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Slate Predicts The End Of TiVo
wiredog writes "Slate has an article about why TiVo (the company, not the idea) is destined to fail. It suffers from the same first mover disadvantage that did in the Newton and the Amiga."
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.. I signed up for the yearly subscription thinking that I probably wouldn't use it for more than a year so why pay 200 bucks for a lifetime membership.
Well, over two years later and I'm still loving my Tivo. I use it more than any other AV component I own and I couldn't imagine not having it.
The devotee will even use TiVo as a verb
You can't buy that kinda of brand name recognition. ie q-tip, xerox
And compared with a VCR or DVD player, a TiVo is difficult to set up and maintain
Difficult to setup is accurate, but I'm not sure what is hard to maintain. All you have to do is watch TV shows and click on delete if you don't like them. Hit Thumbs up to stuff you like and thumbs down to stuff you don't. Not generalizing women, but my wife, who isn't that computer saavy has already learned how to bump her Season Passes over mine. I don't think it's difficult at all.
If TiVo does fall by the wayside, it will leave behind a throng of adoring fans
*sniff*
Live web cams
I just received a notice that DirecTV will be taking over the TiVo service for my unit. They also mentioned that the graphics will change on the interface, but none of the functionality. Does anyone know more about this?
Also to get a cheap DirecTV/TiVo unit, hit www.americansatellite.com and if you are a new subscriber they have the Phillips unit for $150. I bought mine about 7 months ago at $99. This included the unit, the dish and two installation kits.
Ford didn't invented the car and GE and Bell weren't the first in their businesses either, but like they say: "History is written by the winners..."
you can get the box w/ a lifetime subscription for $250 more.
It's a lot up front, and I think they offer monthly for the sake of people who would rather buy a $400 box than a $650 one.
But as a happy TiVo subscriber, let me tell you this:
I would play twice the current $13/month for the TiVo service. It really is worth it!
/bin/fortune | slashdotsig.sh
Giving the impression that Comodore had some grand vision is taking credit away from the true visionaries at Amiga. Also, they didn't design it to be a video editing machine. That was the contribution of a third party company, and came much later.
Nice to see how well researched Slate articles are.
Ask Slashdot: Where bad ideas meet poor googling skills.
Get a DirecTiVo with DirecTV. Perfect picture quality, and the service is only 4.95 a month (vs the 12.95 for a standalone), or free if you have Total Choice Premier.
"The guide is definitive, reality is frequently inaccurate."
This phenomenon is well-documented in Clayton Christensen's book The Innovator's Dilemma. It's an interesting read.
Actually, TiVo was out in retail 8 months before Replay. Replay did a "paper" launch a week or so before TiVo by shipping some beta boxes to friends and family and calling the product "shipping"
It's it's most basic ability. You're missing 90% of it's functionality if you don't subscribe to the schedule service. Since the sub is only £200 for the lifetime of the box, it's hardly a big deal.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
ReplayTV's latest units (the 4000 and 4500 series) take care of this. You connect them all to your home Ethernet and you can watch shows in the bedroom that you recorded in the living room. They even have enough CPU now to be streaming one show while you record another.
Replay has also added other features that TIVO doesn't have, like web-based scheduling without compromising the security of your home network, photo viewing and sending shows across the net.
Sorry to be such a blatant shill, but I've owned a ReplayTV for about 3 years now, and I think they're great. In many ways I think they are much nicer than TIVO. (I don't own stock in SonicBlue or even know anyone who works for them).
The funniest thing about this is TiVo wasn't even first. ReplayTV was first with a DVR to market, long before TiVo. And yes, I am a TiVo owner.... long live TiVo!
I bought the lifetime subscription for $199 on sale and folks, its worth every penny. People, if you don't have a Tivo, you CANNOT understand what all the fuss is about. Trust us. Get one. It Is Worth It. The lame ads about pausing live TV are stupid. TiVo is about sitting down once to program the thing - takes an hour pushing buttons on a simple menu - and then (1) you come home to things you want to watch (2) that you can watch whenever you want to (3) without commercials or (4) without worrying about setting up the programming for next week's stuff. This is FUN. TiVo mentally changes what you think about how to watch TV. You have to be nuts to channel surf or watch commercials after using a Tivo for just one week. Even my WIFE is sold on the TiVo. Just get one, you'll see!!!
The warranty is 90 days, and with proper surge suppression/filtering on the phone line, modem issues are all but suppressed.
Re: 2 shows at once - ever hear of DirecTiVo? Exact same features as you described above, but it's still being actively developed, whereas UTV (as you know) is not. In addition, TiVo has a sensical scheduling engine (distinguish between first run and repeats) and also has a large and active user community developing more useful 'hacks' for it.
This is the one major misconception that non-TiVo owners always make. The fact that TiVo records the shows digitally isn't what makes it great. It's the fact that you tell it "record new episodes of Junkyard Wars" or "record all episodes of Barney" and it does it.
My family hasn't watched live TV since we got the TiVo. I don't even know what channels some of my shows are on. I just pull up a list of the shows TiVo has recorded and watch what I want. We watch TV when WE want to. If I want to kill some time, I see what TiVo has for me. I can pick-and-choose between shows I like, not whatever happens to be on.
It's really a change in viewing habits that you don't appreciate it until you've tried it. I think the best marketing strategy TiVo could ever try would be to give out TiVos free for a month or two and see how many people buy it instead of giving it back.
P.S. TiVo doesn't skip commercials, that's ReplayTV.
I just got digital cable with the PVR capability. Time Warner is using the Explorer 8000 from Scientific Atlanta. I had wanted a Tivo but had never got around to buying one. I had been hoping to see the functionality get integrated into the cable box. When they came out in my area, I ordered one.
From what I hear, the Tivo software is definitely better. The Explorer 8000 has some quirks. You can set it up to record all episodes of something from the interactive guide. At the end of watching the episode, you get asked if you want to delete the show. You do (since you watched it) and it deletes the scheduled recordings of the other episodes! Definitely not intuitive!
It does not have the thumbs up/down or some of the other nice Tivo features.
The advantages are:
1. The digital cable box rental is $5.95 per month. This is the same as regular digital cable boxes.
2. The PVR service is $10 per month (a little cheaper than Tivo).
3. There is no $299+ outlay for the box. If it dies, Time Warner replaces it. Yes, you would lose what you had taped.
4. No need to phone or ethernet hookup. The Guide is pulled in over the already attached cable connection.
While I am sure Tivo is better in many ways, I am happy with my digital cable box with PVR functionality.
I was suprised it took this long for someone to point this out. Jay Miner (the Amiga's designer), had a much different vision for the Amiga than Commodore. Amiga geeks the world over agree that the lions share of the blame goes to Commodore.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
not to worry
;)
there is always http://freevo.sourceforge.net
They have this. The Series2 Tivo's can use a usb to ethernet adapter. And Series 1 users can buy a Turbonet card . (You have to open the Tivo, but it is just as easy as installing a PCI card.) The TIVO with OS > version3 has the drivers built in. You just tell it your dialing prefix is ",#401", and it knows to use the ethernet card.
They misunderestimated me. -- George W. Bush
It's thermos, not thermus
Nothing personal, but your attitude sucks.
"Select" "Play" "Select" "3" "0" "Select"
You'll hear three "Tivo Tones" letting you know that the command has been accepted. You can disable the feature by entering the same sequence.
For those that would die defending it, Freedom
has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
Want to watch a football but don't want to spend the nice afternoon? Record it and watch it that evening in one hour (I know it's not the same but if you want to watch pure football, it's the fastest option).
I ran across this article that shows how someone put together their own TIVO for fairly cheaply (if you don't want to drop as much money on a tivo or replayTV). Personally, I think there are more ways to cut corners on his PVR to further drop the price but it's a good attempt--especially with the software that he chose.
What about the fact that the Amiga never lost them a dime, and they took the profits and dumped them into PC clones? They never made a dime from PC clones.