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."

Comments

Re:Comcast already does this...

[bob65]

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.

Download time

[mapinguari]

"The downloads will likely take several hours."

No shit. A single layer DVD is what, 6GB?
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.

Re:TiVo is on its last legs.

[FuzzzyLogik]

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.

TiVo = open source

[KB1GHC]

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.

5.1 Channel Sound? Component Video?

[Quarters]

A TiVO S2 doesn't have seperate RGB outputs, progressive scan, or 5.1 optical audio output. Granted some DirecTiVo S2s and some of the high-end licensed TiVO S2 boxes have RGB and 5.1. I don't think any of them have progressive scan, though. Well, maybe the HD DirecTivo does, I've never seen one of those.

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.