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Tivo and SonicBlue Settle Dispute
Shippy writes "According to this article at the Stereophile Guide to Home Theatre, Tivo and SonicBlue have
decided to dismiss all patent-infringement claims 'without prejudice' and instead focus their energies on energizing the DVR market. 'We believe our energies are better spent expanding the market for DVRs rather than fighting each other,' the former adversaries said in a joint statement. The article also discusses their plans for marketing and also how they plan to respond to criticisms that the DVR market is doomed."
IANAL
but if I read this right, this means that if they feel like suing each other over this in the future because they have a falling out, they are completely free to call in the lawyers and have at it.
Sort of like two mafioso movie types, each with a shot gun at the throat of the other. Backing off might be a smart move.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I agree with this totally...there's more than enough market share out there for both SonicBlue and Tivo. We need to educate people about PVRs, and the functionality that the media is trying to remove from them...not spend money on lawsuits like this.
The DVR market is hurting badly, and it won't be long until the two companies are forced to merge just to stay alive. Some markets can't handle competition (like the market paymybills.com exists in, it had to merge with a competitor just to stay afloat).
:-)
My personal thoughts are it's the monthly charge that keeps this market from going anywhere (it's why I won't buy). But none the less, these two companies are ultimately going to merge or end up playing so nice with each other they'll be borderline illegal in their cooperation. At that point, the MPAA and big media might just encourage the government to investigate them.
Or I could be entirely wrong
Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
If they are going to survive, it should be based on thier systems individual merits, not who has the deepest pocket book and/or best lawyer.
These companies have cranked out some very innovative products, for which they deserve much kudos and high praise. But between competition from the gatekeepers (cable and satellite TV companies), Japanese consumer electronics companies, and do-it-yourself PC-based solutions, they don't have much ground to stand on. Selling out to DirecTV or AT&T Cable while they still can is probably their best and safest bet.
From reading the article, it seems that both companies are getting pressure from other vendors who "are incorporating features into set-top boxes". Is this to say that these vendors are going at it alone? Why wouldn't they license the technology from one of these companies? Does this mean further diverging standards? It seems to me that Tivo could go to a DirecTV-like model by getting their technology licensed, subsidized and ultimately built-in to future hardware (I was recently suprised how many TV's have DirecTV built in). Am I missing something here??
...and focuses instead on furthering the technology?
Sounds like radio with pictures; it'll never fly.
Emacs: for people who just never know when to
I wouldn't really say that the DVR industry is doomed as such. When the cassette tape first came out, it was believed that it would be the "big killer" as they were inexpensive and you could copy them easily. Then the big hype was with CD's, then MP3 (not OGG :(), and now DVD's (or DVR's as the case may be). Embracing new technology is how these are overcome, and it's good to see Tivo and SonicBlue focusing on this.
Everyone I know who owns a PVR (including me) says the same two things:
-1) I love it and will never, ever give it up.
-2) It's nearly impossible to explain why I feel this way to anyone who doesn't own a PVR themselves.
IMO, #2 is the principal difficulty for SonicBlue and Tivo.
-Cal
The TIVO is still pretty much doomed.
sonic blue at least let's me set the unit's clock, while the TIVO requires that I let them do it.
until Tivo can be purchased and never allowed to dial home AND function properly as a Digital VCR (record at XX:XXpm for 1 hour call it foobar1) I and several others will never buy one.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
OK.
Lets look at the last financial statements for TiVo inc. Quarter to July 31, 2002.
Sales $23.9m, up about 6x. (Yep, c. 600%)
Gross profit $16.3m
Less R&D ($4.5m), Sales & Marketing ($5.6m & 3.4m), and General & Administrative ($1.1m).
Operating loss for the quarter, $1.1m, against $34.5m a year ago.
TiVo doomed? Do the math.
--- My dad's political betting
I have honestly tried to do that to radio - I reach for the control panel in the car to skip back 7 (mine is seven seconds, not eight) and thought "WTF?"
I really need a fast rewind/replay on my radio, my wife, my kids, my friends, my job....
Anything you say will be held against you.
Uh... have you looked at either TiVo, Inc. or SonicBlue?
They're hardly "megacompanies" or megacorps.
Yes, this is precisely what they're going to do. Good for them. They thought of the idea first, implemented it (i.e. - they didn't just patent it and sit on their asses waiting for someone else to do it), and they expect to make a return on investment on it.
What's so horrible about that? It's called capitalism. I find it ironic that you'd call it communism.
Paying $12.95 a month for 20 months (better known as 1 year 8 months) is $259. So, if you plan on having your Tivo longer than 20 months, the product lifetime option is better. (throw that whole thinking out the window with DirecTivo, since they're $4.95 a month, it'd take about 53 months... 4 years 5 months... to break even)
I had the same opinion (buy monthly, a new product is going to be forced on you every two years), and kept going monthly for my first 10 months. Then they had the monthly price increase, and let me buy at $199 lifetime. About 3 months ago I broke even, and am saving monry every month.
That, and I believe on their site they have the option to transfer a lifetime sub onto another box (does this work for transferring a sub from a series 1 standalone to a series 2 standalone?)
Ditto, I find myself wanting this feature with humans (radio or otherwise). Heh, even at the IMAX for SW2 I found myself almost reaching for my remote to zap back and rewatch a scene (damn!).
My favorite DirecTiVo feature? Dual tuners! You can switch back and forth between tuners by pressing down on the round navigation button at the top.
What's the big deal? When you change channels you lose your 30-minute buffer. However, if you switch tuners and then change channels you keep your buffer on the other channel (in other words, you have a 30-minute buffer for each tuner).
Say you want to watch something, but don't feel the need to record it, but want to surf during the commercials, but want to be able to rewind back if you switch back too late - simple, just switch tuners and surf.
I used this a lot with MTV as well. I'll watch a show on one tuner and have MTV on the other, then flip to MTV during a commercial and scan the 30 minute buffer for a good video (more and more rare these days, heh), and then switch tuners back to the show I'm watching after I'm done.
Oh, and Dual Tuners also rock for scheduling conflicts as you can record two shows at once (occurs 2-3 times a week for me).
Bad news about PVRs: I watch more TV than before. Partly becauase I didn't have DirecTV before as well (OTA barely gets 4 non-Spanish networks, missing CBS). However, I do find that for the most part I just watch my shows that are recorded and don't surf much (most of the time, heh, but now that I've found the dual tuner feature, I watch a bit more)...
I do not think that these companies have forgotten about their selfish patents.
I think that Sony, Pioneer, etc. are well aware that these companies are not suffering "patent memory loss".
I furthermore do not think that their selfish shareholders have chosen to invest in companies that forget about patents that have been acquired by spending the shareholders' dollars on R&D.