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ReplayTV DVR to Remove Features
KarlTheGhoul writes "D&M Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said its new ReplayTV digital television recorder will not include controversial features such as automatically skipping commercials and sharing shows via the Internet." This is a confirmation of our earlier story. Their new ad slogan will be "Costs More, Less Useful".
MythTV v.0.9 was released yesterday
Works great on the 500mhz system I found in the trash a couple of months ago.
Freevo also works quite nicely.
Ryan Fenton
I've been assembling a set of PVR boxes which I'm planning to use for distributed recording/playback around the house. I never *did* get a Tivo or ReplayTV, though I came close, and now the stars are aligning in another direction. Combine the slow withdrawal of features from the commercial boxes, with the new features becoming available in a package like MythTV, and for a true geek, the answer is obvious.
In a year or two, possibly sooner, one could expect a CDROM-based distribution of Linux that makes a dedicated MythTV box out of any PC with capture and video-out.
It was a joke! When you give me that look it was a joke.
Someone mentioned something about an "open source" TV listings. For these free PVRs that are coming out, how/where do you get your TV listings from? Or do you just use the old school VCR method of plugging in a time/channel and get just that showing. As compared to a Tivo where you can say grab all these shows/season pass manager, etc.
Its my understanding that its the future hardware that wont have the features. If your unit, that you already have at your house, has that feature, i'm not sure they're planning on removing it.
That said, I'm not at all positive. ReplayTV has in the past removed features via firmware updates (which are forced on the user without their notice), so they could do a firmware-update that removes these features. Of course, at that point, it sounds like there'll be hacks out rather quickly.
As for suing, you'd have to be careful: the advertising materials likely make no claim that these features will exist through the lifetime of the product. If the features were there when you bought it, and you ran the hardware (including the end user agreement, which includes the statement that ReplayTV can update your hardware on their own), its not contradictory.
"Stumble before you crawl"
Tivo doesn't have these features to start with, and is doing extremely well...
I'm a TiVo advocate, but honestly, I wouldn't say they're doing "extremely well". They're yet to turn a profit, although the quarterly losses are dropping at a nice rate and their subscriber base continues to increase.
That said, TiVo does have these features... kind of. There's a secret code to turn 30-second skip on (Stop Play Stop 3 0 on the main TiVo menu IIRC). It's not quite as extensive as the newer automatic commercial Skip Replay gave you, but it's the same as their skip button on the remote.
As for show sharing, with HMO (yes, an additional cost) you can share between any TiVos that are on the same TiVo account and subnet. It's considerably more restrictive than Replay's offering, but it's also going to keep TiVo from being sued into bankruptcy. Twice. And it works quite well for what it is -- my wife and I use it all the time between our TiVos and it's great. Most of the TiVo users in the know are still hoping for collaborative scheduling between TiVos, but that's a ways off.
The issue for D&M is, what are they going to offer instead? Their pricing isn't cheaper (you can now get a brand new 80 hour TiVo for $299, or a refurb for $249), they don't have as many features (especially if you get HMO for an additional $99 or $49), and their software is buggier. I guess we'll see.
No, because your user agreement says:
" At its discretion, ReplayTV may automatically add, modify, or disable any feature or functionality of the ReplayTV Service or on the ReplayTV unit (when your unit connects to our server or at other times with or without notice)."
I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
Actually, both use Lirc to let you use a remote control to control many things. It's indirect, but effective. It's a sizeable portion of the FAQ & Documentation in MythTV at least. You'll need some kind of infrared detector on your system. You can either get an independant IR card, or many Hauppauge TV models have it included.
Ryan Fenton
Fair enough, though Tivo doesn't include either of these features!
That is right (apart from enabling things with secret codes). Now, with the feature set roughly the same, the decision comes down to the merits of each product, which TiVo wins hands down, in my opinion.
A long time TiVo owner and DVR enthusiast, TiVo is much easier to use in terms of interface. Plus TiVo, as a company, is generally friendly to the hacker community.
I glad the time has finally come that people can post about how much they like their TiVos without people flaming them about how ReplayTV has all these really cool, but legally questionable features (please no rants about legality).
TiVo has long been primary concerned with giving users what they want with a friendly interface and keeping itself on this side of a legal minefield. ReplayTV, in contrast, seemed to focus its selling point on its advanced feature set, despite of the lawsuits being fired at them from every angle. It should have focused on competing with TiVo from a usability perspective. Now, however, it may be too late, as TiVo is well ahead of them in every aspect now that these features will not be available. TiVo has an incredible interface and network media capability with Home Media Option, while ReplayTV is left without the slick interface.
-- Fighting mediocrity one bad post at a time.
Why would you want to pay for a monthly subscription to TIVO anyway when there a many FREE services that only require you to make a one time purchase... or no purchase at all...
Windows Based
Snapstream PVR
ShowShifter
Linux Based
Myth TV
Linux PVR Depot"
I have built my own PVR from scratch and the cost was comparable with a TIVO. Those packages offer many of the same features found in TIVO and ReplayTV... Plus, you can integrate them very easily into a home automation system or home network.
- Slew -
In case 2, the broadcaster could simply circumvent the automatic skipping mechanism by semi-randomly shifting the commercial times, or by varying the length of commercial breaks.
No, they couldn't. At least not with today's current ad model.
The commercials are not simply put in randomly. There is a very strict heiarchy of what commercials go where in the sequence. Picture a 30 min TV show. Usually, 3 commercial blocks. Just before the show, midway through, and end. The order of the commercials is actually quite important as regards audience retention. i.e. you're more likely to remember a product in a commercial in slot A than slot C. And yes...advertisers DO track that stuff, and are charged accordingly. Better placement = more $$ to air that commercial.
Also, a TV show is built around commercial breaks at specified minutes. Random insertion or different length breaks would destroy the flow of the show.
Finally, not all the commercials come from the same source. During a network show, some come from network HQ (See the new Fords!) and some come from the local broadcaster (Lo lo prices at Fred's Friendly Ford Farm out on Route 8!). No way to sync those two if commercial breaks are not preplanned.
This was beaten to death with a large stick in the TiVo article, but at the risk of repeating all that...
TiVo's business model always included the (future) sale of viewers watching statistics. They never tried to hide this. There's no identifying information in any of the viewer demographic information supplied to TiVo by your box, and hey if you don't like them selling that information then you just call up their support people and tell them to take you off that list! Again, TiVo have been completely up-front and honest with all of this information.
Sometimes there's no conspiracy, no matter how hard you look.
The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.