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TiVo Signs Up for Internet Video Content

lfescalante writes "TiVo, in an increasingly diversified attempt to offer new content to its subscriber base, today announced a partnership with Internet TV pioneer Brightcove to bring content partner video offerings from this company to Tivo boxes. The first fruits of this relationship should begin appearing within the coming months."

43 comments

  1. If the average Slashdotter TiVoed the internet... by From+A+Far+Away+Land · · Score: 4, Funny

    The average Slashdotter TiVoing the Internet would cause a bandwidth catastrophe. Based on prior viewing, thousands of pron sites would be swamped with TiVo DoS.

  2. They're stealing OUR RIGHT to copy as many movies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    as we want!!!!

    Information WANTS to be free!

    It is so obvious!

  3. Say Hello to CockBand... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    A Trollaxor.com presentation!

    Steve sipped his magic water, brow furrowed, listening with his head cocked to the side to the blather the record execs across the table were vomiting at him. The barfing had been ongoing for the better part of three hours, and Steve was bored. As he set his water bottle down, his mind meandered from the meeting to more interesting things. Dammit, Steve thought, this is my boardroom. It's about time they heard my speech!

    Beside Steve in his stupor sat none other than Phil Schiller, mulleted and wearing his typical denim button-down, and John Rubenstein who was wearing a blue polo, collar-up, with iPod headphones snaking up over his hairy chest and pouring out the front of his collar. Not only was John the Senior Vice President of the iPod division, he was also a member.

    As the meeting droned on, Phil noted the glazed look in John and Steve's eyes. Without moving a muscle, Phil fiddled with something underneath the table and a random burst of music exploded from John's neck. Before John could look down, however, the music stopped. Steve hadn't noticed and Phil looked over at John and smirked. John wondered when Phil had managed to take his Shuffle.

    Clearing his throat, Steve rose from his chair, interrupting the record executives across from him. They looked up at Steve's blue-jeaned form, surprised. They watched as Steve strutted to the corner of the room and grabbed a new bottle of water out of a mini-fridge, uncapped it, and took a sip. He looked around him at all the expectant eyes, like baby birds held captive in a nest, and smiled.

    "I have a little something to share with you today," Steve said, the fire coming back to his eyes. "We all do, in fact, and we're really excited to present this special Stevenote with you today."

    Phil looked over to John and rolled his eyes. Having endured one too many Stevenotes, he wasn't what could be called very excited in the least. Stultified was probably a better term for what Phil was experiencing at the moment. John too had witnessed several private mini-keynotes where Steve Jobs had paraded around a boardroom and drove a point relentlessly home for hours on end.

    Phil and John shrugged, helpless, and turned to Steve. At least it wasn't record company rhetoric.

    "Gentlemen, today we stand here over two years after Apple and the recording industry made downloading music easy and legal," Steve began, not missing a beat. "And in two years we've grown in a really impressive way, and we've got some really impressive numbers to show you."

    Without a word, Steve yanked a small device that looked like a black iPod Shuffle out of his pocket and clicked a button. Silently, metal armor appeared from the walls and covered the windows. The lights dimmed behind them, and a solid metal panel slid shut with a sucking sound over the doorway. One wall was lit by an unseen projector and down-tempo electronica started playing softly in the background.

    The record executives looked around, frenzied, not sure what had just happened. Some grabbed for papers and shoved them into briefcases while others swung around in their chairs feeling for something to grab onto. They began muttering, asking one another what was going on, nerves on edge. One exec took his mobile phone out and opened it. He looked hysterical in the dim light.

    "You'll see that your mobile phone's signal is jammed in here, as are all other means of external communication. Bluetooth and WiFi don't work, and the Ethernet cables to your laptops have been cut," Steve said to the executives. "You're all alone in here. All alone with just me, Phil, John, and the numbers."

    Phil and John shook their heads in dismay.

    Steve wasted no time in barraging the executives in an ejaculation of numbers. Tracks available thr

    1. Re:Say Hello to CockBand... by pomo+monster · · Score: -1, Offtopic
      This report contains a couple of factual inaccuracies I'd like to point out:

      1. It's Jon Rubinstein, not John Rubenstein.
      2. Schiller's scrotum is hairless.

      Other than that, thank you for this valuable insight into Apple's inner workings.

  4. total crap content by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    check out the "current offerings" on their website. The video programs look terrible. They promote the Blair Witch Project web commercials as "innovative".

    sad... so terribly sad.

    How about just setting up a video podcast receiver that I can use on my Tivo instead? There are thousands of public video feeds already online. I don't really care about Barrio 305 or some lame National Lampoon comedy shorts channel.

    Why don't the marketing people see that? Too busy dreaming of $$$ and misreading their survey results, no doubt.

  5. Good move by Bullfish · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I think we all accept that most of our entertainment will be brought to us over the net in the future rather than through standard broadcast. I doubt that the early offerings are going to get anybody too excited (our choice of commercials? oh goody!), but this will be good for Tivo to get ready for a few years down the road with a nice headstart on the technology. Any techniques and refinements they can develop will help them survive one all the bandwagon jumpers start climbing on board.

    1. Re:Good move by DigiShaman · · Score: 2, Interesting

      But how much will the monthly fee be? I seriously doubt they can compete with the local Cable Co as they offer cable/internet combo packages.

      Better price, better video quality, why this Tivo service? Unless your stuck with DSL, I don't see the point.

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
    2. Re:Good move by cabd · · Score: 1

      Just imagine what would happen if America Online got their hands on this. -You've got commercals- On a more serious side, what would replace the crappy free aol cd's? Free tivo-style boxes?

      --
      When mad at one, try running a mile in their shoes. That way, not only do you have their shoes, but you are a mile away.
  6. lol @pioneers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll


    i had never heard of Brightcove, apparently its run by Jeremy Allaire the guy who invented that great server language called Coldfusion (cough cough)
    iam sure this will be destined to succeed as well as coldfusion did in the server scripting market

  7. DANGER: Management speak by Ingolfke · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    TiVo, in an increasingly diversified attempt...

    In English this means, Tivo, in an increasingly desperate attempt...

    1. Re:DANGER: Management speak by bi_boy · · Score: 1

      In English this means, Tivo, in an increasingly desperate attempt...

      I thought the Tivo death knell sounded off last month, and the month before, and the month before, and the month before...

      --
      Chicken fried butter sticks? Do ... do you use a fork? - Black Mage, 8-Bit Theater
    2. Re:DANGER: Management speak by ak-74 · · Score: 0

      dude, u have a score +2 flamebait. Do something.

    3. Re:DANGER: Management speak by Professor_UNIX · · Score: 3, Interesting
      I thought the Tivo death knell sounded off last month, and the month before, and the month before, and the month before...

      TiVo and Vonage are circling the drain hand in hand. Face it, both companies are bleeding money faster than they can bring it in. TiVo simply can't compete with DVRs built into cable boxes that have multiple tuners in them and can record digital content without recording it off some crappy S-VIDEO interface using a stupid IR blaster to change channels. MAYBE their HDTV/Cablecard version coming out might hold their death off for a few more years, but the only long term option they have is to get in bed with the cable companies like they did with DirecTV and ensure their software (their hardware is essentially worthless commodity PC garbage, their software is the only thing valuable in their business model) is put on every cable DVR box that ships. The DVR software on a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 I tried for a week SUCKED ASS and was a glorified VCR... if they could capitalize on their name and get their shit into the cable DVR boxes that major cable companies rent they may just survive past 2008.

    4. Re:DANGER: Management speak by jedidiah · · Score: 1

      Tivo could have been this ubercool media convergence device... but wasn't.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    5. Re:DANGER: Management speak by Liquorman · · Score: 1

      I agree with everything you wrote. TiVo is obviously aware of this as well and has made agreements with cable companies.

    6. Re:DANGER: Management speak by VitrosChemistryAnaly · · Score: 1
      I agree with everything you wrote. TiVo is obviously aware of this as well and has made agreements with cable companies. [slashdot.org]
      Or, here's the correct link.
      --
      "It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
    7. Re:DANGER: Management speak by mdfst13 · · Score: 1

      "TiVo and Vonage are circling the drain hand in hand."

      Please don't link TiVo and Vonage. Vonage is bleeding money for two reasons:

      1. They have their price set below the amount needed to support their service (i.e. they have traditionally lost money on each customer).

      2. They spend ungodly amounts on advertising. In fact, they spend roughly as much on advertising as they pull in as revenue. They spend five times as much on online advertising as the next biggest advertiser (classmates.com).

      On the bright side, Vonage might make money if they stopped signing up new customers. Their two biggest costs are marketing and sales. If they stopped marketing and sales dropped to replacement level, they might actually make money for a while. This is sort of happening now. They're almost out of money (thus the IPO), so they're cutting back on the marketing for a bit. This has cut growth and in the first quarter, non-marketing costs were actually slightly lower than revenues.

      Tivo spends less on marketing and doesn't have Vonage's .bust losses. Further, "TiVo simply can't compete with DVRs built into cable boxes that have multiple tuners in them" does not seem to be true. In fact, more and more cable companies are switching their boxes to Tivo because Tivo's interface is so much better. As a result, expect dual tunered Comcast Tivos in the near future. That won't need "some crappy S-VIDEO interface using a stupid IR blaster to change channels" as it will be integrated with Comcast hardware.

      Btw, the stupid IR blaster works surprisingly well most of the time. Further, given the price of single tuner Tivos, I'm not sure that they aren't a better deal (for two) than dual tuner DVRs. Then one has not only dual tuners, but dual hard drives, processors, memory, bus, etc. The Google lesson: a quantity of cheap commodity hardware can be more effective than a single high quality piece of hardware.

  8. And the /.'rs say: by cabd · · Score: 1

    Goodie! Now then, I want all my ad's to be pr0n and vaigra...

    --
    When mad at one, try running a mile in their shoes. That way, not only do you have their shoes, but you are a mile away.
    1. Re:And the /.'rs say: by StarkRG · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      Apostrophes are for posessive or contractions, NOT plurals.

      In the case of your sentance the 'to' belongs to your 'ad', which, obviously, makes no sense. This is one of the simpler ideas of grammar...

  9. How to broadcast vapor? by TTop · · Score: 2, Informative

    Brightcove seems to promise a lot of things, but they seem to be more vapor than actual service so far. They have a demo of a nice portal, but they're a new company and seem to have more going on in marketing then actual technology. Combined with Allaire, that makes for buzz, but really, what big-time content do they actually host? They have some announced projects, but not any actual big live content providers that I can tell. Their press releases are all "we're going to do this" rather than "we've done this." Someone like thePlatform actually already has the tools and feature set that Brightcove is still working towards, plus big-name customers (Verizon VCast, Ampd, CNBC, Starz, etc).

    1. Re:How to broadcast vapor? by IAmTheDave · · Score: 1

      thePlatform - HA! ok, so, i worked quite closely with thePlatform on a content delivery system of tens of thousands of on-demand streaming titles, and let me tell you, they're not that great.

      to boot, they don't own a lick of their own content. they are a CDN, holding and transmitting OD content for their customers. actually, reverse that. they're not even that. basically, they're a content management system for streaming content. most of the content they manage they actually put on other CDN vendors like Akamai.

      besides that, they don't own any content. Verizon uses them for VCast, and other companies for other things that are completely proprietary. last i checked, thePlatform doesn't have a lick of license to stream any content they store or broadcast beyond the OD requests of their customers.

      so the deal wouldn't be made with thePlatform, it'd be made with the individual content holders. it's like - BrightCast or whoever would use thePlatform to manage the DRM on top of content that is stored at Akamai or the like to stream to your Tivo box.

      --
      Excuse my speling.
      Making The Bar Project
    2. Re:How to broadcast vapor? by audiodude · · Score: 1

      Last I checked, Brightcove had deals with Sony/BMG, Discovery, Tribeca Film Festival, MTV/Viacom's The N, plus a syndication offering with Reuters that lets you put news stories directly on your own webpage.

      Not to mention their Commercial Preview, which allows anyone to upload and host high quality video in customized video players TODAY!

      Okay, for full disclosure, I work for Brightcove. However, it's more true to say that Internet TV is just getting warmed up. The announcments give us a taste for what is to come when this format really explodes over the next 1-3 years

    3. Re:How to broadcast vapor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not to mention this awesome site: www.invasioncinema.com

    4. Re:How to broadcast vapor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty video players. Awesome. You guys can put VIDEO on the WEB? AMAZING! Please let us know more about your amazing technology!

    5. Re:How to broadcast vapor? by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 1

      I seem to recall long ago TiVo announcing a partnership with RealMedia for content. Last I heard, the fruits of that partnership were still buffering.

      --
      Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
  10. New mod.... by IamGarageGuy+2 · · Score: 1

    How about an astroturf mod?

    --
    Stay tuned for new sig...
  11. I dont see time warner allowing this by kaufmanmoore · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If ever there's a reason for net neutrality this is it. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if Time Warner throttles the bandwidth for TIVOs trying to connect to this.

  12. Oh boy by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 1

    As a Tivo fanatic and subscriber, all I can say is... *YAWN*

    Why do I want to see any of this?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  13. old news by mr100percent · · Score: 1

    Tivo has had Rocketboom podcasts since December 2005 at least. It was a promising start, and I hoped for more.

  14. Probably Off-Topic Semi-Ask Slashdot by caller9 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    I wish Dish Network would learn from them. Agressive network adapter support. Network transfer of video built in. Probably 100 other things I can't list.

    No, with Dish Network 635 you can put a memory stick in the USB port and it recognizes the "Multimedia Device." It knows it's a memory stick, probably the lowest form of transfer, sneaker net. It offers up a menu to allow you to send media to the device. Upon choosing the option to send media it reports "8(6?)37 this feature is not supported" before even listing files you can send. I'm sure this isn't the case with a Pocket Dish.

    They recognized the USB mass storage device, they included the drivers for it, they built the menus to allow data transfer, then some PHB told the techs to limit transfers only to "Pocket Dish" devices. I thought maybe it's because I have FAT16 on the memory stick, but one mke2fs later it still doesn't work.

    So now I'll bow to the PHB overlords and buy their stinking Pocket Dish, but I'll be disgruntled....veeeeeeeerrrrrrry disgruntled while giving them my money. I shake my fist at you PHBs and your trophy wives while you laugh your way to the bank.

    The other option which I've actually done requires cracking the case, removing a drive, putting it into your machine, hoping it doesn't confuse GRUB...I had to use knoppix, probably my fault, didn't troubleshoot it...then copying the files to your drive. It has 3 partitions, the first seems like a persistant temp drive, the second has some media on it I think??, the third has all of your videos in various MPEG codecs with possibly multiple language audio tracks sometimes including AC3/A52 english. It's like they recompressed the DVD directly to a satellite stream, probably because they did.

    The yahoo groups hacker community response(so far) is buy a standalone DVD burner and use the analog output to playback the video realtime into it. Where's the fun in that I ask, where did the AC3 track go, what is your hacker badge # private? Plus.. you could introduce even more artifacts than Dish already beams down. I think there has been a presumption on the part of the public that digital video means high quality when it only means consistant quality with litte evident RF interference...a 28kbps realvideo feed from '97 is technically digital quality video.

    Also, compression quality aside, some of the videos are beaming down in higher res than NTSC, and much higher than NTSC captured by the Lowest Commond Denominator chip then re-encoded. I would personally like to get that first feed before the dish's decoder can mangle an NTSC feed out of it, and before whatever recorder I use likely jacks up the audio. Even if it has optical inputs and deftly re-encodes the AC3 stream, that's still a lossy recording of a lossy reproduction of a lossy recording.

    Anyway, I'm their bitch for the forseeable future, can anyone help?

  15. TiVo and IP-TV by zapatero · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Product Watch" was Tivo's announcement from just the other day. This somewhat dull product, an HME based application, enables a Tivo user with a broadband connection to browse through a collection of infomercials and select videos for download.

    Now. Of course. Who would use this? Ads? Etc, etc. However all the Tivo pundints missed the bigger point. That being that this is IP/TV. Tivo now sports a box that integrates the TV (rabit ears, cable, or satalite) with IP content.

    Product Watch is actually a smart business move, as that enabled Tivo to build the ground work, the back end, call it the infrastructure, for IP/TV with companies paying to place their content.

    Now this deal with brightcove will be a no-brainer. Technically not a challenge at all for Tivo, only the usual of two companies hashing out who will be responsible for what and etc.

    I think this Product Watch thing is not properly understood at what a big deal it is, and how Tivo will probably be announcing such IP content partnerships like this one again and again over the coming weeks and months.

  16. PodCasting by DavidD_CA · · Score: 2, Informative

    On a somewhat related note, TiVo now supports the automatic download of a number of popular podcasts, or I can add a URL of my choice. As a result, what turned into the occasional viewing of Rocketboom is now a part of my daily routine.

    --
    -David
  17. Game show idea for sale by RM6f9 · · Score: 1

    Principals with references (must be willing to sign binding NDAs) only, please.

    --
    Take the 90-Day Challenge! http://rwmurker.bodybyvi.com/
  18. Too late. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've already moved onto HD, and my tivo is only really good for basic cable.

    Now that you can't get unlimited subscriptions on new tivos, I have zero interest in buying another one as yet -another- monthly payment is just too much of a nuissance to deal with.

    On top of that, for every new tivo feature that I don't really use, another advertising window or recording limitation creeps into the service.

    Tivo is effectively dead to me.

  19. Okay I signed it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I signed the NDA you sent over, but the idea is boring.

    You do realize that having a game show where three contestants look at a board of dollar values where they select a square, an answer is given and the contestants must come up with a question has been taken, right?

    It's called jeopardy and it was fresh and new in, say, 1961.

  20. Not for Directv Tivo owners by Danathar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Guaranteed.

    I't pisses me off how directv treats their TIVO subscriber base. I have the hardware for TIVO series two but DirecTV would rather try and push their substandard PVR than give their directv TIVO subscribers the same features as the standalone version.

    Yes..I could hack my DirecTivo to get some of the features, but I should'nt have to do that!

    Now they've backed themselves in a corner. People HATE their in house PVR but the company (or whoever sold the idea of making their own in the company) would rather stick their fingers in their ears than listen to their customers.
    rant off!

  21. maybe... by cultrhetor · · Score: 1

    this will help TiVO with their so-called "techno-profiling," that wonderful system by which they "select" movies and television shows based on your past viewing. This is a truly poor system: for instance, it doesn't take into account the fact that maybe, just maybe there are more viewers in the house than just one. If they partner with an online service, it may allow some users to enter more than one profile per home: if my daughter wants to watch Lady and the Tramp, but I would prefer the latest Jerry-Frankenheimer-Blows-Stuff-Up-On-Screen movie, it would suggest ... BOTH?! Even better, I might be able to opt out of the crappy system altogether, because I don't want to be tracked any more than my various bankcards, ID numbers, e-mails, etc. already subject me to. Just a thought.

    --
    "Tu fui, ego eris" - Virgil
  22. TiVo + Internet video by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 1

    For the last few remaining humans who still haven't seen the peeing chimpanzee, the "Numa Numa" dance, or "Yatta!."

  23. By "automatic download," by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    do you mean TiVoing?

  24. TiVo + iTMS by foniksonik · · Score: 1

    TiVo needs to get a deal going with Apple's iTMS and start allowing purchasing of content through a version of the store... download Music, TV Shows, Movies to your TiVo drive... watch full screen just like any other content.

    Then they should work together on a PVR software solution for a Mac Mini with an adaptor box that converts signal to the various ports to work with all TVs, basically a TiVo in a Mac, without the subscription required... you can subscribe to TiVo content if you want, or you can download individual shows through iTMS. I guess they could even release a Windows compatible version too... since there's already iTunes.

    This would make 'a la carte' TV a reality.

    --
    A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
  25. What happened to Netflix? by pauljlucas · · Score: 1

    Didn't Tivo sign an agreement with Netflix to offer Netflix subscribers the option of downloading movies to their Tivos? I still haven't seen anything about that materialize.

    --
    If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
    1. Re:What happened to Netflix? by north.coaster · · Score: 1

      According to Engadget, Netflix could not reach licensing agreements with the major movie studios to allow their content to be downloaded to Tivos.

  26. Why not Akimbo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "TiVo, in an increasingly diversified attempt to offer new content to its subscriber base.."

    Why go with Brightcove which looks vaporish with scant content, and a huge list of open job positions: http://www.brightcove.com/careers-overview.cfm ?

    When Akimbo has 10,000+ shows? http://akimbo.com/