Sonicblue files for Chap 11

An anonymous reader writes "ReplayTV and Rio maker Sonicblue is a goner, filing for bankruptcy and selling their assets to D&M, the Japanese parent company of Denon and Marantz. No word what will happen to all those Replay users out there -- that $140 deal on Amazon isn't looking so hot now, is it?"

Comments

TiVO may benefit...or not

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, now that SonicBlue seems to be out of the picture, now the only major retailer of PVR technology is TiVO. Unless you count UltimateTV, which I guess is still being sold, but I haven't seen ads or any indication of Microsoft pushing it for a long time.

Tivo COULD do well by this, since if support for ReplayTV drops dead, users of ReplayTV will still want SOME kind of PVR (and I'm not talking about those who are willing to waste days and weeks hacking the box, here)...or, could make it harder on them, since the MPAA and their relatives now only have one big company to focus on.

The next business quarter will probably be a turning point for PVR technology. TiVO has a better chance of surviving if those that are orphaned by ReplayTV move over to it. If they don't, TiVO instead will be 'hanging on' for some time, and its fate (and ability to manage lawsuits like the one ReplayTV got, DMCA-wise) will be a lot more uncertain.

Re:TiVO may benefit...or not

[rusty0101]

Go check the statistic for yourself, but DishPVR has a larger customer base than TiVo at this time.

Microsoft discontinued their side of the UltimateTV product line and sold the ongoing support to DirecTV.

TiVo is more widely known because they have been friendly to their customers, and have not fought customers that are interested in seeing what more they can do with the TiVo products, so long as theft of service is not an issue.

TiVo has also been reasonably sensible wrt usability and features when it comes to protecting the broadcasters. The 30 second skip is not advertized as a feature, and is not documented in the product literature. It is not a blank seaker, which is more accurately what Replay did, so you do have to fiddle around looking for the end of the commercials, though it is not as bad as watching 20 30 second comercials every 5 min of programming.

Then again, that's my opinion. You have fun with your own.

-Rusty

-Rusty

Re:TiVO may benefit...or not

[zsmooth]

TiVo is more widely known because they have been friendly to their customers, and have not fought customers that are interested in seeing what more they can do with the TiVo products, so long as theft of service is not an issue.

Preface: I have Tivo. I love Tivo.

The Series 2 (with 3.2 software) is hardly hackable at all. A boot PROM checks the signatures of the kernel and all startup files and replaces anything which has been changed before booting. No adding anything to rc init files like on the Series 1. A couple hackers at tivocommunity have socketed their PROM chips and flashed new ones which bypass the ROM checks, but they still haven't succeeded in getting MyWorld (the main tivo app) up and running.

Even if they do manage it, which I'm sure they will, socketing your PROM is still way out of the level of expertise of almost all Tivo users. The general consensus is that the chip is not flashable on board either (long debates about this, as some Tivos appear to ship with PROMs that ARE flashable on board, but even on those there's no way to actually run a flashing utility on the machine since there's no way to get a shell prompt once the box boots because you need to disable the PROM... you see where this is going.)

I don't fault Tivo for this - they are certainly showing they work hard to keep people from being able to extract video, which will probably be good for them in the long run. They're still cool about hard drive upgrades, but that's about all the hacking you can do on the newest units.

FYI, chap 11 vs 7

[mcmonkey]

In the good ole US of A, chapter 11 is reorganization. This gives a the company protection from creditors to get its house in order. Companies often come out of chapter 11.

Chapter 7 is liquidation. This company, as they say, is no more. This is for companies that are looking for an organized sell-off of assets.

More info at 411bankruptcy.com.

So SonicBlue is not necessarily gone for good. However, if they are selling off their major product lines, I wonder how they plan to achieve profitability.

TiVo is doing fine...

[Wee]

They beat analysts' expectations, revenue is up more than they thought ($60.2 million this year vs. $19.4 million last year), licensing means they'll sign up more people than they thought this year. They didn't meet their growth projections for the holidays only because stores didn't have enough product to sell. That isn't necessarily a "bad" kind of problem. More info on news.com.com.com.com.com.

Doesn't look to me like TiVo needs a savior.

-B

Re:A bargain opportunity, perhaps?

[jbarr]

To answer your question specifically, NO. The current version of the ReplayTV software requires service connection. If there is no guide information, you CANNOT record anything. For newer boxes, if you paid for the lifetime service, you can use it to manually record, but if you are paying month-to-month, then you are outa luck. As for older models, you need the guide information to record.

Also, and this is critical, service connection is required to set the clock.

I have three ReplayTV boxes ("upgraded" 2001, stock 2020, and new 5040), and if the service gets cut, I am screwed.

TimeWarners going to kill Tivo and Replay too

[lkaos]

Here in Austin TimeWarner is trying out a PVR with 80GB of disk space and just about all the features of Tivo (a little dumber and doesn't have commerical skip). It's the same deal as the cable box--you only pay $9.95 a month to lease the hardware.

There is no way that Tivo can compete with that. Even though it has a better product the cable company just has it beat here from a price and marketing perspective. It's almost sad...