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Nero Unveils LiquidTV, TiVo For Your Computer

bigwophh writes to mention HotHardware is reporting that Nero has decided to try a new step forward for home theater PCs by bringing the TiVo service to your computer. The new LiquidTV / TiVo PC package includes a (USB-based) high definition ATSC digital/analog TV tuner, antenna, remote control, IR blaster, Nero's LiquidTV software, and a 12-month subscription to the TiVo service for around $200. You can cut that in half if you already have a compatible TV tuner. This is the first time that TiVo has licensed their intuitive interface for a PC package. In addition to the TiVo interface, the rest of the LiquidTV software package allows you to burn your TV recordings to DVD or transfer the videos to other computers, iPods, PSP, or "other mobile devices." This service is due to launch next month.

42 of 156 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Hey America by OverlordQ · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why not buy it instead of make it yourself instead of buying it.

    What?

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  2. Feature request by hcdejong · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Make a European version! I'm tired of EyeTV's lack of intelligence.

  3. Geeks do this w/o TiVo by clang_jangle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would expect that those of us who like to use our computers for video would already have these capabilities without spending $200/yr on a subscription. I know I do.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
    1. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Me too.

      I pay $100 a year for the subscription.

      The subscription to TiVo is worth every penny just for the lack of having to fiddle with it all the time.... Getting the updates installed with no time investment, etc...

      And that's before you take into account its ability to record encrypted QAM, since it's cableCARD certified.

      I used to use a home-built DVR, but TV just doesn't matter enough to me to invest the time. I'd rather throw (much) less than a day's pay at it once a year and not have to think about it.

    2. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The "fiddling" with a home-made DVR is driven primarily by other "fiddling".

      Set it up and leave it alone and it tends to stay setup. That first part is the trick.

      Once you make Tivo the combination of a random collection of spare parts and some
      software, you are going to blow away Tivo's strength in this area. It will be like
      trying to run MacOS on a non-mac using some hack.

      Simply put: Tivo is last to the party and is in serious danger of being left
      behind by everyone.

      If you are already accustomed to the more powerful features of PC PVR software
      then a PC running Tivo software is not going to be that compelling. Otherwise
      you would already just be running a Tivo anyways.

      What HD capture options will it have? How open will the recordings be?

      Will I be able to use the software on the platform of my choice?

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    3. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      If you are already accustomed to the more powerful features of PC PVR software
      then a PC running Tivo software is not going to be that compelling.

      You're right. I don't see the appeal of running TiVo's software on a PC. Just give me the box.

      Could I go back to my PC based DVR which lacked recording encrypted HD, and neded to be reconfigured when the "free" data sources changed/went away, or when my channel lineup changes? What features am I missing? I can record my shows to DVD if I want... I can watch in multiple rooms... I can watch on the road...

      The only reason TiVo is being left behind is that the less-featured cable company DVRs are "good enough" for almost everybody. PC DVRs are a speck in TiVo's rear view mirror.

    4. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by Amouth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      personaly i juse use WMC - it does the guide well - no fee autoupdates - and is easy enough for my wife to use withouth ever having to ask me how to do something.. that alone is far worth it>>

      i can't tell you the last time we watched TV as it was broadcasting.. she jsut has it set to record what ever she wants and goes for it.

      --
      '...if only "Jumping to a Conclusion" was an event in the Olympics.'
    5. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Informative

      1) My PC based DVR can record encrypted content. Tivo's edge here is gone now.

      What hardware/software do you use for this? Something new must have come out recently... As recently as a year ago I was unable to find a legal device that would allow me to record encrypted QAM from my cable connection. Even the devices that claimed to be able to do it, but were bundled with Windows media center couldn't actually get the job done as expected (could only decrypt when saving to DRM encumbered WMV).

      ...so I can put "extenders" in as many rooms as I like and they
      will all see the same content? That's certainly news to me. Any
      random PC in the house can be another "extender"? News to me.

      Yup. As long as the "random PC" is running Windows, MacOS, or Wine. I watch the shows that are on my TiVo from the road by connecting to my home network via VPN from my laptop.

      Any platform can access the data as a simple file? News to me.

      Now you're adding extra requirements. You have to use Tivo Desktop to view it. However, you can burn to DVD and re-rip... To me, and most people though, this is a non-issue. As long as the video plays, and the quality and speed are good, who cares? Now if you want to modify the TiVo, then you can get them as simple files... Even FTP them straight off the device... It's not very hard to do, but that defeats the purpose of having an off-the-shelf DVR. (I used to run a hacked TiVo before I switched to MythTV, before I switched back to straight TiVo)

    6. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Informative

      Buy yourself a Hauppauge 1212.

      Can't miss it. We're all gushing over it.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    7. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by Glsai · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I used to use Tivo till I got tired of paying the monthly fee and not being able to do HD. So I just invested in a TV tuner card, installed Vista on a decent PC I had and now I have all the functionality I had used before with my Tivo for free. Granted I have to use a mouse now instead of a remote, but it works just fine for me. I can still export all my video, edit out commercials and archive it, but now I can record HD over the air so I don't have to pay for cable television any more.

    8. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by ivan256 · · Score: 2, Informative

      "Extra requirements" is fine. It's just hard to discuss something with somebody if they're always moving the goalposts.

      It does what I said it does... not the extra stuff you added on. If it doesn't work for you, so be it. I have a feeling it *would* work for you though, 'cause there's a big difference between "any device I like" when the list is made up of what you'd actually use and "any device I like" when the list is made up of any device you can think of such that you can say "See! It sucks! It doesn't support [blah]".

    9. Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo by Chris+Pimlott · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ".....so that I can read the raw ATSC data as it streams-in over the antenna."

      Buy an HDHomeRun, that's exactly what it does. Signal comes in via coax, data comes out via ethernet.

  4. LiquidTV by Jherek+Carnelian · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does it come with Aeon Flux?

  5. Re:Hey America by ZeroNullVoid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My first thoughts exactly.

    MythTV has progressed into a beautiful solution over the years.

    I have both TIVO devices and MythTV and I personally like the MythTV solution better.

  6. Bout time by kellyb9 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Great - exactly what I've been looking for MythTV- except you have to pay for it.

    1. Re:Bout time by internerdj · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't worry this is the ... step that comes before profit. Or maybe thats the next step.

  7. If it's from Nero, it has to suck. by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nero is notorious for installing processes you don't want that run all the time. I bought the DVD writer program (the commercial product, not the free version) and, even though I turned off everything else, it installed an "indexing service" and a "backup service", which started up at boot time. I wouldn't trust a product from them. You don't know that it's doing.

    (By the way, what's a reliable Windows non-Vista product for writing DVDs of both data and video formats. I don't need "ripping", but want to transcode some of my old animation .avi files to DVD.)

    1. Re:If it's from Nero, it has to suck. by Bieeanda · · Score: 4, Interesting
      Nero has become almost as bad as Symantec. When I got a copy of Nero 7, I discovered that the lazy bastards hadn't even bothered to put help files on the disc-- click on 'help' and it gives you a URL to download the CHM files. It doesn't even provide an installer-- you have to download each one separately, and move the damn things manually. Meanwhile, there is no way to remove any of their cruft without removing the whole damn application suite.

      Christ, these people are as bad as Realmedia.

    2. Re:If it's from Nero, it has to suck. by pdragon04 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Try CDBurnerXP

      http://cdburnerxp.se/

      And it's free!

    3. Re:If it's from Nero, it has to suck. by rtechie · · Score: 2, Informative

      Imgburn is freeware and works well, but it doesn't do menus.

      If you want menus... I actually use Nero, mainly because I hate all the other applications I've found for this task, notably Ulead DVD Creator and Roxio Easy Media Creator.

  8. Who asked for this? by Control-Z · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I have a TivoHD and Series 2, which both work great. What's the advantage in running it on your own PC? Only thing I could think of is the Tivo software should be faster on a decent PC.

    But if I was going to go the PC route I would install something like MythTV that would give me complete flexibility. Tivo still has to work with the networks to ensure shows are handled the way the networs want.

    1. Re:Who asked for this? by rtechie · · Score: 3, Informative

      Among others:

      1) You can have up to 4 tuners in the PC.

      2) You can stream the video to different PCs on your network.

      3) More storage, and better use of storage. For example, you can archive the actual Tivo recordings and burn them to DVD. (and yes, you can get them out of the program and edit them as you see fit).

  9. In response to blatent advertisement for TIVO... by johnlcallaway · · Score: 4, Informative

    I bought a Hauppauge card, Snapstream's beyond TV, and a Firefly RF remote. I see they are running this for about $180 on Snapstream's site. I've been using a cheaper board for several months now and think it's great.

    No subscription charges, files are stored so anyone can view them or burn to DVD. It also includes compression and advertisement skipping, an hour of TV is about around 500 to 900MB. They also offer a $30 add-on so you can view from another computer on the network. I share the hard drive instead, but then the advertisement skipping feature can't be used, just standard fast forward.

    Snapstream isn't the most intuitive program out there, but you don't have to pay the monthly subscription charge for access to free information once the first 12 month subscription runs out.

    --
    I rarely read replies, it's my opinion and if you thought about your opinion a little more, I'm OK with that.
  10. People need to stop mentioning MythTV by SilentChris · · Score: 2, Insightful

    MythTV is great if you like to fiddle with your DVR hardware instead of actually WATCHING the television.

    For most people, this is a reasonable solution (alongside other reasonable solutions such as getting the DVR that comes from the cable/telephone company, getting a Windows Media Center box, etc). I would venture to say that a MythTV box takes a couple hours for the average user to set up (barring issues with incompatible hardware/software, which'll undoubtedly add more time). Let's say it takes 4 hours to build a reasonable MythTV box, install and configure it. $200 for this thing. $200/4 hours = $50/hour. For me personally, my time is worth way more per hour than that -- it makes more sense to go the prepackaged route.

    I'm not saying it's for everything, but the fact of the matter is most people don't want to mess with their TVs. The same way they don't want to mess with their cars, microwaves, blenders and -- yes -- computers. Most people just want to watch the damn TV.

    1. Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, if your time is worth more than $50/hour, based on a 40 hour work week you make at least $104,000 annually, so paying for something that can be done for free is worth it to you. For those of us not making six figures mythtv is a great option.

    2. Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV by MBGMorden · · Score: 4, Interesting

      MythTV is great if you like to fiddle with your DVR hardware instead of actually WATCHING the television.

      Don't know about you, but it didn't take much "fiddling" to get my system up and running. From start to finish I had my MythTV box running along in less than 3 hours (not counting the time to download the ISO for Mythbuntu, as I started that and let it run overnight). After that, it's become as much of an appliance as any other set top box I own.

      As you stated, a lot of people don't want to mess with their TV's - but honestly, this whole thing from Nero sounds like as much "messing" as you'd have to do with the MythTV setup anyways. For those who don't want to "mess with their TV's", which I accept is fine, an actual honest to goodness DVR is probably a much better choice.

      I mean, you have 3 choices:

      1. Build homebrew DVR with free high quality software.
      2. Build homebrew DVR with pay for unknown quality software.
      3. Buy DVR that "just works" out of the box.

      #1 is the obvious geek solution. #3 is for lazy geeks and non-geeks. #2? I just don't see much of a market for it. MAYBE OEM integration as it's something that HP or the like would probably love to bundle in with your computer and charge extra for, but other than that, not much retail market for it.

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
    3. Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV by kellyb9 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Are you kidding? It took an hour for me to set it up on Ubuntu. And I assure you, I'm not some DVR expert. Not to mention, it ran perfectly on absolute crap hardware.

    4. Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV by Dan667 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As another poster has noted, if you set it up and run it Mythtv just works. If you jack with your installation and install updates or new features, then you will be messing with it. (like you would anything that you constantly change)

      The difference between Mythtv and paying for a solution is just in the raw power of what you are able to do. My setup has multiple diskless computers at all the tv's in the house served from a central machine and everyone can watch a different recorded program at the same time without commercials (it just automagically skips them). And when away from home you can set programs with a web browser or even stream your music or recorded programs over the web. People have made all kinds of really great add ons to it.

      I love it, and could not go back to a barebones and probably DRM'ed PVR package. The Microsoft one stopped recording shows when a network set the broadcast flag recently. I will stick with Mythtv. YMMV.

    5. Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV by niiler · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, considering this is Slashdot, you might find that the audience here actually does find fiddling with their TVs to be more entertaining than actually watching. :-)

    6. Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV by jedidiah · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ...something else that should bring up in all of this
      nonsense about "how I can magically convert my free
      time into little gold coins" is the fact that all of
      the other PVR solutions offer far superior commercial
      skipping features.

              I don't have to worry about my 30-second skip button
      going away or trying to re-program it afterwards.

              My PVR skips those pesky commercials automagically.

              Nice convenience. Nice time saver.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  11. MPAA by arizwebfoot · · Score: 3, Funny

    The MPAA will go into severe overdrive.

    They won't know whether to poop or go blind,
    so they'll end up covering one eye and farting.

    --
    Oh well, Bad Karma and all . . .

    --
    Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
  12. TiVo interface is over kill for OTA only maybe if by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 2

    TiVo interface is over kill for OTA only maybe if this for a cable card based system but the cable had things setup there that likely will not happen any time soon.

  13. IR blasters are unreliable -- stay away! by wealthychef · · Score: 3, Informative

    I would love this kind of solution if IR blasters were 100% reliable. But they occasionally fail to change channels properly, resulting in missed shows. One year, I missed an important playoff game and that was the last time I used an IR blaster setup -- I changed TV providers to one that used integrated TiVo receivers.

    --
    Currently hooked on AMP
  14. Re:If it's from Nero, it has to phone home by denis-The-menace · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nero also phones home every time you launch it.

    --
    Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
  15. Why get one of these when the DVR is the same? by Otto · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't get this deal. A brand new TivoHD costs about $200 as well (okay, $300 retail, but you can find it for less. woot.com had them for $180 at one point).

    And that's a dual tuner box, 180 hours (30 HD hours), fast, easy, no maintenance, works over the internet, gets all of Tivo's features, everything. It does digital cable perfectly with a CableCard from the cable company (and all cable companies offer them now). It just works.

    So... what the heck is the point of this package, exactly? It's as expensive as the TivoHD box is, it does less than the box does, it makes you provide your own computer, and MythTV is probably better than it anyway.

    Has Nero finally gone completely insane?

    --
    - Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
  16. Re:how does it compare to appleTV? by Anita+Coney · · Score: 2, Informative

    "for sure is not as intuitive or legal as an appleTV"

    First, I highly doubt the DVR features on the AppleTV are intuitive at all mostly because they do not exist.

    Second, why would a DVR be illegal? Recording TV has been legal in the US since Universal v Sony was decided in 1984.

    --
    If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
  17. They are other ways to get HD capture by joe_cot · · Score: 4, Informative

    For people that might be considering this, because they have no other way to capture QAM encoded video, wait a couple months. The Hauppauge HD PVR records component video as x264, and MythTV is working on support for it. That'll be your analog hole to the bs surrounding QAM and HDCP, so don't settle for this proprietary afterthought.

  18. Re:Nero did it? by chromeshadow · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You're already repellent.

  19. Re:Hey America by mweather · · Score: 2, Informative

    The trick is buying the hardware after you decide on the software, not the other way around. That same way you wouldn't buy an UltraSparc machine, then choose Windows as the OS, you shouldn't buy a random capture card then choose your DVR software.

  20. oh, goodie by jipn4 · · Score: 2, Funny

    All the corporate overlord-ship and patent trolling of Tivo with all the reliability and efficiency of a Windows desktop! Thanks, but I think I'll pass.

  21. Re:Hey America by Yvan256 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Regular people don't want to buy new/used/old hardware to run free software. Either it works with the crap we have, or we complain/forget about it.

  22. Re:Hey America by Jorophose · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Regular people don't want to buy new/used/old hardware to run closed software. Either it works with the crap we have, or we complain/forget about it.