If ISPs use QoS to give preferential treatment to their on VoIP services, they can only do so within their own network, as mentioned in the article. If best effort carriage under such conditions results in degrading all other VoIP traffic, then the whole scheme seems doomed to failure.
The special, high-quality calls promised you by ISPs engaging in this practice would revert to standard best effort calls the moment you reach out to touch someone who is using a different ISP. This scheme only supports high quality on something analogous to a local phone call./jab
While that may be a motivation for Philips and Sony, TiVo has no such incentive. They don't care whether you replace your unit with another one or not. All they care about is whether you maintain your subscription.
I imagine that the primary reason it is hard to add a drive is that they simply didn't spend any time making it easy since it isn't supposed to be user-upgradeable. The exposed power supply in the unit would raise interesting legal liabilities if there were an officially sanctioned means to allow end-user upgrades./jab
Moderator - TiVo Community Forum Help Center at http://www.tivocommunity.com
The download format of TiVo's guide data download is not open. It is proprietary. If someone were to crack this and start offering a competing server for TiVo's existing clients, TiVo would surely respond with increased security; subscription revenue is the only way they get a return on writing the client software.
In the US, programs usually start on time, although there are notable exceptions. Version 2.0 of the TiVo software will allow you to specify an automatic pre and post padding to recordings of programs, i.e. always start recording X-Files one minute early and end one minute late.
The networks don't give TiVo any information about advertisements, but TiVo really doesn't need this information. It records the ads and then allows you to fast-forward through them at up to 60x. When you exit FF, it does an automatic skip-back to compensate for your reaction time, usually leaving you within a few seconds of where you wanted to be.
Stripping ads automatically poses two problems. (1) Ad stripping isn't 100% accurate, so you'd likely miss some of your program; (2) the networks would sue them.
/jab
Moderator - TiVo Community Help Center at http://www.tivocommunity.com
Well, obviously your TiVo shouldn't crash, but the only way it would delete your specifically requested shows to make room for Archie Bunker & The Jeffersons is if you had told it to record those shows...
OTOH, your comments about giving those shows thumbs-downs imply that TiVo is recording Archie Bunker & The Jeffersons on its own as TiVo Suggestions. If so, TiVo Suggestions never delete things you specifically asked TiVo to record, in which case your TiVo wouldn't delete "all the good stuff".
Basically, I find your two comments hard to reconcile. They may be funny, but they paint an inaccurate and negative picture of how a TiVo actually works.
My TiVos are always full. I've left things on them for six months. My TiVos don't crash. If yours crashes regularly, something is wrong. Feel free to stop by http://www.tivocommunity.com for help. I help moderate the Help Center over there./jab
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If ISPs use QoS to give preferential treatment to their on VoIP services, they can only do so within their own network, as mentioned in the article. If best effort carriage under such conditions results in degrading all other VoIP traffic, then the whole scheme seems doomed to failure.
/jab
The special, high-quality calls promised you by ISPs engaging in this practice would revert to standard best effort calls the moment you reach out to touch someone who is using a different ISP. This scheme only supports high quality on something analogous to a local phone call.
That is false. TiVo makes no money on hardware sales. That would be Philips and Sony.
/jab
While that may be a motivation for Philips and Sony, TiVo has no such incentive. They don't care whether you replace your unit with another one or not. All they care about is whether you maintain your subscription. I imagine that the primary reason it is hard to add a drive is that they simply didn't spend any time making it easy since it isn't supposed to be user-upgradeable. The exposed power supply in the unit would raise interesting legal liabilities if there were an officially sanctioned means to allow end-user upgrades. /jab
Moderator - TiVo Community Forum Help Center at http://www.tivocommunity.com
The download format of TiVo's guide data download is not open. It is proprietary. If someone were to crack this and start offering a competing server for TiVo's existing clients, TiVo would surely respond with increased security; subscription revenue is the only way they get a return on writing the client software.
In the US, programs usually start on time, although there are notable exceptions. Version 2.0 of the TiVo software will allow you to specify an automatic pre and post padding to recordings of programs, i.e. always start recording X-Files one minute early and end one minute late.
The networks don't give TiVo any information about advertisements, but TiVo really doesn't need this information. It records the ads and then allows you to fast-forward through them at up to 60x. When you exit FF, it does an automatic skip-back to compensate for your reaction time, usually leaving you within a few seconds of where you wanted to be.
Stripping ads automatically poses two problems. (1) Ad stripping isn't 100% accurate, so you'd likely miss some of your program; (2) the networks would sue them.
/jab
Moderator - TiVo Community Help Center at http://www.tivocommunity.com
Well, obviously your TiVo shouldn't crash, but the only way it would delete your specifically requested shows to make room for Archie Bunker & The Jeffersons is if you had told it to record those shows... OTOH, your comments about giving those shows thumbs-downs imply that TiVo is recording Archie Bunker & The Jeffersons on its own as TiVo Suggestions. If so, TiVo Suggestions never delete things you specifically asked TiVo to record, in which case your TiVo wouldn't delete "all the good stuff". Basically, I find your two comments hard to reconcile. They may be funny, but they paint an inaccurate and negative picture of how a TiVo actually works. My TiVos are always full. I've left things on them for six months. My TiVos don't crash. If yours crashes regularly, something is wrong. Feel free to stop by http://www.tivocommunity.com for help. I help moderate the Help Center over there. /jab