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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".
This only effect's their new product line, but the article says that it's older models will be produced with those features still in tact. It sounds like they are just trying to please the networks, and not the customers. If you ask me, they are setting themselves up for a big let-down in the number of sales, but by the same token, Tivo doesn't have these features to start with, and is doing extremely well...
Something clever...
I just bought a ReplayTV 5040 from SonicBlue.com with lifetime subscription w/ those features as selling points. When those features are removed, can I sue for false advertising?
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Love conquers all... except CANCER
I hope there is still as much hacking potential as the original ReplayTV. There are some impressive projects going on out there!
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/
Suncoast Linux - Sarasota, FL
It just goes to show how the "synergy" arguments of the 1990's are actually complete bullshit.
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An interesting point to consider with this whole ordeal. For us Slashdotters, we're rambling on about features and cracks. By the time this thing gets out to Circuit City with the stripped features, the common masses will have no idea they've been "robbed". They'll just go with the marketing that they are fed. "As good as TiVo" or "better than your VCR". For us geeks, this is news. For the average consumer (who STILL doesn't get the joys of TiVo), they won't even notice.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I own two ReplayTVs - older model 3000 units. These are dinosaurs in the PVR world - they use a 56K modem to dial up for their program listings and only have a 30 second skip button. No auto-skip, and they can't even share with each other.
As far as I can tell, the older units like mine are pretty much at the end of their software cycle -the only updates will be program guide info and new phone numbers at this point.
A friend of mine owns some of the new units (4000's I think) and they're pretty cool - the commercial skip and the sharing/playing from room-to-room are features that I've drooled over more than once. I would have gone out and replaced my current units with some like hers, but she mentioned about how they keep updating the software with "improvements" that only seem to get buggier and buggier as they go. She worries that the next round of "improvements" will turn the commercial skip and sharing off, or might change the way guaranteed vs non-guaranteed recording will be handled.
After (vicariously) going through the ups and downs of buggy updates and worries about what they will break this week, I decided that as nice as all those new features might be, the ReplayTV people are too likely to mess stuff up.
I've decided that I'll do whatever I can to keep my two "dinosaurs" running as long as possible. I love the possibilities the new technology could bring, but the skittishness of the ReplayTV people (this isn't the first time there's been talk about commercial skip being removed) makes me uncomfortable about slapping a large sum of cash down on the counter at my local A/V store.
If I were to upgrade, it would be to get the very features the new management wants to delete. No thanks.
The Digital Sorceress
Bullshit. TV and advertisers will adjust. One, advertisers may start making better commercials that people want to watch. Two, networks can reduce the costs of shows by, for example, paying stars less. The cast of Friends makes $1 million each per episode because NBC is willing to pay it. If no network was willing to pay that price, then you can bet your ass that Matt LeBlanc would take what they offered rather than go back to waiting tables.
The networks are just trying to preserve the status quo at all costs. They are welcome to try, but they shouldn't have any help from Congress or the courts.
Build a man a fire and he will be warm for a night; set him on fire and he will be warm for the rest of his life.
I'm still astonished at the number of people who believe that television exists in order to provide programs. Television exists solely for the purpose of providing another advertising medium, for everything from footwear to politicians. The quality of programming is quite secondary to the networks first consideration: advertising dollars. They don't utilize those dollars to create "better TV programs", there's no such thing. The shows exist only to sucker viewers into watching the advertisements, and although you can say, "Oh, I always mute the commercials", the visuals are still effective at capturing attention (often far more so than the programs). It's also worth noting that television advertising works on the same basis as email spam: sure, YOU don't respond to those Nike and Coke ads, but someone sure as hell does, and the take from even a tiny percentage of viewers is significant enough to warrant the continued domination of television by its advertisers. Btw, in his book "Four Arguments For The Elimination Of Television" Jerry Mander notes that the more heavily a product is advertised the less there is an actual need for it. So while you never see an advertisement for whole wheat or organic farming you'll see plenty for soft drinks, antiperspirants, and yes, even automobiles and beer. You might like that stuff but you don't really NEED it. That is known up front in the advertising industry, so they must continue to blare their wares, else in a very short time you will forget about their product and discover that you simply don't need it.
As an aside, I was told by a former jingles writer for the J. Walter Thompson Agency that he once conferred with representatives for a major brewing company here in the US. The reps told him they were targeting what they termed the "reparative drinker", i.e., the 30% of American drinkers who consume 60% of their product. These are the people who don't have a babe girlfriend, a fast cool car, or any talent for sports. But the advertisers know that their job is to convince those people that if they just drink their beer then at least they'll FEEL like they got the babe, the car, and the talent. In short, drinking their beer "repaired" those deficincies, and it's the advertiser's work to convince those people to keep drinking, as opposed to actually doing something to improve their real lives.
As a last comment, I've lost track of the number of friends who tell me about their attention-deficit out-of-control kids, and then tell me that "All those kids want to do is watch TV". What those kids will really remember is the ads. Makes me wonder what Hitler might have accomplished with television...
One feature I think would be cool would be a "Capture Commercial" feature, where the box would monitor a channel and capture all commercials over a 24 hour period... so you could collect commercials you really liked. or, you could have it capture commercials with certain words in them (which it would recognize from the CC signal).
I'm actually interested in seeing commercials, just not during a show I'm watching. Let me watch them at my leisure. Perhaps a box could have commercial splitting that would let you skip all commercials for a recording, but then save them separately for the end so you could skip through ones you did not like like chapters on a DVD?
If you don't think there's a market for that, just look at how adcritic.com had to become a pay service.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley