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TiVo Gets In Deeper With Sony
mickeyreznor writes: "TiVo and Sony have entered into a seven year deal. The deal will result in TiVo's software being incorporated into Sony's electronic products. This deal might be good for TiVo, who've seemed to have been struggling financially to date. I'll just have to see how much more sony products cost with TiVo included." This is good news for anyone with a TiVo.
On another note, Tivo just released a software update for its stand alone recievers. It allows users to store more content on their boxes by using VBR. Cool stuff.
Just as a side note...all DirectTivo units are built with a second tuner. TiVo released the software upgrade to turn on the second tuner late last month...so you can now record two shows at once if you like...
The best part is that Sony has a DOCSIS-compliant cable modem based on Cisco's reference design, and tested/debugged by Cisco engineers; Integrate TiVo, PS3, the CM, and VoIP, and you have one solution that runs your whole entertainment center.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The DirectTiVo does have dual tuners now. They have been sending the upgrade out for the past month or so. The standalone Tivo's will never have dual tuner capability unless they release a new unit with two encoders. The standalone are not really comparable to UltimateTV as they server a different market.
Q.
I can answer your first question. No, you don't have to leave TiVo on the channel you're recording. TiVo will change channels for you. The program guide data has the channels in it, so it knows what's on what time.
TiVo can be programmed from the office - it just isn't easy or supported. People have come up with an Ehternet card hack and web interface for TiVo.
I believe that there is a hack that will (for the time being) let you remove programming from the TiVo. Be aware that even a lot of people in the TiVo Underground don't support this on the grounds that it may get TiVo sued out of business.
The rebate from Sony brings the cost of the DirectTV/Tivo to $159!
See most any dealer or go to Sony's site.
The latest TiVos do have two tuners and can also record two shows at once, just like UltimateTV
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Well, it used to. Now it doesn't. If you buy a new Tivo withou the service is bitches and complains all the time that you need to buy the service, it won't record for more than thirty minutes, and won't label shows (or let you manually.
Old Tivos work fine, unless you plug them into the phone, at which point they download the upgrade and start functioning as the new Tivos. But, you have to plug them in because the time drifts fairly badly if you don't.
Tivo's rep called users of the Tivo who didn't subscribe "freeloaders" and said that they *might* fix this "accidental" upgrade in v2.5.
The old hardware used to sell with a notice saying it would work without the service but would be so much more with it. Now they say it won't work without (and boy are they right). The only problem is that they broke old machines without telling the owners and are now blaming the owners for expecting the device to function as it claimed on the box.
Don't buy a Tivo, they're essentially crooks because they defraud their customers like this.
http://www.avsforum.com/ubbtivo/Forum5/HTML/005423 .html
I don't mean to be nasty or anything, but your idea is flawed because it doesn't appreciate how Sony makes money out of the PlayStation.
In 1998, an astonishing 40% of Sony's profits came from its PSX division. And they made next to no money on the hardware. The company makes money because publishing a PSX game requires Sony's approval. Oh, that and a $5-7 fee (per unit) to Sony.
Going to a Linux distribution with a DVD player would mean ANYONE could make a PS3 game. Good news for PS3 owners, bad news for Sony. Why would anyone pay Sony money when they could sell the games for 'free'.
While Sony would love to be 'free' of Microsoft, that does not mean they would like to make the creation of games free. Going to an open-source/Linux architecture would mean ANYONE could write games.
I can't imagine Sony senior management would go for that.
Just my ha'penny's worth.
--- My dad's political betting
One thing Season Passes can do for you is record each episode only once per say.. month. That way you don't end up seeing the same episode if it is aired on two seperate channels during the same month. I think that's pretty damn nifty.
:)
Plus it's nice not having to even guess which channel your shows are on. I get Law and Order on two different channels at least, but it doesn't even matter to me which channel it's on - I skip the commercials anyways.
Also, TiVo's listings are far more than just a step above the regular listings. They're interactive, meaning you can select shows from the list and set them to record in just a few clicks. You can also look backwards to see what was on yesterday - I'm sure I'm not the only person to use this feature.
Btw: You can set up manual recordings. I do that for Adult Swim on Cartoon Network because their clocks are a few minutes off there. TiVo can handle this if you tell it to record a few minutes early or late, but I've found it to be a lot of trouble to set that up for 6 shows in a row - personal preference.
TiVo has pretty much zero idea this is happening unless it is announced ahead of time soon enough to get into the guide data.
One of the things TiVo normally does is not re-record things that it has recorded in the last 28 days -- some exceptions apply, the big two are if you ask it to record an episode ("The Red Badge Of Gayness") rather then all episodes of a show ("South Park"), and suggestions don't count as recorded (except maybe if you watch them).
After the 9/11 thing TiVo sent out a patch that basically said that anything recorded that week can be re-recorded even within the 28-day rule. That let most of the stuff that was bumped a week or two get recorded anyway (that was nice because I just made a low priority wish list for first-run-only "Pilot" and caught the first episode of most shows that I could work into my schedule).
It is far from perfect here, the address this week threw everything off, I "fixed it" by setting a manual recording for a big block of time. Fortunitly I knew that one ahead of time and could plan for it.
It turns out that Seinfeld on some random channel that TiVo finds it on for me is now getting preempted by baseball, and worse yet the same episode is on another channel a few hours later, and is not being recorded because of the 28 day rule (which I swear is normally a really useful thing!). I ended up using the Recording History to find another show that is on at the same time that I would like to record (but less then Seinfeld), and bumped it's priority up. So now I get Northern Exposure, and a real Seinfeld later.
Apparently TiVo is working on a thing that can be slapped in the VBI that says "this show is running late" and some other stuff. If the networks choose to use it, and use it correctly that could help a lot. The UK apparently has one of these, and some stations don't use it right, so I'm not sure how it will work out here.
Of corse without TiVo I wouldn't even get Seinfeld, or Northern Exposure. They are on at bad times, plus I'm not always in the mood to watch them. So now TiVo gets them, and if I feel like watching them before they roll off my buffer (about a week) I get too.
Things like the presidents address are uncommon, but somewhat worse with TiVo since you get into the habit of ignoring schedules (since TiVo really does handle 99.8% of things well!).
This poster has blown things out of proportion, and is using out of date information.
First of all, the functionality of a non-subscribed TiVo is now the same in 2.5 as it was in 1.3. It has been fixed.
Of course, they want you to subscribe, it's thier source of revenue, hence the nag screens. After all, they do take a loss on every box they sell. But to say they are crooks is seriously unjustified.