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TiVo to Aim for PC Desktop

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the pee-vee-arr dept.

Dave writes "Ars Technica has reported on TiVo's fourth quarter earnings call, and I was interested to see that the company is looking at providing some kind of desktop service for computers." The details are pretty sparse, so it'll be intriguing to see what they've got planned.

11 of 133 comments (clear)

  1. Why would you? by Manip · · Score: 3, Informative

    Tivo costs £10 per month to get guide information... Or you could buy Microsoft Media Centre edition, costs you £89 up front but you get the guide information for free forever plus you can hack it (using any x86 tools).

    1. Re:Why would you? by FredThompson · · Score: 4, Informative

      Or...you could use free applications and not buy Microsoft Media Center. Duh!

      TiVo's load balancing, season passes, key phrase searches, etc. kick the snot out of anything else. Quite a bit of what makes it so nice is patented.

      If you haven't used one, you don't have the experience to know you don't know what you don't know.

    2. Re:Why would you? by RzUpAnmsCwrds · · Score: 4, Informative

      "If you haven't used one, you don't have the experience to know you don't know what you don't know."

      I've used TiVo for over four years now, both standalone and the combo DirecTV/TiVo units.

      I can assure you that Microsoft MCE is every bit as good as TiVo. To-do-list, recording history, season passes (with first-run-only options, the same 31-day rule, automatic adjustment to changing schedules, etc.), and most of the other TiVo featureset is present.

      The only things I can think of that TiVo has over MCE is:

      - WishLists. MCE kind of has them with keyword searching, but TiVo does a much better job.

      - Suggestions. I never used them, but only TiVo has them.

      But:

      - MCE has better conflict resolution. The interface is clearer. The to-do-list shows, at a glance, which shows "lose out" in a conflict.

      - MCE is faster. Even the Series 2 units are far too slow. Particularly when you upgrade the disk space. My 300GB MCE box is still quite nippy.

      - MCE has a better skip back / skip forward feature. It's far faster, which actually makes it useful - unlike the :30 hack on TiVo.

      - MCE handles failure better. If a show is interrupted during recording, MCE will automatically schedule a later showing if it's available and doesn't cause a conflict. This happens even if the recording was one-shot.

      - MCE softpads automatically, and unlike TiVo's padding, softpadding doesn't create conflicts.

      - MCE's interface is better. You can see the current program in most of the menus, and there is a clearly defined "back" button with unlimited history.

      Try MCE out before you go crapping all over it. You may be surprised.

  2. It already exists! by TanRanger · · Score: 5, Informative

    Long time TiVo competitor, ReplayTV, has had a PC interface for some time now by means of an open source JAVA program called DVArchive. With it, user's of LAN enabled ReplayTV's can stream recorded shows onto their PC's. DVArchive can even act as a virtual ReplayTV, serving up shows for all the real ones in the house. If this is what TiVo has planned, it sounds like they are playing catch-up.

    1. Re:It already exists! by FredThompson · · Score: 2, Informative

      The timeshifting personal use provisions of the law don't include networked distribution of content to other people. ReplayTV actively encouraged and provided a means to obtain and distribute content illegaly.

  3. Re:Probably by prockcore · · Score: 2, Informative

    why is this modded insightful? TiVo already lets you do everything you just mentioned.

    In the future, TiVo will let you pause live tv!

  4. Re:3 Words by wo1verin3 · · Score: 2, Informative

    You already can, they offer Tivo series 2 users a 15 day trial of Sonic MyDVD. If you want to keep burning the programs to DVD however you do have to buy the program from Sonic.

  5. Re:Don't think PC, think media PC! by FredThompson · · Score: 2, Informative

    "I'd really like to see TiVo go more in the direction of the media pc that everyone wants...the one that hooks into ethernet and plays mp3 and videos off a shared network drive."

    Done, months ago.

    http://javahmo.sourceforge.net

    Also available, from the hacking community, multi-room viewing, video extraction, DVD creation, RSS readers, video overlay for stocks, sports, news, weather, etc., on-screen caller ID, the list goes on...

  6. Re:Removing drm by FredThompson · · Score: 2, Informative

    You wish came true weeks ago.

  7. Re:Why? by dreamt · · Score: 2, Informative

    crippled like the TiVo, i.e. I can still fast forward through the comercials.

    Huh? Who ever said you can't fast forward through commercials with anythign from Tivo? I can easily fast forward (rewind, or whatever) using Tivo, and TivoToGo.

  8. Re:It's gonna be tough! by larryj · · Score: 2, Informative

    "The new HD DirecTiVo actually has four tuners -- two HD DirecTV and two OTA HD. It can even record two shows while watching a third show live."

    I think you meant to say that it can record two shows while watching a third pre-recorded show (from the Now Playing list). You can't watch a third show live while two others are recording.

    That's all my HD DirecTiVo is capable of at least. ;)

    --
    What if the Hokey-Pokey really is what it's all about?