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Nero Unveils LiquidTV, TiVo For Your Computer
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Mon Sep 29, 2008 12:47 PM
from the easier-to-take-your-tv-with-you dept.
from the easier-to-take-your-tv-with-you dept.
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.
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Netflix Comes To Tivo, AppleTV, Linux 190 comments
An anonymous reader writes "Netflix on Tivo is officially out and leaving satellite users out in the cold. Tivo announced today that if you are a subscriber to both services then you can start receiving many Netflix titles on your Tivo for no extra charge. This is only available to subscribers with TiVo HD, TiVo HD XL and TiVo Series3 DVRs. The majority of Tivo's subscribers are probably Series 2 owners and will be forced to 'upgrade' if they want this new service but it won't be that easy for those on satellite. Tivo's current model lineup does not really offer a solution for satellite subscribers. The HD and HD XL are cable only and there is no sign of the Series 3 on their site." Another reader also writes to tell us that "Linux PC and AppleTV users are about to gain the ability to stream Netflix's movies and TV shows directly to their systems. Although Netflix's instant watch service only officially supports Windows and Mac, Boxee expects to release Netflix streaming support to the Ubuntu version of its free A/V media center software within a couple of days, and says that adding Netflix streaming support to AppleTV asap is its top priority."
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Feature request (Score:4, Interesting)
Make a European version! I'm tired of EyeTV's lack of intelligence.
Geeks do this w/o TiVo (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo (Score:5, 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?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, 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"
Re: (Score:3, 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).
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
Re: (Score:3, 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
Re:Geeks do this w/o TiVo (Score:4, Informative)
Buy yourself a Hauppauge 1212.
Can't miss it. We're all gushing over it.
Parent
Re: (Score:2)
I have a Panasonic DVR I bought refurbished off ebay. It includes lifetime service that is constantly providing guide data without me ever having to pay a dime. Sweet. It was my first DVR and I'm still extremely happy with its performance.
>>>You can cut that in half if you already have a compatible TV tuner.
Okay. Question:
How difficult would it be to modify one of those $60 ATSC-over-the-air tuners? I'd like to make it dump the raw data directly to a PC (perhaps over a serial port), so that I
Re: (Score:2)
Correction:
".....so that I can read the raw ATSC data as it streams-in over the antenna."
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
".....so that I can read the raw ATSC data as it streams-in over the antenna."
Buy an HDHomeRun [wikipedia.org], that's exactly what it does. Signal comes in via coax, data comes out via ethernet.
Re: (Score:2)
I'd like to make it dump the raw data directly to a PC (perhaps over a serial port), so that I can read the raw MPEG2 data as it streams-in over the antenna.
There are very few serial ports in PCs that can handle the 19.2Mbps that ATSC transmists.
Unless you have seen one that can be set to 19200000,N,8,1, I think you'll have to look some other way. As long as this software doesn't use a very limited list of esoteric tuners in the "supported" list, you should be able to pick one up for $50 or so, with a dual-tuner model well south of $150.
Re: (Score:2)
>>>There are very few serial ports in PCs that can handle the 19.2Mbps
The Universal Serial Bus 2.0 can handle that. ;-)
Re: (Score:3, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
I just cancelled my Tivo service. (Or non-renewal as the case may be). My original subscription had expired, and they sent in the notice to re-activate my Tivo. I took a look at the options, and decided that since I now had an HDTV, my series2 Tivo might only get 4-6 months of use.
The month to month billing seemed like the valid option, except I noticed that Tivo was requiring a 1 year commitment with an early termination fee. There is no way that I'm signing up to a contract with a company that requir
Re: (Score:2)
Who exactly is the target market for this?
Re: (Score:2)
The subscription is $100/year. The $200 price listed in the article is basically $100 for the year subscription + $100 for the hardware. You're going to need to buy a TV tuner and a remote control to get the most out of MythTV, so really you're comparing $100/year for the Tivo service to $20/year for MythTV (what it costs to use Schedules Direct for a year) - so really the price difference is only $80/year.
MythTV does have some features that a regular Tivo lacks - being able to run game emulators, easily
Re: (Score:2)
LiquidTV (Score:5, Funny)
Does it come with Aeon Flux?
Bout time (Score:5, Informative)
If it's from Nero, it has to suck. (Score:5, 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.)
Re:If it's from Nero, it has to suck. (Score:5, Interesting)
Christ, these people are as bad as Realmedia.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
http://cdburnerxp.se/ [cdburnerxp.se]
And it's free!
Re: (Score:3, 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.
Re:If it's from Nero, it has to phone home (Score:5, Informative)
Nero also phones home every time you launch it.
Parent
Who asked for this? (Score:5, 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.
Re: (Score:2)
Assuming you've got a networked client-server PVR system,
running the software on your PC can be pretty handy. This
is a killer feature of all of the other PC based PVRs. You
can use the same exact interface on your desktop to control
your PVR or view it's content.
More Tuners (Score:2)
Re:Who asked for this? (Score:4, 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).
Parent
In response to blatent advertisement for TIVO... (Score:5, Informative)
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.
People need to stop mentioning MythTV (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
Re: (Score:2)
You are replacing your MythTV box every year are you? Perhaps that's the problem.
Re: (Score:2)
And, as far as I can tell, if you don't have digital TV.
My cable TV is digital cable, and my TV would be incapable of accessing all of my channels. To the best of my knowledge, most of these tuner cards work if you've got old fashioned analog cable.
In my case, it's far less hassle (and far more convenient) to buy/rent my PVR from my cable company. I'm not convinced that building my own would cover all
Re: (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.
Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV (Score:5, 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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:People need to stop mentioning MythTV (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
MPAA (Score:3, Funny)
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 . . .
TiVo interface is over kill for OTA only maybe if (Score:3)
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.
IR blasters are unreliable -- stay away! (Score:4, Informative)
Why get one of these when the DVR is the same? (Score:4, 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?
They are other ways to get HD capture (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Hey America (Score:4, Funny)
Why not buy it instead of make it yourself instead of buying it.
What?
Parent
Re:Hey America (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:3, 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.
Re: (Score:3, 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.
Re: (Score:3, 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.