Slashdot Mirror
Intel and Tivo Partner Up
yapplejax writes "Intel and Tivo are partnering on a PC platform in hopes to standardize the platform. From the Associated Press: 'The goal of the Viiv label, he said, is to avoid consumer confusion and questions over interoperability. It also will ensure the products will work when the PC is being controlled from a distance via a remote control.'"
Is this more just an effort to create a standardized DRM platform?
No. This is 100% about DRM for the coming convergence of the internet/PCs and television. To think it is really about anything else is foolhardy.
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
Tivo is in a world of hurt, from what I can tell. As one of the first Tivo users, my Tivo units just sit in the closet for the past few years.
TiVo is in a world of hurt, but it's not because of some groundswell of demand for IP TV. They just couldn't hold onto their market. Their software is still better than anyone else's, but that doesn't always matter (betamax). I use TiVo with DirecTV every day, and why not? It's superb at what it does. I don't watch videos on my PC; I watch them on my TV. I also have little desire to watch video on a portable format. Video podcasting would probably be the only thing worth watching in that format.
I have downloaded video content and watched it via Xbox Media Center, but you know what? It's a pain in the ass. Nothing is streamlined or automated, there's no subscription features, and you never know what quality level you'll get. So, I agree that a better content distribution network should be in place, and I should be able to download a show from any channel/country I want without having to pay some premium for a channel subscription. However, I don't think the bell tolls for TiVo because of IP TV. I think most of America wouldn't even understand what the hell you're talking about.
The basic problem is though, it seems that the movie industry has turned out to be more greedy than the record labels. They don't want to get tied into an iTunes kind of deal where they feel like they have no bargaining power. But the fracturing of video content that we're already seeing, with various movie studios making deals with different "video-on-demand" services, is going to really impede any kind of progress in the short term. Add to that the fact that IP TV would totally change the face of cable television, and I just don't see anything like what you want happening (soon). There are far more entrenched interests in the world of video than the world of records.
The (working) HD Tivo is being held back by the too-little-too-late OpenCable standard, which I suspect was sabotaged by the Motorola/Scientific Atlanta cable box duopoly. You will use the cable box provided by the cable company, and you will like it.
That would be the Motorola/Cisco cable box duopoly...
7 .html
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051118-559