Sony Investing in TiVo

ZDNet reports that Sony will be investing in TiVo, who makes what is becoming commonly referred to as a digital VCR. What makes this doubly cool and exciting is the fact that the TiVo runs Linux (embedded PPC chip). Maybe this is the mutation of the "convergence" devices we were supposed to all be using by now, especially if the TiVo becomes extended in to something capable of surfing the web (it has a modem in it...)

Comments

Distributed Convergence

[_Sprocket_]

The "convergence" comment has kicked up quite a bit of dust. Detractors have called forth examples of WebTV, web browsing appliances, and running Gimp on your VCR - sheer sillyness. And I agree. The "all-in-one" ideas pushed out into consumer space the last few years seem to miss the point. But I would suggest that this is not a problem with the idea of convergence, but the implementation. Convergence shouldn't be the device; it should be a sum of devices - a network.

I feel that the idea of convergence is a good one. Convert everything to data and make that data available to everything else.

That doesn't mean opening spreadsheets and cruising the web on my refrigerator. But it might mean downloading an inventory from my fridge to my desktop, making a shoping list, then taking that shoping list to the store on my PDA (or sending it to an online grocer if you so desire).

I might be wondering what's on TV and can connect to my TV device to see what's on. Maybe there's a show I want to catch (seeing a link on a web site or having a friend send me it via IRC, email, or an instant messanger); I can program my VCR to record it... remotely, with little effort.

I'm sitting down relaxing in front of the TV. A chime rings that I've got email. I log into my desktop from my thinclient message pad. A friend has sent me email with a link to a show I would be interested in. Tapping on the link sends it to my TV device which tunes in. I like the show. I log into the TV device and tell it to save the data instead of dumping it at the end of the show. I'll send the show to my desktop and burn it to DVD after its is done.

The possiblities are endless. But the implementation relys on specialized devices networked via standardized protocols. Those protocols could be ones we already have used in creative ways, or new protocols developed to handle specialized tasks. I would favor creative use of existing protocols.

Like SUN likes to say, "The computer is the network". The architecture to make this all possible is already showing up. The marketplace is beginning to see the advantage to a home network as more workers are exposed to the technology at work. This used to mean stringing CAT5 cable through the house. Now, it means technologies such as Apple's AirPort.

The pieces are coming togeather. Now all we need are the smart VCRs instead of the WebTVs.

Macrovision

[Jamie Zawinski]

if I understand Macrovision correctly, it is basically a non-chaotic bit o' noise added to the NTSC signal).

Macrovision works by periodically flipping the signal in the vertical blanking region from black to white. It flips it every few seconds (somewhere in the range of 5-30 seconds, it seems) and does it randomly. The reason this works is that almost all VCRs manufactured after 1986 or so do some manner of auto-gain-control, by assuming that the blanking region is the reference black level. So when it goes white, the intensity of the recorded picture goes all wonky.

Most televisions don't do this gain-control trick, which is why this works: it will mess up VCRs but not CRTs. Of course, it also messes up any TV that behaves more like a VCR than a CRT, such as LCD projectors.

You can get a device that defeats Macrovision for about $40 from the back of any video magazine. The way they work is by taking the input video signal and painting a black stripe over the blanking interval. As far as I've seen, this causes no loss of picture quality.

There is a Macrovision FAQ, including schematics on how to build your own filter.

Tivo is a Good Idea

[drig]

The whole "set-top box" idea always seemed a little silly to me, until I saw the Tivo. What exactly is the purpose of a low-power computer? The hype is that they'll be easier to use, but I don't see that as a real incentive. As we can see from WebTV, it is hard to keep these boxes up to date, lacking Java and all the latest gadgets and plugins. Underpowered eventually means under-useful.

But, the Tivo adds something useful. It's not an underpowered computer. It's a really nice VCR with a few computer-like capabilities (web browsing, for instance). The fact that it may not have all the neato-gadgets doesn't hurt it because it's not a computer.

Now, I'm not a fan of television, so I won't buy something to make watching TV better. But, every TV viewer I know drools over the Tivo. If they add email and web browsing, all the better, but it's not necessary.

Sony got a good product. Tivo had a great idea. Hopefully, they'll contribute the new hard drive drivers back to the community.

They've done a good job with privacy

[konstant]

Here's their statement on privacy:
http://www.tivo.com/care/privacy.html

As I understand the pitch, TiVo is entirely client-side unless you "give your consent". (Troubling question: how is this determined? Opt-out? Fine print bundled with some 'incentive'?) But assuming they keep that part above board, they really appear to understand the privacy concerns of savvy consumers. The best way to reassure me that my private habits won't be monitored is to store that information in my home where it is inaccessible to corporate tentacles.

I am concerned, though, that they'll seduce you into giving consent unwittingly one way or another. Lots of online companies already do this. With all the people who have access to your profile these days, it's tough to finger any one corporate entity as the one that's reneging on privacy aggreements. Something to be wary of while you're using your cool new TiVo :)

They ought to do well if they maintain this sort of respect for the citizen. I can just imagine how this could turn TV on its head. The networks and even cable have based their entire model on the premise that they can sell advertising all day long. But with the introduction of this sort of device, a consumer can watch TV at any time of the day and still only watch the handful of shows that really are worth watching. Result: advertising can really only be sold for quality shows, since nobody will be watching the crap that's on at 2:30am or 1 in the afternoon any longer.

-konstant

Tivo/RePlay not *really* digital - and won't be.

[dublin]

OK, let's draw the important distinction here about what's digital and what's not:

Everyone is running around calling these things "digital" [VCRs|video recorders|somesuch], but although they *do* store digitally, their inputs and outputs are analog only. They still cannot take a direct digital MPEG stream (from your digital settop, digital satellite dish reciever, or anything else) and store that. What they do is take an *analog* signal (which may have been digital only inches ago), and run it through the MPEG veg-o-matic again to stuff that on a hard disk.

The reason they aren't truly digital is simple: The studios/networks will try very hard to never let this happen. This is the same reason that although IEEE 1394 should by all logic be the connection for video streams between tuners/settops and displays or storage devices such as these, it never will be, and may die on the vine as a result. They're not going to let *anyone* grab an unencrypted MPEG stream. Ever.

Even in the analog realm, the studio types are already worried: Boxes like this are currently under fire because they do not regenerate the Macrovision sync-hosing pulses when playing back content that was originally Macrovision encoded, meaning it's too easy to record the analog output of a Tivo on a regular VCR. (If you're looking for a good way to completely remove Macrovision pulses, this is it, for the time being...)

If Sony's involved here, it's more likely to be to protect its content "rights" than to promote the technology.

On the other hand, this idea makes too much sense to die - even if the studios succeed in killing off these devices (likely, I'd say), there isn't much short of legislation outlawing high-quality MPEG encoders and/or PC frame grabbers (and this *is* a possibility, given their clout) to stop people from rolling their own. (What we really need is a good PCI "digital settop card", but the FCC won't get off the dime and standardize on subscriber authentication, so dream on. Even so, it wouldn't be able to deal with encrypted streams, which will be just about everything very soon.)

I predict 1TB disks will be common in the next couple of years to give people someplace to put all their multimedia content. (How many of us already have big drives stuffed with MP3s? You'll have your camcorder content and video library on there next. And don't ask me how you recover from a hard disk crash of that magnitude! RAID/SAN solutions may be the cheapest backups in the long run.)

And if you thought the RIAA was fighting MP3, you ain't seen nothing yet!