TiVo Home Media Rollout

ncstockguy writes "TiVo rolls out its new Home Media option next week. Subscribers with a Series2 DVR box can get some impressive new functions to their TiVos. They'll be able to screen digital photos on their TVs, listen to music stored on their computer hard drives on their home entertainment units, schedule to tape a show "remotely" through the Internet, and watch a recorded show in different rooms on different TVs. Some of the functions will require two or more computers connected either by WiFi or ethernet."

Comments

w00+

[sickboy_macosX]

I wonder what the RIAA and MPAA are going to think of this one. next thing you know, talking to co-workers about the TV Show, the new CD, or the Movie you saw over the weekend is going to be considered piracy. when will the madness end!

Re:w00+

[SaturnTim]

Well, the RIAA probably won't care too much. You can't share them from the tivo, you can't boy them from the tivo. You can only play them on the tivo. So from the RIAA POV, it's less threatening than an iPod.

The MPAA? Well, the tivo keeps macrovision intact, so it's not going to change the way people pirate movies. And tivo is only providing a way to transfer shows/movies from one tivo to another tivo on the same network. Tivo is activly discouraging people from transfering shows over the net.

Tivo is a small company, and they know they can't stand up to the Instrustry lawyers. They are doing everything then can to stay on the good side of the evil empires.

--ST

cool

[rf0]

Now if only TiVo was still in the UK. We have Sky+ which can "Pause Live TV". Of course things like MP3 playing/Viewing photos can be done on any modern DVD player but it would be so nice to have an all in one solutions

Rus

Beware the Google monopoly, too

[anonymous loser]

Why don't you stop using Google, too? They have a "monopoly" in the search engine market. I don't know anyone who uses another search engine anymore, except as a last resort.

The reason Tivo and Google have a "monopoly" as you put it is because they sell a good product, and others have yet to introduce another product that can compete with it effectively.

Nobody is locked out of the PVR market at this point in time, especially since this is a brand new market, and anything can happen. Several big players (e.g. Microsoft, with UltimateTV) have already gone up against Tivo, and failed. It could be in near the future that the perfect PVR will appear that completely destroys Tivo's current dominance, but telling people not to use a product because there are no decent competitors is just wrong. It's still a free market, not a monopoly.

Re:Beware the Google monopoly, too

[Alric]

There is merit to your point, but I think you are misconstruing the intent of the original parent post.

...telling people not to use a product because there are no decent competitors is just wrong.

I understood his point to be that people should consider not using TiVo, because there ARE decent competitor products. The only issue is that all of the current good rival products are computer-based and less user friendly.

Your post reminds me of many arguments for why people use Windows.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[NerdSlayer]

My TiVo is a great toy, but it's looking like it's time for this company to die. First they fire RB, and now they snuggle up to the content industry?

Yes, lord knows that telling content providers to fuck off and die worked well for Napster. I'm sure it will work just as well for Tivo.

Re:DIRECTV users left out in cold

[karmawarrior]

One of the major problems with most large organizations - be they telecommunication/entertainment powerhouses like DirecTV or consumable food & recreational drug giants like Altria (formerly Philip Morris) - is that there's a natural disconnect between them and the customers they serve. As layers of management increase, giant corporations find it more difficult to sense the needs and wishes of their customers. Usually this ends up being solved through countless customer surveys and marketing, but such research rarely has much affect in at least one major way - it doesn't tell corporations what questions are being asked, what is being expected of them: this type of research merely tells a company whether it is successful at what it believes itself to be successful at.

Getting feedback to companies like DirecTV is a tricky situation as it's rarely easy to determine who the information should go to. As if this isn't enough, for the most part any large company has little chance of telling apart sincere customer requests from background noise. If many customers suddenly demand a product be released, or another dropped, what's to say that this isn't because of a mention on talk radio, or because of the behaviour of a competitor?

This quagmire of companies being unable to ask all the questions they need, and of customers being unable to provide the kind of feedback giant corporations need to continue to provide quality goods and services at affordable prices 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 to your congressman or senator. Tell them that choice, quality services, and economical pricing is important to you, and that you worry that many businesses are crippled by being unable to understand what it is that their customers want. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done to promote loops of feedback, through clearly marked feedback email addresses and constant customer surveys but that if corporations continue to be unable to supply you with what you want and need because of a lack of awareness, you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how poor communications, bad feedback loops, and talk radio harms all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their ability to make giant, unaccountable, corporations provide the goods and services that make this country great.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

Re:Let me get this straight...

[ilsie]

My TiVo is a great toy, but it's looking like it's time for this company to die. First they fire RB, and now they snuggle up to the content industry?

Geez, give them a break for chrissakes. They have to do that to cover their ass. Would you want the networks & the MPAA breathing down your neck? What do you expect them to do? Not put in the security stuff? Why dont they just do that and call it "instant lawsuit?"

But in all seriousness, I have a buddy who works for one of the major PVR companies (it's not TiVo, but it is one that allows you to do stream sharing). In the close caption stream, there is a bit (that's part of the CC spec) that, if set by the content provider, denotes that the content cannot be shared. All they are doing is following spec, which I am sure is FCC mandated (IANAFCCE). So get off their backs, and cancel your subscription. Good riddance.

Freevo does (some of) this now.

[Oscar_Wilde]

Freevo does some of this now and should be able to do more in a few months. Plus its got that open source roll your own feel to it. What more could you want? (don't say "a finished product now", that would be obvious...)

Re:w00t!

[Anonymous Coward]

Another thing ReplayTV has that Tivo doesn't is a bankrupt company supporting it.