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TiVo to Offer SDK
Thomas Hawk writes "TiVo has begun an effort to court third party developers to try and figure out a way to provide additional add on type services to somehow differentiate itself from the satellite and cable providers that are presently nipping at their heels. Initially the company plans to release three add ons: a weather information plug in, an RSS reader and a game. David Pogue of the New York Times is out with some of the features [NYT=Check soul at door] that at present already make TiVo a superior offering to the cable and satellite freebies. "
Every technical person knows how great Tivo is, and further how open and extensible it is, etc. But that isn't what makes Tivo popular or successful. It's the average non-technical person that discovered Tivo and was willing to pay a fee per month to digitally record their shows. Now that cable and satellite is giving such a service away with no extra monthly fee, I'm afraid there's nothing Tivo can do to keep their customer base long-term.
The SDK and the gizmos that will come out of it will attract a small set of the user base... But that won't sustain the company unfortunately.
I'm a big tall mofo.
Myth Check
Weather... Yes
News...... Yes
Games..... Yes
Get a free ipod.
I guess someone at Tivo Download JavaHMO because these features have already been available for a while now.
Does anybody really want an RSS reader or a game on their Tivo? Seriously, who is going to play a game on the Tivo, or purchase a Tivo because of these features?
A cool feature would be a network interface you could use to access your saved shows via the computer.
It's the battle of the minds, and everyone's unarmed.
Without the ability to natively interface with proprietary cable and satellite providers TIVO is toast.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
yeah you can have your mythtv do all of that. for no monthly fee yes.
but the initial cost of your mythtv box is at least 10x what the initial cost of a tivo is. that's a large barrier of entry.
computer with dvd burner, large hard disk, tuner cards, video card with tv-out, costs a lot more than a tivo.
very tired of this 'mythtv is better than everything else in the whole wide world, and if you don't use it you are an idiot' business that is going on here.
unfortunately you are in the minority.
Rumor has it that a couple of larger cable companies are looking at starting a "trade-in" program on tivo's.
trade in your tivo and get 2 dual tuner HD dvr boxes for free as well as 3 months of free HD/extended premium tier service.
this will pretty much destroy the TiVo when it happens. I love my Replay box, but the dual tuner motorola DVR box records digital channels far better and easier than Tivo or Replay can ever hope to... The advantage of having the decoding and descrambling hardware in the box is huge. While the "cable card" ready tivo is years away.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
It is hard to appreciate the ease of use of a Tivo until you use it. I have had a Tivo for over a year and recently got a timewarner HD PVR (Explorer 8300HD). Tivo has a simple remote and VERY intuitive software. My 7 year old mastered it without any trouble. This "new" cable DVR, while it seems to be good hardware (HDMI, dual tuners, etc.) has the worst software I've seen. The remote has a button for every function, the majority of which don't do anything unless you are in a specific part of the menu system. There has been little thought of design and ease of use, rather it has simply put in the basics of recording. It is not that much better than a VCR.
The Tivo sets the standard for finding programs to record, recording them, prioritizing your recordings, setting up season passes, parental controls, channel listings, program information, innovative features (fast forward adjust) and on.
One could argue that the cable companies will catch up, but I don't think so. The cable boxes I've used recently behave no differently than they did when I had them over 5 years ago. They are still horrid ugly poorly thought out things.
I hope Tivo can get their cable card HD box out before the unwashed masses get sucked into the mediocrity of cable pvrs.
Well, if they were smart (they being Apple) they'd just buy TiVo
I'm not sure what that really buys Apple, unless TiVo has patents critical to making a well-designed DVR. After all, Apple is fully capable of developing user-friendly software on their own. Apple's brand-name recognition is at least as good as Tivo's. And getting Tivo's current money-losing business hardly seems like a big plus. It's a new world when the CableCard standard comes in, anyway.