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Engadget Interviews TiVo CEO
r-blo writes "We've got an interview of Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo, by Engadget correspondent J.D. Lasica. He's rather candid in his thoughts on Hollywood, Netflix, the FCC, the INDUCE act, their competition, and their latest technology, TiVo ToGo, which lets you take your TiVo-recorded shows with you on your laptop (or PC, as it were)."
From the interview...
How are you negotiating your relationship with Hollywood after they essentially put your main competitor out of business?
Our role is to create a great experience for people who want to watch television. ReplayTV crossed a line, and they kind of asked for it, and they were put out of business.
The Hollywood industry never really liked the Betamax VCR, so they certainly must be scared of DVRs. The features that got ReplayTV into trouble was "Show sharing" accross the Internet, and a semi-automatic skipping of commercials it could detect.
TiVo of course has never offered such features, and TiVo-to-Go will be based on a USB dongle to tie recordings to the user who recorded them and try to stand in the way of user-to-user sharing.
It's a strange world they live in... loved by consumers, but being careful to keep the Hollywood megacorps from crushing them.
Replay got beaten into submission by lawsuits over their ability to share shows over the Internet and their automatic commercial skipping. They eventually removed both features from their products, even the ones already sold, via a software update. Both of those features are things TiVo never had.
As a result, they're now a total also-ran being dwarfed by TiVo's market share. They still exists... but you might as well be compatible with the rest of the world and get a TiVo. ReplayTV just lacks any features that makes them stand out since they got thrown off the anti-Hollywood wagon.
Is TiVo a company that I should support with my dollars?
I recently got a Tivo and my feeling is that yes, this is a company that deserves my support. If you decide you need a PVR, then Tivo is an excellent product, with an easy interface and backed by a company that is not just a bunch of asshats.
Of course you can also roll over your own solution based on the free software that floats around th net (MythTV). You will probably have a lot of fun and a lot of headaches with it. On the short term it will cost you more, but you will avoid the monthly payment ($12.95). In my case, I just wanted to have something I could just plug in and enjoy.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
It should be pointed out that on the semi-offical TiVoCommunity.com boards, any form of getting video out of a TiVo other than playing back the file and recording that is a verbotten topic. Digital video extraction from a TiVo is possible, but it requires modifying the TiVo software to remove intentional encryption that's being applied.
TiVo doesn't support moving files to your computer yet, and it's highly likely that TiVo-To-Go will permit storing and watching of files but nothing more.
Bottom line... if you want to get unrestricted MPEG files out of your TiVo, you can, but you have to go a long way to make it work, and you end up no longer being officially supported. TiVo's ass is covered.
http://www.tivo.com/linux/
Quote from the site:
In compliance with the GPL, we are pleased to provide our modifications to the Linux PowerPC Kernel, as well as a few new commands, and some tools to get you into the code.
Additionally, if you would like a CD-R of our modifications you may send a written request to:
TiVo Inc.
2160 Gold St.
Alviso CA 95002-2160
Attention: Customer Care - GNU/Linux Source Code Request.
You will be charged a $15 fee for reproduction, shipping and handling costs, as allowed by the GPL. Make sure that you include a bank certified check for $15.00. Otherwise, you can download the code for free from below: