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I'm 110% with you. I've been begging for this and have emailed both Netflix and TiVo to that effect, but apparently it ain't gonna happen.

I don't want another box, another input/output to hassle with, more cables behind my tv, another remote, another stupid UI to deal with, etc. I like my TiVo, and I like the UI. I like that Netflix has a huge selection - typical movies to now canceled shows. I had a Netflix subscription to catch up on episodes of Farscape when a friend introduced me to the show in the middle of season two and I had no idea wth was going on. So put the two things together -- this seems obvious to everyone but the idiots who handle so-called "content licensing". If they would get their heads out of their collective ass, they could make money from people like me, because I would pay to download content to my TiVo.

I don't like Amazon Unbox, honestly. Titles are hard to find, and most random things I look for seem to be not found or unavailable - or are only available to "purchase" or "rent to your PC". Dumb. I assume the TiVo deal with Amazon is some kind of exclusive contract that prevents TiVo from even talking to Netflix. TiVo, from my perspective as a customer/consumer, has done a lot of things right. This is not one of them.

Comcast will be suing Tivo - very old news: http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/03/comcast_and_tiv .html

Actually, what's really funny about all this, is that there's another Echostar vs TiVo case out there. Apparently at the same time that Echostar is violating TiVo's patents, TiVo is violating Echostar's patents.

So it would be really funny if in light of this, a permanent injunction is granted against TiVo on the same grounds and TiVo is made to shut off all its units. The beauty of the situation is Echostar has a money stream without DVRs, TiVo is pretty much SOL and would have to settle

the only real winner here might just be directv, if tivo holds out and refuses to license their questionable patent to echostar. without dvr, many of their customers will switch to directv.

Ahh, you're thinking of the old TiVo/DirecTV alliance. But beginning last year, DirecTV ditched TiVo in favor of selling its own PVRs. DTV customers who got one of the older TiVo-based systems still get to keep theirs, but all new DTV customers get home-grown PVRs. I would think they might be next on the list of lawsuit targets.

It may become a moot point, though, since - as you point out - an EchoStar/DirecTV merger has been attempted twice before and is continually being rumored afresh.

It is a sad day for competition and software development. TiVo's patent is another example of why patents suck. Subtracting the amount of time passed in the media stream during the real time it takes someone to press the play button is obvious, and in fact also reportedly appears in XP Media Center Edition. Obvious things are not patentable, yet TiVo has their patent and is using it to destroy competition. If I were someone who owned one of the EchoStars that will be disabled in the next 60 days, I'd be pretty pissed off.

• first, it costs $25 to even enable the feature. their ceo says it's to help pay for the licensing costs... i guess, but it's still too pricey for a simple add-on. divide that number by five and i might consider it. especially when i have to buy a separate license for every PC i run the software from. it should be tied to the device's media access key, IMHO.
• you can't convert stuff you've already transferred over from your tivo to the mobile format. i use my PC as a backup for my tivo - as the DVR runs out of room i move stuff over to the PC and stream it from there if i want to watch it. so the ~30 shows sitting on my PC are gone off my tivo and I can't re-transfer them.
• i can't convert-on-demand. i have to go into the preferences and turn on mobile conversion, and then transfer a show from the tivo. wrong, guys, i should be able to right click on a show from the list and convert on the fly.
• i can't convert to both ipod and psp formats at once. true, i'm a gadget nerd and few probably own both devices, but give me the option instead of leaving it out. i don't get why software developers continually forget that more options = happier consumersx.
• the psp has a 480x272 widescreen. i should be able to render my tivo recordings at that resolution, but output from this app is max 320x240. which will look sad and grainy on my psp.
• they still haven't fixed long transfer times. there's no reason at all that it should take an hour to copy a 1GB file from my tivo to my PC on my 100mbit LAN.
• the transfers take a long time, so if my connection dies during a transfer or i lose power, the software should allow resuming of transfers. nope. restart it and walk away for another hour.

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/04/moviebeam_pulle .html

How fuckign old is this slashdot article anyway. This service was cancelled a year ago.

Talk about breaking news.....

Advantage: Tivo

The series 2 TiVos let you choose which style of guide you like and you can change them by simply pressing guide again.

Advantage: Tie for the new DT Tivo & DirecTiVo

Advantage: DVR for now, but series 3 Tivos are cablecard ready

Advantage: DVR for now, but series 3 Tivos are HDTV ready

Advantage: Tivo.

Advantage: Tivo

The series 2 TiVos let you choose which style of guide you like and you can change them by simply pressing guide again.

Advantage: Tie for the new DT Tivo & DirecTiVo

Advantage: DVR for now, but series 3 Tivos are cablecard ready

Advantage: DVR for now, but series 3 Tivos are HDTV ready

Advantage: Tivo.

I would imagine Cox would use TiVo Series3.

Yes. There are.

A MythTV box will cost more than a TiVo, based on their new three-year plan. It will work on your television, not just your computer - the MythTV software is intended to be used on a standalone computer that is dedicated to DVR functions.

The benefit over TiVo for most users is that MythTV doesn't lock you into someone else's content control system. The stories about abuses from the makers of the devices or from the studios, abetted by the makers, are not hard to find. As Cory Doctorow says, nobody woke up this morning wanting their DVR to do less than it did yesterday. Yet, that's exactly what you are agreeing to allow when you buy a TiVo or use a Windows Media PC - someone else has more rights on your machine than you do.

Now, outside the DRM realm, another important issue that makes MythTV attractive is expandability. Yes, TiVo is hackable, but it's not meant to be hackable easily. My particular MythTV box has two tuners, and room for at least two more (I could actually have eight if I went with dual-tuner cards). TiVo has one tuner. A settop DVR from a cable or satellite company usually has two tuners, but you can't add more.

And if you're reading Slashdot, you're probably willing to play with your toys anyway, right? MythTV is fun. :-)

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2004/11/tivo_to_add_ban .html

So, essentially, you are fast fowarding through ads on TV, and TiVO is showing their ads instead.

It's been fun dabbling with Tivo's HME. Getting Google Maps on my Tivo via my desktop PC, playing with newsfeeds, etc. This site has some interesting HME Apps listed, http://hme.pvrblog.com/

Now, with the new Series 3 Tivo, what will developers really be able to do with a new HME...or does Tivo have little interest in opening up more to the developer community?

CBS is teaming up with Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and NBC with satellite operator DirecTV to offer the on-demand replays.

...it's imperative that people (DirecTV's Secret War On Hackers, DirecTV hacking is dead?) get those DirecTV hacks working full-swing again.

No thanks, TiVo. I've been boycotting you since you denied me the right to save my shows as long as I like and forced me to opt-out of a user profiling program into which I never opted.

I will be much happier when Google TV allows me to schedule recordings on my standards-compliant MythTV DVR that I built myself.

Read: http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/09/tivo_72_os_adds .html
Quoted from one of the posters: This is a BUG!
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.ph p?p=3233152&&#post3233152
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.ph p?p=3236586&&#post3236586
TiVo recognizes the Macrovision flag but there have been NO cases of a network or studio actually utilizing it.
Even HBO whose websites says OnDemand stuff can't be DVR'ed... well, I could TiVo my OnDemand stuff just fine. I did all the time. That was before 7.2 and I don't have HBO any longer but it did work.
Again - this is a BUG. Neither the local station or FOX intended for this syndicated rerun to be flagged like this.
Are bug bad? Sure. But it's not worth getting all up in arms at TiVo about.

Meanwhile, the cable companies continue to deploy video on demand. And it looks like TiVo will soon offer content programming downloads via the web. Why would I want to rent DVDs?

Yes, *BUT* if you're one of those people with a DirecTiVo, you don't get any of those spiffy things. DirecTV won't allow it.

And you realize that your VoIP phone is in the room across the way and your Tivo is looking for a phone jack. You'll get that 'ah-ha' moment when you try and plug your VoIP box into the wall - with hopes that it won't interfere with your Speakeasy DSL or the telephone company's old wiring, only to find it doesn't work. Then you'll wonder if your secondary coordless handset's base has an external phone jack (for a fax or, in this case, a Tivo), and it won't. So naturally, you run to the store to buy a phone that has one, only to find that there aren't any.

Not to be deterred by this minor set back, you soon realize for another 80 bucks you can buy a phone repeater that runs off your power lines. Dear me; all this to record the Battlestar Gallactica marthon on Wednesday. But VoIP is so cheap; what's another 80 bucks...

At which point you'll soon discover the state of service for modem and fax transmissions over VoIP. Tivo's initial setup uses a telephone connection to update itself and its showtimes. Unfortunately modem packet loss on a VoIP connection causes the Tivo to cancel its updates.

It's frustrating and almost enough to make you quit. As it stands, Tivo appears to require a land-line until you're up and running. Afterwards you can switch to a USB to ethernet (or wireless adapter) to get further updates. Vonage has a ,*99 dialing prefix to improve the data transfer and Tivo has ,#034 and ,#019 dialing prefixes to (apparently) reduce the baud rate. My Packet8 doesn't seem to far too well. I guess I'll just lug it into work and update it there...

For more information, here's a useful reference: How to setup a tivo without a phone

HD TiVo's can't decode the MPEG 4 streams, which is what the new satellites will be broacasting (I believe the current HD stream is MPEG 2).

You can read more here @ PVRBlog

TiVo is in talks with Google and Yahoo.

It's coming: http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/04/tivo_chatting_u .html - probably, hopefully sooner rather than later.

This looks like the site

PVRBlog reports that TiVo says his words were misunderstood. I think the quote was "Why can't we all just get along?" Tivo Doing Damage Control for Mac Fans

Actually I've seen pre-built mythtv boxes around for a while now...

The pre-built ones that I've seen are a little too expensive for my taste. You can get a Tivo and a lifetime subscription as well as have a bunch of money left over for the price of some of the pre-built mythtv boxes. I built my own mythtv for the following reasons:

a) I wanted a PVR

b) I wanted to learn more about the inner workings of the linux Os.

c) For the sheer pleasure of saying that I built it myself.

Granted, it took me months before I had a stable box with all of the features that I wanted, but I learned A LOT. If you are only looking for reason a, then save yourself a bunch of time/headaches and buy a Tivo.

The Dr. Dobb's article didn't seem to do it justice. If you want to learn more about HME, go to the HME Sourceforge homepage and try it out. You can also check out most of the early apps at pvrblog.

http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/

http://hme.pvrblog.com/applications

I have a standalone tivo with tivo2go software and it is pretty neat. I really like the tivo interface, season passes....all works well. As I moved and dropped directv, I added comcast cable since they are also my ISP. I got a promotion for htdv and their new Motorola 6412 DVR. That box does record HD and supports dual recording via single coax cable connection. But the user interface and other tivo like features are not near as nice, plus the box seems to freeze up every so often (even when not recording). The thing that makes me appreciate my tivo is that I haven't seen tivo prevent me from recording or fast forwarding through a show. There are reports that comcast is doing just that, although I have not experienced it for myself.

Frankly I was kind of hoping they would try and implement it. The outcry would have been huge, and good for the larger cause.

Yeah, I'm so glad everyone stopped watching American Idol because of the Broadcast Flag...

looks like the SDK works great on Mac OS X too: http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/01/tivos_home_medi .html (see comments to the article)

I apologize for moving away on you. Now that I live in Eastern CT I'm stuck with a crappy cable company, ECC. Would you please gobble up this pathetic company into your growing empire. And while you're at it would you please allow people to run servers at home with that 384 up bandwidth. I'd much rather host my own website than be forced to just share torrents all day. Oh and I promise not to extract any HD content from the new Motorola 6412

Thank you,
A former and soon hopefully future Comcast disciple.

But some companies are dumb enough to try it:

Apple's breaking of the iPod

TiVo "upgrade" removes features

Exactly. I just got this box from Comcast a few weeks ago, and I'm reading this like, WTF? As you said, the DTV channels are gorgeous, too. Its like watching NFL on Fox and Monday Night Football for the first time.

And don't forget, these boxes ship with firewire turned on! As the tv tech was flipping through the setup screens, I saw "IEEE-1394: On" and was like "WHOA!" He said, "oh, if you want to capture shows to a PC, just hook it up to these [firewire] ports back here." And that includes pulling off shows from the PVR.

The biggest problem is that the PVR functionality sucks compared even to my 1st gen TiVO. Getting a 'season pass' means searching for a show by name, viewing each episode currently in the guide and scheduling a recording. Someone out there has hacked up a web-based scheduler for this box, but it is a real hack in every sense of the word.

Honestly though, I feel bad for anyone who thinks HDTV "isn't ready". They really don't know what they're missing. Hell, for $130/mo for HDTV/PVR and hi-speed, it BETTER be awesome.

lol... you got me there =)

I meant to spend the day readying a nice new dedicated server for byopvr. I spent the day hot potato getting the site migrated off the VPS (after the first crushing courtesy of reuters/yahoo news)... then pvrblog graciously linked to the site and that influx of new visitors crushed the new server, before I could even get to optimize it... now this... now this... =)

The site you see now is slightly pared down to help it limp through the crisis. I didn't really think anyone would post it to /. or if they did it would be to the original news story and somehow that would slow down the effect. *shrug* man was I wrong...

e.

FYI PVR blog has more coverage of the monster PVR... linking to Engadget coverage

e.

According to this note, with a firmware upgrade to the Gateway player, it will support a Linksys 802.11g card. No idea if other cards are supported. The link also includes a good review of the Gateway. I've been eyeing this device for a few weeks now, about to pull the trigger on a purchase, so this Linksys announcement is timely.

For example, NBC has adjusted the schedule of their Thursday lineup by a minute or two so the Season Passes won't work. (For example, if you have a Season Pass for "ER" which starts at 9:58p, then TiVo will not automatically record "CSI" which runs from 9p-10p.)

And I recall that one of the networks (NBC or ABC, if I recall correctly -- but I couldn't track down the article) did a study about commercial skipping on TiVo and came to the conclusion that people fast-forwarding through the quick subliminal commercial images that flash on the screen inbetween their shows are just as effected as if the viewer watched the entire commercial at regular speed. The network's thought was that TiVo wouldn't be a problem any more than VCRs were. It's the ReplayTV automatic "skip commercial" technology that the networks had problems with.

(sidenote: in 1999, NBC invested money in TiVo)