ReplayTV DVR to Remove Features 418
KarlTheGhoul writes "D&M Holdings Inc. on Tuesday said its new ReplayTV digital television recorder will not include controversial features such as automatically skipping commercials and sharing shows via the Internet." This is a confirmation of our earlier story. Their new ad slogan will be "Costs More, Less Useful".
Even less features. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Even less features. (Score:2, Interesting)
Just wait (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Just wait (Score:5, Insightful)
The reason that peope have largely lashed back at Big Music is because there is a clear alternative which applies not just to consumers' sense of moral wrongitude, but their pocketbooks: Kazaa, Gnutella, or what-have-you. Until people see the alternative that they aren't supposed to know about, just the abstracted idea of not being able to do something that the technology does allow isn't going to catch the public's attention much.
Look at how people seem to feel about Big Music. Reading that ABC News article about the RIT student who settled with the RIAA by paying them $12,000, I was truly surprised at how openly critical of the RIAA the article seemed to be, at least, for another member of Big Media, so to speak. It's not that there's a whole open political movement, but rather that so many people, including, most likely, the ABC News correspondent, simply share music files and the RIAA has made anyone who shares files their enemy, quite publicly. They made the consumers the enemy, not the other way around.
So why will there be no immediate lash back at Big Media for restricting things like the TiVo? Because whats the illegal alternative? What free software are people going to download onto their box-top sets out of self-interest which will essentially make them unwitting enemies of Big Media? There is none; short of complicated and risky hardware-hacking, people won't be exposed to what they are missing.
If one TiVo-type product is available in the store with ad-skipping, and the other without, sure, there'll be a preference. But if people are never presented with the option? Then there will be no complaints. Just don't let them see what they're missing and no one is the wiser.
Re:Just wait (Score:3, Insightful)
Nope.
There was, it was called ReplayTV. And, people still preferred TiVo. I can't explain it, but there you have it.
Re:Just wait (Score:4, Insightful)
Look what happened with mp3's. When the technology was to the point where everyone could use it, then everyone did.
Video is bigger and more difficult to do.
Still, I would suppose it is just a matter of time before anyone can get a fairly standard PC with fairly standard hardware, download a "live" bootable Linux CD with the necessary beautiful user interface, and have an instant PVR. This would save video to their existing FAT32 or NTFS partition. Then you remove the CD, reboot, and joe consumer is back in his precious Windows environment.
This scenerio seems most likely to me. It must be simple before joe average can do it. Just because super computer geek can do it doesn't mean much except that it makes a good conversation piece for joe consumer who is a friend of super computer geek. To get joe consumer to do this, it must be as easy as downloading a CD, and not messing with their sacred Windows installation.
This also has nice side effects....
- Raises awareness of Linux. (Hey, this Linux stuff is pretty cool! It lets me record my TV programs using standard hardware. Nice friendly interface too.)
- Gives consumers the PVR tool that they want, which ReplyTV and SonicBlue can't sell, and Tivo won't sell.
- Might compete on some level with Windows media pc's.
If it were this easy, average consumers would do it. It would be just like the whole mp3 vs. RIAA thing all over again.Re:Just wait (Score:2)
Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:5, Insightful)
If Replay drops these features in the 5500 series, it will just create a very hot secondary/used market for the older 5000 models that still have Commercial Advance & Send Show features.
So in my opinion, there's the possibility that they not only remove these features from new units, but also retroactively from the older 4000 and 5000 series also. Potentially very bad news for people who have shelled out $250 for a lifetime subscription recently...
Re:Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:2)
This is shown by the used Series 1 TiVos that are still being sold at incredible prices, because they have much more capabilities to hack the software than the Series 2 boxes.
Re:Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:5, Informative)
I'm a TiVo advocate, but honestly, I wouldn't say they're doing "extremely well". They're yet to turn a profit, although the quarterly losses are dropping at a nice rate and their subscriber base continues to increase.
That said, TiVo does have these features... kind of. There's a secret code to turn 30-second skip on (Stop Play Stop 3 0 on the main TiVo menu IIRC). It's not quite as extensive as the newer automatic commercial Skip Replay gave you, but it's the same as their skip button on the remote.
As for show sharing, with HMO (yes, an additional cost) you can share between any TiVos that are on the same TiVo account and subnet. It's considerably more restrictive than Replay's offering, but it's also going to keep TiVo from being sued into bankruptcy. Twice. And it works quite well for what it is -- my wife and I use it all the time between our TiVos and it's great. Most of the TiVo users in the know are still hoping for collaborative scheduling between TiVos, but that's a ways off.
The issue for D&M is, what are they going to offer instead? Their pricing isn't cheaper (you can now get a brand new 80 hour TiVo for $299, or a refurb for $249), they don't have as many features (especially if you get HMO for an additional $99 or $49), and their software is buggier. I guess we'll see.
Re:Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:3, Informative)
Better yet, with older (Series 1) TiVos, you can rip the video and do whatever you want with it...send it to someone over the Internet (as the original MPEG-2 or as something more space-efficient like XviD), burn it to SVCD [alfter.us] or DVD, etc. The s [sourceforge.net]
Re:Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:3, Informative)
There's a secret code to turn 30-second skip on (Stop Play Stop 3 0 on the main TiVo menu IIRC).
Actually it's Select-Play-Select-3-0-Select. I've only ever tried it while something is playing, I doubt it works from the Main Menu.
Secret code (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Failure ahead for Replay... (Score:3, Informative)
No it doesn't. Commercial Advance is a feature where commercials are skipped automatically without you even pressing a button on the remote. Nothing like that on a Tivo. ReplayTV also has a 30-second skip button on the remote (you don't have to remember some arcane code each time you reset/unplug your ReplayTV, and you don't lose the functionality of one button on your remote to reprogram it to be a 30-sec
Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:4, Informative)
That said, I'm not at all positive. ReplayTV has in the past removed features via firmware updates (which are forced on the user without their notice), so they could do a firmware-update that removes these features. Of course, at that point, it sounds like there'll be hacks out rather quickly.
As for suing, you'd have to be careful: the advertising materials likely make no claim that these features will exist through the lifetime of the product. If the features were there when you bought it, and you ran the hardware (including the end user agreement, which includes the statement that ReplayTV can update your hardware on their own), its not contradictory.
Re:Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:2)
Re:Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:2)
Re:Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:3, Informative)
" At its discretion, ReplayTV may automatically add, modify, or disable any feature or functionality of the ReplayTV Service or on the ReplayTV unit (when your unit connects to our server or at other times with or without notice)."
Re:Grounds for a lawsuit... (Score:5, Insightful)
In related news: (Score:5, Informative)
MythTV v.0.9 was released yesterday [mythtv.org]
Works great on the 500mhz system I found in the trash a couple of months ago.
Freevo [sourceforge.net] also works quite nicely.
Ryan Fenton
Re:In related news: (Score:2)
Re:In related news: (Score:2)
The only problem I'm having so far is trying to convert MythTV's video files (.nuv)
Re:In related news: (Score:2)
Re:In related news: (Score:5, Informative)
And, while I'm at it, I've got a script that'll chop out commercials, and make a divx for you, at this site [icelus.org]. I'm going to be doing an update, because not all mythtv nuppelvideo files can be encoded directly by mythtv, but that is now fixable.
Re:Wow, thanks - mod patent up! (Score:4, Funny)
Can MythTV or Freevo change channels? (Score:2)
If the can do this, it sure is hidden from the documentation.
Re:Can MythTV or Freevo change channels? (Score:2)
Re:Can MythTV or Freevo change channels? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, both use Lirc [lirc.org] to let you use a remote control to control many things. It's indirect, but effective. It's a sizeable portion of the FAQ & Documentation in MythTV at least. You'll need some kind of infrared detector on your system. You can either get an independant IR card, or many Hauppauge TV models have it included.
Ryan Fenton
Slogan (Score:5, Insightful)
Those features got them sued into oblivion. They'll get anyone sued into oblivion frankly, because the media companies won't abide it, and you're going to have a hard time convincing a judge that it's not a copyright violation to share shows.
Removing the commercial skip bit is lame, since there are VCRs that do this already and they've never been attacked. But D&M is obviously hoping to get friendlier with the media companies, and this is another thing they hate.
That said, as best I can tell they just removed the two features that made Replay preferable to TiVo... and the rest of their software is inferior. So I don't quite get where they hope to position the brand at.
Re:Slogan (Score:5, Insightful)
Because in most cases it is, perhaps?
I am an avowed enemy of the copyright cartel because of their heavy-handed tactics and their meddling with public policy and the tech industry. Nonetheless, if it weren't for people infringing their coprights, they wouldn't be wasting their time and money in these pursuits.
Every time I think about the fact that I don't have a legal DVD player for Linux or can't play my last (as in "most recent" as well as "final") major label CD purchase on my notebook computer, I want to pitch an entertainment industry copyright lawyer in the east river weighed down with the corpse of a "sharer"...
Re:Slogan (Score:4, Insightful)
Heck, I have an 8000+ MP3 collection. And every single one of them is ripped and encoded off of a CD I own. Admittedly, I'm soon going to be adding some stuff downloaded from the Internet. From the band's site, for free, with their permission.
Replay's show sharing feature was allegedly for sharing between Replay boxes only. Except that they didn't protect it at all and made the protocol trivial to spoof. It's called due diligence, and both of Replay's former owners failed at it. D&M looks like they're going to try harder (or, rather, avoid the issue entirely).
Re:Slogan (Score:2)
Under what motivation though? The media companies are not the ones buying the product, consumers are. Unless they are looking to catch a distribution deal with a cable company this does not make sense. The only other thing I can think of is they were offered some type of cross promotion deal or advertising space, in that case I do not think they would get as much a benefit for the required sacrifice as any DVR awareness campaign
Re:Slogan (Score:2)
As for "required sacrifice" -- uh... it's not getting them much right now. The number of Replay accounts is really very, very low. They've been a failure in the marketplace. If you ask most people what a DVR/PVR is, they
Re:Slogan (Score:2)
While it's true that there are VCRs with the features, the fact is that the VCRs do it by doing a scan fast-forward through the commercials. It's been demonstrated in studies that people seeing commercials as they're fast-forwarding are affected by them just as much as if they saw them at normal speed. With the ReplayTV version, the advance happens all but instantaneously, so people aren't
Hacking potential? (Score:5, Interesting)
http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/
Or maybe... (Score:2)
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
MythTV, anyone? (Score:5, Informative)
In a year or two, possibly sooner, one could expect a CDROM-based distribution of Linux that makes a dedicated MythTV box out of any PC with capture and video-out.
Re:MythTV, anyone? (Score:3, Interesting)
Lemme get this straight (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, Tivo's got the awesome Home Media Option out that lets you play MP3's on your Tivo, which Replay never had.
So now, best case scenario, they offer less features as Tivo at the same price? Or maybe a little lower?
What's the business model here again?
Re:Lemme get this straight (Score:2)
Optional.
To activate it on the Tivo, you need to pay an extra $99 [tivo.com]. So what's this about comparing prices?
No Distinction (Score:2, Insightful)
But the advertisers... (Score:5, Insightful)
~Berj
Re:But the advertisers... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:But the advertisers... (Score:5, Insightful)
Rather, critics are bothered by the impact that a totally seperate industry can have on what sort of consumer electronics are even available to us with what capabilities. Were the TV networks to dislike this, they could force contractual agreements with consumers banning the use of these devices (purely hypothetically, of course). But instead they choose a less direct means of asserting their power, which translates to a means of, from a really sinister viewpoint, pacifying the natives.
Rather than openly tell us who's decision it was, the networks use threats and bribes to induce the hardware manufacturers into denying consumers an otherwise profitable and desirable product. This echos far too similarly to the practice of the RIAA of suing the pants off anyone who manufactures software or hardware that appears to threaten them ("Hey, baby, you don't need to sue me to get my pants off...") regardless of significant legitimate use.
This direction-through-indirection is merely annoying at best, but really a terrifying over-stepping of commercial bounds at worst. The government, who supposedly represents us all, is entrusted with the rights to deny us harmful or dangerous products. We trust that such an action is in our best interest, and that the reasons for such an action are the reasons stated up front--no underhanded manipulation is ever acceptible in a democracy--but we have given no such trust to any corporation. When a corporation who's business is televised entertainment, no less, makes for us a decision on what hardware is good and what is bad, it oversteps its commercial bounds.
Re:But the advertisers... (Score:4, Interesting)
The networks are just trying to preserve the status quo at all costs. They are welcome to try, but they shouldn't have any help from Congress or the courts.
VCR? (Score:5, Funny)
So for the last 17 years, I didn't watch TV until someone told me this year, hey, TV never died, it was there all along. I was really happy, and I watched some really great shows like Jackass, but now you fuckers are telling me this TiVo shit is going to kill TV again! Fuck!
Well, I'm not waiting around for the end. I'm giving up TV. I just think it's shitty that people are always talking about some box killing broadcast TV. I'm gonna break all those fucking boxes.
Re:But the advertisers... (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, let's see. Back when TV started, there was about 1 commercial per show. Now, 3/4 of the show is just dozens of commercials. Gee, sounds like ads have been becomming worth less and less money for a long time now.
If you want someone to blame it on, look at the networks, and the makers of the commercials themselves. I'm not about to watch commercials for 10 minutes straight, I'm not going to watch for
Re:But the advertisers... (Score:5, Interesting)
As an aside, I was told by a former jingles writer for the J. Walter Thompson Agency that he once conferred with representatives for a major brewing company here in the US. The reps told him they were targeting what they termed the "reparative drinker", i.e., the 30% of American drinkers who consume 60% of their product. These are the people who don't have a babe girlfriend, a fast cool car, or any talent for sports. But the advertisers know that their job is to convince those people that if they just drink their beer then at least they'll FEEL like they got the babe, the car, and the talent. In short, drinking their beer "repaired" those deficincies, and it's the advertiser's work to convince those people to keep drinking, as opposed to actually doing something to improve their real lives.
As a last comment, I've lost track of the number of friends who tell me about their attention-deficit out-of-control kids, and then tell me that "All those kids want to do is watch TV". What those kids will really remember is the ads. Makes me wonder what Hitler might have accomplished with television...
Re:But the advertisers... (Score:2)
"Who Wants to watch the surveillence cam at Wal Mart"
AKA, Jerry Springer.
Not a very good slogan for a company in trouble (Score:2)
But all seriousness aside, I vaguely remember an article posted on slashdot about a company named Enron that boasted of product features which a product didn't have. This could be construed as a tactic to drive up D&M holding's stock prices, as
Nick of time .. (Score:2)
Just before they raised the fees and before they wrecked the product
Hmmm
bad economy (Score:2)
Market Share (Score:2)
This reminds me of Sony's inability to select feature sets for consumer electronics that make sense. One normally ADDs features as one goes up the line, not (seemingly) randomly have some and not others.
Litigation vs No Market Share -- sure seems like an unpleasant set of choices to me.
Keep those free PVR reviews coming! Do we need an 'open' source of TV listings?
-- Multics
Don't get so worked up. (Score:5, Insightful)
Solution to 30 second skip (Score:2)
Actually PVRs make a lot of stuff possible with commercials that wasn't possible before, if only someone creative enough would come along and exploit the opportunities. It could be as much a boon to advertisers as it is a bane. The fact that no one actually has done anything indicates just how creativity-starved the media companies really are.
civilization is once again slowed... (Score:2, Insightful)
Perhaps a lack of a personality, ethics, independent goals, etc. Perhaps a rethink of the legal fictions would be in order.
Content providers vs. Media tools providers (Score:5, Interesting)
It just goes to show how the "synergy" arguments of the 1990's are actually complete bullshit.
This Changes Nothing Important (Score:5, Insightful)
correct story title: (Score:2, Funny)
In other news, TiVo marketshare way, way up!
As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a buncha maroons."
In related news... (Score:2)
And I tell my friends...
And they tell their friends....
And so on and so on...
TV listings. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:TV listings. (Score:2, Informative)
Works with the front end of your choice (a few suggestions)
Linux:
MythTV [mythtv.org].
Freevo [sourceforge.net].
Windows:
SageTV [freytechnologies.com].
MyHTPC [myhtpc.net].
Also, LOTS of good reading at the Home Theater Forums [avsforum.com] (the Linux forum is embedded under that link).
All of the above systems allow you to use on-screen listings, search for programs by schedule, name, category, etc. They learn favorites and do everything tivo does, best I've been able to tell.
I've been a Tivo user for a year and a half now. Could
how does autoskipping commercials work? (Score:3, Interesting)
Regarding case 1, why would the broadcaster do that? Since they are interested in everyone watching the commercials, they would hurt themselves by broadcasting such a signal.
In case 2, the broadcaster could simply circumvent the automatic skipping mechanism by semi-randomly shifting the commercial times, or by varying the length of commercial breaks.
Probably it's case 3, namely the one I didn't think of. Is anyone in the know?
Re:how does autoskipping commercials work? (Score:2)
Your other option is too look at the code in MythTV and see how that does it. Now if only there was an option to cut out the useless banter in Jeopardy I would be in heaven.
Re:how does autoskipping commercials work? (Score:5, Informative)
No, they couldn't. At least not with today's current ad model.
The commercials are not simply put in randomly. There is a very strict heiarchy of what commercials go where in the sequence. Picture a 30 min TV show. Usually, 3 commercial blocks. Just before the show, midway through, and end. The order of the commercials is actually quite important as regards audience retention. i.e. you're more likely to remember a product in a commercial in slot A than slot C. And yes...advertisers DO track that stuff, and are charged accordingly. Better placement = more $$ to air that commercial.
Also, a TV show is built around commercial breaks at specified minutes. Random insertion or different length breaks would destroy the flow of the show.
Finally, not all the commercials come from the same source. During a network show, some come from network HQ (See the new Fords!) and some come from the local broadcaster (Lo lo prices at Fred's Friendly Ford Farm out on Route 8!). No way to sync those two if commercial breaks are not preplanned.
Just wait for the marketing (Score:4, Interesting)
Customer pressure? (Score:3, Interesting)
And whatever happened with the commercial skipping features that briefly appeared on VHS units a few years back?
Re:Customer pressure? (Score:2)
Popular opinion (here at least) is that customer pressure will force features back into crippled devices. Can anyone actually find a case where this has happened?
There was the DVD vs. DivX battle a couple years ago - DivX was crippled, compared to DVD, because the silly box had to "phone home" whenever you viewed a movie. Most people believe that, when they buy a movie, they have the right to watch it whenever they want without paying beyond the original purchase; so of course DivX flopped.
Also, look
PC Based DVR is alas, not the answer (Score:5, Insightful)
Until you look at the power. Check how much more power that always-on PC takes than a standalone box. Here in California, for example, every watt of 24/7 power costs $1.13 per year or more. So a 200 watt PC costs over $200 per year to run, $150 more than say, a 50 watt standalone device. Not to mention the damage to the environment.
In other words, you can pay for the standalone device pretty quickly, even if you had a "free" PC just stting around.
Now you could fix this problem if you could arrange for the PC to go into a sleep mode when it doesn't have anything to do, at the cost of waiting a little longer to come up when you turn it on to watch something with the remote. This requires the PC have in it a sleep mode with a clock which allows you to say, "Wake up in 3 hours". How many have this? How many have coded for it.
The standalone device can also do this easily.
And you lose the "always recording something to spare disk space" feature that people love about the Tivo.
Re:200 watts!? (Score:3, Informative)
Random Thoughts from a ReplayTV User... (Score:3, Interesting)
As far as I can tell, the older units like mine are pretty much at the end of their software cycle -the only updates will be program guide info and new phone numbers at this point.
A friend of mine owns some of the new units (4000's I think) and they're pretty cool - the commercial skip and the sharing/playing from room-to-room are features that I've drooled over more than once. I would have gone out and replaced my current units with some like hers, but she mentioned about how they keep updating the software with "improvements" that only seem to get buggier and buggier as they go. She worries that the next round of "improvements" will turn the commercial skip and sharing off, or might change the way guaranteed vs non-guaranteed recording will be handled.
After (vicariously) going through the ups and downs of buggy updates and worries about what they will break this week, I decided that as nice as all those new features might be, the ReplayTV people are too likely to mess stuff up.
I've decided that I'll do whatever I can to keep my two "dinosaurs" running as long as possible. I love the possibilities the new technology could bring, but the skittishness of the ReplayTV people (this isn't the first time there's been talk about commercial skip being removed) makes me uncomfortable about slapping a large sum of cash down on the counter at my local A/V store.
If I were to upgrade, it would be to get the very features the new management wants to delete. No thanks.
Great Deal for ReplayTV (Score:3, Informative)
Skipping Commercials.... Stealing? But... (Score:3, Insightful)
Or is it the automagic skipping that has folks upset? When I see a commercial, I automatically skip it anyway.. so boom there. Sux for me. I'm a crook!
Re:Skipping Commercials.... Stealing? But... (Score:4, Funny)
Going to the fridge is right out, though.
Thoughts (Score:3, Interesting)
I've had a TiVo for some time now, and, like other PVR owners, I've really become a fanatic.
I love fast forwarding during commercials, but I've noticed that I am generally inconsistent in doing so. If the commercial is entertaining enough, I'll forget to fast forward. Inevitably, however, I hit a used car ad or something like that which will remind me that I don't have to watch that tripe. To me, this window of opportunity on the part of advertisers is fair game. If they can make an ad so that it will not annoy me, then they'll get a viewer. (Hell, I've even rewinded particularly cool ads to deliberately look at them) I can see the fairness, therefore, in requiring human decision to fast forward or skip the ad.
Advertisers will have to worry about the quality of their content (hear that, you scum sucking telephone company bastards!?), and they will need to worry about the quality of other ads played nearby in their time slot. If your funny beer ad comes after Crazy Joe's backyard 0% financing pickup truck extravanganza, then you are going to be a high speed blur on my TV set. Repetition will also become meaningless, as I will just zap through the five hundred thousanth iteration of your Windows training CD ad.
If you are an advertiser and this annoys you, remember this. Before TiVo I simply didn't watch TV. I am watching reruns of old shows now because I couldn't deal with ads in realtime. Persuading me not to push the fast-foward button is your only chance of selling me something. It's either that or the power switch.
TIVO Software (Score:3, Informative)
Windows Based
Snapstream PVR [snapstream.com]
ShowShifter [showshifter.com]
Linux Based
Myth TV [mythtv.org]
Linux PVR Depot" [forceconstant.com]
- Slew -
Feature wanted - "Capture Commercials" (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm actually interested in seeing commercials, just not during a show I'm watching. Let me watch them at my leisure. Perhaps a box could have commercial splitting that would let you skip all commercials for a recording, but then save them separately for the end so you could skip through ones you did not like like chapters on a DVD?
If you don't think there's a market for that, just look at how adcritic.com had to become a pay service.
Re:Feature wanted - "Capture Commercials" (Score:5, Interesting)
I watch *more* television shows/programs in *less* time than I watched before.
By skipping commercials, I can watch 2 "1-hour" shows in 1.5 hours. Watching 10 "hours" of TV programming can be done in 7.5 hours with Tivo. I do a lot of things that interest me with an "extra" 2.5 hours of time! To me, my time is more valuable than whatever some advertiser is paying for their 30-second slot. People that waste my time piss me off!
If I want to go out to dinner, go to a movie, or go out of town, I don't have to worry about taping and/or missing any of the shows I *really* want to watch - this is especially handy on weekend nights.
Yes.. I skip commercials.. BUT, I would say that I have absolutely no interest in > 90% of the commercials being shown:
-I'm not looking to buy a new car
-I'm not looking to buy a new PC - "Dude! I'm NOT getting a Dell!
-I don't eat fast food
-I'm a guy and don't need make-up, feminine hygiene products, nor do I want to have an "organic experience" when washing my hair
-I am not looking to refinance a house
-I don't watch Oprah, Dr. Phil, or any of those other mindless talk shows.
-I don't care about commercials for other shows tha I have absolutely no interest in - I don't care what time they come on nor do I want to see whatever stupid teaser you're going to put in the commercial
-I'm 33 years old - I don't need senior citizen "supplemental insurance" and/or home delivery of drugs, etc.
Have I left anything out?
What I would like to see is more targeted advertising that gives me information that I really want to see. Have the commercials downloaded to the Tivo and insert them dynamically into the program at the commercial breaks. Set aside an "hour" worth of disk space and fill it with 120 30-second commercials that can be inserted dynamically into my shows. Maybe embed a signal in the broadcast that would indicate the start of the commercial break and how long it is to run.. Let me "rate" the commercials like I can "rate" programs on the Tivo - 1,2, or 3 thumbs-up or thumbs-down and give me 80% of the commercials that I have said I want to receive and 20% of commercials that you think I would want to receive based on the ratings of my tv programs and commericals.
Just like with the TV shows, give me something that I want to watch and I will watch it.
They can have my TIVO series 1, (Score:5, Funny)
If they come for me, you ALL will here about it
You can't serve two masters (Score:3, Insightful)
I still use my Tivo, but even before the day I bought it, I knew that Tivo's time was running out. Tivo tries to be a good product, but even from the beginning, it was explicitly clear that being the best it could be, was not quite the goal. They had "partners." They were at risk from incurring the wrath of advertisers and TV networks. So a balance had to be struck. I am glad that the balance was so far in my favor, and I have enjoyed my Tivo very much. But reminders of the compromise have always been present (don't get me started). And now it is clear that the situation with ReplayTV is no different.
Free Software is accountable to only one party: whoever uses it. Except for the finite supply of developer labor, there is no limit to how good it can be for the user. There is no party who will influence it toward being less good or force it to be less functional than what people want. There is no compromise, and there is no attempt to serve two masters.
If MythTV and Freevo don't already kick Tivo's and ReplayTV's asses yet, they inevitably will in the future. I don't know if the Tivos and Replays and Microsofts will still be around in this market a few years from now, but I do know that if they survive, it will be as crippled embarrassing parodies of the state of the art.
Luckily.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Crippled PCs are a dead market, anyway (Score:3, Interesting)
All of these boxes are just crippled computers. With the prices on a real computer nosediving - and all signs indicating they will keep doing so - the only thing these devices have going for them is "mindshare" married to consumer apathy or ignorance.
Now, as I close my TV show, I notice that I'm running windows, which goes to show you can go a long way with an overpriced, underpowered product and some mindshare (though I got windows free from school). However, I don't think either of these devices is going to be able to successfully compete with the TV enabled home PC, ten or even five years in the future.
Ach, Kill your TV already! (Score:3, Flamebait)
Commercial Skip already floundering? (Score:3, Interesting)
It seems that my commercial skip function has become less and less effective over time. Replay's fine print says that it's 90% effective, and I presume it's looking for a particular time sequence in blank space or something to that effect. I'm not sure if the networks have caught on to what the Replay is doing, but it seems that lately my commercial skipping is about 30% effective. Certain shows will always be able to skip commercials, while others (those that air on Cartoon Network, for example), are almost guaranteed to be unskippable. It doesn't bother me; a few clicks of the 30-second skip button work just as well, and I occasionally catch glimpses of commercials I want to see (and go back to them).
Also, check out DVArchive on sourceforge. Great multi-platform program that masquerades as another ReplayTV on the network. Grab one of those $300 w/ service included 5040s from Sonicblue, throw some extra drives (I've seen stuff going for $0.75/GB or lower) in a computer, and go to town with your several hundred hour Replay without even voiding a warranty.
Re:I will buy a Tivo (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I will buy a Tivo (Score:2, Informative)
You must re-enter the code every time the Tivo reboots (software upgrade or power loss).
Re:I will buy a Tivo (Score:3, Informative)
That is right (apart from enabling things with secret codes). Now, with the feature set roughly the same, the decision comes down to the merits of each product, which TiVo wins hands down, in my opinion.
A long time TiVo owner and DVR enthusiast, TiVo is much easier to use in terms of interface. Plus TiVo, as a company, is generally friendly to the hacker community.
I glad the time has finally come that people can post about how much they
Re:I will buy a Tivo (Score:5, Informative)
TiVo's business model always included the (future) sale of viewers watching statistics. They never tried to hide this. There's no identifying information in any of the viewer demographic information supplied to TiVo by your box, and hey if you don't like them selling that information then you just call up their support people and tell them to take you off that list! Again, TiVo have been completely up-front and honest with all of this information.
Sometimes there's no conspiracy, no matter how hard you look.
Re:I will buy a Tivo (viewing habits reporting) (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Come on Mikey. (Score:2)
'watch the god-damn commercials, biatch!'
Re:Come on Mikey. (Score:2, Funny)
Is that really necessary from a (presumably) unbiased editor?
Uh.
Heh.
Hahah.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAAH.
AAAAAH HA HA HA HA HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAA!!!
Re:Come on Mikey. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Come on Mikey. (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that really necessary from a (presumably) unbiased editor?
I know it's been asked before, but I may as well ask again: where have the editors on Slashdot said they're unbiased? Where is it stated as a requirement that Slashdot editors be unbiased? An editor who doesn't have a bias wouldn't be able to pick the good stories from the bad. . . Slashdot's editors are just more vocal about their biases than others. Where editors of larger newspapers have to be discreet, /. can place the bias out on the table for everyone to see - which really is doing its readers a favor, since you don't have to read as critically to find out the editorial spin here as you would on, say, FoxNews.
Think of it as open source bias, if that will help. :)
Re:Come on Mikey. (Score:2)
Unbiased editor? Come on, get a clue! This is
This should be the slogan...
"If u r not O'Reilly we donÂt review or we screw"
Re:Who needs it then? (Score:4, Insightful)
The "bonus" has turned out to be the "hack-ability" of both Replay and Tivo. You can easily upgrade to larger hard drives. The networked models allow shows to be copied to a computer.
A PC-based PVR will be even more flexible, but it is not yet a consumer-level "appliance".
Re:Other PVRs (Score:2)
I'm using MythTV on a dedicated box in my home theater, and it's been working wonderfully. Myth is farther along, and seems to have a bigger developer base.