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Time Warner to Allow Digital Recording

Posted by timothy on from the but-that's-stealing dept.

platypussrex writes "CNN is reporting that some Time Warner cable customers will be offered the ability to use digital recording. The article says they will not have a commercial zapping feature but even the use of digital recording seems a major turn-around from what the entertainment industry has been saying so far. I wonder if this will help TiVo and ReplyTV gain 'legitimacy'?"

13 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Good by NetJunkie · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I hope they do a box with DVR and HD. I love my High Def cable box, much easier than an antenna, but I miss not being able to use my TiVo with it.

    I can't build a box either. No one makes an HDTV PC card with a component INPUT, they are all Antenna input.

    1. Re:Good by Ioldanach · · Score: 2, Interesting
      No one makes an HDTV PC card with a component INPUT, they are all Antenna input.

      What about S-Video input? That's at least better than Antenna, if not quite as good as Component.

    2. Re:Good by foobar104 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Now this is fascinating.
      The Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8000 home entertainment server can help you fight DBS, reduce churn, and generate revenues.
      (That's from the product page, not the one you gave, but the non-login one posted in response to your message. Emphasis mine.)

      I guess that really sums it up: cable providers want to keep subscribers, and direct-broadcast satellite providers like DirecTV and Dish Network are their competition. I wonder how much, if at all, DirecTiVo (the combination DirecTV receiver and TiVo unit) has affected DBS subscription rates. Are cable companies losing market share to DirecTV thanks to DirecTiVo?
  2. AOL owns ~10% of Tivo by uberstool · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Subject is the message

  3. Advertisers Dream by Joe+U · · Score: 5, Interesting

    How long before this becomes a Time Warner targed advertising tool?

    The box can easily compile a list of what you're watching, and then pop up advertising based on your viewing demographic.

    Soon you'll see targed ads in your schedule gude, on the music channels. And the ultimate: popping up while you're playing back your program.

    1. Re:Advertisers Dream by Maeryk · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Soon you'll see targed ads in your schedule gude, on the music channels. And the ultimate: popping up while you're playing back your program.

      I dont know about anyone else, but with my Tivo and my DirecTV subscription, I already get this. The "digital music channels" (those above 800) already have ads.. for Target, for specific albums you are listening to, and for albums you "might like".. which, granted, I would rather watch than ads for "pantyliners with wings".

      We also get pop-ups in the "tivo" section of like, this Counting Crows interview they are busy pushing now, in hopes that I will pay a bunch of money for a crappy PPV.

      If Advertisers want to get my money, they should make ads that catch my attention, and make sure they dont play them over and over and over and over. I will never play GTA simply BECAUSE I have to sit through that stupid opera ad about 47 times to watch a single episode of WWE RAW. Its the same thing with top-40 radio. I hate the songs because i hear them twice an hour.

      (And our local 80s station is doing exactly the same thing with 80s music now.. its an "all 80s" station, but its the same 12 songs, hour after hour.. they are on a pretty heavy madonna kick right now).

      Basic upshot: If you want to advertise to me, do it in a way that I will watch. Otherwise, dont scream when I dont buy your stuff. Oh, and you may want to look at your corporate politics as well.. its more than likely that the reason you arent selling to a significant demographic (nerds) is cause your company does something we dont like, and we boycott.

      Maeryk

      --
      Feminine Protection? What is that? A chartreuse flame thrower?
  4. Hmmm. by YanceyAI · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if this announcement will offset the news that they've become one of the latest corporations to come under review for shady accounting practices.

    --
    Can I bum a sig?
  5. I've got one of these boxes and it's no Tivo. by MaceSoul · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It doesn't record shows to hard drive. It just lets you pause and rewind. And they must be using some WMF format because the quality is worse than the worst setting on Tivo. It does not store video though.

  6. That's only part of the story by epicstruggle · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Take from tivo.com:

    "America Online (AOL), Advance/Newhouse, CBS, Comcast Corporation, Cox Communications, DIRECTV, Discovery Communications, Encore Media Group, Liberty Media subsidiaries, Liberty Digital, NBC, Philips Electronics, Showtime Networks, SONY, TV Guide Interactive and The Walt Disney Company -- leading companies from every facet of both the television and communications industries have embraced TiVo's concept of personal television and made equity investments in the company."

    --
    "Im drowning here, and you're describing the water!"
  7. A possible motive by drdink · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It seems to me that a possible motive for AOL/TW to be doing this is to be boosting the message they gave earlier this week:

    PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Television viewers could face paying for channels they now receive free if digital video recorders kill commercials, said Jamie Kellner, chairman of Turner Broadcasting System.
    I would imagine that they are pushing for digital recording without ads, and are going to use this new deployment as evidence that it can and should be done without ad skipping. I imagine they'll try to undercut the price of ReplayTV and TiVo as well, in order to steal the business and eliminate the commercial skipping abilities.
    --
    Beware, Nugget is watching... See?
  8. The free bad option by nick_davison · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Back in the 80s an 90s, Microsoft destroyed the OS competition by pretty much giving away their OS. It may not have been so good but it came with your PC and seemed to be free, so most people stuck with it. Then in the 90s they did the same with web browsers.

    Now we have TW's PVR. It's not actually as useful as Tivo or ReplayTV but it comes with your cable service, it'll no doubt be marketted as a nice and cheap add on, so most people'll go with it rather than Tivo or ReplayTV. It also won't actually allow commercial skipping, or file sharing, or anything else Time Warner didn't like before hand.

    So, what we're really seeing is them using their market position to force the suppliers of a product that they don't like out of the market. What are the odds that TW's real plan is that, in another five years, TiVo and ReplayTV will have all but pulled out of the market and the Time Warner PVR will force you to keep watching those ads. Even better, as you have to watch your TV through it, they'll be able to stop you channel surfing too.

    Forgive me if I don't see this as an amazing U-turn from Time Warner, nor the beginning of their acceptance of PVRs (as we currently know them).

  9. In other news... by Guppy06 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    DSS receiver boxes have been sold with TiVo and UltimateTV hardware for quite some time now.

    Once again the cable television industry is doing too little, too late to keep from losing yet more customers to digital satellite...

  10. I work at CNN... by Tempest261 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm working on the CNN Digital Archive project and I believe that this digital recording technology is being developed to support this project, but I also heard that they are definately planning to lease out as much of this technology to make up for the enormous R&D and equipment costs that I'm seeing dumped into this project.