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Tivo On Board With YouTube's New API
impuLsive writes "YouTube has announced they're rolling out a brand new API. The API will allow you to integrate YouTube into a website, allowing for features like: uploading videos, adding and editing video metadata, fetching localized feeds, custom queries, and a customized player UI with controlled video playback. Alongside YouTube, TiVo announced that they will be supporting the site's content via the Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs starting later this year."
Instead of spending $600 on a Tivo Series3 device, you can buy a cheap $200 computer, use MythTV to replicate what the Tivo would offer, put Firefox and the VideoDownloader extension on there to watch all the YouTube videos you want on your own time.
I received a TiVoHD unit for the holidays, and while it has some interesting features, I'm continually frustrated at the nickel-and-dime tactics of TiVo. People often don't realize that TiVo, while still charging a fee for the unit and a monthly service fee, still has advertisements laced into it. The subscriber agreement allows TiVo corp to activate even more intrusive ads if they so chose to. And the "added features" on the box, especially PC-related features, often require paying for TiVo's upgraded computer software to do anything but the basics. And then there's the DRM and non-anonymous statistics reporting.
What concerns me is that TiVo is that these new "features" are just going to end up as more annoying ad clutter, and at every menu option will be a prompt to pay for some new feature. Just like so many other devices spawned of the communication age.
TiVo corp has yet to turn a profit, so I'm sure they're just looking for more revenue streams. I'm sure the latest software update will be just what I'm waiting for.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth