TiVo Basic

Keith Russell writes "TiVo has announced a new TiVo Basic service. ( Press release here, CNet story here) The Basic service only offers a 3-day program grid, and doesn't include title searches, season passes, or wish lists. There's no subscription fees for Basic, however, and it can be upgraded to a full-on Series 2 unit by the usual payment options ($12.95/mo. or $299 lifetime). The first product to include it is a Toshiba DVD player with an 80 GB hard drive and progressive-scan output of both DVD and Tivo content."

Marketing mantra

[djupedal]

...first one's free.

will have to be carful

[pres]

Tivo will have to be careful that this doesn't hurt them. By removing a lot of the power of Tivo people might try it out, hate it, and leave.
They will have to make it clear what the added features will give you. (Perhaps a 30 day free trial of the upgraded service?) I know that once I saw the good stuff I would not willingly switch back.

Re:Canada

[John Paul Jones]

Considering that TiVo hasn't advertised at all in three years, and seems to be living hand-to-mouth at the moment, the addition of another country might have to wait until there's a viable bottom line.

As a TiVo devotee for the past 1.5 years, though, I can only hope they make it... <crosses fingers>

Re:will have to be carful

[ryanvm]

Good point. I think they should make an extra effort to make sure that people understand the usefullness of "season passes".

Perhaps Tivo Basic should allow up to 3 season passes. Otherwise many people are likely to just think, "whoopee - it's a two-week version of TV Guide."

This is to compete with self made PVRs?

[mao che minh]

Is this a subtle move to compete with self made PVRs? Let me spin a theory: In addition to exposing potential customers to the benefit of a TiVo, TiVo will also offer "techies" TiVo features embedded in other devices (or a soon to be released cheap and limited TiVo's) in order to dissude them from avoiding the TiVo exposure all together by building their own PVRs.

In any case, this is a good idea, and great for the consumer. I already anticipate answering my fiance's mother's 5,000 questions about TiVo once she buys a DVD player with limited TiVo features in it. I also begrudingly look forward to configuring it for her - every other day - for a year.

Re:But can it play MP3s

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it can play mp3s off your PC, with the Home Media Option.

Re:I want a Tivo

[Anonymous Coward]

I can do without having that box on 24/7, sucking the will to think from me.

Get a Tivo, record what you want, watch it when you want, and oh by the way, STFU.

Re:Tivo sucks

[EverDense]

It isn't about watching more TV. Its about
watching the TV you WANT to watch.

Re:The Toshiba Box: RD-X2

[mgs1000]

Actually, with TyTool and now the very niceTyStudio, resourceful TiVo hackers have been extracting video and burning it on a DVDs for a while now. (DirecTivo users can even get DD 5.1 sound)

Re:Tivo sucks

[kongjie]

It's not only a little silly to offer a comment on something you have no interest in, it's also a waste of space.

And in the end you're not against Tivo; you're against television. As the preceding reply to your comment noted, Tivo has the opportunity to free up more "fresh air" time if your program viewing doesn't broaden after getting it.

And unless you're typing your comments on a laptop with wireless access, maybe you should get outside more often.

Re:The Toshiba Box: RD-X2

[evilviper]

Almost... I also want to be able to edit out the commercials before I burn it.

Add that one more feature, and I'll buy.

Re:Itsn't it a moot point?

[moosesocks]

Actually, I still see TiVo as a great solution to turn to for a software solution. Every person I've ever met (including myself) who has used both the Dish PVRs and the TiVo perferred the TiVo hands down.

The Dish PVRs are simply too un-intuitive. They should have licensed the Tivo software as DirecTV did.

Re:Strictly a bundled concept

[Anonymous Coward]

So you don't think the company has drastically reduced the hardware price in the last 4 years? Think about all the game consols (sp?), consolidation and volume always brings the price down.

Re:Itsn't it a moot point?

[sllim]

I have owned a Tivo for several years. 2 years ago instead of trying to convince my parents what was so special about Tivo I just simply bought them one for there 30 year wedding anniversery.

Niether of my Parents want to leave a Tivo-less existence now.

I have a close friend that just got the Dish network with built in PVR.

I checked it out.

Bleh. I mean it, bleh, bleh and bleh.
I don't like it at all. I won't tell her that though. It is not as user friendly, doesn't have the thumbs up and thumbs down buttons.

I think Tivo might be here to stay.

Tivo Basic sounds good to get the feet wet.

[yy1]

I have to admit I wasn't much interested in a box that i had to pay to keep using. Also when you bring it up to other people they don't much like that idea either.

I also thing this kinda thing would be good for people who already have one Tivo, but want another (for say family one, and a personal one) and only need the subscription features for one of them (also makes the idea of using the tivo-to-tivo features much more attractive).

This is all I really need, I know when the shows I want are on, I hate having to do the damn tape shuffle, specially 10 mins before a show and i'm like "What has space on it? Looking at tapes with labeles I have ripped off and replaced, crossed out and relabeled and I have given up on the "labeling" system. I'm on the "overwrite whatever is on this, if i haven't watched it then at least I'll never know what this was"

Or I just tape over something old, i refuse to spend another dollar on tapes just because I was hoping that there would be some way to use a tivo without HAVING to pay the monthly fee or more frankly, that they would get legislated out of business, just go bust, or get bought and terminated, this was one of my main concerns.

Here's the thing, I have only been taping stuff that is on simultaneously to something else I want to watch on my big 4 channels of HDTV. I was really hoping that tivo was going to support HDTV like it said previously, but my guess is that that will be a pretty long time off, and I could get this tivo basic to use in the meantime and I won't be chained to paying for it if/when I get the HTDV version.

Here's hoping one of these Tivo Basic's come around soon, I'd buy it in a minute, especially if you could still upgrade the HD yourself.

No Season Passes?

[Snowspinner]

Frankly, season passes are what makes TiVos cool. Without them, they're just sort of neat gadgets. With them they become tremendously badass devices that change the way you interact with television and media.

TiVo Basic will be a failure. If they even allowed perpetual timeslot based recording (i.e. grab all episodes of Buffy on Tuesdays at 8:00), but didn't let me get things that air at multiple times on different days (i.e. grab all episodes of Good Eats that ever crop up on the Food Network), it would be a worthwhile service that would hook me, but ultimately make me want to upgrade.

But this is just too gimped to even convince people that the service is worthwhile, I think.

Re:MythTV...

[Dachannien]

You forgot one very important detail, and that's the fact that with MythTV, you are actually in control of the device recording TV shows for you.

Currently, for example, I have some John Howe [ifrance.com] as the menu background on my MythTV box. But that's minor compared to the fact that my box doesn't record programs that advertisers think I want to see.

Re:Season Pass anomolies

[Zathrus]

I know a title wishlist would have grabbed both of these, but it'd be nice if a season pass would follow channels

God no. I'd hate to have to filter out the bazillion Simpsons episodes being syndicated if I just want to record what's on Fox. Or Friends or any other popular show that's in syndication.

If you know a Wishlist would do it, then why don't you set one up and do it the right way?

Oddly, I have a Season Pass for Saturday Night Live and the local affialiate runs full-length re-reuns

Uh, because it's the same show on the same channel? If you don't want reruns, then set the SP for "First Run Only". If it's still picking up reruns then you'll have to email TiVo about it, who will contact Tribune, who will contact the station. Odds are, however, that the station won't do anything to fix their guide data -- which is what the root problem is (if and only if you've already got the SP set FRO).

Re:A good idea

[HotSIag]

My friends are always impressed when I show them the power of TiVo, but inevitably they flinch at the $12/mo subscription. Why would I pay for TV guide data, they ask. At which point I ask how much they pay for TV data(cable) in the first place. If you already pay $40/mo just to watch cable, why not pay 25% more for a clearly superior way of viewing it. For as many times as I see them sitting in front of the TV 'wasting' time surfing because nothing is on, the $12 makes the $40 worth so much more.