Amazon Is Reportedly Working On a TiVo-Like DVR For Live TV (bloomberg.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Bloomberg: Amazon is developing a new device that records live TV, working around cable providers and encroaching on TiVo's market, according to a person familiar with the plans. The device, dubbed "Frank" inside Amazon, is a new type of digital video recorder for the streaming era. It would include physical storage and connect to Amazon's existing Fire TV boxes, the living room hub for the company's online video efforts. The Frank DVR has the same wireless technology that Amazon's Echo speakers use to connect to Fire TV boxes. Users will be able to record live TV and stream the video to a smartphone so it can be watched later. That functionality is similar to offerings from TiVo and Dish's Slingbox. Amazon hasn't made a final decision on rolling out the streaming feature, the person said, noting that the plans could either be canceled or delayed.

Comments

Amazon can make credible threats (;-))

[davecb]

"If you don't sign us with us, you'll lose gazillions of dollars"

My local cable company encrypts and DRMs public domain programs, so you have to buy their PVR. Amazon PVRs provide them an "offer they can't refuse", much like the mafia does.

Re:Amazon can make credible threats (;-))

[Actually, I do RTFA]

My local cable company encrypts and DRMs public domain programs, so you have to buy their PVR

Under (US) Federal Law, they have to rent you a decryption device (CableCard) compatible with other DVRs. It's usually $5/mo. It's one area the US seems to actually protected consumers.

Hey Cox!

[Existential Wombat]

With my cable bill about to hit $200 for almost basic TV, Internet and phone (which I don’t need but if I remove makles the bill go up!) I am ready to listen to Amazon on this.

Someone needs to let Amazon know

[nehumanuscrede]

that there is nothing on live TV worth recording in the first place.

From the " What folks really fucking want " department:

Create a DVR that just removes commercials entirely from a recorded broadcast and you're on to something.
Actually, belay that . . . . .

Since that will get the lawyer types drooling over dreams of litigation, instead of removing the commercials completely,
the DVR time shifts all the commercials to the end of the recorded program. That way, they're still there if you want to
watch them, ( for you closet masochists out there ) and the advertising companies have nothing to bitch about since
their Ads haven't been removed.

Re:Someone needs to let Amazon know

[Layth]

talk about shooting yourself in the foot, this is a terrible idea.
tv lives because of ads and when people dont have any ads the tv content will stop being created.

Re:Someone needs to let Amazon know

[denis-The-menace]

TV is also dying b/c of ads. I think they are north of 33% now.

I heard years ago that France has something similar to this idea except ALL the ads are on Sunday. It was the highest rated viewing time, too. Dunno if it's still like this now.

Re:Someone needs to let Amazon know

[SuseLover]

Ummm, if ads support the programming, then why do I have to "pay extra" to watch it?

The original premise (promise) of cable TV was that you paid to NOT see commercials and to see feature movies and programs uninterrupted..

Re:Someone needs to let Amazon know

[Darinbob]

I do want a DVR that records streamed shows though. Download it late at night when the network is less cowded then watch it in prime time.

Re: Someone needs to let Amazon know

[Ken_g6]

Here you go.

Or they could just buy

[bobstreo]

Hauppauge, and fix their lame ass front-end software/vaporware that still blows. And Amazon could toss in a cloud back-end to minimize storage and playback overhead. Extra points if it supports amazon video and netflix.

Re:Or they could just buy

[Aero77]

or TiVo...

Re:Or they could just buy

[nwf]

I have a TiVo and I think it would be great if Amazon purchased them, because TiVo is pretty sad right now. Their boxes are slow, buggy and fail at playing video from streaming services fairly often. They reboot more often than Windows and their iOS app is pathetic.

Re:So like MythTV but with Amazon ads?

[dohzer]

Is there a way to run MythTV without needing the client-server thing? I have little interest in it, but my aging mother would.

Re:So like MythTV but with Amazon ads?

[Waffle Iron]

By default, MythTV runs a web server on localhost:6544. You can use any device with a browser to access its web interface.

The biggest problem is that out of the box, MythTV saves the videos in native digital TV default, which isn't very compatible with web browsers. In particular, you can't skip around in a show. Supposedly, you can set up MythTV to auto-transcode shows into a web-friendly format, which should fix that.

Since I use the web interface infrequently, I instead usually use it to just download the video files to my device, then use VLC to watch it locally.

Re:So like MythTV but with Amazon ads?

[Hamsterdan]

client and server can run on the same machine. For now I'm recording TV with a Media Center machine, but could do it with either MythTV or BeyondTV. The reason I chose MCE is for simplicity, and with a couple plugins can be used as a backend for any Kodi device

IR Blaster

[will_die]

Come on Amazon make sure it has an IR blaster and you will sell a lot from all the people still using a Tivo 2, the last model of Tivo that came with one.

Re:So like MythTV but with Amazon ads?

[furry_wookie]

I run mythtv backend on Linux VM, and use Kodi running on FireTV's to watch livetv, and recordings. Kodi has a really good MythTV frontend plugin available.