Another TiVoToGo review: Half a loaf is better than none

Frank Bajak of the Associated Press has put TiVoToGo through its paces and says what a lot of us have been thinking: namely that the service is a half-baked solution that tries to please both the TV networks and consumers and ends up not serving either very well. Oh, and Microsoft is about to clean TiVo's clock as Media Center PCs become more common and easier to use. Still, he does point out one plus about the service: if you're already a TiVo customer and have your box hooked up to your home network, TiVoToGo won't cost you anything extra. Guess that's a reasonable value proposition.

[MikeV @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

And Snapstream's option is even better than Microsoft's! RAW MPEG2 files, perfect for editing or directly burning to DVD! No transcoding, no DRM, no anything!

[Digital Dave @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

How can you argue, it is free. Now I just wish they would update my buddies TiVo faster. Man, my Pioneer/Moto (Cox) DVR really needs a feature like this.

[Griffon @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Mmm free if you can get it, but do to the awful D*TV deal they made half their customer base has to do with out.
When oh when will Tivo realize they have to stop fucking with there paying customers to woo the pretty network girls at the dance... They constantly slap Tivo down, stab them in the back and screw every other DVR like stud manufacture in front of Tivo, yet Tivo keeps coming back to them and give them whatever they demand.... it's really rather sad, but they have got to get over the hots for the networks it's never going to work.

[Jakv5 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Apple to buyout TIVO???

As seen on MacObserver?
This would be amazing as Tivo and my Mac are my two most favorite things.


Apple speculation, teams with sony and Apple plans to buy TIVO:

http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devilsadvocate/2005/20050121.shtml

http://www.digg.com/apple/Apple_Patents_Expos%C3%A9_iTMS_UI_and_TiVo_Buyout_Sony_Speculation

[HankScorpio @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

Nah #4, everyone knows that googlezon has their eyes on tivo...
http://oak.psych.gatech.edu/~epic/

[Jeremy Holloway @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

First off, Microsoft isn't going to clean TiVo's clock. There may be some overlap on high-end TiVo customers and the people Microsoft is aiming to please with the Media Center platform, but that certainly does not include the majority of TiVo/DirecTiVo subscribers. With that being said, my Series2 is operating much more sluggishly with the TiVo-to-Go software update. I hope they fix some of the glitches shortly. I favor innovation as long as TiVo isn't sued into oblivion like the two previous owners of ReplayTV have. I would love to see Apple purchase the company. Using MPEG4 encoding/decoding would be a great feature since we could squeeze in so much more programming of SDTV onto the same capacity hard drives, not to mention beginning the transition to HD content. As for poster #2, Digital Dave, instead of wishing for the cableco to offer you TiVo level features on your jenk PVR settop box, perhaps you should help out the innovative company named TiVo and purchase one of their units.

[G1ZM0 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:37AM]

How many time's have we heard about how tivo is going to die,be bought,be outdone? I'll believe it when I see it. You just can't get the features for the price from a media center PC, even with a lifetime subscription. Add to that the ease of use for the 12:00 blinkers and Windows unreliability I'll stick with my Tivo. Yeah the hardcore geeks can do it better for less on linux, all while crunching numbers for seti, but the common man can't.

I think they're doing a good job of treading the fine line between appeasing the networks and giving the users what they want. I'm sure they would rather do it without the DRM but, they can't if they want to stay in business. Besides wasn't there just an article the other day about how to remove the DRM from TivoToGo?

Tivo is dead, long live tivo.