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Tivo and Netflix Partner For DVDs on Demand
Tonetheman writes "The details are not really there yet, but it looks like Tivo and Netflix are going to team up! This is great for those who watch a lot of DVD's. You will be able to order a DVD and have it appear sometime later on the Tivo. Blockbuster will not be far behind with your favorite cable company."
1. Get a DVD burner.
2. Download DVD Shrink
3. Sign up for Blockbuster's Movie Pass (Unlimited Rentals, 2 out at a time).
4. Purchase blank DVD+R's and jewel cases.
5. Print covers from cdcovers.cc.
6. Go crazy.
So far I've increased my collection by 52 movies in the last month, at about 90 cents each (DVD+R + jewel case + prorated Movie Pass)
No damned shopping channels and such, just give me news channels, History channel, TLC, Discovery, BBC, Speedvision, ESPN, TCM and broadband cable, with the OPTION of being able to order specific movies or events ON DEMAND when I want them.
Your cable bill would be the same. The economics work like this: most cable companies have to pay the provider (ESPN) so much $ per sub per month - ESPN is actually the #1 reason your bills go up so much. Shopping channels give your cable or satellite provider so much $ per sub per month...
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
Blockbuster's new netflix clone fixes that problem. In addition to the 3 movie-at-a-time-by-mail allowance, they also allow you 3 free in-store rentals as a part of the plan for the same price as netflix.
OnDemand seems to be lower quality (picture wise and sound wise) than most DVDs though. Particularly if the digital cable box is not hooked up for 5.1 channel dolby digital output.
The Matrix clocks in at 7.8GB.
At 1 Mb/s, that's close to a day.
Or by "DVD", maybe they mean a low quality copy of the movie you might rent on DVD, with none of the extras, bells or whistles.
Tivo will survive because it has a loyal fan base who love the unit, who can hack the unit to expand it, and now because of netflix.
Look at it this way. How many of slashdot's readers have netflix? I don't but if this were offered i'd get a subscription if it was "unlimited" still. It's really that simple. Your cable company as mentioned does not offer a very wide selection of movies and they're much more expensive. Tivo is going to have one hell of a service if they can provide this.
Tivo will likely remain a niche market device, while people who just kind of like the idea of DVR's and don't want all the fun little nifty things tivo does will pay the $5/mo for the mediocre service their cable/sat company provides them. Tivo's niche market is fairly large so i am pretty sure it'll sustain itself just fine, and once netflix customers start seeing they can get movies on demand from a tivo device you can bet that they'll be interested! This works both ways.
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
TiVo's OS is Linux based, you can download the source code: http://tivo.com/linux/linux.asp
I'm not sure about all TiVo's but mine has a USB port in the back (and most of the new ones do) but there are several books and online guides (one book that i know of "Hacking the TiVo")
But you can pull the MPEG2's right off the TiVo and on to your hard drive, and then it's onto the DVD burner from there.
However, I don't know if this NetFlix thing is actually going to send the entire DVD to your TiVo (with the menus and deleted scenes and stuff) or if it's just going to be movies only.
I have DirecTV and TiVo, and they already have "Starz on demand" where you choose what movie you want.
If you order pay per view, or record something on Starz, you can record it onto a DVD, but it might not have the deleted scenes and stuff.
Also with a TiVo, there is something called the "showcase" and if you go into the "showcase" menu it has a few short video clips, (all junk like commercials and stuff)
But I'm not sure if this is real big news, there have been all kinds of movie services in the past. (Pay-Per-View, Starz, HBO, ShowTime, On-Demand) (KaZaA)
But if this new service is going to send the entire DVD, (deleted scenes and all), it will be pretty cool.
> What, therefore, stops them from ripping all of the DVD's in, say, NetFlix's library into their format, storing it on their server, and putting up a request system.
Bandwidth does. On demand is obviously the Holy Grail for cable- and sat- operators, but even a million (conservative estimate) boxes all requesting different programmes presents a real challenge
Clearly with 20,000 films there'd be a maximum of 20000 streams, but the capacity to deliver that, combined with the fact that people would want to do all that fancy back, forward pause stuff, over existing cable networks or with current DTH satelite is, er, not currently here - and it won't be a trivial task to implement.
Othewise they would have done it years ago
http://milkshake.dexy.org
You will be able to order a DVD and have it appear sometime later on the Tivo.
I already enjoy this slow pseudo-VOD service with TV shows (and whatever DVDs people have stored on their RTVs) using ReplayTV and Poopli. It's like Napster for video.
Da Blog
Being able to download DVDs to my TiVo is something I'd probably do occasionally when the video shop a couple of blocks from my home doesn't have what I want. On the other hand, if I could download better-than-DVDs to my high-definition TiVo, I'd probably go to my TiVo first, and check the video store if TiVo couldn't get it.
For the majority of TiVo users this will not be equivilant to a DVD. It will be lower bitrate, 2-channel audio, interlaced, and S-Video output at best. It's a neat idea, but acutally renting or buying a DVD will still be better.
I'm on the 3 movie plan. If I return all 3 on one day, only 1 registers as returned and they'll delay the others as much as 2 more days. How do I know for sure? I've sent 2 movies in the same envelope, one movie took 2 more days before it was confirmed as returned. You're on an expensive plan, you get preferential treatment.