TiVo Introduces Series2

KMFMS writes "Yesterday, TiVo introduced their Series2 line of TiVo DVRs. The TiVo web page for the Series2 states that it will have "2 USB expansion ports to connect to peripheral devices like... network adaptors..." " Presumably this will mean Tivo will have Broadband support to compete with the new ReplayTV 4000's. It also claims to support music and stuff too.

Comments

Re:Network adapters...

[NMerriam]

They're not selling the data. They're selling the format and convenience of the data.

You can buy a sunday paper and get the TV listings. Somehow TV Guide stays in business selling the same "data" to people, but usually in a better format.

Not that i wouldn't love to be able to get all the stuff for free, but the key to tivo staying in business and making cool boxes is for them to make money somehow. If it would just go over my DSL IP connection I'd be happier than the whole dialing-in thing.

All well and good...

[sdo1]

The new features are all well and good, but I think the key to TiVo's long term success will continue to lie in its simplicity. Right now, it's something that your grandmother can use. It's simple, intuitive, and useful. While adding ports may up the "geek factor" to compete with ReplayTV, it really adds very little in the long run.

If you really want a whiz-bang system with home networking and other features built in, the way to get that NOW is to roll your own PC based system. There's plenty of software available.

If TiVo makes the mistake of over complicating their product and bogging it down with vaporware (see previous RealNetworks article), then they may have problems. Ask yourself what level of technology your non-technical friends and relatives are comfortable dealing with. Most can't even hook up their VCR correctly.

I love my TiVo. It's easy to use and simply works great. I don't ever see myself being without some sort of PVR.

-S

Interesting compromise...

[Fnkmaster]

What's odd about this is the fact that they put USB there. A USB Ethernet adapter can handle all of 10Mbit ethernet - no 100 Mbit ethernet here. I have two Tivo's currently, and have a 10MBit ethernet card in my SA (Standalone Tivo) and it is honestly slow as ass to transfer a show over to my desktop. But that's an ISA adapter hack with an old ISA 10baseT card in it - the Real Deal ought to include a 100baseT built in ethernet to stream big movies.

While it's true that for streaming over the internet directly from a Tivo it wouldn't matter, but it's pretty crazy to go around transferring full bitrate MPEG encoded movies - what most people want to be able to do is download video to their computer and re-encode or shrink it down to a reasonable archiveable size.

This sketches me out - I have a strange feeling that something is going on behind the scenes here - remember the flap over the ReplayTV that could "share movies with your friends". Tivo is a saavy company when it comes to placating the media world. I have a feeling there is a reason they are putting USB on it rather than ethernet directly. But it doesn't quite click to me what it could be - other than that this allows them to assess the industry response to it, and choose to release or not release official ethernet-USB support at a later date without endangering the product itself, and surely some hackers will make ethernet work anyway to appeal to the gear head crowd.

So I think this is a carefully considered business decision. I also know a lot of folks in the Tivo community and have no doubt that within weeks of these things hitting the stores all sorts of cool unintended uses for these USB ports will be thought up. I'll be first in line to buy one, as soon as the DirecTV-integrated version is out.

Re:Network adapters...

[SethJohnson]

Or you could buy the lifetime package and be done with it.

Do you boycott all products / services that package something freely available in a more useful form? Sure, I don't buy bottled water, but what about the newspaper? What about linux distros? Why go to the movies at the theater when they'll eventually be shown on broadcast tv stations like NBC or FOX?

I find myself buying the newspaper rather than looking at the online version because I enjoy the portability and bathroom-readability of it. I purchase SuSE cdroms to support the improvement of the product without having to get my hands dirty writing code. I pay $7.50 to see movies in the theater because I want to see them on a big screen with a great sound system and share the experience with a few hundred other people.

There often is a value-add in a company taking something that's freely available and selling it. If there wasn't, then there would be legions more people who share your perspective, and these companies wouldn't be able to stay afloat. In the case of TiVO, they have significant value-add with using the tv listings. It's not a box that simply displays the channel guide (channel 7 here in Austin, TX). Consider Tivo to be your TV administrator. It watches those listings like a damn hawk, swooping down and snatching up the programs you wouldn't have noticed were on. Unless, of course, you want to spend more than $10.00 of your time and energy each month monitoring those tv listings yourself. It has such value add as providing a hot-list of celebrities to watch for, so it'll record Conan Obrien whenever some hot chick you saw in Maxim is on there (or any other show she appears on).

Look, I'm not trying to sell people a tivo. It's just my experience that some freely-available stuff can be improved and worth purchasing.

Re:Thanks but ill pass on TIvo...why ?

[TwoStep]

If you are so concerned, TiVo allows you to opt out of the data collection.

Personally, I like that they collect what I watch. Maybe that will mean that the shows I watch don't get cancelled...

Twostep