?
DVR, PVR, Tivo, advertising, Super Bowl, Nielsen, TV ratings, StopWatch, digital video recorder
Rumors of Tivo lowering the price of its Series 3 HD DVRs are running rampant. Well, if rampant you mean just one site so far. But it’s Gizmodo, a big blogging site.
According to rumors, heard by someone speaking to a Tivo customer service rep, Tivo will be lowering the price their Series 3 significantly by the end of 1st quarter 2007.
Currently you have to shell out $800 to get a new Series 3 from Tivo. Although, apparently Amazon has been selling some for $659 or so lately.
The source of the rumor seems very iffy, so I wouldn’t say this is the truth.
But really, if Tivo is looking to really start selling more Series 3 boxes, it must lower its price.
It’s just a matter of time.
NDS, the maker of DirecTV’s DVR, announced this week
a distributed or peer-to-peer DVR for its IPTV middleware product. NDS is a DVR manufacturer for DirecTV.
NDS’ distributed DVR system doesn’t have a hard drive in the set-top-box, but uses the space on a home network. NDS says that the lack of a hard drive can make for a lower priced STB enabling subscribers to upgrade their storage at any time.
At the same time, NDS’ ShareTV line allows IPTV subscribers to share their stored TV content using peer-to-peer technology using NDS’ Jungo Residential Gateway software. So if someone misses the lastest episode of Lost, for example, they can request it from another user and download it on their home network.
Later editions of the ReplayTV family of DVRs allowed this capabilities, but it did not sit well with content owners and TV studios. However, NDS says that its digital rights management (DRM) technology allows only valid users to share and transfer content to portable devices, for example.
According to Jupiter Research, these products can help telco providers to lower costs while providing innovative DVR features. Hopefully, companies will continue to innovate in the DVR space, and make these standard features.
[Via Engadget]
[Or the Press Release in PDF.]
NDS, Tivo, digital video recorder, PVR, DVR, P2P, News Corp.
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