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TiVo to support HDTV by "Year-End"
JMorgan in Seattle writes "TiVo has (finally!) announced support for HDTV. It's a ways off (end of the year), but at least we know that HD TiVo is on the horizon. In two separate press releases, we learn that TiVo will support both standalone and DirecTV hi-def PVRs. TiVo is really on a roll--first Rendezvous support, and now this. Now if only DirecTV would add more HDTV channels..." I've been waiting to get an HDTV receiver for this. Joy.
Which year is the question
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ping -f 255.255.255.255 # if only
Just a heads-up, if you are currently a DirecTV subscriber, you will need to get the triple-LNB dish to receive all the HDTV signals.
More like -- is it going to support the 90 minute delay
proposal before the FCC?
I.E. Some content can only be viewed no later than 90 minutes after it was recorded, or
not at all.
Is it going to have DVI or Firewire connectors with forced-down low-res on the firewire
is another important one.
It will still depend on the resolution at which TiVo stores the video, no matter what the original quality was for the master transmission.
Using the same compression algorithm to get the same file size, the better video quality you start with, the better the compressed version will be.
If TiVo stored the HDTV stream uncompressed, then that would take a heck of a lot more storage space, even more than DVD video takes on a 4.7 gb DVD (about 3 DVD hours=4.7 gb?).
$8.95/mo web hosting
That's 2.5MB/sec.
You'd need ~9GB per hour. So the largest harddrive available currently would give a whopping 20 hours of recording.
TODO: Something witty here...
Toshiba DVD-R + Tivo box
Remote scheduling, intra-tivo video sharing, and MP3/JPG display on Series2 Boxes
"TK-421, why aren't you at your post?"
Now I'll be able to record the first 5 minutes of my favorite HDTV program!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
The subscription is only for the program guide data. You can still pause/rewind/fast forward live TV, and schedule recordings manually, without a subscription.
There are ways to get the guide data into the Tivo without a subscription, from third-party sources, though I've never tried to on my unit.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
You're not paying a subscription to record TV.
You're paying a subscription for a well-updated TV guide, and software updates.
You need never give TiVo any money other than to buy the hardware; if, however, you want the value added services, you pays for them.
Hey, it's better than just auto-bundelling the price into the cost of the unit, aye?
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Only with certain versions of the software, and with certain hardware.
With newer versions, and units such as the Series2, the unit will go into "boat-anchor mode" (their terminology) if the unit has not been able to make a call for about a month. At that point, you can watch what you've already got recorded, but not much else.
A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
Besides, if you've got DirecTV and their Total Choice Premier package, the TiVo subscription fee is waived. (Or, included in the package, if you prefer to look at it that way.)
Either way, a TiVo subscription for a DirecTV DVR is all of $4.99 with their less-inclusive packages. If you can afford a TiVo, you can afford $4.99 a month.
A good traveller has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.
The subscription is only for the program guide data. You can still pause/rewind/fast forward live TV, and schedule recordings manually, without a subscription.
This is no longer true. DirecTV models have always required a subscription (ridiculously cheap at $4.99 per month for up to 8 TiVo units or free with some DirecTV programming packages) and standalone units have required a subscription since they began shipping with the 2.0 software. All Series 2 TiVos require subscriptions.
Anybody who complains about the TiVo subscription might as well cancel their cable or satellite subscriptions because they pay more for cable or satellite subscriptions and those alone won't bring someone the immense functionality and satisfaction a TiVo will.
Let me throw some facts into this mix. Your analysis is right on, but you need more info.
Uncompressed HDTV requires about 1.3 Gbps of bandwidth to transmit. That's the SMPTE 292M standard for serial digital 4:2:2 YUV 1080i HD. Nobody outside of the TV studio ever sees uncompressed HD.
When a network sends its broadcasts to an affiliate, it's not unusual for that signal to come down at about 45 Mbps over an OC-3. So the signal has already been compressed one time before it ever gets to your local TV station.
The 8VSB transmission standard for broadcast HDTV calls for an effective bandwidth of about 19.3 Mbps between the TV transmitter and your house. So before the signal hits the airwaves, it gets compressed a second time.
So the most your TiVo will ever need to store for over-the-air (OTA) HD is about 19.3 Mbps. That includes the 1080i signal and the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
For satellites and (eventually) land-based cable, the facts are a little different, but the gist is the same. I believe DirecTV is currently broadcasting at about 15 Mbps on its various HD transponders.
So all HDTV programming is compressed at least once and down to at least a ratio of about 70:1 before it ever gets to your house. This can be made to work for two reasons. First, your HDTV can't resolve all of the detail in an uncompressed HD frame. The set just isn't capable of it. Second, a good HD encoder can produce a 19 Mbps signal from a 1.3 Gbps signal that is free of visible artifacts. Note that I said a good encoder. Last week's broadcast of "Any Given Sunday" on ABC looked like hammered shit because it had been run through a poor encoder. Macroblocking everywhere. Virtually unwatchable.
So let's say your TiVo stores the incoming signal without additional compression. OTA HD (19 Mbps) requires about 2.5 MB/s of storage space, or about 8.25 GB/h. So a TiVo with an 80 GB hard drive could store nearly 10 hours of HD content, and considerably more SD content. Given that 320 GB hard drives are available, it's easy to imagine a high-end or upgraded TiVo that has room for as much as 70 or 80 hours of HD content. Not half bad.
So to sum up: "uncompressed" HD (meaning HD that is not compressed further once it gets to your house) requires slightly more than 8 GB per hour. Additional compression applied to the OTA or satellite signal is likely to result in very objectionable artifacts, unless TiVo spends a lot of money on their encoder hardware. Since people who buy HD equipment are currently on the high end of the market, it will make more sense for TiVo to spend the money on additional storage and simply omit an HD encoder from the device completely.
A 10-hour TiVo (note that these are 19 Mbps HD numbers only; SD capacities will be four to six times higher) will require one 80 GB HD or two 40 GB HD's. The upgrade path could possibly include adding 80, 160, or 320 GB hard drives to get to a final capacity of up to 80 hours (rounded up) for a few hundred dollars over the base price. Not too bad.
I write in my journal
TiVo is adding support for USB->ethernet connection in April this year. It will come with the new software that all Series2 TiVo users will get.
,#401 and it will use ethernet instead of the phone line. VERY nice.
That's when the OFFICIAL support comes out. Unofficially TiVo can use a USB->Ethernet adaptor now. You set your dialing prefix to
Dish Network can only get beyond this point by making use of its relatively niche position to create specialised services such as PVR integration systems built into its decoders, and such. This, however, requires changes - it is content providers that restrict the use of equipment to view and record content, and, with the DMCA, the content producers have the final say. If they want to enforce a "no record" bit, Dish Network's equipment must enforce it, regardless of how useless such a tool would be.
This quagmire of Dish Network offering nothing but a wider choice of channels and cheaper programming to compete against entrenched cable monopolies will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.
You can help by getting off your rear and writing GPL'd content parsing code which uses the DMCA in nasty ways in order to discredit it. Write code that makes it impossible to use it to produce encrypted, DMCA protected, content, but at the same time enforces little limitations upon its use. Appreciate the work being done by groups like Ogg Tarkin but that if these systems are shipped with DRM systems, such as Real intends to do with Helix, use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Get SMP working in OpenBSD so that you can efficiently deploy that operating systems on your workstations and servers. Think about freedom, openness, and choice, and work to create software that protects all three. This is an issue that effects YOU directly, YOU code, and that your code is dependent on opened systems.
You CAN make a difference. Don't treat coding as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep your skills up to date, keep writing great code that makes the world a better place. And, most importantly of all, code.
KMSMA (WWBD?)
Also, this confirms with the information on what people will be able to record from HDTV signals. The plan in the above article stated that there would be no restrictions on recording over-the-air broadcasts (read: your local stations), while you could only time shift PPV events by 90 minutes and not save the recording. I'd suspect that other cable stations, basic and premium, would have some restrictions between those cases.
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
Does anyone know if there are patent issues or something similar preventing it? I've looked all over the net with Google, trying to find a board for PCs that will receive digital cable, and turned up nothing. A few places say things like "no products available" or "we hope to have a product like this someday" but that's as close as I could find.
- reboots spontaneously, even while we're watching a program.
- mysteriously turns itself off at random times (like Wednesday afternoon), and doesn't come back up. You can't record anything if it's not powered on.
- Let's say you want to watch something that it's currently recording. Like, say, an episode of Farscape that's been running for half an hour, but hasn't finished yet. When you tell the box to start watching the show, it dumps you at the END of the recorded portion (aka LIVE TV).
- That, we can fix. Just rewind back to the beginning of the show. Slight hassle, but not horrible. Then, when the RECORDING ends (irrespective of where in the program YOU are), it dumps you back to the live feed. Not horrible for regular programs, but it sure sucks when you accidently see the final score of the basketball game you were watching.
- So you're halfway through a show, and you go run an errand. While you're gone, your SO watches something else. When you return to watch the rest of your show, the TW box starts at the BEGINNING, not where you stopped watching.
- TiVo has a function where you can record beyond the end of your show. College hoop, for instance, tends to run long, so you can tell it to record an extra half hour to make sure you get the end (and OT, if applicable). The TW has a similar function that you can program, but it doesn't work.
TiVo does all of the above admirably, with a user interface my technology stunted inlaws can use. That $500 never made so much sense, and the TW box is going back when I get a spare moment to do it.ceci n'est pas un sig.