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SonicBlue (Replay/Rio) Bought By D&M
An anonymous reader writes "Here's the announcement that many have been waiting for all week. Yesterday, the ReplayTV and Rio product lines of now-defunct SonicBlue were auctioned off in a bankruptcy court. Despite earlier negotiations failing to result in a deal, the Japanese holding company D&M, makers of high-end Denon and Marantz stereo gear, bought the product lines for $36.2 million. The big question is what about all of the "lifetime subscriptions" that people bought? No answers as of yet, but we can all be hopeful."
Only $36.2 million? That's really not that much for an entire line of TiVO-like products. It sounds to me like D&M might make a killing off this investment, if they play their cards right.
Cyde Weys Musings - Scrutinizing the inscrutable
Lifetime support has always meant the lifetime of the company. They got what they paid for; it was a gamble, and, unfortunately, they lost.
Interesting....this is a paradigm shift for D&M, as they've typically invested their R&D on the high-end of the audiophile spectrum. I'm somewhat perplexed by what they hope to accomplish with buying a line of low-end audio devices...
Rule #1 -- Politics always trumps technology.
INAL, but if D&M continues the ReplayTV "Name" (ie, they purchased the name, not just the products) then they should have to honor the agreement. If the company all of a sudden become "D & M R-TV", or even "ReplayTV+" then the current owners might be screwed. Hopefully, they'll honor the current agreement, or only charge a small "transfer" fee.
From the service agreement...
SonicBlue
REPLAYTV Digital Video Recorder
Activation and Service Agreement
This Agreement applies to your use of the ReplayTV Service and is a legally binding agreement between you, SONICblue Incorporated and its wholly owned subsidiary, ReplayTV Inc. (collectively "ReplayTV"). By clicking the button marked "I Agree" below or by otherwise communicating your acceptance to ReplayTV or by using the ReplayTV Service, you agree to all the terms and conditions in this Agreement. IMPORTANT NOTE: Your ReplayTV digital video recorder works only by activating and receiving the ReplayTV Service offered and provided by ReplayTV. If you do not agree with all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you are not authorized to use the ReplayTV Service, and you may return the ReplayTV unit to ReplayTV or the authorized retailer from whom you purchased the product for a full refund within one (1) month of the original purchase date.
www.christopherlewis.com
The big question is what about all of the "lifetime subscriptions" that people bought?
I'm pretty sure D&M would've had to have bought out any and all contracts that SonicBlue had held, too. If they haven't bought the company outright, I don't think they're obligated to any service contracts or anything like that.
As somebody pointed out above, a lifetime contract means the lifetime of the company. Pretty rare that you'll find a sucker willing to take on the responsibility of assisting a previously installed user base-- it's usually not worth the money.
I've been a replaytv user for 3+ years and considering how much effort it takes to support the subscriptions, I'm assuming they will honor the lifetime subscriptions to keep customers loyal.
I mean, how much effort could it take to download a bunch of schedules from tvguide or whoever, encrypt them into the proprietary replaytv format, and put them on an FTP site. For the broadband users, they're done. For dialup, they need a simple agreement with a national ISP to support a few thousand 5 minute calls every night.
Why do I h8 apple?
Unfortunately, it just doesn't work out very well just yet. TV-out devices available for Linux have poor quality, as do the TV tuners available. I've tried. I'm still hoping somebody from gatos will change their minds on TV-out and get the AiW 8500DV working... Supposed to be near-DVD quality output, but lack of drivers screws Linux over again.
Now, this entire situation will be reversed once HDTV gains popularity. Then, input and output will both already be digital, and your computer will have no trouble. That is still assuming that an unrestricted HDTV tuner will be available, and Linux drivers will exist. But, until then (years from now), TVs and Linux PCs won't get along well together.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
http://www.twice.com/index.asp?layout=story_stocks &articleid=CA66618
If D&M are going to continue the Replay line, they would be crazy not honor Rio's lifetime subscriptions. Subscribers are assets.
Not only do you get a chance to upgrade them to next model, the eyeballs themselves must have some value. Marketing departments are constantly trying to develop channels like these subscriptions, and they are willing to pay for them.
It costs big $$$ to develop the guide data, but costs very little to distribute it more widely to these lifetime subscribers. By not honoring the agreement, it will cost them a lot in goodwill.
Of course, I can see them maybe offering lifetime subscribers a year or two of free service and then maybe making them pay, too. But it seems like there is an advantage of not making these people feel cheated. Cheated customers never return and they complain a lot (LOUDLY!).
(I'm glad I am a happy Tivo user.)
No. TV-out devices and TV tuners available as add-ons to PC's are typically of poor quality. The poster is correct in their assertion that this becomes less of a problem as things go digital, but still a problem nonetheless. Large amounts of the poorness of quality on PC components is because of the sheer amount of electrical and RF noise inside a PC.
There are many Set Top Boxes available that currently run Linux on IBM PPC cores, which have fantastic video output quality, and all the features you would expect. BECAUSE THE HARDWARE IS DESIGNED FOR IT.
The OS you're running has zilch to do with generating a quality TV output. Hardware designed by monkeys who say "yeah, that's looks like a TV picture, ship it" is more likely the cause.
Why does everyone think that this is the end of ReplayTV? So far everything looks like it's not going anywhere, and that there will probably be a lot more developement on the ReplayTV line. People were making the same comments two weeks ago when the deal between SonicBLUE and D&M "fell through". I think D&M was offering $40mil then. Yesterday they paid $36.2mil. That's $3.8mil more cash D&M has now. How is that a bad thing?
-matt
Erm, how is it someone elses service? They bought that "someone else" so it's THEIR service. The point here is that D&M don't HAVE to make their own service, because they bought someone elses service, so all that infrastructure work with channel guide updating, and so on, and hardware design, os customization,menu building, it's already done. Otherwise they would have just made their own from scratch.
There is absolutely no reason to buy a company who's assets contain everything you need from top to bottom to get a functional PVR out the door, and then change crap so it becomes "yours".
It already IS yours. Any changes you make to the system (outside of new features and whatnot) is just making life harder for you than it needs to be.
It would be like me buying, oh, GM, then changing the engine bays so they don't fit the standard GM engines anymore, then making my own engine just to put it in the car and say it's "my engine".
Why dothat? It's stupid, just use the engines and bays and layouts you paid for.
"The saddest words of mice and men, are not those which were, but should have been."
While their sub has a lot of gee-whiz cool to it (a 12" cube! that's so cool!) they're amps and preamps, imho, are mediocre, considering what they cost. If you're looking for high-end home theater amps / preamps, look no further than B&K. If you're looking for just a high-end audio system, for the same price as the Sunfire stuff, you could get yourself into some entry-level Audio Research and Conrad-Johson eletronics.
But I've never been a fan of that all-flash, no substance Carver / Sunfire sound. To each his or her own.