Posted by
Hemos
on from the electric-bugallo-for-you dept.
Anonymouse writes "I just saw on Linux.com that NewsForge has reviewed the new Linux-based TiVo Series 2 PVR. TiVo now (unofficially) supports broadband via a USB ethernet adapter as well, so it doesn't tie up a phone line." Yes, NF and LC are both owned by OSDN, as is Slashdot.
Before anyone else says it...
by
qurob
·
· Score: 5, Funny
INSERT
Comment about how this could be made for $76.23 with Pricewatch parts, and it would also play MP3's, Quake III, surf the net, cook toast, and send pictures of the kids to Grandma /INSERT
Re:Log Out
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
If Tivo isn't all about watching less (crappy) TV and getting out more, I don't know what is. With a Tivo you can watch what you want when you want and go out the rest of the time.
I love my series one TiVo, I really do. But now it's keeping me from buying an HDTV. Honestly, I go to the local big-chain electronics store and drool over the big widescreen HDTV's like everyone else, but then I think back to the days before TiVo. I would actually have to keep track of when TV shows are on TV again. Forget it.
And I know I could still use the TiVo with the High Def set, but really, why? The only reason then for high def then is DVDs, and that's maybe 10% of my viewing.
So while this new model has some great features, I'm waiting for the High Def model. This will be the killer app.
Just my $.02
Re:HDTV Tivo
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
To keep this on-topic, check out the interview with TiVolutionary that is done at the end of the review that was posted. Very interesting. He talks about the new capabilities of their Series|2 platform, and that they've demo'd an HDTiVo, and a partner could easily make one with the Series|2 platform.
I bought an HDTV after my TiVo, and it was a no-brainer.
Once you get used to the quality of the regular analog (and TiVo) programs on the big TV, it's great. (The neat stretching my Toshiba 50H80 does to fill 16:9 with 4:3 is PERFECT!)
I find that most of the HD content I watch is stuff that I would not put on TiVo, for the most part. Sporting events in HD (I usually like watching sports live for some reason). Content on HBO like their HD movies or HD TV shows (Sopranos). There are no commercials on HBO, so TiVo'ing it is not as crucial. The PBS channel has a lot of HD content, and very few commercials.
There are only a couple regular shows that I normally record in TiVo that have HD available (such as CSI).
By the time most shows I watch are really done in HD, I'm sure there is going to be an affordable HD TiVo available, so I don't sweat it.
And then there is DVD, which is fucking awesome on HDTV's.
Doesn't everyone remember that the MPAA et all are activly lobying congress to make sure that even if there is a HDTivo that it will be worthless because they are adding a "no record" bit to the HDTV spec so that personal timeshifting will be impossible for anything of value. Yeah you can have a HDTivo but the only programming it can legally record is infomercials =(
-- There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
A TiVo-like device for HDTV is years off, if ever. First, there's a distinct lack of interface standardization between set-top box makers. Sure, there's been standards agreed to, even for the cable industry. They've been summarily ignored, and the FCC is too balless to actually step in and impose a standard that they've been asking for since 1998.
On top of that, Hollywood stepped in a few years ago and started the standard whining on how evil it is for peons, er, I mean, consumers to be able to record shows and then do something as absurd as watch them when they want instead of when the broadcast studio wants. Ridiculous concept. So part of the agreement includes requirements so that shows can be flagged for record, record-once (e.g. - no copies), or no-record. This has been agreed to by everyone involved - the studios, the broadcasters, and the equipment manufacturers.
Think we're done yet? Nope. Because while Hollywood whined until they got the above, they then decided about a year later that this was utterly insufficient. Why? Because they still didn't have the control they wanted. No, they set about to make a standard that not only allowed them to control what you recorded, but also how long you recorded it for and how many times you could watch it! That's right, they wanted equipment manufacturers to build into their systems the ability for an outside source to delete recordings after an arbitrary amount of time, or make it so you could only watch something once (gee, hope everyone in the household was around to watch it).
Both the cable industry and the studios were all for this. The equipment manufacturers collectively told them to stick it up their ass.
But, all told, the hope for a digital VCR or PVR that will do direct digital recording is slim right now. There's no way to stop someone from building a TiVo-like device that re-encodes the stream, but you have the inherent problems of quality degradation and increased silicon requirements.
All allow hard disk recording, however I have no idea how well any of them work. Looking around the various hometheater groups the HiPix seems to be the most popular. These only work for OTA HD, so you won't be able to record DirecTV/Dish HD stuff.
-- Q.
Re:US-Centric Device
by
burts_here
·
· Score: 3, Informative
er... what about this must be pal cos the uk is PAL.
-- Burt
"Out of my mind back in 5 minutes"
All the more reason...
by
crow
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
That's all the more reason for getting a PVR. You can save 25% of the time by skipping commercials. With my ReplayTV, I just use the 30-second skip button and I'm past the commercials almost instantly (I use the 8-second instant replay button if I go too far).
And that doesn't begin to touch how nice it is not having to manage your life around being there to watch your favorite show. Or how you always have something interesting to watch instead of channel surfing. Or how skipping the commercials avoids breaking the tension in a show like 24. Or how watching several episodes of a continuing story back to back can make a TV show feel like a movie. Or how totally pissed off you get when someone spoils the X-Files for you when you're three weeks behind.
Tie up Phone Line
by
billnapier
·
· Score: 5, Informative
The new Tivo's also support getting channel information in-band from the Television Signal (played on the Discovery Channel late night) so you can keep your phone line open for important things, like ordering pizzas.
For those of you techincally minded folks, they have encrypted and encoded the guide data into the video stream, which you Tivo will record and decode. It will then call up (still need the phone line, just not as long) and (After confirming your account status) download the encryption key.
I just bought one of these last week.
by
jht
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
And it rocks. I got it figuring my wife could get good use out of it (we have a child coming in a couple of months, and she'll be staying home with him), and so far it's been well worth it. It's already making TV easier for both of us, and grabbing all her favorites. I'll switch it over to use Ethernet as soon as I get 3.0 updated (from what I'm reading, it should update itself within a month or so), and I may add a second hard drive as well so we can do more long-term archiving.
Do I have a few quibbles with it so far? Yes. But not too many. Dual tuners would be ideal, so we could avoid recording conflicts (She wants Friends, I want Smackdown - she wins!), and S-Video out would be cool, too. It's too bad only DirecTiVo offers dual tuners. It's also prone to artifacting in any mode lower-quality than Best, and even then sometimes it'll do it. I also wish I could set Season Pass Manager to automatically grab the episode that's rebroadcast at the odd hour - Food TV shows (like Iron Chef) are the best example of this. When there's an episode being shown at 10 PM and then being rebroadcast at 2 AM, I wish it'd default to grabbing the 2AM show. Things like that would minimize conflicts.
The only other thing that I dislike about it is that I had to give money to Best Buy to get it - between their copy-protection support and the way they've mishandled the GeForce 4 pricing issue I really hate them.
But the ultimate purpose in buying this was to make my wife's life a little easier when she's home with the baby, and it's definitely going to do that. This way, she can watch all the things she wants to, and do it when the baby gives her some free time.
--
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
Re:US-Centric Device
by
dair
·
· Score: 4, Informative
The TiVO that's available in the UK is a regular PAL device - there's a UK TiVO FAQ with more info. If you have a sky/cable box, you just plug it into the back of the TiVO and the TiVO into the back of your TV.
It's preconfigured to dial a UK freephone number to pick up listings, and works just like the US version. I don't know if they've launched it anywhere else in Europe, so if you're not in the UK you might have to live without the listings feature (which makes it less useful).
I've had one for about a year now (in the UK), and would never go back...
-dair
Re:Is Linux relevant here?
by
SurfTheWorld
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Regardless of if/. is Linux-Centric - I think this review is here because there is really a lot of exciting work being done on the "Hacking TiVo" front. There are a lot of really *really* nifty (and promising) projects that're being actively worked on: tivo-web (tcl), ExtractStream, etc...
Beyond the exciting projects, the hacking of the TiVo itself is really a great experience. The folks at TiVo have been really positive (relatively speaking) in response to the hacking efforts. There is a rule that the hacking community has agreed to follow: don't fsck with the service code. There are no projects trying to steal service. Because of that, the TiVo folks have been really forthcoming with leaked information regarding system upgrades of the software (hints as to what devices will be supported and what-not) as well as some tools for manipulating the TiVo once it's r00t3|).
And from a purely hacking standpoint - the DTiVo was the most illuminating hack I've done. They really have some security built into that thing to prevent the casual passer by from hooking up the disk to a PC and typing "mount". Hats off to all the TiVo Community for all the tremendous efforts they've put into hacking that box...
-- Do it for da shorties
explaining TiVo...
by
klund
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Many people, when trying to explain TiVo, end up calling it a "digital VCR" or a "VCR on steroids." After using TiVo for a month, it is clear that these methods of explaining TiVo's function are unfair...
TiVo's biggest problem is that there is no good way to explain it... Have you ever tried explaining it to your friends, geek or non-geek? All you get is blank stares. But if you *show* it to them, they seem to understand. And if they acutally get one, they quickly become converts.
When people ask me if I like it, I tell them that I would rather give up color than TiVo. I would rather watch TiVo on a B&W set than to have the nicest color HDTV set available.
And the funny thing is, people think I'm kidding...
--
My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
Re:Is Linux relevant here?
by
Erasmus+Darwin
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
"But it kinda bugs me that the description includes
"Linux-based". Now, I know Slashdot is Linuxcentric (no, really?), but
still I think that was kinda irrelevant to the review."
It's relevant in a couple ways: The review is intended for an audience
that's interested in the commercial viability of Linux. The
Linux-based nature of Tivos has helped people who have hacked their
machines (in a good way). Also, there's an entire interview in the
article which has a substational discussion of Tivo's involvement with
Linux.
"It's like that story about Best Buy having a customer arrested,
where in the first paragraph it was mentioned that he was an American
Indian."
Actually, he was an Indian American (implying someone whose ancestors
were originally from the country of India), not an American Indian
(implying someone whose ancestors lived in North America before the
arrival of the Mayflower). And it was relevant in that there were
allegations further on in the article that the incident may have been
racially motivated.
"Now, I can just see the moderation: -1, Antilinux."
How about "(-1, Fails to read entire article)" and "(-1, Shamelessly
tries to be a moderation martyr)"?
Full Disclosure
by
FooBarney
·
· Score: 3, Informative
It's called full disclosure, and it's a bedrock principle of responsible journalism. A reporter or news outlet is responsible to acknowledge any financial interest in the subjects on which they report.
Read a few issues of any AOL Time/Warner magazine (Time, Entertainment Weekly) and you'll find one. They have their fingers in EVERYTHING.:)
Re:US-Centric Device
by
radish
·
· Score: 3, Informative
There is no version of Tivo specifically for european countries other than the UK. However the device will work anywhere in mainland europe where the applicable standards (PAL/220v/50hz) are the same. I think france is SECAM, but most other places should be OK. Of course, you won't have local listings, but if you happen to use Sky Digital for your TV (I hear that many non-UKers do so) then you can get it to work. There are several members of the UK tivo forum who are in Italy, Holland etc. Check it out here.
Good luck!
--
----
Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Um. Its trivial to make it work with PAL...
by
tgd
·
· Score: 4, Informative
A ten second Google search would have told you that.
Its one of the first hacks that were available for the Tivo. In fact, an awful lot of the Tivo hacking is done by folks in Australia (including the guy who wrote Samba), and they all run them PAL.
Tip: try searching "tivo PAL hack" on Google.
Because Tivo is made up of people that "get it".
by
Otto
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
Slashdot readers, overall smart people who respect the freedom for the individual but also never lose sight of the importance of community efforts (e.g. open source, space exploration), should reject technology that phones home to report on your viewing behavior and just maks it easier for people to grow dumb scumsucking the televion spoonfeed.
It's not like that, or at least it only looks like that from a superficial point of view.
a) Tivo groks privacy. They have a truly comprehensive privacy policy (unlike anything I've ever seen by a company) that details exactly what the unit does/doesn't do. And they really do stick to it (as Tivo hackers like myself have actually discovered by reading the source). So it records my preferences anonymously, only by zip code. That's okay with me. If it wasn't, then they offer an opt-out that really does work (they set a variable on your box so the data doesn't get sent at all). Cool.
b) PVR tech. actually doesn't make you watch more TV, but more in less time. It frees you from the scheduling of TV. I don't have to watch network drivel at night, instead I can enjoy stuff that it recorded during the day that I'd normally miss (okay, mostly anime type cheesy stuff, but that's just me). And since I *know* that my box will grab my shows, I can turn the tube off and read a book without worrying about missing anything I want to see. I no longer am glued to the tube, instead I go out and do other things, and still watch my shows (in half the time too, since I skip the fluff and the ads).
-- - Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I archive shows (legally) with my TiVo.
by
SlashChick
·
· Score: 4, Informative
First of all:
"With a VCR I can record a show, movie, concert etc. for an unlimited amount of time - why can't TiVo do this?"
I'm not sure what you mean. I have a Sony DirecTiVo. A few months ago, a friend archived a 6-hour concert onto the TiVo just by hitting "Record" while it was on. It records until your available space is used up, just like a VCR.
I've also set up my TiVo to (legally) archive shows to my computer. How? I have an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 with video capture tools. I hooked up the S-video input on my video card to the S-video out on my TiVo, and I use ATI's TV software to archive shows. I've archived to DivX, VCD, and WMV with varying results. Sure, it's not as cool as "extracting" all of the shows off the TiVo would be, but it's incredibly easy and there is no question of the legality (as long as you're not distributing the movies, it's the same thing as backing up to a VCR would be.)
By the time this season of Six Feet Under is over, I will have every episode safely archived on my computer. The best part is that I can then take any of this with me on a plane with my laptop without the hassle of carrying around a DVD player.
Before I bought the AIW Radeon, I wasn't sure if archiving to the computer would work, but I can assure you it does. The results (a nice movie/TV episode library) are well worth it, too.
So, if this is the reason you're not buying a TiVo, go to tivo.com and buy one! I love it. I even set up a TiVo for my computer-illiterate parents. The interface is so simple that they picked it up in a couple of days and now they can't live without it. It will change the way you look at TV.
I find it kind of ironic that Tivo fans keep touting the Linux connection. And sad. Linux's main claim to fame is stability. Yeah, it's free, but the cost of Windows wouldn't be nearly so irritating if it bought you a little reliability.
It's ironic, because Tivo seems to be doing its very best to destroy Linux's reputation as a stable platform. More and more people are getting bit by the broken upgrade bug. This problem will continue to grow, as long as Tivo refuses to admit that bug exists and blames the problem on "hardware glitches" and "weak video signals".
Now, if you get bitten by this bug (and if Tivo remains in denial, you will get bitten eventually), you will spend a fair amount of time talking to Tivo tech support. And eventually they will say, "Look, all computers crash occasionally. Doesn't your home computer crash?" When I was fed that line, I laughed out loud. See, I work on a cross-platform Windows/Linux product, so I have two machines on my desk, one for each platform. The Linux box goes months without a crash or a problem that can only be fixed by a reboot. The Windows box has never lasted more than a couple weeks, and often needs to be rebooted several times a day, depending on what stresses I'm placing on it. I mentioned it to the call-center drone. He didn't have a response. Obviously not on the flowchart.
Right now I'm manually rebooting my Tivo at least once a day. I have "record suggestions" disabled and I record everything at basic quality. That keeps the machine working most of the time. I should probably call them again and bully them into doing a fresh install.
But even if they fix this problem, I've had it with their "our shit doesn't smell" attitude. I don't care how slick their products get. I don't care if they figure out a way to filter out the clichés from JAG, or record the lost episodes of Brimstone. I will never, ever, consider buying another Tivo product.
early tivo adopters not adopting HDTV early
by
raygundan
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I hadn't really thought about it that way, but lack of easy recordability is my biggest reason for not getting digital cable or an HDTV. My series 1 tivo is fantastic. I watch more shows I like but spend less total time doing it (TV is around 1/3 commercials, and I no longer watch "filler" shows between shows I like).
Without a Tivo-like device, I won't move to HDTV.
Since the early-adopter market is the same type folks who have Tivos, I wonder how this is hurting HDTV adoption? I suspect more than a few early tivo purchasers who would otherwise have gone on to become early HDTV purchasers are now too happy with their tivos to give up their power just yet.
Slashdot Mirror
INSERT
Comment about how this could be made for $76.23 with Pricewatch parts, and it would also play MP3's, Quake III, surf the net, cook toast, and send pictures of the kids to Grandma
/INSERT
If Tivo isn't all about watching less (crappy) TV and getting out more, I don't know what is. With a Tivo you can watch what you want when you want and go out the rest of the time.
Pong marathon here I come...
(2,3-Benzopyrrole)
I love my series one TiVo, I really do. But now it's keeping me from buying an HDTV. Honestly, I go to the local big-chain electronics store and drool over the big widescreen HDTV's like everyone else, but then I think back to the days before TiVo. I would actually have to keep track of when TV shows are on TV again. Forget it.
And I know I could still use the TiVo with the High Def set, but really, why? The only reason then for high def then is DVDs, and that's maybe 10% of my viewing.
So while this new model has some great features, I'm waiting for the High Def model. This will be the killer app.
Just my $.02
er... what about this must be pal cos the uk is PAL.
Burt "Out of my mind back in 5 minutes"
That's all the more reason for getting a PVR. You can save 25% of the time by skipping commercials. With my ReplayTV, I just use the 30-second skip button and I'm past the commercials almost instantly (I use the 8-second instant replay button if I go too far).
And that doesn't begin to touch how nice it is not having to manage your life around being there to watch your favorite show. Or how you always have something interesting to watch instead of channel surfing. Or how skipping the commercials avoids breaking the tension in a show like 24. Or how watching several episodes of a continuing story back to back can make a TV show feel like a movie. Or how totally pissed off you get when someone spoils the X-Files for you when you're three weeks behind.
The new Tivo's also support getting channel information in-band from the Television Signal (played on the Discovery Channel late night) so you can keep your phone line open for important things, like ordering pizzas.
For those of you techincally minded folks, they have encrypted and encoded the guide data into the video stream, which you Tivo will record and decode. It will then call up (still need the phone line, just not as long) and (After confirming your account status) download the encryption key.
And it rocks. I got it figuring my wife could get good use out of it (we have a child coming in a couple of months, and she'll be staying home with him), and so far it's been well worth it. It's already making TV easier for both of us, and grabbing all her favorites. I'll switch it over to use Ethernet as soon as I get 3.0 updated (from what I'm reading, it should update itself within a month or so), and I may add a second hard drive as well so we can do more long-term archiving.
Do I have a few quibbles with it so far? Yes. But not too many. Dual tuners would be ideal, so we could avoid recording conflicts (She wants Friends, I want Smackdown - she wins!), and S-Video out would be cool, too. It's too bad only DirecTiVo offers dual tuners. It's also prone to artifacting in any mode lower-quality than Best, and even then sometimes it'll do it. I also wish I could set Season Pass Manager to automatically grab the episode that's rebroadcast at the odd hour - Food TV shows (like Iron Chef) are the best example of this. When there's an episode being shown at 10 PM and then being rebroadcast at 2 AM, I wish it'd default to grabbing the 2AM show. Things like that would minimize conflicts.
The only other thing that I dislike about it is that I had to give money to Best Buy to get it - between their copy-protection support and the way they've mishandled the GeForce 4 pricing issue I really hate them.
But the ultimate purpose in buying this was to make my wife's life a little easier when she's home with the baby, and it's definitely going to do that. This way, she can watch all the things she wants to, and do it when the baby gives her some free time.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
The TiVO that's available in the UK is a regular PAL device - there's a UK TiVO FAQ with more info. If you have a sky/cable box, you just plug it into the back of the TiVO and the TiVO into the back of your TV.
It's preconfigured to dial a UK freephone number to pick up listings, and works just like the US version. I don't know if they've launched it anywhere else in Europe, so if you're not in the UK you might have to live without the listings feature (which makes it less useful).
I've had one for about a year now (in the UK), and would never go back...
-dair
Regardless of if /. is Linux-Centric - I think this review is here because there is really a lot of exciting work being done on the "Hacking TiVo" front. There are a lot of really *really* nifty (and promising) projects that're being actively worked on: tivo-web (tcl), ExtractStream, etc...
Beyond the exciting projects, the hacking of the TiVo itself is really a great experience. The folks at TiVo have been really positive (relatively speaking) in response to the hacking efforts. There is a rule that the hacking community has agreed to follow: don't fsck with the service code. There are no projects trying to steal service. Because of that, the TiVo folks have been really forthcoming with leaked information regarding system upgrades of the software (hints as to what devices will be supported and what-not) as well as some tools for manipulating the TiVo once it's r00t3|).
And from a purely hacking standpoint - the DTiVo was the most illuminating hack I've done. They really have some security built into that thing to prevent the casual passer by from hooking up the disk to a PC and typing "mount". Hats off to all the TiVo Community for all the tremendous efforts they've put into hacking that box...
Do it for da shorties
Many people, when trying to explain TiVo, end up calling it a "digital VCR" or a "VCR on steroids." After using TiVo for a month, it is clear that these methods of explaining TiVo's function are unfair...
TiVo's biggest problem is that there is no good way to explain it... Have you ever tried explaining it to your friends, geek or non-geek? All you get is blank stares. But if you *show* it to them, they seem to understand. And if they acutally get one, they quickly become converts.
When people ask me if I like it, I tell them that I would rather give up color than TiVo. I would rather watch TiVo on a B&W set than to have the nicest color HDTV set available.
And the funny thing is, people think I'm kidding...
My word processor was written by Stanford Professor Donald Knuth. Who wrote yours?
It's relevant in a couple ways: The review is intended for an audience that's interested in the commercial viability of Linux. The Linux-based nature of Tivos has helped people who have hacked their machines (in a good way). Also, there's an entire interview in the article which has a substational discussion of Tivo's involvement with Linux.
"It's like that story about Best Buy having a customer arrested, where in the first paragraph it was mentioned that he was an American Indian."
Actually, he was an Indian American (implying someone whose ancestors were originally from the country of India), not an American Indian (implying someone whose ancestors lived in North America before the arrival of the Mayflower). And it was relevant in that there were allegations further on in the article that the incident may have been racially motivated.
"Now, I can just see the moderation: -1, Antilinux."
How about "(-1, Fails to read entire article)" and "(-1, Shamelessly tries to be a moderation martyr)"?
It's called full disclosure, and it's a bedrock principle of responsible journalism. A reporter or news outlet is responsible to acknowledge any financial interest in the subjects on which they report.
:)
Read a few issues of any AOL Time/Warner magazine (Time, Entertainment Weekly) and you'll find one. They have their fingers in EVERYTHING.
There is no version of Tivo specifically for european countries other than the UK. However the device will work anywhere in mainland europe where the applicable standards (PAL/220v/50hz) are the same. I think france is SECAM, but most other places should be OK. Of course, you won't have local listings, but if you happen to use Sky Digital for your TV (I hear that many non-UKers do so) then you can get it to work. There are several members of the UK tivo forum who are in Italy, Holland etc. Check it out here.
Good luck!
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
A ten second Google search would have told you that.
Its one of the first hacks that were available for the Tivo. In fact, an awful lot of the Tivo hacking is done by folks in Australia (including the guy who wrote Samba), and they all run them PAL.
Tip: try searching "tivo PAL hack" on Google.
Slashdot readers, overall smart people who respect the freedom for the individual but also never lose sight of the importance of community efforts (e.g. open source, space exploration), should reject technology that phones home to report on your viewing behavior and just maks it easier for people to grow dumb scumsucking the televion spoonfeed.
It's not like that, or at least it only looks like that from a superficial point of view.
a) Tivo groks privacy. They have a truly comprehensive privacy policy (unlike anything I've ever seen by a company) that details exactly what the unit does/doesn't do. And they really do stick to it (as Tivo hackers like myself have actually discovered by reading the source). So it records my preferences anonymously, only by zip code. That's okay with me. If it wasn't, then they offer an opt-out that really does work (they set a variable on your box so the data doesn't get sent at all). Cool.
b) PVR tech. actually doesn't make you watch more TV, but more in less time. It frees you from the scheduling of TV. I don't have to watch network drivel at night, instead I can enjoy stuff that it recorded during the day that I'd normally miss (okay, mostly anime type cheesy stuff, but that's just me). And since I *know* that my box will grab my shows, I can turn the tube off and read a book without worrying about missing anything I want to see. I no longer am glued to the tube, instead I go out and do other things, and still watch my shows (in half the time too, since I skip the fluff and the ads).
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
First of all:
"With a VCR I can record a show, movie, concert etc. for an unlimited amount of time - why can't TiVo do this?"
I'm not sure what you mean. I have a Sony DirecTiVo. A few months ago, a friend archived a 6-hour concert onto the TiVo just by hitting "Record" while it was on. It records until your available space is used up, just like a VCR.
I've also set up my TiVo to (legally) archive shows to my computer. How? I have an ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 with video capture tools. I hooked up the S-video input on my video card to the S-video out on my TiVo, and I use ATI's TV software to archive shows. I've archived to DivX, VCD, and WMV with varying results. Sure, it's not as cool as "extracting" all of the shows off the TiVo would be, but it's incredibly easy and there is no question of the legality (as long as you're not distributing the movies, it's the same thing as backing up to a VCR would be.)
By the time this season of Six Feet Under is over, I will have every episode safely archived on my computer. The best part is that I can then take any of this with me on a plane with my laptop without the hassle of carrying around a DVD player.
Before I bought the AIW Radeon, I wasn't sure if archiving to the computer would work, but I can assure you it does. The results (a nice movie/TV episode library) are well worth it, too.
So, if this is the reason you're not buying a TiVo, go to tivo.com and buy one! I love it. I even set up a TiVo for my computer-illiterate parents. The interface is so simple that they picked it up in a couple of days and now they can't live without it. It will change the way you look at TV.
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It's ironic, because Tivo seems to be doing its very best to destroy Linux's reputation as a stable platform. More and more people are getting bit by the broken upgrade bug. This problem will continue to grow, as long as Tivo refuses to admit that bug exists and blames the problem on "hardware glitches" and "weak video signals".
Now, if you get bitten by this bug (and if Tivo remains in denial, you will get bitten eventually), you will spend a fair amount of time talking to Tivo tech support. And eventually they will say, "Look, all computers crash occasionally. Doesn't your home computer crash?" When I was fed that line, I laughed out loud. See, I work on a cross-platform Windows/Linux product, so I have two machines on my desk, one for each platform. The Linux box goes months without a crash or a problem that can only be fixed by a reboot. The Windows box has never lasted more than a couple weeks, and often needs to be rebooted several times a day, depending on what stresses I'm placing on it. I mentioned it to the call-center drone. He didn't have a response. Obviously not on the flowchart.
Right now I'm manually rebooting my Tivo at least once a day. I have "record suggestions" disabled and I record everything at basic quality. That keeps the machine working most of the time. I should probably call them again and bully them into doing a fresh install.
But even if they fix this problem, I've had it with their "our shit doesn't smell" attitude. I don't care how slick their products get. I don't care if they figure out a way to filter out the clichés from JAG, or record the lost episodes of Brimstone. I will never, ever, consider buying another Tivo product.
I hadn't really thought about it that way, but lack of easy recordability is my biggest reason for not getting digital cable or an HDTV. My series 1 tivo is fantastic. I watch more shows I like but spend less total time doing it (TV is around 1/3 commercials, and I no longer watch "filler" shows between shows I like).
Without a Tivo-like device, I won't move to HDTV.
Since the early-adopter market is the same type folks who have Tivos, I wonder how this is hurting HDTV adoption? I suspect more than a few early tivo purchasers who would otherwise have gone on to become early HDTV purchasers are now too happy with their tivos to give up their power just yet.