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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."
Where do they plan on finding super-high bandwidth connections for home users? For me at least, it is and would remain much faster to to spend five minutes walking the two blocks to the video rental shop and just get one there, rather than waiting a couple hours for the movie to download.
or, you could switch to directv, and get the box for $40 and tivo service for $4 a month. at least here you could.
Hey, fix the damn al a carte system first! I don't want to order my cable with the existing packages, but would rather only pay for the channels (and services) I prefer. 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.
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On it's last leg but it continues to try to find new ways to innovate while your cable company and satellite company continue to rip off their ideas? Maybe so but who's coming up with the good ideas and implementing them in such a way that it just works? Tivo created the DVR, you can bet they've got a few ideas up their sleaves yet... i for one will buy a tivo and a netflix account if this hits :)
My problem with directv was that you needed a phoneline to use their boxes, blah on that, tivo let's me use broadband which i don't mind running cat5 to my tv, but why should i run a flipping phoneline to my tv? doesn't make sense. comcast might have a similar option but ya know... i can't even get it in my area yet, or if i can i have to have the bastards bring out another box, who knows how long that'll take, they still haven't come and picked up their crappy cable modem that died on me that has been in it's box for a good year now.
I welcome this kind of service.. now hopefully it's cheaper for netflix to do this over the net than it is to send it in the mail and i don't have to pay $20/mo for this type of service.. which i think is kinda high for my own personal viewing habits.
Kyle
http://www.unlogikal.net/
Because without Tivo your cable company is going to go back to doing what it always does. Never innovate and always raise prices. It took Tivo to get them off of their butts and finally implement DVR. You still can't stream MP3s or anything else to your cable box (which is handy when your stereo is attached to your TV). I don't know about your area, but in mine the "video on demand" service is a joke, there are like 50 movies on it and they're all summer movie crap, and they're fairly expensive to rent. If the Tivo/Netflix partnership goes well, that service could be greatly improved (and reduced in price) while your local monopoly tries their hardest to squash their competition.
I read the internet for the articles.
That's just for movies though. This is basically the DVD (minus the disc). It sounds like you get all the menus, all the extras, and anything else on the DVD. AFAIK, most digital cable companies offer the movies, as you'd see on HBO, in the theater, etc, but they don't offer an actual DVD version.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?
However, I don't see how TiVo is going to continue to compete with actual content providers. The Time Warner box in question (Scientific Atlanta 8000HD) can handle HDTV, something the cheap-ass $100 TiVo cannot. So now we're talking about a relatively expensive initial investment for the TiVo hardware.
I'm a hardware nerd, and totally happy to hack a TiVo to 320GB, but most people aren't. Remember that.
As for the $300 package, $300 would buy me five years worth of TWC DVR service. I find it highly unlikely anyone will *really* be using that 5 year old modded TiVo at that point. Maybe some people would, but I'm usually much faster on the electronics upgrade cycle than that.
As far as I can tell, the TiVo's widely-celebrated interface is the only advantage it has, and I'm afraid people aren't going to want to pay what is suddenly a VERY large price difference just for that. Especially people who have never USED both interfaces.
I would MUCH rather see a company like TiVo succeed, instead of Time Warner. But I have to admit TWC is getting my $5/mo, and Tivo isn't getting a dime. :(
HO
For the following reasons:
Don't try to search for an upcoming show by name -- you'll have to hit TVGuide.com for that -- definitely not an integrated experience!
You also won't be seeing any "TiVo suggestions", based on which shows you've given the "thumbs up" to.
You won't be able to modify that cable box, either. TiVo is Linux based, and a LOT of hacks exist, so that you can do more with your equipment. That cable box is NOT your equipment, so just sit back and relax, and hope that you don't ever want to do anything with all that content but watch it on your TV later.
You're missing out on a bit of functionality there -- but go ahead and enjoy your less expensive solution... while I enjoy knowing that what mine is mine, and not rented.
Oh yeah, I only pay $6.95 a month for TiVo service. Just call them up and threaten to leave -- they are more than willing to negotiate. You definitely can't say that for your cable company!
"To make a mistake is only human; to persist in a mistake is idiotic." Cicero
So how are they going to do this? Are they really going to deliver you the 6GB DVD stream of "Signs" or "Moulin Rouge?" I can see networks of DSLams from coast to coast grinding to a halt now. More likely it will be some shit quality rip made by machines in a "ripping factory" - if you have broadband you could ALREADY get anything they have to offer from usenet or bittorrent, in higher quality than they are likely to offer, and get it before these folks get around to "licensing" the content for broadcast from ho-town.
Jack had it wrong all along, and it's sad to see how his antiquated notions have crippled the potential of an entire industry. So long as Hollywood continues to deny broadcasters the ability to compete by offering high quality and convenience in one package, "piracy" is going to grow in the mainstream.
It's not about competing with free, Jack - it's about competing with quality.
- Broadband is presumably required
to download the DVD content
- This will likely be broadband over cable in most areas
- My provider, Comcast, offers a competing on-demand service
- Comcast is known to terminate service
for anyone who actually uses their unlimited broadband
- Sign up, start downloading
... then go begging to get your Internet restored?
I suspect that other large cable/broadband providers will do the same (terminate, interrupt, or otherwise impede service), perhaps regardless of whether they provide on-demand services that directly compete with this Tivo/Netflicks offering.Howard M. Lewis Ship -- Independent J2EE / Open-Source Java Consultant -- Creator, Apache Tapestry and HiveMind
I have a computer, an xbox, a ps2 and maybe a tivo sometime in the future near my tv. All of those like having ethernet, especially the computer since I can stream from one computer in the house to the other.
The phone wire? well.. there's no phone wires in my house. In my parent's house we had phone jacks in three rooms.. kitchen, master bedroom and yes, the room with the tv.. but it was in a stupid spot. We were running cat5 already, easier to run that and infinitely more versatile. If I really needed it to be something special, then I'm sure there's adapters somewhere that'll only make use of 4 of the wires, so I could use the existing cable to do phone stuff. *shrug* never needed to even consider that before.
My favorite cable company? Hell, I've only got one choice and it's a bit of a stretch to call it my favorite...
Probably only the movie. An entire DVD is typically 7-8GB. At 1.5mbit/s thats 11 hours for 8GB. Overnight is OK, but I'd hate to wait any longer than I had to.
The Doormat
If you're not outraged, then you're not paying attention.
It's a lot more than a "widely celebrated interface". It's the ability to finally stop having to manage yet another damned box and just enjoy your TV programming. These brain-dead cable DVRs don't do that. They aren't anything like a TiVo at all.
First, they sell aggregate data, NOT data with your name attached to it.
Second, you can opt out of the data collection if you want. TiVo hackers have examined the data stream the TiVo sends before and after and confirmed that once you opt out, no data about your viewing habits is sent out.
Third, you don't have to pay a monthly fee in perpetuity. You can buy a subscription for the lifetime of the TiVo for $300-- which works out to paying the monthly fee for two years up front, after which the program listings are free.
It sounds nice in theory that you can download a
:)
:-\) :P)...
:)).
"DVD" to your TiVo and watch it, but there are
some serious cons to such a system (on TiVo
hardware)...
For one thing, TiVo doesn't have component
outputs, so you're stuck with SVIDEO. The DVD
video will be compressed even more than normal so
you lose picture quality even before the picture
goes over SVIDEO.
TiVo doesn't have S/PDIF out, so you can say
goodbye to Dolby Digital or DTS sound (most
importantly a discrete LFE channel). The audio
too, will be compressed more than normal. So even
without Dolby Digital or DTS you're still getting
much lower quality than the actual DVD.
And finally, nobody (I know anyway) has enough
free space on their TiVo to store these movies...
We're all too busy hoarding episodes of shows
we've been meaning to burn to DVD for months
ReplayTV's more suited to address the first two
issues (since they have S/PDIF and Component Video
outputs). Certain TiVo models have built-in DVD
burners, which only solves the 3rd problem...
Personally, if I wanted something on demand, I'd
use my cable company's VOD service. (Which DOES
have Dolby Digital soundtracks, but no DTS
and my cable box has component out. And there's
also HD VOD (something renting or owning the
actual DVD can't even offer
I'm equally surprised at the success of iTunes.
The music you download is noticably lossy, and
they don't offer lossless copies of anything you
buy (40+ Mb would be perfectly acceptable for this
audiophile
I suppose there are those who will always like
their thrills cheap and easy, making up the
majority of the customer base for online music
services right now. It remains unclear what will
happen to these service's customer bases once
HDTV sets and Dolby Digital / DTS home theatre
equipment becomes more mainstream.
TiVo would do much better if it were to upgrade
its "Home Media" option to allow PC -> TiVo video
x'fers and other services that ReplayTV offers.
I understand why they're hesitant to implement 1st
party video extraction. But injection of external
MPEG2 files would make a lot of people happy,
especially those folks with the DVD burner models.
I'd more willingly fork over a few extra bucks a
month for that than renting a DVD over TiVo.
"This is a desperate move from a desperate company. Who cares about TiVo anymore? My Time Warner box gives me DVR functions for $5/mo and i don't have to buy any hardware. Remind me why I should buy a $300 box and THEN pay $12.95 per month?"
Why, because that Time Warner Cable DVR is a very poor substitute for a TIVO. With TIVO you can create wishlists based upon titles, actors, directors, keywords or categories and have them all recorded for you automatically. Say your son or daughter has a report to do on the civil war. With TIVO you can put in the keywords "civil war" and even specify that it should only record documentaries. I'd like to see your TWC DVR do that! TIVO also learns what type of programs you like and will auto-record suggestions for you (if you choose to). I also use wishlists to auto-record movies or other programs that I would like to see, but have no idea when they might be shown. We also have our TIVOs connected by a wireless network to a computer so we can play MP3s on the surround sound system in the living room.
Before we had TIVO we always complained that there was never anything on when we wanted to watch TV, even though we have over a hundred channels. Now TIVO always has more programming that we actually enjoy watching than we even have time to watch. The problem with having so many channels available is that it's necessary to provide better and more efficient ways to sort through that information. The programs most people want to see are there somewhere, you just have to get through all the junk to find it. That's the one thing cable companies still do not understand and TIVO has been the one to provide ways to do this.
In our house we don't even watch live TV anymore (or commercials). When we turn on the TV it's only watch the kind of programs we choose and network schedules are no longer something we even care about. That is what TIVO is about. It's about you controlling the TV, not the TV controlling you.