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Will New Apps Keep TiVo Afloat?
Dave Zatz writes "Tivo, struggling to keep customers and inch towards profitability as execs step down,
has continued to shift focus from pure PVR functionality towards digital convergence. Tivo's recently
released Home Media Engine SDK extends Tivo's capabilities as developers churn early Java apps out, including
the eBay-developed BuyItNow
and the independent Airport Express
AirTunes remote control. The recently released Tivo
To Go allows PC users to transfer shows to their computers for viewing, editing,
and burning shows. Mac users aren't entirely forgotten - a hidden feature in the
OSX Tivo Desktop 1.9 provides AAC
music playback through the television."
There are methods you can use to strip out the DRM from the .tivo files:
TiVo To Go MPEG2 Decrypting
This is one method, there are a few others.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
The "PSX" combination Playstation 2 / PVR device released last year had the capability to take saved TV shows and burn them to DVDs using a built-in DVD-R drive. It was only available in Japan and sold extremely poorly, but that's something.
Right now Tivo is restricted to 10baseT speeds because it maxes out the USB 1.1.
(WiFi takes a hit too, even though it theoretically is faster than 10baseT).
Many of the Series2 Tivo's have a USB 2.0 capable chipset, I understand the drivers aren't there yet, but they have supposedly added some of the capability into the latest version of the OS, over the next while I expect they will be providing driver updates to support USB 2.0 based ethernet.
This should improve the transfer rates, hopefully they throttled them because of issues with USB 1.1. (or they maxed it out).
Second, DL times are slow because the TiVO has to wrap the video stream in DRM, and it can only do that so fast.
So, the average user finds themself having to do all sorts of gymnastics to get the benefits that the marketing material promised would come from TTG. And it STILL doesn't allow you to do useful things like put your Home Movies on (or stream them to) your TiVO.
And they wonder why their subscriber base is declining?
----
I talk TiVO and HTPC a bit here too... :-)
Pretty picky...
Sure, its definitly very slow, however; I've just been using it to archive stuff I know I want for a while or overflow for when my tivo gets too full. I'm too lazy to upgrade my tivo's HD. Sure, it took a while to transfer the items, however; doesn't your "Save to VCR" take just as long as a show will?
Tivo is just trying to protect themselves. If they were to offer direct mpeg downloads they'd be sued out of existance. This way they can offer their service, let the hackers do what they want, and remain safe from legal issues.
As far as speed issues go, I'd expect it to get faster with future updates. Look at the onscreen guide with this update... its incredibly fast now. As long as they're in business, I'm sure they'll keep enhancing their current and future products.
As others have noted, the file transfer time is very slow. I guess this may be due to the Tivo's slow processor and the fact that the Tivo is still functioning (recording and playing back etc.) while the transfer is going.
Supposedly the Tivo Series 2 units have USB 2.0 ports and the drivers with the 7.1 upgrade are supposed to enable USB 2.0 - but apparently this hasn't resulted in much of a speed gain. There are some notes on this in the Tivo forums.
The media files you pull over are protected with DRM. They are linked to your Tivo device's media access key and require a password to play. There are a few methods circulating for stripping the DRM such as this one using GraphEdit:
TiVo To Go MPEG2 Decrypting
The files are MPEG2 which means they are pretty darn big. You can expect about 1.2 gigabytes for an hour show at medium quality. Despite the huge file size, the image quality on the shows I have transfered isn't that great. The output seems grainy compared to video caps I've done straight off of a composite video cable. The signal on the TV is clean.The last problem I've had is with playback of the Tivo files on Windows 2000. I have a DVD player installed and can play DVDs fine. I also have the AC3 codec installed so audio works fine (for example on Divx files with AC3 audio). But MPEG2 playback on any sort except standard DVD comes out squished. The horizontal aspect ratio is messed up, so everyone looks anorexic. Does anyone know how to fix this? I have no problems playing back on Windows XP. So while it's nice to finally be able to move stuff off when the Tivo is getting full (and no I don't want to hack it - if I broke the Tivo the girlfriend would kill me) the service certainly has room for improvement. Also the fact that the upcoming software for burning the shows to DVD (Sonic MyDVD) is being sold not included with Tivo service is pretty lame.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Some of these features seem a little silly to me, truth be told, but cheer up! If you've got any of the last three generations of ReplayTVs (5[0135]xx or 4xxx), you can, today, copy shows to your PC (running pretty much your choice of OS -- forget this Windows dependency crap). Not to mention once they're on your PC, you can stream them to your RTV and watch them there.
:)
And you can use drives bigger than 127Gb.
You can get a TiVo that has TiVo Basic, which gives you VCR like functionality and a bit more, without any monthly fee. I have the Toshiba SD H400 (which is a TiVo and a DVD Player). See http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/publ ic/tv1199.htm
I'm a TiVo Series 1 owner for quite a while now (bought the 'lifetime' subscription at the original price.) Don't get me wrong, I still love the Tivo; the interface is the best, the packaging and stability excellent. But, my S1 is starting to show it's age, and it was time to think about replacing it with something with more capability and perhaps allowing some hacking. The Series 2 machine isn't that machine. Propiatary formats, a closed system, low CPU power on the platform, and not-so-great expandibility are all adding up to move me away from Tivo. Plus, I don't want to deal with monthly subscriptions either, so the only way to go is with the lifetime subscription, which is priced too high.
Two weeks ago I put together my first MythTV box, and I must say that it's been very good. Sure, it's not ready for Joe Sixpack yet, but for the crowd that wants to move video around and play around with the machine some more, it's just the ticket. I'm slowing moving recordings from the Tivo to the MythTV... Additionally, the quality of video under Myth is much better than the TiVo, and I can tweak the storage options to my hearts' content.
For Tivo, it might be too little, too late to attract the hacker community, and most of the non-tech crowd only wants to watch sienfield reruns and doesn't care about moving things to their PC. Perhaps they might have captured back some of the tech market by providing open standards and decent access methods, but Tivo still hasn't figured out who their customer is. DRM is toadying to the cable industry, not serving their customers.
}#q NO CARRIER
Actually, drivers for some USB 2.0 ethernet dongles are now supported in the most recent release, 7.1a. My Belkin USB2.0 interfaces are about twice as fast as they were under version 4.x.
A one hour show in Basic mode takes about 8 minutes.
In Best Quality, an hour of video transfers in under 30 minutes.
I just bought this damn box. I put a Linksys 10/100TX usb adapter on it - the files (900 MB for 30mins) come to my machine at 400 KB/sec. (yeah thats bytes) We have a 250 gig hard drive in there for good measure. At the moment I've got 49 spongebob episodes and a crapload of other stuff.
o rd:yourmediaaccesskey
...
TIVO 2 GO works great if you dont use the software - or if you do even. Want to do it by hand? Go to:
https://[youttivoipaddr]/
username:tivo
passw
DL all the files you want from your 'now playing list'. As for DRM - well... tmpeg makes a nice VDC of it - and virtualdub has no problem manhandling the files either.
And sorry but I'd disagree with the statement 'everyone has one already'. I know LOTS of folks who just don't - you do too if you'd look outside your geek bubble.
Could I have hacked this together myself? You bet. Am I too damn lazy? Well now
Have a look at the Panasonic e85hs, up front I will tell you it does cost more than your $250 goal, but the price at Amazon just dropped to $380.
The unit includes a built in DVD recorder so that you can save a show to DVD if the need ever arises. The unit includes basic editing so you can cut out commercials before writing the program to DVD.
The part about this unit that surprised me is that it's TV listings feature works even though I do not have cable - and it does this from an off-the-air signal (via roof top antenna), there is no phone or network line needed. I get listings for 8 days in advance absolutely free (Tivo basic is 3 days, and needs a phone line).
Also, you do not need to use the tv listings feature to set up recording times, you can set the record times manually.
DirectTV markets a Tivo for $99 and charges only $5 / month for all of your Tivo's. Better yet, it has an integrated dual tuner so you can watch/record two different programs at once. Not a bad deal.
The rub is that it only has Version 3 of the Tivo software, so you can't use the USB connector to hook up a NIC. No plans from DirectTV in the near future for getting the Tivo software up to date. So we can all enjoy these new apps, except for those of us who bought our DVR from DirectTV :-P