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Tivo Signs Deal With Comcast
Chappy01 writes "TiVo has inked a long-term deal with Comcast, America's largest cable television operator, to develop a version of the TiVo service that will be offered to Comcast's DVR subscribers. The deal calls for TiVo to adapt its software to work on Comcast's existing DVR platform, and it allows TiVo to extend to Comcast subscribers the advertising it sells in the form of interactive video clips that automatically appear in the TiVo menu." From the article: "The move will increase TiVo's presence in American homes as it faces competition from generic DVRs offered directly by leading cable companies. Comcast Corp. expects to begin marketing the new DVRs, which will carry the TiVo brand, by mid- to late 2006." News also available from MSNBC and the Official Tivo Site.
Tivo shares up almost 50% on the news
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=tivo
No, the current TiVo boxen can use ethernet, and the Comcast boxen can talk DOCSIS. There will be no need for a phone connection.
Jeff
With the Series 2 TiVo's, a phone connection is only needed for initial setup. If you connect a network adapter, from then on it can update over the 'net. This also allows you to use the home media options (like making music and pictures from your computer available from the TiVo).
It never really "tied up" the phone line much anyway - the daily calls tend to be a couple of minutes long, and it dutifully disconnects if you pick up your phone to make a call and simply tries again later. With my old Series 1 TiVo, I have never actually noticed it making a call.
I got a series 2 about 4 months ago, and it's true you can use ethernet, however for the 1st connection it HAS to be over a phone line, which was a real pain in the ass since I don't have a land line.. Had to take it to a friend's house for the initial setup, and then bought a wireless USB to connect through my home network...
As a Tivo owner, I must say that I'm extremely happy about this announcement, as this will help keep the company from dying. However, we mustn't forget that they also lost their DirecTV deal, so they're not much better off than they were before. Hopefully Comcast pushes this onto its customers.
Important Distinction: Comcast is licensing Tivo software to be installed in their own boxes by mid to end 2006, and not the unit itself. Comcast also inked a huge deal with Motorola recently.
Does it still need to connect to the phone lines these days?
Yes and no. The latest Tivo boxes can operate over ethernet or 802.11, but you still need to set the box up over a phone line (which really sucks). My wife and I got a Tivo for Christmas from my parents and had to set it up at their house because we have no landline. But once it's set up it works great using a wireless adapter.
There is still a downside though. Tivo series 2 boxes are supposed to have USB 2.0, but the Tivo software only has USB 1.1 drivers. So even if you connect the ethernet adapter to a 100 Mb network or if you put in an 802.11g adapter, Tivo2Go stuff only transfers at USB 1.1 speeds which is horribly slow when transferring multi-gigabyte TV shows.
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I just got my Comcast bill last night and it had a paper insert on this service - they want $9.95 per month for this.
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I have multiple TiVos (3) in my house. All expanded to 200+ hours.
Recently, because Comcast offered me 3 months free (otherwise it would be $9.95 per month.), I added the Comcast DVR to my entertainment center.
Ultimately, if TiVo is a 10 for ease of use, programmability, expandability, etc., the Comcast DVR is about a 5. It does allow for HDTV recording which is a big + (I would have rated it a 3 or 4 without it). As it is, unless I want to record somthing in HDTV (sports, & a couple of PBS shows), I still record everything on the TiVo. It's just that much better.
This is the right move for TiVo. Comcast obviously hasn't put much effort into developing their UI, so I think this is a win/win.
If this meand that I'll get TiVo with my cable, HDTV, and no hardware purchase for $9.95 a month, I'm all for it (I will miss the 200+ hours though).
Yes and no. The latest Tivo boxes can operate over ethernet or 802.11, but you still need to set the box up over a phone line (which really sucks).
This was not true for my 80g Series 2 TiVo that I got 2 years ago.
I put a USB Ethernet adapter on it, ran a cable to my DHCP router, and picked some settings. No phone line was ever required.
Can't see how wireless would be different.
Share and Enjoy!
Finally, embedded programming on a cable box is worlds cruftier and more limiting than the Linux underpinnings of the current Tivo architecture. It's virtually certain that some features just won't be portable to this new box.
From Tivo's press release
"This long-term, non-exclusive partnership will provide millions of Comcast customers with the opportunity to choose the TiVo service, including TiVo's award-winning user interface and features like Season Pass(TM) and WishList(TM), as an additional option. In addition, the service will showcase TiVo's home networking, multimedia, and broadband capabilities."
Sounds to me like they are adding most functionality. I didn't follow to much of the Wiki's links, but is is possible that the Comcast box even runs linux (or some other OS) rather than just being "embedded"?
Comcast is effectively raising fees by dropping channels offered to its analog subscribers, in an effort to force them to move to digital cable.
I was paying $85 for Expanded Basic and HBO. They removed Encore and HBO3 from my package a while back and replaced them with shit (IIRC, the Hallmark Channel and Turner Classic Movies). When I got the next bill, the price for the two remaining HBOs was the same as I had been paying for three. I called to question this and was told it wasn't a mistake. Incensed that Comcast was trying to force me to upgrade, I cancelled HBO, and bought one of those "converter testers" that let you get all the channels for free. It works like a charm.
Since I've been watching all the channels I can tell you that Comcast has continued to whittle down the analog lineup. Sometime in mid-February the lone Pay-Per-View channel available on analog went away. The beginning of March, Cinemax vanished. All that's left are HBO, HBO2, Showtime and The Movie Channel.
I'm so fed up with Comcast's tactics and gouging that I will eventually be cancelling my cable and switching to DirecTV-- once I feel that I've taken enough food from Brian Roberts' mouth by using my tester.
well i recently switched from a directv tivo unit to a comcast hd dvr unit and i miss the simplicity and stability of the product. yes the hd is cheap and the dvr price aint bad at all but it is very buggy. the sound constantly goes out(optical), the screen freezes, using the dvr has long pauses inbetween operations(so you think it froze on you), sometimes the guide doesnt show what shows are playing. that and its just not as friendly to use as the tivo unit.(my wife won't touch it, but did with tivo) looks like tivo will be around a little longer at least in name before comcast swallows it
So...
mmm... yeah... You see, we're putting the cover sheets on all TPS reports now before they go out...
That said, some velcro under one of the flat spots on the bottom could help confirm orientation, as well as allowing it to hang in a convenient spot. But really, knowing the directional pad is at the top should be enough; the power button will always be up/left from it.
the current tivo can use ethernet, AFTER THE INITIAL SETUP phone call to activate..
Not true, I used ethernet to activate my unit. I only had a VoIP line and had issues getting my tivo to dial up through this. All I had to do was put ",#401" as my dial prefix.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum
First, you've got to separate the hardware (Motorola 6412) and the software it's running. In my case, as in most of the country, it runs iGuide by Gemstar. In Seattle, it's running the Microsoft Foundation v1.7 PVR software. A slightly different Motorola box runs the Moxi software.
The box itself is fine. 120G is a little light for HD programming (you can get about 10 hours on it), but the rest of its feature set is great. Dual HDTV tuners, record dual HD programs while watching a third, plus a nice programmable remote. The box itself is fairly sleek (if you like silver), not too terribly noisy (though it could be quieter) and supports component, DVI, S-Video and Firewire output. HD performance is very good, digital is good and analog is not so good - but as Comcast is moving toward digital simulcasting, the latter is rapidly becoming moot. The latest firmware (9.15) seems to have taken care of most of the bigger problems (freeze-ups on analog channels being the most common, though I never personally had that problem).
The iGuide software is OK - it's certainly not as slick as Tivo, but it's really pretty decent. It has series recording (new episodes, new+repeats or all), 30-second skip, live buffer on both tuners (15 minute on HD, 60 on analog, 90 on digital) and you can record from the buffer (turn on the TV, see the middle of an interesting show, hit "record" and the whole show, including the buffered portion, is recorded). You can pad show starts/ends, set series priorities, when to delete programs (when told, when viewed, when disk space is low, after n episodes have been recorded), search for programs (a bit clunky). The Series Recording option is only as good as the guide data, though - when the guide data is bad (as is the case with the Simpsons on my local Fox channel - the syndicated episodes are marked as 'new') it sucks. With that exception, though, the Series Recording works like a dream.
A lot of the stuff it doesn't have (like Recommendations - who needs 'em?) I don't miss at all. For the cost of the Tivo monthly service, I get a two-tuner box plus the Guide and still have a couple of bucks in my pocket.
If your main concern is corporate control, I would agree you're better off with MythTV or Freevo, but compared to Tivo/ReplayTV, it's fine. So far, at least, Comcast hasn't played the evil corporation with this particular product (don't get me started on Comcast in general). The 30-second skip hack would be easy for them to turn off, and they haven't. I haven't watched an unwanted commercial in six months.
I know it sucks, but go to www.dealdatabase.com. They really have the procedure down and hacking your box to support HMO isn't too hard.
I don't believe the new R10 units can be hacked yet, but I bought a second unit the week the R10 units came out to avoid that problem.
ok-- but you couldn't sniff the activation packets could you? in a sense of knowing what control commands/strings/bits went between tivo and your box...
Actually if I were interested I would have been able to capture the packets in their entirety. I didn't really care, just wanted to get my shit working however.
yes, you could see the individual voip packets contents, but can you determine what passwords were exchanged?
Re-read my statement, I said I could NOT get this thing to register via VoIP due to issues. I said I got it to work via ethernet. I didn't state it in the clearest fashion, but to reiterate what I was saying, when you first pull the unit out of the box plug in a USB nic and set your dial prefix to ",#401" and it will register via ethernet instead of attempting to dial out through the phone line.
I was unclear, the fact is, you have to provide tivo with a pots sounding dialtone to initialize the system. (my employers inability to use voip may have been unique, but needing a dial tone is required)
I was unclear in the order I stated things, hope this helps.
Can I get an eye poke?
Dog House Forum