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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.
How much more expansion and networkability are the MPAA and TV networks going to "allow" in these sorts of things? I keep wondering when the "other shoe is going to drop" and Tivo is either sued out of existance or DRM'd out of usefulness...
The Free desktop that Just Works
I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to know if there's going to be an upgrade program/discount for owners of the now old school original Tivo boxes?
:)
I guess now that the Series1 prices are going to probably go into a freefall soon I can pick up an extra and finally for the 100gig drive upgrade.
It's unclear on that little blurb whether it will have HDTV outputs... anyone have any more information on this? It would be great to have the outputs so that I could use the empty component in on my TV.
WWJD? JWRTFM!!!
When I install a USB device usually I have to add some software driver of some sort. How will this work? It would be cool to be able to support things like webcams, the new creative labs sound system, PCTiVo cable and more. I use USB for most all of my stuff on my PC and would love to see this capability on a set top box.
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
So if you plug in a USB modem/broadband adaptor, you'd then be able to stream Real content onto a TiVO. It all makes sense now...
-Corvidae
As a Tivo owner (and modifier), I can say that it's exciting that there will be an improved Tivo hitting the stores soon. I'm a little disappointed in a few things, though:
The announcement doesn't indicate what, if any, connectivity options they intend to use by default for the Tivo2. USB ports are great and everything, but if it still requires a modem line to get guide data and uses the USB network adapter for its "extended services"... Yuck.
And about the extended services: Why do I suspect that it'll be an extra charge for those?
I'm also a bit put out that Tivo isn't doing anything to announce improvements in the following areas:
- Show Send (a la ReplayTV)
- Archival of recorded shows to media or PC
- Show scheduling via Web page
- Management of recorded items via Web
- "Self-upgrade" capability via removable media
These, given the platform it's based on, would be simple to achieve. In fact, some of the same things are out there now that others outside of Tivo have created! Why not rely on the experiences of the power users, and be a truly hip company by adopting and supporting some of their work? Isn't that how the Open Source model is supposed to work -- the Adoption of What Works?
Or maybe I'm just mad that I spent all that time modifying my Tivo to add the above features and wish that I had the obviously superior Tivo2 hardware at the time.
:)
I have had a TiVo for about a year now, and I love it! The only complaint I have about it is the inability to record two shows at once. Never have I said I would love to stream MP3s to my TiVo. Over and over I have cursed West Wing for overlaping with Enterprise, and Friends for coming on at the same time as Survivor. I want both! I know they already have this ability in the DirecTiVo, but not in the Stand Alone TiVos. This seems like the next logical evolution of their product, but alas TiVo is yet another company that has placed strategic partnerships above features.
My main gripe about Tivo right now is that I can't record one program and watch another at the same time. UltimateTV and even DirecTivo have this capability, or alternately the ability to record two shows at the same time.
The specs for the new Tivo make no mention of this.
I've bought 3 TiVo's in the last year. One for me, one for my parents, and one for my brother. All three were the cheap 20-hour units, upgraded with a 3rd party hard-drive.
... it says they have a new graphics engine)
I sure as hell am not going through this again until they add HDTV support and dual tuners.
I would also love to see:
- 802.11b options, not only for downloading the updates via your local LAN, but also for streaming MPEG to other PC's and wireless devices on your LAN.
- Optical digital audio outputs (to go with the HDTV support).
- Newer video codecs with better quality (maybe they have added this in the latest release
- Firewire output would be nice, also.
Of course, my dream unit would be one that is integrated with TimeWarner's digital cable box, so that it can take advantage of the digital channels, much like DirecTiVo does. The integration with TW's channel guide alone would be awesome...
"And like that
Don't know about the crypto, but Tivo is partially owned by some bigges in the copyright industry so they are beholden to interests that differ significantly from those of their paying customers so I wouldn't be surprised.
On the other hand, ReplayTV is now owned by SonicBlue which is responsible for lots of neat toys like the (sadly defunct) empeg/riocar and other various "rio" mp3 devices. These guys are a lot more likely to have your interests in mind when making decisions about features. One side effect of this is that the current replaytv 4000 series is quite easily reverse engineered and we already have a combination of gui and command line utilities to access stored programs and play them directly on our PCs. These boxes are less than 2 months on the market and development of these tools has been relatively easy.
So, rather than going out of their way to lock things down, Replay seems to be making it very easy for hackers to do their own thing with the data on stored on their boxes.
Plus the guide data is "free" too (yeah, relative term and all that).
After reading this article i think ill stick to alternative devices, im not into paying someone to sell my viewing habits to advertisers if they are strapped for cash,
im suprised so many pgp military encryption loving
One feature I'd really like to see is the ability to decode digital cable.
Looks like they are starting up some sort of developer program as well. You can sign up for it at the bottom of this page. Anybody know anything more about this program?
I am not a deveoper my self I am just curious what it is about.
Q.
I tried rolling my own. It didn't work to well. I used the NVidia unit that comes with the remote control and the break out box. I never got the sound syncing with the picture, and it was difficult to configure windows in such a way that you could see what was going on on the TV.
Furthermore the long boot time and the large fan noise made it unplesent for the TV environment. I later got a panasonic showstopper (on sale it cost as much as the TiVo, but the service was free.)
W
You could buy a DirecTiVo, no? There's TiVo dialups available for Canadian numbers (since the use UUNet POPs), although there's no guide data for Canadian broadcasting. With a DirecTiVo that's not a problem since the guide data for the DirecTV feed comes off the sat feed. And it's perfectly legal to hack DirecTV in Canada, didn't a fairy high court there rule that not long ago? Not a perfect solution, since you wouldn't get local channels, but that's a chronic DirecTV problem anyway.
TiVo does the best it can do with the directory information it is given, and the problems aren't really that bad. There's not a whole lot they can do when a football game runs over, or some breaking news story overrides normal programming. The data is collected weeks before. And what if a station airs a show 5 minutes early each time it plays? They should put that information in their listings. Many already do.
There is no way TiVo or any other company could keep track of the idiosyncrasies of every local channel in America. Want to make the problem a little easier to deal with? Contact the network or station that doesn't keep their times synchronized or publishes incorrect guide data and let them know how you feel about it.
As PVR's become more pervasive, you will find that most broadcasters will pay more attention to detail if they want to keep their viewers happy.
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