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Television Media Privacy

OpenTV Like TiVo on Steroids 182

Posted by CmdrTaco from the bold-statements-and-little-market-share dept.
Davis Freeberg writes "Davis Freeberg and Thomas Hawk recently interviewed OpenTV about some of the more progressive programming that they are offering to viewers outside of North America. Specifically, they have created a PVR that allows users to not only choose from 4 - 8 video angles, but even more importantly consumers can choose what audio feed they would prefer. Recently they miked up some drunk hooligans during a rugby match in Austrailia and cable customers could choose which commentator they prefered. Of course this functionality doesn't come without a cost. In exchange for interactive games, karaoke and multiple HDTV streams, they collect data on the viewing habits of their users and then digitally insert 30 second ads based upon the demographics of their customers. While I'm not sure if this is good or bad, I do believe that this will be the future of television advertising. While we haven't seen this type of a privacy policy introduced in the U.S. yet, I'm sure that the PVR industry has taken notice of the willingness of Aussies to give up privacy rights for the ability to time shift televison. "
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OpenTV Like TiVo on Steroids More

OpenTV Like TiVo on Steroids

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  • The term smacks of something unwholesome...

  • Need to know... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SpinyNorman ( 33776 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:41AM (#13329335)
    Is the drunken Australian hooligan audio feed available for all TV shows?

    • Re:Need to know... (Score:1, Informative)

      by edittard ( 805475 )
      Sadly, no. Didn't you read TFA - it's only Austrailians. Whatever they are. Something like New Zealianders, I expect.
    • No, unfortunately, they stopped letting John Riggins call color on the Redskins preseason games several years ago.
    • Though I admit haven't heard the drunken hooligan commentry, I can safely assure you it is a lot better than the Channel 7 commentry usually given.
    • Is the drunken Australian hooligan audio feed available for all TV shows?

      Mate, if you line me up with a couple of cartons, munchies, a decent big screen and a comfy couch, you can have a live Aussie hooligan feed on whatever channel you want to tune in to...
    • Never mind that, I just want Roy & HG without the time difference.

      Currently, the Channel 9 feed via Foxtel Satellite gives me several seconds delay, between the commentary, and the action described happening on the screen.

      I get told about what just happened, just before it happens - it's really surreal.

  • I like the idea (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Medieval_Thinker ( 592748 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:41AM (#13329337)
    This has potential, but I think the "open" in the name is a misnomer...

  • Go for it! (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ucahg ( 898110 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:43AM (#13329339)
    I'm not opposed to personalized advertising. I don't see what the fuss is about really. Who cares if an advertising company has on record my TV viewing preferences?

    Maybe it would stop me from receiving tampon and ED commercials.

    • Re:Go for it! (Score:5, Funny)

      by Dare nMc ( 468959 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @09:29AM (#13330068)
      > Who cares if an advertising company has on record my TV viewing preferences?

      And when you have over yor girlfriends parrents, and try to explain why you keep getting all these S&M, and Viagra comercials.

      oh wait, this is slashdot. I mean when your parents are over, and you get X-rated, kleanex, and hand lotion adds.
    • Yeah, but think about it: Your friends come over to watch the game, and some tampon commercials come on. Now they're wondering about you. "Dave, do you have something you'd like to tell us?" :-)

  • I, for one, welcome our multiple view angle personal video recording demographically focused overlords.

  • No Problem (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kevin_conaway ( 585204 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:44AM (#13329345) Homepage
    If I'm subscribing to their service, they already know what I'm watching because they're pushing it through the wire!

    I see no harm in using that data to show ads that are relevant to the genre of programming I'm watching. To me, it seems better to advertise athletic gear and sports drinks during a football game than tampons and depends undergarments.

    Context sensitive advertising seems to be the way to go as long as its not overly intrusive. They have a right to make money after all and if people aren't willing to pay with their dollars, then they'll have to pay with their eyeballs.

    • Re:No Problem (Score:3, Interesting)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 )
      I see no harm in using that data to show ads that are relevant to the genre of programming I'm watching. To me, it seems better to advertise athletic gear and sports drinks during a football game than tampons and depends undergarments.

      You probably won't be seeing too many advertisements for tampons, but once they figure out you're male based on your viewing habits, I can easily see every other commercial being for Girls Gone Wild like they used to on late night Comedy Central (haven't watched in a while,

      • All I saw in that comment was "no tampons, just Girls Gone Wild". I stopped reading about there. Where can I sign up?

      • Re:No Problem (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Rude Turnip ( 49495 )
        I complained to Yahoo! when I saw Playboy (ie porn) banner ads while reading Yahoo! Mail. Maybe they assumed since I was a male that it would be acceptable. Anyway, after sending them an email, the banner ads for adult materials stopped. If a company as big as Yahoo! can accomodate their customers in such a way, I would expect no less from anyone else.

    • Yes its a problem. (Score:4, Informative)

      by Shivetya ( 243324 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @08:12AM (#13329482) Homepage Journal
      Read the foxtel privacy agreement. It is an opt-out type system which is made worse as you must write them to even find out who they are giving your personal information to.

      You must opt out of their direct-marketing and their "related business partners".

      They are not only obtaining the right to feed you 30 second commercials they are obtaining the right to pass off your information to any company they deem to designate as "partner" or otherwise.

      This is probably a never ending chain as each of their "partners" has their own privacy policies which could open you to even more unrelated companies.

      I wouldn't be surprised if your information ends up on a spam list because of "partner" associations.

      Two words

      No thankyou.

      http://www.foxtel.com.au/Privacy.htm [foxtel.com.au]

    • Re:No Problem (Score:2, Insightful)

      by pete-classic ( 75983 )

      If I'm subscribing to their service, they already know what I'm watching because they're pushing it through the wire!

      DVB is Digital Video Broadcasting.

      If you have cable your provider might know what you're watching, but satellite is strictly unidirectional (until you add a backchannel like a phone line).

      End users don't "subscribe" to OpenTV. OpenTV provides middleware and interactive apps to cable and satellite providers.

      -Peter

      • And the satellite company charges you to keep your privacy. Just look at your bill. If you don't plug in your phone line, they charge you $5 per reciever.
    • If PVR providers are allowed to have this kind of information, there is nothing to prevent them from using it to show me ads for stuff I might actually buy instead of tampons, facial cream, and herpes and erectile dysfunction meds.

      I'm paying good money for my cable company to tell me which vaginal cream is the best at fighting yeast invfection, and I'll be damned if PVR providers are going to take that away from me!

      • Creating the market (Score:3, Insightful)

        by DrCode ( 95839 )
        I think the idea is that if they show you enough "erectile dysfunction" ads, you might just start to worry about it. And once you start worrying, you might need their products.

    • Re:No Problem (Score:2, Interesting)

      by droptone ( 798379 )
      What is interesting in the privacy fears arguments is that they generally use some sort of slippery slope argument..."Well what if they use 'context-sensitive' pricing" yadda yadda yadda. I must say there is something intuitively enticing about such arguments, but from a logical point of view they are mush. There are REAL worries about privacy and people who are using these sorts of arguments are undermining the actual problems. Rather than resorting to flights of fancy about the possibilities of some evil

    • Re:No Problem (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 )
      I wasn't sure if you were being sarcastic at all, but don't you find it a tad bit ridiculous to be forced to watch advertising when you already pay a subscription? Used to be that you paid to not get ads. Now you pay and get ads just because people have been groomed to accept it.

      Also, I REALLY hope you weren't serious about them having a right to make money. They have absolutely no such right, and if someone comes along that does it better than them (most likely by being less invasive), they DESERVE to b

  • Privacy or not, just don't buy the stuff advertise (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Antony-Kyre ( 807195 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:45AM (#13329348)
    Privacy or not, just don't buy the stuff advertised. It's not like anyone is forcing you to buy anything, right?

    And here's a thought. Do "they" have the right to discriminate their commercial advertisements based on the individual they are broadcasting to? Could that be unfair because someone else is getting different television programming than you are, yet you are paying for the same service?
    • Here is another point ,
                                                                        if you have to pay for a service , what exactly are the adverts for .People are all to happy to pay for cable or satellite television channels and hardly ever question the fact that they also need to put up with advertisements
      • Otherwise it'd be more expensive.
        • Otherwise it'd be more expensive.

          Thanks for that, I was sitting there with my head spinning at the thought that someone would actually need this pointed out.

          I wonder if a more-money-but-no-ads service would be feasible? My gut feeling is, feasible or no, people just wouldn't want to pay the extra premium.

          • I heard about some meeting somewhere where a TV executive said that if people wanted ad-free TV, it would cost another $250/year. Then someone asked the audience who would pay another $250/year for ad-free TV, and at least half of them raised their hands.

            Of course, the TV executives didn't get the hint.

            • Saying isn't doing though — I'd like to see this actually implemented, but I wouldn't like to be the one to implement it, if you get my meaning.

              Another problem are the technical aspects of providing both ad-supported and ad-free content, timing and so on would all go to pot. Switching to content-on-demand would semi-remedy this but we're already straying further from traditional TV, which as we've seen by the music industry's unreasonable royalty demands for online stores is not a great way of deali

              • I'm sure greed factors into a lot of things, but I'll leave that aside for now.

                About on-demand television, imagine this. If we had a box hooked up to our t.v., hooked up to the Internet, which we could choose to buy services, very specific ones, from a lot of providers. Then it would have a list of channels, with a list of shows in rotation for the channels. And about the advertisements, if there are any, those could include commercials even though it's on-demand. But they shouldn't get as specific as one's

                • Always possible, but as I said before there's a dignificant difference between on-demand media and scheduled media, and I think that's causing quite a few problems, since the internet/digital services are quite suited to the arguably superior one, and more traditional broadcast media is only suited to the other.

                  As for fixing winding speed, I don't think it's practical. I don't think it's practical because, particularly with digital media, it's the kind of thing that you need to specifically cripple the en

      • You're paying for the cost of particular service - the service in question being the cable or satellite service and package you are subscribed to. The contract for this service is between you and the cable/satellite provider.

        Now, as part of the package you subscribe to, the cable/satellite co includes certain channels - channels which require to show their own adverts to be able to break even/make profit.

  • As long as the user's viewing information is kept private and solely used for advertising & the user knows of the policies regarding monitoring what they watch, I see no problems with it.

    However, since there is a lot of regulation in the States (v-chip, ratings, standards, and artifical monopolies), cable users may find themselves screwed; either get monitored or don't get cable... and I'm sure the Patriot Act would get its grip on TV too, now if you watch Cops & the hitlery channel, you can be s

  • Shift in television advertising (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ChrisF79 ( 829953 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:48AM (#13329362) Homepage
    Something is definitely going to have to be done with television advertising as PVR's continue to gain popularity. I've had my PVR now for about a year and I almost never watch commercials since I rarely watch live television. Since PVR's have not yet reached critical mass, I don't know that it is a current issue but it soon will be.

    I think we've already started to see a lot more product placement than we used to in current programs. If you watch a single episode of American Idol (if you do, I'm sorry) you will have seen the Coke glasses prominently displayed in front of each judge, and carefully sat back down so that the logo is always perfect aligned to the camera. It's one small example, but I think we'll see it taken to extremes soon.

    I think the best example of cramming advertising down user's throats and avoiding the PVR problems is with sporting events. By nature, they're not susceptible to the problems of PVR since most viewers would prefer to watch them live instead of delayed, although the product placement in the stadiums is fantastic. With all of the billboards and the camera panning around during downtime, a lot of local businesses get their name out there. It will be interesting to see if a shift to product placement ousts these local businesses and we see more national companies bidding the price up on stadium billboards.

    Just my $0.02.
    • It will be interesting to see if a shift to product placement ousts these local businesses and we see more national companies bidding the price up on stadium billboards.

      It's already happening in many stadiums. For example, if you ever go to a Cubs game at Wrigley field, You'll see a plain green panel on the wall behind and to the left (as seen from the pitcher's mound) of home plate. Very unobtrusive. If you watch the game on TV, though, that green panel shows up as billboard ads that change throughout

    • you will have seen the Coke glasses prominently displayed in front of each judge, and carefully sat back down so that the logo is always perfect aligned to the camera

      Watch Sienfield. They've based entire episodes on commericals (Kenny! Kenny! Come back Kenny!)

      I think that at some point, we'll be able to tell our TV's that we are looking for, say, a new truck, and it will send us commercials for trucks and car dealers' offers. Of course, I'll tell the TV I'm really intrested in Victoria's Secret and Women's

  • Cripes... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by daspriest ( 904701 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:48AM (#13329363)
    It would probably sell here in the U.S. too, So many mindless sheep have to buy the latest and greatest equipment.
  • I would shift all commercials towards the morning/early day when I don't watch TV.

  • The end of TiVo (Score:5, Informative)

    by matthew.thompson ( 44814 ) <{ku.oc.ytilautca} {ta} {ttam}> on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @07:56AM (#13329404) Journal
    As TiVo becomes available only as a standalone unit as users migrate towards High Defention we will see the end of TiVo as a hardware platform and the beginning of TiVo as a patent licensing agency.

    OpenTV is the NDS based system which powers the Sky+ system which our US Cousins (Brit here!) will shortly be being sold now that Mr. Murdoch has taken control of DirecTV. Sky in the UK were the marketing partner of TiVo and used the experience and knowledge gained to help develop the OpenTV platform to create Sky+ - shortly after they abandonned the TiVo exercise and left it to die.

    I myself prefer TiVo over Sky+ since I have a lifetime subscription and TiVo offers much greater flexibility but I can see the time coming where TiVo are forced to offer their patents to NDS and Sky+ and its Italian, Australian and American derivatives starts to offer the same ease of use and intelligence that I have had for the last 6 years.
      • Unfortunately this is a Cable based system which will not record high definition content from DirecTV, Sky et al. who are developing their own closed systems for high defintion PVR with copy protection.

        Sky are producing a system which will output certain HD contact only over HDMI or HDCP enabled DVI connections and not over analogue component.

        As more and more content providers request these restrictions TiVo will be left as a niche for Cable and FTA in the US only and will most likely never return to the UK
  • Australians generally don't give a hoot about the intrusion of Big Brother/New World Order style mega-corps into their living rooms. For the most part, Australia is a textbook example of what globalists want: a mono-culture'd single-source-for-everything authority-fearing nation full of sheep.

    You can't get a more "McDonnell Douglas'ed"/"Carlyle Group-ified" nation than Australia. As a nation, it leads the way for the idealization of globalist technology .. Aussies just don't give a damn about repression,
    • We Americans have been led to believe that Aussies are a headstong, athletic, practical, and overall independantly thinking culture which we can only strive to emulate though various products marketed using people pretending to have an Australian accent and the name "outback" somewhere in the name. Please don't tell me that all the marketing has been a lie!
    • Where my mod points when I need them ?

      And the irony is the myth of the routing tooting rough as guts independent outback Aussie. They do exist but are a rare as hens teeth. Real Aussies live in cities on the coast in overpriced factory farmed units being bullied by their girlfriends/mothers (the terms are *really* interchangeable here).

      They want to be told how independent and bloody minded they are, they don't actually want to *be* it - that requires effort, and the Aussie media caters to them admirably.
    • No matter how annoyed I get with the US sheeple it is always the stories about Australia and the UK that remind me just how screwed up things could really get if only the politicos and the church ladies and the feminazis could once and for all strike down that pesky Bill of Rights in our Constitution. There are other places I often think I would rather live, but australi and the UK for me rank right up there with perhaps Singapore or Saudi Arabia...

  • Demographic collection (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bokmann ( 323771 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @08:03AM (#13329436) Homepage
    I have no problem with a service colleting my demographic information, as long as I understand and agree on how they use it, without any bull crap like "Terms of service may change without notice".

    Using my demographics to give me more ads for computers, sci-fi shows, and other things that match my interest is a better use of my time than commercials for Massingil's latest lemon-scented douche.

    Using my demongraphic information to increase my car insurance rates, on the other hand, would not make me happy.
    • Collecting your demographics is only the first part of the deal. You know, of course, they will sell this data to retailers and marketers. That is a revenue stream for the PVR service, and allows the marketers/retailers to more accuratly sell you stuff.

      What? You thought they were doing this for YOUR benefit?

    • I'm all into computers and stuff (naturally, I'm a Computer Engineer after all) but DAMN that's one lemony douche.
    • Yes, but, you NEVER get to decide how this info is going to be used. And most likely it will always be used in a way you dislike.

      So if we can agree that those businesses that collect this info will abuse it the way they always have, then we can agree that collecting this info is bad until we get some serious regulation to protect us.

      Since those businesses have more money than us to give to our representatives we will never see sufficient regulation until info collection and data mining loses its profitabil

  • multiple angles? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by justforaday ( 560408 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @08:03AM (#13329440)
    Just a question regarding the multiple angles thing. Is this really going to get used? I mean, DVDs have had this feature since day one. I've only ever seen one disc that actually used the feature, and it was some pr0n movie. And I gotta tell you, watching people shuffle around the background during the filming of a pr0n shoot, though funny, doesn't make for a better viewing experience. Let's also not forget about the increased production costs to do this for more, umm, legitimate shows/movies. Sports are about the only thing this is good for, both from viewer and production points of view (har har).
    • Is this really going to get used?

      It works in Sport as you can choose to do specific things, for instance during the BBCs coverage of Wimbledon you had a choice of 6 different matches, and a similar choice at the Open. On Sky Sports you get a choice of several different camera angles, touchline, behind the goal, focused on a player etc, as well as several audio lines. Its interesting stuff and is used a bit, when it will really come of age is when its properly PVR'ed and you can cut your own replay scene o
    • Any drum corps dvds I know have multiple angles. Sometimes you want the high cam so you can see the formations and sometimes you want the more detailed stuff. There are usually cameras that focus on certain sections of the ensemble so you can just stay in with one of them.
      • As someone who played snare in drumline (and who's seen his fair share of DCI videos back in the day), I'd say this is a great use of the alternate angle feature.

  • Innovation== Dead (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @08:08AM (#13329461)
    As for PVR innovation, US is ion the dead end. Tell me ONE single innovative thing that has been innovated in the DVR business in the last 2 years. MPAA has scared the DVR companies into turning their DVRs into nothing but fancy digital VCRs.

    What are my justifications for this comment of mine, you say? Alright. Remember Replay TV? They introduced the Commercial Advance; This technology was one which would AUTOMATICALLY detect commercial breaks for you & skip them, AUTOMATICALLY!! No more lame 30-second skip 'easter egg' of TiVo. They had Internet Video Sharing. They had absolutely best home networking for DVRs. These were the innovations which were really revolutionary in the DVR biz. Then MPAA sued the pants off Replay TV & forced them into bankuruptcy.

    For all the TiVo fans out there, compare the features of Replay TV & TiVo. See. MPAA has killed innovation in the industry. Nobody wants to innovate something new in the DVR industry. Thats the reason all the DVR offerings from cable/sat providers as well as pioneers Replay & TiVo have basically stopped doing any substantial innovation.

    Sad.
    • "Then MPAA sued the pants off Replay TV & forced them into bankuruptcy."

      No doubt that the MPAA helped in Replay's demise, but pricing their units with the subscription fee built in was a stupid move and probably hurt them even more. Not many people were willing to shell out $600+ for a "digital VCR" (Yes, we all know what DVRs can do now, but back then it was just an expensive box for recording shows digitally, and most people were happy with they $89 Bestbuy VCR)

      OTOH, Tivo priced out the service fee s
      • Bzzzzt. Wrong. ReplayTV (Still being sold) has had monthly plans the same as Tivo for a long time. Heck, they are even giving discount's on the monthly plan for multiple units in a household.

        I have seen ReplayTVs for as little as $50, and the monthly fee is $15 for the first unit. At this price you would think that people would snap them up. The reason they don't? The MPAA scared Denon into removing the commercial advance and internet show sharing features. That's right. The current 5500 series
        • Ok, so apparently they got a clue and changed their pricing at some point. I have a Directv Tivo myself and havent been in the market for a DVR for some time, but when I was, at the time Replay only offered the service bundled with the DVR, and the price was well over $600. That factor alone is what gave Tivo a decent headstart and much larger marketshare IMHO.
  • willingness of Aussies to give up privacy rights for the ability to time shift televison

    Isn't this the same place where it's illegal to rip a cd to mp3 or to copy it an iPod? Of course they are willing to give up privacy in exchange for more rights to do what they want with the content.
     
    • "Isn't this the same place where it's illegal to rip a cd to mp3 or to copy it an iPod?"

      Yep, according to the FTA we signed with the US we have to "harmonise" our IP laws with the US versions. Nearly everyone here thinks the FTA was all about sugar farmers.

      I wonder if George realises Johnny comes from the "Liberal Party".
  • showing blipverts any time soon?
  • When you have to zap through the channels and see half commercials everywhere just to find 1 hour of television worth to watch, timeshifting to the programs you like but then not being able (or less being able) to avoid commercials, it might just be worth it.
  • BBC DIgital often has multi-audio channel for sports - with TV commentray and local and national radio commentary often avilable (interesting for matches like Wale3s vs England rugby where you can listen to English or Welsh commentators!). They may not have drubnken hooligan soundracks yet, but if you swithc on the ref's mike you oftne hear interesting commentary from the players ;-) Also, you can turn off the commentary completely and watch the matches as if you were there.... :-)
    • My dad would like that. He would watch Vikings games muted, but listen to the radio commentary with his trusty 'ol transistor.

  • NOT TiVo on steroids (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @08:31AM (#13329631) Journal
    TiVo on steriods would be gobs of hours, enhanced sorting and archiving functions, multiple tuners, and lots of stuff the end users want.

    Thisis more like TiVo after an experiment went wrong and it was mutated by gamma radiation before it killed all the scientists and escaped from the lab. I mean, look at the focus - straight from the source,

    our real customers, in most cases are network operators, in the context of deals between network operators and programmers or advertisers we can certainly provide services, but we're clear who the primary customer is.

    They admit they don't really give a rats ass about the people with the remote, except how they can serve their eyeballs up as a product for their "real customers". That said, in a perfect world, the multiple audio options would be nice for certain programming like football. Being able to choose your commentators would be a welcome change. Anyone who has suffered through a national College FB feed where the commentators are clearly against your team (Brent Mussberger calling any Virginia Tech game, for example) or any game where the commentator just annoys the hell out of you (John Madden for football, Dick Vitale for basketball) would realize the value in this feature. Multiple camera angles would be minimally useful, unless I could get multiple feeds of the same game, and had enough screen to watch them all.

  • Commentary (Score:3, Funny)

    by Rethcir ( 680121 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @08:51AM (#13329779)
    If there was any way to get rid of Joe Buck or Tim McCarver during Fox National MLB games, I'd pay probably 8 billion dollars for it. "Brandon Arroyo is going for the Red Sox tommorow.."
  • they haven't quite decided how to spell Australia yet. In the article they mention 'Austrialia' and 'Austrailia' several times, but never correctly.

  • Invasion of privacy (Score:3, Insightful)

    by G. W. Bush Junior ( 606245 ) on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @09:12AM (#13329933) Journal
    Most people posting here don't seem to realise why broadcasting select ads based on your viewing habits is an invasion of privacy.

    The ads that are shown on your TV will reflect who you are, and what you watch when you are alone in the privacy of your own home. That might not be the image you want your friends or family to see when they come over to see a football match.

    Taking it to the extreme; If you watch a lot of porn when you are alone, having the TV show you ads for the newest adult movies when your girfriend uses your TV might *not* be desirable.

    (The above is of course a hyperbole - advertising adult movies is probably illegal almost everywhere)
  • As an aussie, can somebody please point out to me at what point I've been all too happy to give up privacy?

    When can I look forward to a slashdot submission including the line; ".. beer companies should be taking notice of the North American tendancy to drink piss poor beer and act like a jackass"

    Nobody down here has willingly given up a damn thing. Privacy is still invaded by sneaky bastards with legislation or smoke & mirrors (or often both).

    We don't give up anything easily, so please don't fee
  • Nice lobby....its er... OPEN.
  • I'm sure that the PVR industry has taken notice of the willingness of Aussies to give up privacy rights for the ability to time shift televison.

    You cannot give up a right. That's what makes it a right. Rights are inherent, innate, inborn, and inseperable. They can be suppressed, ignored, and trampled on, but not given up. Only priviledges can be given up or traded away.

    The Aussies are not giving up their privacy rights. They are giving up their privacy. They can reclaim their rights any time they have

  • First, I should point out, I am Australian.

    That said, the choices when it comes to PVRs in Australia is horrible.

    Choice? What choice? The first real one the Australian public has seen is 'Foxtel IQ' [foxteliq.tv] which was released early this year. This happens to also be the device they mention in this article.

    Ask an Australian last year what a PVR was, and they would have no idea. Hell, ask them this year, and they probably still have no idea (even after Foxtel's fairly large advertising campagines).

    Some of us, didn't take this entire situation sitting down, and stated importing TiVos. Thus, OzTiVo [tuhs.org] was born. For the first time, it allowed Australians experience a true PVR. although, few people then, and even now, actually know about it.

    The Foxtel IQ box fails when put up against an imported TiVo in every way, except one: It can record two shows at once. Other then that, it's all bad. The sad fact is, the general public has no idea how badly they are being ripped off. It will cost you $500 for 'Foxtel IQ', which Foxtel remains ownership of, if you disconnect, they take the box back.

    Their versions of 'season passes' has many problems, and often doesn't work - They have nothing like 'wish lists', they don't have TV guide data for the vast majority of free-to-air stations and it's full of copy-protection among other rubbish. Not to mention the bad UI...

    I feel bad knowing how good a TiVo is, and how many people still continue to buy Foxtel IQ. It is *not* good.

    Give me a TiVo any day.
    • Give me a TiVo any day.

      If you use a Tivo in Australia then you are using illegally copied and illegally modified software. It's morally no different to using pirated copies of Windows or burnt copies of video games.

      • No, it's no different to using an iPod in Australia.

        and only because there is currently no legal way to use either of them in Australia, because in all the "harmonising" with US copyright law, we get all the DMCA type crap and none of the fair use rights that Americans enjoy, because ARIA et al want it both ways.

        Having said that, the police do not waste time here breaking down people's doors because they taped the footy off the TV or made a copy of their Crowded House CD to listen to in the car.

        It's morally

        • and only because there is currently no legal way to use either of them in Australia,

          Tough. That's the "rationale" the OzTivo users use to justify their behaviour to themselves, but they're delusional. They're copying Tivo's software without permission, modifying the software to get Australian guide data (thus circumventing Tivo's subscription business model), and using Tivo's software without a valid license. Whiny excuses like "but Tivo doesn't sell in Australia and I reaaalllly want to use their sof

  • So, when you play back a recorded show, do all of the actors suddenly have massive pects?
  • I would prefer a hybrid approach. You can monitor my television viewing habits but I would like to give additional feedback on what ads I do and do not want to see. I can't watch football with my children anymore without changing the channel during commercials.

    Please show me only "G or PG rated" commercials (at least while my kids are watching) regardless of the program that I am watching).

    It is erroneous to assume that because somebody likes sports, that automatically means they would, as Jeff Foxwor

  • Steroids? (Score:2, Funny)

    by jeffgeno ( 737363 )
    Open TV has never taken steroids. Ever. Period.

    Rafael Palmeiro

  • flip it around (Score:2, Interesting)

    by adnausium ( 901852 )
    What if we look at this from a different angle (uhh no pun intended there) In this scenario advertisements are being picked according to your viewing habits....what about being interested in a product that has nothing to do with your viewing habits? As much as everyone says they hate commercials, there are tons of products out there that if i hadnt seen some random commercial for it, i never would have sought it out on my own. I for one like commercials...i also like the ability to skip the ones that dont

  • Multiple Viewing Angles (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16, 2005 @10:46AM (#13330739)
    I can finally see the naked chick whose back is always to the camera.
  • Congratulations to CmdrTaco on labelling this "bold-statements-and-little-market-share" as the blog writer has been fed and regurgitates a finely crafted line of bullshit by OpenTV.

    Although OpenTV does make the most widely used (and arguably the best current) STB middleware operating system their new PVR 2.0 extension is failng to make headway against NDS's earlier and more widely adopted XTV software and this article manages to obscure that fact magnificently.

    OpenTV middleware is indeed used in both the

  • I dont mind giving up my privacy if it means i'm going to be watching an interesting advertisment, rather then on i'm not going to like. That is, we're gunna get the advertisments anyway, so what if they're more suited to us? We're more likly to take notice. Its a benefit for consumers and the service providers.

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