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SBC Builds A TiVo Rival
ChipGuy writes "With all the hoopla around Tivo To Go, SBC Communications has launched its own PVR-plus-set-top box which integrates SBC DSL with its satellite service. From the looks of it, this could be the trend where phone operators offer their one set-top box/ home media servers. This is not good news for TiVo or Microsoft which harbors living room ambitions. 2Wire might be the dark horse in set-top box sweepstakes."
When I moved we received something similar to this. We have the satellite TV with DVR as well as what appears to be plain DSL. Haven't thrown much at the DVR other than some Nova. The search functions took a little getting used to be the quality seemed well enough. Said it holds 100 hours but I haven't had time to take a closer peek to see more specs on it.
( o ) one could say I'm rather baked
I use to work for SBC back in the day, untill i got fired for hacking the phones and rerouting all my calls back to the call center. When i worked there the mentality was always One stop shopping, They want you to pay them for all services including but limited to..Phone, Cable TV service, Internet, Cell phone, Phone Equipment, Long Distance, web hosting, this would all come on one bill that could be paid monthly to SBC, This is their vision and route they are taking.
Bringing your mosaic ideas to life. Mosaiclegs
I'll avoid this new product unless I know it's not crippled like their gateways. Their gateways/DSL modems don't even let users turn off the router functionality, which is fundamentally important to certain setups. Also, 2Wire devices feel like rentals from the phone company, wholly tied-in for upgrades and configuration. While an unchangable/automatic configuration is good for most users, I'll stick with devices that let me configure them too. Even the parts of their products that allow configuration seem to center around looks and seeming newbie friendly than efficiency. For example, port forwarding doen't even let the user type the back-end IP address. The selection must be by NETBIOS name from a list you have to pray is complete and unambiguous.
Seriously.. After using a Moxi for a week after all the hype, it came nowhere near what a Tivo can do. I've seen and used so many Tivo clones now it isn't funny. Not a single one comes close to the features. And it's not just features, it's also program guide data; everyone else has simple one or two sentence descriptions, where Tivo has an entire paragraph, adult rating symbols ( NC/V/N/AC/AL/etc ), director, actor, how many stars it got, what type of show it is (horror/anime/scifi/etc), if the show is a repeat or a first run .. And on top of that, the guide data is CURRENT AND CORRECT. I don't know how many times I saw how horribly incorrect other peoples guide data is.. Sometimes shows change timeslots because of a football game or something, Tivo updates the data a day later, their competition doesnt!
Anyway, my current home router is a 2Wire I got from that era. It has built-in a DSL modem, 802.11b, USB and Ethernet connects, a packet-inspecting firewall, content and application mangement (parental administrative controls...I could for example, turn off all instant messaging after 9PM)and others, and has all this in an intiutive and easy to access/modify/manage format, which can get as detailed as one wants it to be.
It's worked without fail for several years now, I can't be happy enough with it.
I'm not affiliated with them in any way.
Ucentric has also been quietly trudging away in this space from the old DEC headquarters in Maynard, MA. (http://www.ucentric.com)
They did trials of their product with Comcast and AT&T (before it was bought by Comcast), and now have a rollout with Voom (the also-ran HD sat company).
It's a good, stable, platform, but never seems to get any press (or customers). Linux based (Debian) with some fancy bits globbed on.
The real sweet spot is in their thin clients and distribution technologies. Imagine having ALL of your PVR's content available simultaneously from every TV (or PC) in the house, from a client a little bigger than a pack of smokes. And, you don't need to run a bunch of Cat5 to get the signal to the other TV's, an old piece of coax will do just fine.
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Here's some features for you (Charter DVR)
- $10/month - I can return the unit anytime and get a new one, no questions asked
- Tight integration with the native menu system.
- Record two channels at the same time, or record one while watching another.
I believe all the items above are indespensible and I have hard time understanding how DVRs are of any value without them.
It seems to me, the TiVo hardware itself is overpriced and reduntant. Also, the monthly fee is a little much. I like the software though. If my Charter DVR had a licensed TiVo interface then cool. I think DirecTiVO is something like that.
the automated commercial skip (thats not available on new models)? or the 30 second skip? you can program your tivo remote to do 30 second skip, just go into now playing, start something playing, then hit select, play, select, 3, 0, select, you should hear some bong noises, then the skip button the remote will skip 30 seconds instead of skipping to the end.
As the other poster has said, capitalism allows them to do as they please. Last I check SBC, Verizon, et al were not charity organizations concerned with spreading good will and broadband. ;) They will go where they can make money. It simply may not be a cost effective move to put broadband in certain places.
Also, with many people reluctant to change or just generally happy with status quo, you can't worry about things like that. While it would be nice to say every person in [insert country] has broadband, everyone doesn't need it.