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Clones Are Overwhelming TiVo
jfruhlinger writes "The first line from this CRN/Associated Press story says it all: 'Debra Baker tells people she has TiVo. But she really doesn't.' As cable companies offer their own DVR boxes to customers for no upfront cost and a lower monthly fee than the original, people are using TiVo as a verb but are frequently not using using the product or service itself in real life. The article notes that the cable company's DVRs don't have some of the archtypical TiVo features, such as the ability to guess what you'd like recorded based on your viewing habits."
"...don't have some of the archtypical TiVo features"
Such as selling your personal viewing habits to advertisers? I'm no tinfoil-hatter, but this is one of the main reasons I chose ReplayTV. I understand TiVo's data collection is aggregate, but the thought that someone keeps a record of everything I watch (or re-watch), and uses it for profit is a bit off-putting.
Kudos to the newcomers!
All my clones own Tivos. That's seven subscribers when before, it'd only be one.
record only first runs.
as it is now, they record all showings.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
Where's OpenCable when we need it?
Because that's what's really locking TiVo out of the digital cable biz. They can't directly operate on a digital cable wire, and the companies such as Scientific Atlanta are not releasing their decoding specs so that TiVo can make a box compatible with cable systems that run their backend equpiment.
Analog CATV is standardized, cable channel 27 in one town is on the same frequencies as cable channel 27 in another. OpenCable will basically do the same for digital. It should be noted however that OpenCable is leaving decryption and conditional access for others to handle... they're just defining a slot in which the system provider's choice of smart card that that will handle that stuff goes into.
Slashdot has written before that this isn't quite the same as Open Source in the way that it's usually thought of here, this is a hardware spec that pretty much gives up a single-channel digital bitstream to the device's wishes once the access card lets it go.
In the future, this could lead to "digital cable ready" TVs and devices, including TiVo that won't need the assitance of a settop box. But, of course, the present digital cable system makers don't want to give up their cash cow. That's why the current digital cable device makers can eat TiVo's lunch right now...
Similar to saying "I had a burger and coke for lunch," when you really had a burger and Pepsi. TiVo is becomming part of American culture.
Steal This Sig
Most people hate the viewing habit feature on a TiVo. For me it was unpredicatable and produced some interesting results. Not to say it's a bad feature, but it's definitely something I can do without.
~S
I do love my Tivo, but I turned off the personal viewing feature long ago when I realized it had a twisted personality. It kept recording porn and cartoons...
TiVo's got the name-brand recognition, which is good, but it seems like they need to make some marketing efforts pinpointing what differentiates them from their primary competitors.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
I just got through building a really nice home media system with WiFi.
The centerpiece is a PC running SageTV [www.sage.tv]. It uses a hardware mpeg encoder to capture video from my digital cable box and save it on a 250 GB hard drive. Encoding at the "DVD Standard Play" quality uses about 3 GB per hour of video and the quality is definitely acceptable. Also stored on the monster hard drive is my entire CD collection ripped to very high bitrate MP3. The hardware media card also includes a built-in radio tuner. The machine has a DVD burner in it as well, and SageTV glues it all together.
Now, the really cool part of it is, I can access the mpeg video files and MP3s over my home network. With an mpeg video codec, I can use any of a variety of players to play my recorded television anywhere in my house on a laptop. SageTV also offers a separate piece of client software that allows you to remote-control the PVR from any networked computer and play any of its recorded media -- so, if I'm in the garage with my laptop, I can call up the current TV guide and select a program to record right there without having to directly interact with the media PC.
TiVo runs Linux and is hackable, but still uses a proprietary filesystem for video storage. Plus, the folks at TiVo don't want you accessing the video externally anyway...
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
I currently subscribe to the DVR service from Brighthouse here in Central Florida; which uses the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000. I have been blessed with the Passport software as opposed to the rather buggy SARA, and even though it may not have the advanced features TiVo has like being able to intuitively record programs (I don't really see the point anyway, I record what I want to watch) and searching for a show name by inputting the first few letters (currently I have to go through a whole list of shows in alphabetical orders and with 500 channels, it can get mighty long!) I love the box dearly and it's totally worth the extra $7 a month. However, it can be unstable at times, due to it's sensitivity with signal quality. If the cable company started offering TiVo itself for something like $15, I would definitely get it.
I can't help but wonder if that's the path TiVo themselves will have to take in order to survive. We'll see.
"Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
reaching for the Kleenex,.....err tissues. There's nothing worse than when someone takes your idea and Xerox.... err copies it.
Is a DVR that I can just buy and hook up to my cable feed without having to pay an additional monthly subscription to the cable barons. Sort of like my VCR.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
"I need a Kleenex"
How many of you use the brand Kleenex?
"Man this headache is killer, gimmie a Aspirin"
or
"Aww do you got a boo-boo, let me get you a band-aid"
Are you really using Band-Aid brand bandages?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
What's wrong with that?
If my cable company (or some satellite company) wants to bundle a DVR with the service, so what? If you don't want to use it you don't have to - go buy a Tivo or build yourself an HTPC or whatever floats your boat.
I love my ReplayTV 4500 with a 120GB hard drive upgrade and lifetime subscription. It has all the Tivo-esque features I want and some more that it doesn't.
One day I may built a home theater PC as a toy but for now my RPTV fills all my timeshifting and commercial skipping needs.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
Tivo is doomed because they don't have access to the unencrypted but still encoded digital video stream. Because the cable television companies have this access they can make lighter weight Tivos that don't need to do a reencoding of the stream. This gives them an unfair advantage that spells the doom of tivo for that market segment. They can also mix the functionality into their already required encoder box such that few people will want to pick up an extra redundant tivo even if it does offer more features.
The one thing tivo does have is the best remote control of any DVR. It is just beautifully engineered.
I'm sorry if this somehow gets marked as flaimbait, but Tivo ASKS YOU if you want your information used for data collection so the corps can see that shows like Farscape are more popular and possibly stay on longer if more people did this. If you dont like it? Simply choose 'NO' .. I can't believe you thought this was manditory? They keep NO VIEWING INFORMATION if you dont want them to. Sheesh.
Why? you ask? Because it dilutes the brand name. And building a respected well known brand name is very expensive and difficult. Companies are expected to take reasonable steps to protect their trademarked name. For example the Xerox corp has been fighting tooth and nail to keep the verk xerox from becoming synanomous with photocopy. This is exactly the reason why Federal Express changed their name to Fed Ex, because Fed Ex was becoming a generic verb that means send by express mail. If TiVo doesn't protect their name, then they may loose their right to their trademark. That would be a disaster to their buisness. Rethin
I had a TIVO for a day, until I found out I could not record without paying TIVO $10/month.
When I bot it I thought I could program it like a VCR. Turns out you can, if you pay them.
The idea is great, no more tapes, but TIVO's
version isn't it.
mike
When it was the only PVR on the market, there was no reason to call a PVR anything other than a TiVo. TiVo now will have to fight an uphill battle to try to get people to associate the word TiVo only with TiVo-brand PVRs.
My only political goal is to see to it that no political party achieves its goals.
I have a TiVo and a friend with a Scientific Atlanta DVR. I can tell you that the Scientific Atlantic user interface isn't any where as nice as the TiVo. I can do without TiVo surprising me with programs it decided I wanted to see, but it sure is nice to be able to do wish lists. The differences between the user interfaces on the SA and the TiVo seem to me like comparing a Mac to DOS 6.0.
Well, after a while, the VCR failed her on a couple of separate instances of trying to record Dr. Phil. Now she wasn't so opposed to a TiVo anymore, and thought we could get one! So I started looking around, and was actually leaning toward a ReplayTV, as our house has no land-line and ReplayTV is already set up for broadband access.
But could I convince the wife that a ReplayTV was the same thing (and in some instances better) as a TiVo? Nope. Gotta have a TiVo. TiVo is what I kept telling her we needed, so by golly we'd better get a TiVo, and nothing else!
Ordered it earlier this week.
Troy
Yeah, the subject looks dorky. But I'm a computer geek. I have an x86 box that's useless (Mac owner here) that I could simply turn into Myth or Freevo or whatnot. But you know what? It's not TiVo. They look nice, they work well, and yeah, they do things that TiVo doesn't. But... I can do all that with Linux anyway. TiVo is to television what Mac OS X is to the computer world.
And no, this isn't flame-bait, and I don't want to get into a philosophical argument about my choice of metaphor. But... Mac owners that are also TiVo owners that are also x86 owners will truly know exactly what I'm talking about.
--Jim (me)
Clowns Are Overwhelming TiVo? That really freaked me out for a minute.
-EB
Do you ever walk alone like a drifter in the dark?
Sure, the "burly guys tossing the network programmer out the window" ad from a few years ago was funny, but how about some ads that lay out what the TiVo can do, and more importantly, what the cablecos' TiVo-wannabes don't do?
They need a whole series of ads that directly address the cable companies in certain markets. Something like, "Think you've got a TiVo(TM)? Well if it came from your cable company, you don't..."
Satisfied customers' word of mouth is a great way to advertise, but it can't compare to the reach that the cable companies have, unless TiVo does something like hiring a network of their customers to work in Best Buy and Circuit City part time as evangelists-- who else would be better suited to explain exactly what it does?
~Philly
Begun this clone war has....
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
DirecTiVo's have access to the full digital stream. They record digital info direct to disk without conversion. Since satellite owners are what Tivo was intended, and cable DVR service sucks balls for most who have it, I suspect that TiVo will eventually be bought out by DirecTV. New disks are coming this year that will allow three separate data stream recordings at once.
Tivo is defending its patents in this area.
If they win, they could really could become ubiquitous instead of disappearing because of the clone wars.
Because "DVR" sucks.
We already have too many TLAs -- DVD, VCR, ATM, SUV. All because no one can come up with a decent name for a new class of objects, only too-verbose phrases. "Automatic Teller Machine" is clearly too much to say, so the lazy thing to do is acronymify it, and you get "aee tee em". T'would be better to come up with an easy, catchy, single-word, pronouncable term for it (as in some European countries -- "autobank" or "bankomat" do nicely).
But here we sit, saddled with "dee vee are". "Yuck. 'Teevoh'? Hey, neat!"
So TiVo it is.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
What's wrong with that?
If my cable company (or some satellite company) wants to bundle a DVR with the service, so what? If you don't want to use it you don't have to - go buy a Tivo or build yourself an HTPC or whatever floats your boat.
If my operating system company (or some really big software company) wants to bundle a Web Browser with the software, so what? If you don't want to use it you don't have to - go buy Netscape or code one for yourself or whatever flots your boat.
Uhm... wait a second.
Band-aid, Astroturf, Xerox, Kleenex, Coke/Cola, Saran Wrap, Jell-O, Kool-aid, Scotch tape, Wite-out, Cellophane, Boogie board, Popsicle, Styrofoam, Post-it note, Legos, Velcro, Thermos, Escalator, Listerine, Hi-Liter, Jeep, Vicks, Alka-Seltzer, Lycra, Spam, Cool Whip, Granola, Gatorade, Tylenol, Aspirin, Valium, Novocaine, Vaseline, Rolodex, Chapstick, Q-Tip, Pop Tart, Walkman, Frisbee, Hula Hoop, Ping Pong, Jacuzzi, Kitty Litter, Levi's, Play-Doh, Skivvies, BVDs, Jockey shorts, Teletype, Polaroid, Fiberglass, Plexiglass, Linoleum, Zipper
And now Tivo. Nothing new here. But it can be temporary too -- Nintendo almost became one in the early nineties but died out later for example.
What's so bad about being lazy? What if there was a war and nobody showed up?
The problem with a box provided by the cable operator is that its features are going to be tailored to meet the desires of the cable operator, not the end user. That's how we've ended up with crappy digital cable decoders that have program guides that devote more space to ads than programming, no s-video or component outputs, no reliable and standardized means of remote control, and slow/buggy software. The cable operator wants a zillion cheap boxes that integrate into their overall business strategy, which places little or no value on what any particular subscriber might want.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
And yet, those companies keep on making money, even with that diluted trademark.
Trademarks are highly over-rated.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
And how much in total did you pay for this system?
I have been noodling around with MythTV and freeVo and hardwre MPEG-4 encoders are more expensive than my whole TiVo. Now factor in case, PSU, memory, video that can do SVideo out, and HD. I bet you'ce spent $600 or more.
my Sony DirecTiVo receiver and TiVo cost me $49 and $5 a month. I will be ahead of Linux MythTV costs if I use this unit for anything less than 9.1 years (have had it for two).
I'm sure tivo is happy to get verb status and market recognition, but they could end up being like kleenex::tissues and thermos::portable drink container keeps food hot/cold
e.
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
I always find it awkward telling people I have PVR. Usually it goes like this:
Them: "What do you think of Tivo?"
Me: "Tivo's are great, I love mine"
Me: "Well, actually I don't have an actual tivo, I built my own, its called SageTV, its pretty much the same as a real Tivo, but I can access my TV from any computer in the house, save stuff on DVD, no monthly fee, etc..."
Them: "you built a Tivo?"
Me: "Uh, well its a thing for your computer"
Them: "Oh..." (blank stare)
Me: "Tivo's kick ass!"
Them: =)
You can get what you want. The Toshiba DVD player with built-in TiVo and the Pioneer DVD recorder with built-in TiVo both come with TiVo Basic, which has no recurring service costs. TiVo Basic includes a reduced programming schedule (3 days I believe?) and only lets you set up recordings manually - either via timer or be selecting them from the program guide. This is *exactly* what you say that you want.
I prefer quality, but I also like things smaller and cuter. That's why I went out and bought a MiniTivo. It only holds 1/20th as many shows, but it does come in pink.
Debra Baker tells people she has Unix. But she really doesn't. She has Linux.
With things like "Kleenex", it's obviously not. You don't NEED to say "I need a Kleenex" in order to get what you want from a mindless idiot. You can simply say you need a tissue and the problem is solved.
/. crowd. If you were to walk up to Joe Dingledorf at the office and ask him to watch the game you recorded on your PVR or DVR, he may just kick your ass for hitting on him. If you say the same thing, but that it's recorded on your Tivo, he'll understand perfectly.
People aren't all as technically-saavy as the
Personally, I use my All-In-Wonder card and Gemstar Guide+ to do my digital recording. If someone asks me about it, I say something along the lines of having software and hardware that "basically turns my computer into a Tivo."
Sure, I can't advertise a product that uses their trademark as an improper noun, or say that you can record video using their trademark as a verb (e.g. "Tivo it"), but I can sure as hell explain it that way to people on a personal level.
There's nothing you can do to stop me, so Nyaaaaaaaaa!
I don't care what you say, my cable DVR sucks, badly. I have the motorola 6208, and it's the worst piece of crap ever. Sure, I can timeshift HD and SD programming, but the interface and useability blows. I'm serious. This thing give motorola a bad name, and that's too bad b/c they didn't write the software for it (the cable co's outsource it).
I've had a Tivo for years. I'm not just a fanboy, I tried to get into my Cable co's pvr, but it's hard to like something that is that hard to use! The ff function barely works smoothly, there is not status bar that tells you where you are in a program, setting up a recording couldn't be any harder, and the guide is cluttered by stinking advertisements! etc etc etc.
I'm so happy that I bought a Tivo and the lifetime sub when I did. I just wish I could use the tivo to record my cable co's HD programming. I'd buy a cable card tivo in no time flat (ok, it would have to cost less that $450 bucks).
Uhh they are. Read that definition again. Specifically the beginning:
"A word formed from the initial letters of a name, such as WAC or Women's Army Corps".
DVD - Digital Versiatile (or video) Disk
VCR - Video Cassette Recorder
ATM - Automatic Teller Machine
SUV - No idea don't have them in this country
They are not abbreviations.
The two are fundamentally incomparable.
The DirecTiVo has no value other than as a DirecTV receiver with TiVo. The hardware is subsidized by the one or two year contract with DirecTV you were required to sign. You know, the one that makes you owe them extra money if you drop their service. The only upgrades possible are to the TiVo's hard drive, and all you can do is add a second drive ONCE. And doing that requires you to void your warranty and accomplish feats of hackery.
My system, on the other hand, is a fully functional computer. A standard TV makes for a crappy computer monitor, but it's much better with an HDTV. Being a full computer system allows it to act as a file server, a media server, a WebTV, a video editing station, a photo viewer/printer, a game console, and whatever else I can find to do with it. It is upgradeable, meaning I can drop in additional components to keep up with changing technology or add new features. I can replace SageTV with another software solution, or replace my cable provider with a satellite, without penalty. There are also no monthly fees.
I'm not bashing TiVo. Hell, I've owned two DirecTiVo boxes, one of which died to a lightning strike and led to me purchasing the other. I like TiVo enough to give my retired TiVo box to a family member who uses DirecTV and likes what TiVo does.
I'm just happy I have the means to explore the future of home communication and media delivery. Twenty years ago a setup like mine was science fiction. Yeah, I shelled out a few hundred for some new hardware and recycled some spare computer parts to build this system. Let's pretend it all cost me $1000. That's still less than a decent wide-screen HDTV, and provides a hell of a lot of value for the investment.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
Mythtv runs on linux.
It is licensed under the GPL.
http://www.mythtv.org/
The interface makes Tivo look like a weak sister in most areas, and has FAR more capabilities.
On well tested hardware and using well tested distributions, it can be set up in less than an hour, including Dling the software and deps/updates. YMMV, severely on poor hardware.
(via KT333/400) There are numerous well written how-tos, and one of the better mailing lists you will ever see.
Sound setup under Linux is typically the headache, as you can imagine.
There is a Knoppix based CD version, knoppmyth, but R4 is bit dated. It CAN be installed and VERY carefully upgraded, as mythtv is available for Debian.
One good, well suported setup---NF2 MB, Athlon XP, OSS audio, GF4 MX400, and FC1. (There are folks using it all dists tho)
I personally found Mandrake Cooker to be just as easy, easier in fact as it is "current" to the point of bleeding continuously, as my "backend" is my "workstation", and that's my comfortable distro of choice. Again, YMMV.
My new frontend is an Xbox, and it works beautifully, excellent TV out, DVD remote works perfectly, fully mapped to run Mythtv properly.
It runs Debian, xbox-mythtv, a tweaked version of Xebian.
He could also dictate the direction of TiVo, optimizing them towards DirecTV support even more so than currently. HDTV makes no sense outside of Satellite, so I would expect Murdoct to have the first availible direct-digital integrated HDTV DVR.
Then suppose they add a digital out connector to a computer for archiving, which would work with ATI Video boards? Cable companies would become the low-end prole option overnight.
I had a Scientific Atlanta DVR that I got at an estate sale. I paid $10 because nobody else seemed to know what it was. It had an 80 gig hard drive it it but no smartcard.
We can't get cable here. So I yanked the 80 gid drive out of it and sold the box without drive or smartcard on eBay for $80.
Indeed, I am a very happy Scientific Atlanta DVR customer, even though I despise almost all television and only powered the thing up once to see that it worked. It got me a free 80 gig drive with a $70 cash rebate.
resigned
As an OT....I wouldn't want to be using my cable company's listings for a PVR. The show often do not match what is on and are very often generic(ie The Simpsons episode description is quite often "Matt Groening's subversive animated satire about Springfield's hapless first family"
I'm hoping that was a joke without the smiley.
For those that might not know, they were required to release the source by GPL. TiVo is based on Linux (my Series 1 runs on the 2.1.24 kernel.) The source code is primarily just the UI you see on the screen, though. A good portion of the real magic is in a custom ASIC.
However, I would maintain that no one else has been able to "easily copy" TiVo. The bugginess and lack of a friendly UI in competitors is ample evidence of this. TiVo was created by a talented group of folks who invested a lot of effort and did their homework. However, never underestimate a cheaper price coupled with barely adequate functionality that slowly improves but never quite gets there. Heck, that's Microsoft's entire business model!
I was talking to a friend of mine who has one of the brand X sattellite PVRs and almost every time I talk to him about it, he realizes that his PVR doesn't do everything (or pretty much anything) that my Tivo does. Such as allow him to search and record all shows by name, apparently. Must be a pretty shitty PVR he has...
Sure you could throw together a bunch of open source software and have a digital PVR, but you're paying the Tivo guys for the slick UI and the smooth user experience. Sure you could probably do as good a job as they could given a year or two of development time, but in that time you could have also made enough to buy the service for life AND purchased a share of the company.
So yes, I think the Tivo guys will have to stay on their toes if they want to stay alive, but competition is good after all. I don't see them going out of business anytime soon.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I have a Scientific Atlanta 8000 dvr box via time warner and love it. But tivo can solve their little problem by licensing out the software to the companies that make the cable boxes. Or make their own cable boxes that are compatible. If they already tried to do this then they need to try harder.
Then again the cable box dvr has 2 tuners and lets me record 2 shows and watch a recorded one all at the same time. Only way you can do that with a tivo is with an expensive direct tv box. Maybe thats their problem. Their product is too expensive.
SUV = Sport Utility Vehicle
But, as it happens, they are not acronyms as they do not form a pronouncable word. Now if it was a Sport Utility Car Kit, and thus a S.U.C.K., THAT would be an acronym.
Yeah, I guess I'm funny like that.
Heh, you can go ahead and sniff the FTP traffic, and see for yourself what is sent, and what is not sent after opting out.
I think the thing that TiVo has going for it above all else is its GUI--its ease of use. That's what's missing in many modern day electronics. How could we have expected the public--who can't even program a VCR--to be able to operate a DVR that can do much much more than a standard VCR? TiVo has done an excellent job at making a great UI.
That's why I think that the clones from cable companies (and the Dish Network) and ReplayTV are bad for the DVR space in general because their interfaces suck. I suppose the flip side of this is that TiVo won't rest on its laurels and will continue to improve upon its interface.
And on another note: yeah they have to fix their pricing scheme. Everytime I evangelize the wonders of TiVo to someone, they get all excited and then are scared away by the price.
When I tell the average person I meet that I have a DVR (one of the Scientific Atlanta 8000's from my Cable Company) I'm usually met with a blank expressions followed by a lengthy explanation. Pretty much everyone understands what a Tivo is and what it does.
It's also worth mentioning that the guide info provided by TiVo is quite a bit more detailed than what you're likely to get for free. I have an upgraded TiVo (a Philips HDR112 with 200 GB of disk (it shipped with 14), 32 MB of RAM (it shipped with 16), and a TurboNet), and I've recently started fooling around with MythTV. While it's much easier to rip video from a MythTV system (export the video files with Samba), I've noticed that the program info it provides isn't nearly as comprehensive as what TiVo provides. TiVo provides a more thorough description of most programs. It also lists the major actors in a show, which is how you can tell it to record everything with your favorite actors (whoever those are) whenever it comes up. A wishlist entry for William Shatner, for instance, would dig up stuff like his Twilight Zone episode(s) and Incubus. (It'd also pull in Rescue 911 and T.J. Hooker...whether that's a Good Thing is an exercise for the reader.)
The TiVo interface is also a fair bit easier to get around. In fairness to MythTV, it's not been around nearly as long, yet it's reasonably useful. It'll get more refined as time moves along.
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
The main problem with TiVo is getting people to try their product, I think.
Tivo just works for me. The Suggestions and taping by program name instead of time is brilliant. I bought a Nokia MediaCenter for my parents in Norway, because Tivo isn't available there, and it drives me nuts every time I have to use to, since I've used Tivo.
There are no Suggestions. You have to tape by time (meaning, if the program changes time by 5 minutes, you lose part of the programing, or if the programing skip a week, you're taping whatever).
If you read the article, all the people who says the Cable provided DVR is good enough, just haven't tested Tivo.
Je ne parle pas francais.
Had them install the HDTV DVR on Wednesday. Having them come back to take it back. It's terrible. The UI looks like it was designed by blind, retarded martians (there is ZERO user friendliness to it) and the underlying OS locks up. The thing is junk. Tivo needs to keep licensing out their OS, etc. because the cable companies can't beat it.
Bark less. Wag more.
Tivo costs too much for many people. I bought my Series2 a year and a half ago (right as TW Cable started making their SA 8000 DVR available), and box+lifetime was over $500.
...) boxes. Sell "cool" or requested software updates as modules (Batch Save to VCR, distributed scheduling). Really innovate the hardware -- firewire for additional storage/tuners, built-in GigE, 900Mhz digital remotes -- *and* figure out how to sell it for a profit. Sell a "PC Pak" -- HW accelerated TV card + TivoOS for HTPC applications.
TW's box was $6.95 per month at my package level (HBO/Cinemax). I have to have my S2 for over 6 years to get ahead of renting from TW, and that presumes I don't blow a HDD or have some other failure that requires me to spend $100 getting mine fixed to retain the lifetime (you can do this). Adding in a repair trip pushes it over 7 years.
I wouldn't trade my Tivo for TW's box, but to a lot of ordinary people they do the same thing and the TW box is *way* cheaper to own. No upfront costs. No repair liability. Dual-tuner capability. I'm not saying the TW box is *better*, just that it has some compelling feartures and a great price point for the masses who can make or break a product.
Personally I think Tivo needs to alter their revenue model and innovate a lot more. Some random ideas:
Free Tivo basic. One sub fee for multiple boxes per household. Free HMO for second (third,
I love Tivo, but I can't help but think its high price vs. cable and absence of innovation in software or hardware will sink it against the cable behemoths.