TiVo, PVRs Not Making A Splash

Sudderth writes "Too expensive? Too complicated? Lack of support from the TV industry (which depends on the commercials that TiVo users fast-forward through)? Newsweek has an excellent article on why personal video recorders like TiVo and ReplayTV, which have been embraced by tech-heads, are being ignored by almost everyone else."

Comments

Re:Straight from the article:

[cafebabe]

I'll admit it. I get that "engineer's dread" right before I have to set up a new gadget. (The "I have a degree in engineering and will look really stupid if I can't figure out how to wire this stupid thing up" worry.) I also resign myself to having to make at least one trip to Radio Shack.

Given that my TiVo had to hook together with the cable box, my TV, my VCR, DVD player, sound system, and the phone line, I thought it was going to be awful. It was one of the easiest things I've ever set up. They had pretty much idiot-proof instructions and every cord or cable you could need for almost any possible configuration of devices. I think they could legitimately stress ease of setup and use in their ads and win over some Joe SixPacks who fight with their VCRs. (Clear directions! Record a whole season by pushing one button! Never look at a blinking 12:00 again!)

(BTW -- I yanked the VCR out of the mix 2 weeks later and moved it to another TV. Between the TiVo and my DVD player, the VCR was pointless)