Yahoo buys Meedio, but not Meedio TV

Yahoo swallowed another company this morning, one to flesh out that Go TV home digital media effort of theirs. Just not the DVR company we'd all kind of hoped and idly thought it would be, TiVo. Nope, Yahoo now owns Meedio, whose IP, technology, and staff are being folded into their Digital Home team. If you're a Meedio TV fan, steel yourself: according to Meedio, your EPG will be updated until July 1st, their support center is shuttering, and downloading Meedio will no longer be possible. Which, we'd postulate, means it'll be a little while before you'll be able to get your Yahoo Go TV DVR on download. And since Yahoo bought the company and not the Meedio product line, what comes out the other end could wind up looking, feeling, and working completely differently, totally ready and able to leverage all kinds of Yahoo media from ten feet away. In the mean time, for those not wanting to run Windows (Media Center) or sign up for TiVo, you've still got options, like MythTV, BeyondTV, SageTV, ChrisTV, Freevo, ShowShifter, WinDVR, and so, so many others.

[Via Zatz Not Funny, thanks Richard B]

[ginnal @ Apr 18th 2006 9:05AM]

I fucking hate these mega shit companies with no actual product sucking up and killing off promising products.

I had *just* gotten meedio working only to wake up and read this crap.
All so Yahoo can figure out how their going to make money after their gazillion dollar ipo and no real source of revenue growth.

So now I may have to go to Microsoft (read drmsville) to get my htpc on.

[jr @ Apr 18th 2006 9:26AM]

Ditto, super pissed. Just paid for meedio and am still working out the bugs, now this crap.

[Darren Tilley @ Apr 18th 2006 9:38AM]

Why are you guys mad at Yahoo? Meedio didn't have to sell out if they cared about us as customers.

It's not like they were forced to sell.

[jr @ Apr 18th 2006 9:42AM]

Not pissed at Yahoo per se, just pissed in general.

[fbz @ Apr 18th 2006 10:01AM]

"you've still got options, like BeyondTV, SageTV, ChrisTV, Freevo, ShowShifter, WinDVR," ...or MythTV. Don't count out the open source, it won't get snatched up by a media company and you can upgrade your storage capabilities easily as hard drive prices continue to fall.

[Matt @ Apr 18th 2006 10:16AM]

I can't believe those bitches sold temselves out to Y!. I've been using Meedio almost from the begining it was conceived now such a blow...there's a good expression in my native language... "Dac dupy" - it means that one allows someone else use their behind for pleasure...that's exactly how I feel about this deal. Shame on you Meedio..Shame on You Yahoo for being too lazy asses and not deveop something of your own. This is a SAD SAD day.

[Grover Saunders @ Apr 18th 2006 10:16AM]

I often wonder why the list of DVR software (not just this one) so often excludes Media Portal even though it in many ways out-performs even most of the commercial products mentioned above and is free and open source, but doesn't require geek knowledge to set up and maintain.

As to Meedio, while I can't blame them too much for taking the money and running, it makes me sad to see the way they've repeatedly broken promises to their users, even from back in the MyHTPC days.

[LD @ Apr 18th 2006 10:18AM]

The speculation has been out there for a while with a leaked press release from the Meedio PR firm. As a guy who has quite literally been there from the beginning (myHTPC first release) I can say I'm very happy to see their hard work pay off. The development team is talented and always open to suggestions. I say congrats.

[The Pablo @ Apr 18th 2006 11:10AM]

Yes its true I sold meedio to yahoo months ago and kept it a secret. You think I care about the customers that recently bought my program and got screwed? Hell no, I worked for Enron, so all I can say is buyer beware and HA HA.

The Pablo (aka TP, aka Toilet Paper)

[The Pablo @ Apr 18th 2006 11:13AM]

Yes its true I sold meedio to yahoo months ago and kept it a secret. You think I care about the customers that recently bought my program and got screwed? Hell no, I worked for Enron, so all I can say is buyer beware and HA HA.

The Pablo (aka TP, aka Toilet Paper)

[kel @ Apr 18th 2006 11:19AM]

Ditto what LD said. Did I really just say that? LOL.

[Jonathan @ Apr 18th 2006 12:01PM]

Another endorsement for looking at Team MediaPortal, the RC3 version is very stable and it has a thriving community. Hopefully many of the talented Meedio community developers (plugins and skins) might consider helping MP. At least with a fully opensource product there is no risk of it being sold off.

[zach @ Apr 18th 2006 2:11PM]

Don't forget about GB-PVR

[Ron Wilson @ Apr 18th 2006 4:04PM]

If you cant beat them, buy them.

[dxtr @ Apr 18th 2006 4:44PM]

hmmm... let's see... if I had a company, but no more resources (money) to keep it going the way I wanted... and a huge company offered to give me loads of money and have me come work for them.... wonder what I would do.......

Way to go Pablo and the Meedio team! Congrats on your hard work and good luck on your future work.

[Jeff @ Apr 18th 2006 5:50PM]

Ditto dxtr. It's no secret that Meedio has been hurting for cash lately. I hope Pablo and co. got a nice wad of cash for this after pouring years of hard work into it. That said, I also agree the transition could have been a little less jarring (losing EPG, shutting down downloads and support, etc.).

[patrick @ Apr 18th 2006 6:19PM]

Maybe, just maybe, Yahoo! will do something cool with Meedio, like add all of their music and video content, photos, Flickr and and make it all open and free...

[Ben Hobbs @ Apr 19th 2006 9:23AM]

I'm assuming that Meedio/Yahoo will be repaying all the licensing fees that they garnered under the pretense that they where actually going to support this product (or at least get it working).

What the hell does Yahoo want with Meedio anyhow?

[Pissed off Steve @ Apr 20th 2006 9:41AM]

I'm waiting to see when I receive my refund. They certainly wouldn't get away with selling a product and then discontinuing all support without notice in the UK, but I suppose thats the US for you.