Ten years of TiVo: how far we haven't come
By Nilay Patel 
posted Apr 28th 2009 2:30PM
posted Apr 28th 2009 2:30PM
But here's the thing: it's been ten years since TiVo first introduced the Philips-built HDR110 at NAB, and while the company's name has since become synonymous with time-shifted digital video recording, it's not because its products have achieved runaway success. In fact, it's the exact opposite: most consumers choose to get by with awful cable- or satellite-company DVRs, and TiVo's only just barely pulled a full year of profitability, two factors that have kept it firmly on deathwatch since 2005. Not only that, but while TiVo might have pushed the DVR into the mainstream, it hasn't meaningfully innovated since -- apart from HD output and the aforementioned streaming services, you'd be hard-pressed to tell a brand-new TiVo HD from an original unit by using it for five minutes. Worse, the entire DVR category's essentially remained stagnant as well -- one study found that the average DVR-enabled family records just 15-20 percent of the TV they watch, a startlingly low number by any measure.
So look -- it's not working, guys. We're happy that Comcast is now offering the TiVo interface in certain markets as a paid option, and we'll be pleased as punch when those long-promised new DirecTiVo units ship out, but the simple fact of the matter is TiVo can't continue to rely on the same strategies and ideas that haven't worked for the past ten years. What TiVo needs is a new plan -- and we've got five simple ideas that might help kickstart the company and the DVR market for the next ten years. Read on for more.
1. Embrace the computer within
Sure, the DVR is supposed to be an "appliance." And there's nothing wrong with letting things operate that way in general. But in reality you're shipping a custom Linux rig with dedicated HD video hardware, Ethernet, and external storage support -- the possibilities are endless. It's great that you've built a YouTube implementation, but a basic browser with Flash video support should have been part of the stock install for years now. The DVR that can also play Hulu without any hassles -- instant hit product. Local network streaming? It's great that it's partially supported, but half-assed codec support doesn't cut it anymore. Make your box play everything, no questions asked. People with TiVos shouldn't be tempted by a media streamer ever again.
The same goes for getting video out and onto portable devices -- you're being totally shown up by open-source projects like iTiVo and pyTiVo. TiVo Desktop Plus shouldn't be an afterthought your customers have to pay extra for -- it should be the defining feature of your product. Record a show, have it on your phone the next morning to watch on the train -- no cable company can compete with that. Mix in a little Slingbox-like placeshifting and gadget nerds will be beating down your door with $12.95 monthly subscription fees.
Can't do it, the networks and cable companies won't let us? Stop crying and point them in the direction of any decent Media Center PC, which can do all of this and more, and even do it with your interface. No excuses.
2. Put a little QWERTY in the peanut
The peanut remote is arguably one of the most iconic pieces of home theater gear ever designed. It feels great in the hand, it's intuitive, and it's powerful. It's also incredibly obsolete. What are all those number buttons for? Why is there still a switch to select between two DVRs? Why can't it control other A/V gear as well as a $25 universal can? Why is 30-second skip still a hidden command? Most importantly, why is using it to enter in search terms such a terrible pain in the ass?
If you're going to be serious about video on demand and your new search interface, you've got to make text input way easier. This isn't rocket science -- just take a cue from the smartphone market and build a slider QWERTY peanut with a friendly, stripped-down top layout. Not only will you have once again set a standard in remote design for a decade, you'll have made YouTube on TiVo something other than a painful way to torture party guests with bloopy sounds.
3. Update the interfaceSpeaking of the interface, it's time to rethink things. A lot's happened in the ten years since we first saw the TiVo interface, and it hasn't kept up. That new search interface is a start, but it's time to let go of the SD customer and start seriously designing for the 16:9 HD display. You've got a lot more room to work with now, so give us the data we crave, like storage meters, PIP, and network-enabled information overlays. Hell, go crazy and toss in a third-party widget API, like Yahoo's doing. Fix the simple stuff, too: there shouldn't be any jaggies. Reordering the Season Pass priority list should happen seamlessly in the background instead of locking the user out for an indeterminate period of time. Switching between the "native" TiVo interface and things like Netflix and HMO apps shouldn't be so jarring and involve obvious resolution changes.
Just being slightly better than the cable company's garbage won't cut it for much longer -- again, the Media Center PC kicks your ass right now, and the high-end customer on which you're currently relying is going to figure that out soon.
4. Ship the Series4 with tru2way support as fast as you can
Yes, we're telling you to add in a lot of features, but time is of the essence, and the next generation of TiVo hardware with tru2way support needs to hit shelves soon. The single biggest reason people don't switch to TiVo is the lack of cable company on demand and pay-per-view content, and tru2way will put an end to it. Sure, the interface might be out of your hands and largely sucky, but hey, it'll still be there. Panasonic already has tru2way hardware on the market and the system is live in a few cities with major rollouts planned for July 1 -- so what's the holdup here?
Oh -- and just call it the Series4, okay? Trust us.
5. Cajole, convince and inform your audience with advertising
Everyone -- everyone! -- says they're going to "TiVo" a show. But they don't actually know what a TiVo is, and you're not telling them. We sort of get why you wouldn't spend a ton on advertising right now -- the economy's in a hole and your offering isn't necessarily $300 and $12.95 a month better than the cable company -- but you need to invest heavily in explaining to people why your next product is going to change the way they consume media. Show them the difference between a DVR that works almost perfectly and the crap they're stuck with now. Hold their hand during the inevitably bad CableCARD installation. Offer lifetime service plans again. In short, give your customers a reason to buy into your brand and correct people who say they have "a TiVo" when they mean a generic DVR. It won't be easy, but it's doable -- you just need a product that deserves the effort.
Wrap-up
Look -- none of these ideas are guaranteed to work. Maybe the surest path to profitability is indeed selling software to cable and satellite companies. Maybe Microsoft will eat the entire DVR market for lunch with a combination of Media Center, Windows Home Server and the Xbox 360. It's damn well going to try. But we'd bet the vast majority of consumers will still be puttering along recording just 15-20 percent of their media on crap DVRs until they have a compelling reason to switch to something better. That's a huge opportunity waiting to be seized, but it's not going to sit there forever -- the TiVo brand might give you an advantage to start, but unless you make some serious moves, next-gen devices like the EchoStar SlingLoaded T2200S are going to snatch it out from under you. The next ten years starts now -- we'll be watching.
"You've got a lot more room to work with now, so give us the data we crave, like storage meters, PIP, and network-enabled information overlays.."
You don't even get why TiVo's become so popular -- simplicity. Everybody can use it.
If you're a techy who wants more, use a HTPC...
I think an updated HD interface with a QWERTY keyboard on the remote would be easier to use/see and be just as simple, using letters to input programs or searches is a lot more intuitive than using arrows to change each letter manually.
No kidding. My _parents_ can actually use a TiVo.
Don't mess that up with making it too complicated.
I'm pretty sure you missed their whole point...it hasn't become popular. After ten years, popular would mean at least as many sold and in use as say the iPhone which is only a couple years old.
You can stop at #1. This alone would be enough for me to switch back to TiVo. Your guys hit the nail right on the head with this one!
I agree about keeping the interface clean. Though it could use a tad bit cleaning up/modernization.
1. Peanut Remote with slide out keyboard = awesome idea
2. media streamer for Hulu, YouTube, Netflix, Amazon and anything on our desktop = must
3. Interface needs major work with all these new things. Right now they are just ductaped in. It wasn't originally designed for it and the current placement wasn't thought out well.
4. Clean up, organize the "Music, Photos, More". It's filled with games that come with it and other worthless crap that you have to scroll past to get what you want. And why does it take so long to load that screen half the time.
5. Which leads me to the last thing: Speed it up. Better Hardware. Use of threads. The lag is highly annoying in the Tivo menu.
6. The SDK was a start, but you need to grasp what "widgets" are. People make/add widgets to Vista and they go on the DESKTOP, not hidden halfway through the menus. Allow people to create entries on the main menu. Or hell, let the user customize what they want on the main menu. Also would be nice if widgets could place notifications while watching TV.
7. Built in RSS reader
btw, lots of features doesn't mean something has to be hard to use. Consider the iPhone, there are litterally hundren of thousands of people that are not tech savy that have them but you don't hear them saying it has to many features. Furthermore, look at the number of teenagers buying smartphones now. I know enough people that didn't even know what WiFi GPS or Bluetooth were, yet they are walking around with $500+ phones with these features.
Are you saying then, there should be no more smartphones because there are stupid / tech unsavy people that cannot use them?
Then, why do you believe TiVo can't add alot of features, but make it simple enough for anyone to use? This is a MAJOR selling point for Macs as even though Mac OSX is based on BSD (which is arguable more complicated to use than DOS / Windows) apple added a nice interface and made it easy to use.
Why can't TiVo do this?
Anyway, can we send this to TiVo as an open letter? I don't want to see another DVR leave TiVO HQ without these features. TiVo isn't competitive anymore consider most providers will rent you a DVR with all the features TiVo has for free if you qualify.Why would anyone want to add $15 a month to there cable bill to get less than what they would with a regular provider? I have the TiVo S3 in canada (I know its not supported here) and I can't get HD on it. Why am I paying tive monthly when I can get a free HD rogers DVR
The iPhone is easy to use because it DOESN'T have a lot of features....
TiVo could add new IR commands (and IP commands for iPhone apps) that would allow QWERTY input with existing universal remotes and PC applications. This is very trivial to do and could be rolled-out to every TiVo in existence. They wouldn't have to spend R&D developing new remote control hardware, just release the codes and let the remote control developers and iPhone app developers to go town. We'd have working solutions within weeks of TiVo publishing the codes.
One of the current iPhone apps (Series 3 and TiVo HD only) does mimic qwerty input, but it is not an elegant solution. It uses a bunch of macros to move the cursor around the "Ouija board" alphabet input screen, and you have to start with the selector on the correct letter for it to work. It's the best solution to date, but would be much nicer if TiVo actually released codes to allow direct alpha text entry in any screen.
If I could get a well priced DVR that did not require a subscription fees I would be on it! I don't want any more monthly fees and I don't want people tracking me.
Exactly....number 1 on that list should be: DROP THE STUPID SUBSCRIPTION MODEL.
Obviously, since they barely pulled a profit, the subscription isn't working. Release CableCARD compatible models with a good web browser on it, an optional keyboard and gyro mouse (Accessory dollars...ka-ching), and you have a real winner. IM, Facebook integration, Twitter support (Just think of the statistical possibilities..keeping track of what you are watching, auto-tweet your channel surfing, etc.)
There are still ways to keep the subscrition model alive...you just have to give consumers clear value. Partner up with content providers you already have, like Netflix and Amazon, but throw in Hulu, Youtube, etc. Put back out some subsidizing...$100 off with a 1 year Netflix subscription...etc.
The possibilities are endless...they are just killing themselves by trying to control too much.
Lucas, you hit the proverbial nail on the head. A new Tivo HD with lifetime service costs $700. Why oh why are there no MythTV boxes that compete with this. (If anyone knows of one, please do the world a favor and reply). Dollars and sense says the Tivo is too expensive for its own good.
This article should be titled: "Ten years of standalone DVR fail!"
I views the subscription fees as the price for not touching the box from the cable company for a month. In that light, it's a bargain at any price.
I gotta agree with this one. This is the ONLY reason that I have never bought a TIVO. I even use it as a verb in our house, but I will never replace my cable DVR as long as there are crazy subscription fees...oh wait, ANY subscription fees.
Are they a hardware supplier or a service provider? Make up your minds people.
I agree with, Radar. The $13 subscription fee is really a moot point considering you spend that much per month for an HD DVR from your cable provider. TIVO should market the fact that you can pay $13 a month for THIS (insert TIVO, explain benefits, highlight capabilities and ease of use) or pay $13 a month for this (insert junk cable company DVR that doesn't work). Not only that but you OWN it. Tired of it? Sell it. Want to get more storage? Buy it. Want to watch tv on the go? Transfer it.
People complain a lot about a $13 monthly fee but don't blink when Time warner rents them a piece of sh*t for that much.
Nailed it. I guess they really, really, really want the recurring revenue model because they're afraid that some day someone will come out with something better... and with hardware sales falling, their revenues will plummet, too.
But what they don't get is that NOBODY wants to pay yet another monthly service fee, especially given that the guide has relatively minimal costs. Hell, it sorta made sense when they needed to support pools of dialup modems all over the place (or 800# calls, I'm not sure which they used).
I don't mind the premium pricing for a better experience (my Comcast DVRs blow chunks), but they want me to pay hundreds of dollars up front, and STILL pay almost as much in monthly fees as Comcast charges me for the whole box? Again, all for a service that costs them almost nothing?
I ran the numbers one time, and it would have cost me something like $1300 to buy two TiVo HD DVRs, replace the hard disks with something bigger, and buy lifetime service for both (yeah, the insult of having to pay service fees for *each* box).
TiVo just doesn't get it. Their product would be a runaway success if it was just a matter of paying a chunk of change for a great device. For that matter, given their sales, subscription fees, and what SHOULD be a low cost business to be in, I'm amazed they aren't profitable beyond their wildest dreams.
on the money. and it doesn't cost $13 bucks a month from the cable company and even if it did you still don't have to buy the hardware and when a new model comes out you just go get one free. half the people on engadget are rich kids buying toys and don't realize cost is the number one factor for purchasing things with most consumers. It's a big reason why everyone didn't rush out and get a ps3 when it debuted, bluray and all.
GUYS!!! You Pay subscription Fees from DirecTV or your cable provider... so check out your bill next time... They all have a DVR Fee... normally about $5.95, with DirecTV HD it's $12
...time Warner charges $7 a month for DVR service. Comcast does the same. You're still paying a fee
Tivo + lifetime is not $700. It's about $500 if you already have a Tivo, or $600 if you don't.
The biggest things that keep me with m ycable dvr is the fact that i have to buy a tivo. Also with a tv i still have to rent a cablecard from the cable company.
Plus the subscription fees.
Its much easier to go with the cable company dvr.
This is 100% correct.
Cable and Satellite providers are killing Tivo. It's just too much of a pain to make a Tivo operate with a high-end system, unless you can get a decent Cablecard option, something almost unknown to consumers. Until Tivo makes the right deals, or the providers ease up their restrictions, Tivo began to die when Digital and HD cable/satellite became default options from providers.
::shrug::
IR Blasters and cablecards aren't going to sway the masses. I really don't think Tivo has a chance, which is a shame, because as far as I can tell they're the only ones who actually put any thought into where to skip back to when pressing "Play" following a fast forward.
Yeah I agree. It's too damn expensive. I hate my comcast dvr but it is cheaper and I'm used to the awesuckness of the interface. The Moxi is tempting but the initial reviews make it sound sort of half-baked.
How is it easier. I got my TIVO box, bought lifetime subscription and I am done. All I do now is rent my 2 cable cards from TWC. I cut my bill by 14 dollars a month so in one year I will save almost 170 bucks. It pretty much pays for itself in 3 years. On top of it all I get netflix, youtube, fast intuitive interface (not in HD yet, but god I hope soon) I can schedule recording online, record shows longer in case they run over next show. All I can say is I LOVE IT.
But yes they need to keep improving this product HD interface, qwerty keyboard on remote, ability to expand storage with any eSata drive and fully functional web browser for Hulu and I will be in Heaven.
@jcudlaz
The average consumer (read: the mass market Tivo hopes buys their product) is unfamiliar with the Cable Card system, and is unlikely to support major adoption, especially when they get DVR right from their box (without limiting PPV or On-Demand programming).
I realize your point is that it's not easier *for you* but unless you're willing to carry Tivo's profit margin from the mainstream consumers, it's a moot point. Cable card is not ubiquitous. It is not easy for the mainstream consumer, and those cable companies offer DVR's with their service.
I don't know how to do the math any easier.
Sell things the way people will buy them. Offer $0 initial costs and subscription, $1-2-3 00 initial and subscription, and 100% upfront and no subscription. Let people give you money any way they want.
Sorry to say, but Tivo (much like Hulu now too) means nothing outside of the U.S.
It gets a big fat whoopdedo from me.
Because we all know how important non-US trends are on an AMERICAN BLOG. Go drink some tea or take a trip to IKEA. Either way, shut up.
And all the Chinese, Korean, and Japanese phones on Engadger that will never see the light of day on European or US soil are somehow more relevant? Sounds like you're just bitter that you can't watch Hulu :-)
Also, Frankfurter...your comment screams irony when held up against your name.
Not So, Tivo is alive and well and just about surviving in the UK, albeit with only series 1 Tivos available. Mot users here would take your hand off for a series two, never mind a series 3.
They have also just launched in Australia
@Frankfurter, as an American iced-tea and IKEA fan, I think your comments are stupid.
@Craig, you may not like TiVo since the data subscriptions are US centric and CableCARD probably means nothing to you outside of the US as well but ... why do we really give a crap? American readers are interested. Now, how about TiVo's software version which is part of Nero Liquid TV? Now are you interested? OK then, shut up now. :)
Integration would be nice too.. you have a mobile website, but what about an iPhone and Blackberry application to schedule shows?
And btw, they still do offer lifetime service...
Uhh... they have those.
I dunno, 15-20% of watched TV recorded on all DVRs is still a pretty decent amount.
The stat is of the families with DVRs, they only watch 15-20% of their TV pre-recorded and the rest live. Personally I'm more like 90% pre-recorded and 10% live and if it wasn't for football it'd be like 1%.
+2 with Ben's response. What's live TV?!?
Football live? Who has 3+ hours free on a nice Sunday afternoon? I start watching 2 hours into the game, and fast forward through the huddles and commercials, and the whole thing is done in less than an hour, often 40 minutes. As an added bonus you get to skip the (often) annoying chit-chat between the announcers.
On the subject of Football, how about making the 'Pause' timeout configurable? I can't tell you how many times I've paused the game while watching the recording, only to have the pause time out and return to the live broadcast, and thus spoil the end of the game. Many of us have LCDs, so we don't give a rat's ass about burn-in. Allow us to set the timeout, or at least go into some screen saver mode.
I purposefully wait 20 or so minutes after a show starts to start watching it, so I can FF through all the commercials and be done with the show almost as soon as its done recording. I don't watch anything live, except football, baseball and hockey.
I wonder why no one has mentioned that maybe the "survey" results were rigged to ensure that advertisers keep paying for content?
If the content providers discover that (for example) 90% of content is recorded, and 90% of the commercials on that content are skipped over, I think they would quickly stop paying for advertising, or at least offer much less for an ad slot.
If you've ever had a media company try to get you to buy advertising, you'd know that they basically show up armed with pages and pages of industry-provided charts showing how much of what demographic watches for how long, and what percentages each viewer is, etc. These charts are only available to media companies, and they don't leave a copy with you.
So, you get told, "Yeah, our market is a perfect fit for your company. 65% of our viewers are , and we have viewers listening during any one hour, each listening for a minimum of minutes! It's a perfect fit!" Then you think, hey, if I get .01% of those listeners, that's like 10,000 people who might be interested.
Basically, the media companies are nothing more than lying scumbag marketers. But we all knew that, anyway.
Satellite. Why exactly cant they produce and sell a unit compatible with DirecTV or Dish on their own? In both cases a card from the provider could be provided same as those awful cable cards and instead of 'leasing' my unit from the sat provider I could pay upfront for a Tivo with better interface (and for the love of anything GOOD RESPONSIVENESS TO USER INPUT). Waiting for DirecTV to push tivo based units again is a bad idea, it could easily never happen.
Also that monthly charged based on what they currently provide is absurd. Either sell me the unit with a lifetime subscription or just dont bother, but I really cant justify paying an extra 12 bucks a month on top of everything else I'm already paying for to get TV (including that huge initial cost of the tivo itself). If you are determined to stick with monthly costs, then lease me the unit in that monthly cost rather than make me pay upfront.
The TiVo HD is about $200 now. That's not a huge initial cost.
A refurbished Tivo HD is $200 right now. A Tivo HD that has never been broken still costs $300.
They can't offer a set top box without the cooperation of Dish and DirecTV. The feeds are encrypted, DTV and Dish hold the keys and they have to authorize the cards and equipment. All equipment on sat has to be approved by the sat vendor, or the cards will get deauthorized. There is a substream of data from the satellite that constantly refreshes a list of cards and equipment serial numbers. If your equipment doesn't see its its ID in that stream, it shuts down.
Connecting unauthorized equipment is a fast way to getting sued for sat hacking.
Also, why can't we continue to watch a show while in the menus?
I accidentally disrupted one of my S2 Tivos during an update, and got this side effect of what is playing is behind the menus. It's actually really annoying and I don't like it at all.
It could be done right, PIP or dimmed, but it's not a gimme.
I'd start with the ability to reorder the 'Now Playing List'. I hate that when you select a group of related programs, and delete a recent recording, the group disappears somewhere down the list. I'd like to be able to fix the order of the groups, or at least provide some basic rules to define ordering, e.g. same as Season Pass list.
Also, how about the ability to create folders? Subfolders?
Series 2 and newer has folders. All episodes of the same season pass, or wishlist search go into a folder. You control it on the same screen as sorting alphabetically or by air date, etc.
But you can't -create- folders at will. My main TiVo is so full of random kids shows it drives me nuts. I'd like the ability to create a "KIDS" folder, then move all those shows into it. And maybe one for all my wife's House, Heroes, Southland, and every other generic drama on TV right now. I need plenty of room to see all of my Modern Marvels shows.....
Yes, I know they support folders, but it's only sortable by date or alphabetical. How about a few other options? How about sorted by user priority?
Nicely written. I would add that one of TiVo's true innovations has been finding a way to sell viewing preference and demographic information back to the content providers. Not much help to the consumer (some would call it spying), but innovative nonetheless.
Long live ReplayTV!
Seconded!
I might be misunderstanding, but lifetime support is still available. I looked into it about 2 weeks ago.
well written nilay! i enjoyed the points. spot on!
+1
They need to also pick a business plan. Either charge us monthly or show ads - not both. I bought a TiVo to STOP getting ads not to see more of them.
Gah, cable card pretty much kills TiVo, HTPCs or anything else in that category for me. TWC has an awful history of handling cable cards and I can't get HD programming through one either. So, yeah I'd love me some TiVo, but until TWC rolls an HD cable card AND support for it that isn't gawd awful, I won't be using a TiVo or an HTPC despite my desire to do so. So while we can harp on TiVo for changes that need to happen, let's not forget the larger barrier provided by cable companies.
The other thing TiVO needs to do is a better job of networking multiple TiVO devices within the same household/network. If you have 2 or more TiVOs on the same network they should be able to talk together, decided which TiVO has the required free resources to record such-in-such program so that a user can purchase a 2nd (and more) TiVO to suddenly have 4 integrated TV tuners as well as the added storage space. This should extend to playback as well, have whatever TiVO you are watching display all available media that exists on any TiVO on the network, if it was recorded in the living room i should be able to watch it in the bedroom seemlessly (and vice versa).
ReplayTV had this yerars ago. My two ReplayTVs allow me to schedule over my home LAN on the remote ReplayTV, as well as watch programming recorded on the other unit, as long as my network supports it, speed-wise.
Too bad it doesn't support HD or else I would've never have gotten a DVR from a cable of dish company.
The DTVPal DVR offers a $250, no-subscription, dual HD OTA-tuner solution for anyone who doesn't want to pay a cable company or Tivo a monthly fee. With the full power switch to digital broadcasts in June, it is a compelling sell for anyone who watches mostly network OTA TV or has other TVs in the house that they don't want to pay an extra fee for. If only the units had a better UI and were less prone to crashing.
If Tivo could come up with a similar offering for the same price I think they could push a lot of units out the door.
The DTVpal DVR is a horrible product and is overpriced at $250. The guide data is terrible and the thing barely runs. At this point in time, a Series 1 TiVo is a much better investment despite the lack of HD support.
Hey, this seemed to work when Ryan and the gang went after Palm, so who knows?
It only took Palm TWO YEARS to get it's head out of its behind! So by 2012 we'll have a new tivo? I can't wait that long. I have a Tivo HD, but I may also pick up a Moxi soon.
I think senior management and shareholders had a lot more to do with Palm's potential resurgence than a gadget blog.
The reason Tivo hasn't gone anywhere is because its still not as good as ReplayTV was on day one. The Replay will pause as long as you have disk space. In addition to FF/Rew, it jumps in intervals from thirty seconds to hours at a time forward or backword. Image being able to instantly move ahead one hour, not having to wait for FF to get you there and then blow past the point you want. The SonicBlue version has commercial advance which AUTOMATICALLY skips commercials. You don't have to FF, just set the feature on and it skips commercials! Boom, gone.
For its efforts on behalf of consumers, SonicBlue got sued out of existence. As time goes on, Tivo is all about serving the braodcasters and spying on customers. In terms of the features which make viewing TV better its a ho-hum product at best. Tivo and other modern DVR owning friends are always blown away when they see how a Replay unit actually works.
As to all the modern download and internet support, I'm not into all that but I agree with the people who see these things as becoming requirements.
Uh, you can skip ahead on TiVo in increments as well. While fast-forwarding, hit the 30-second skip button. Do some research next time, hayseed.
The hindering factor for Tivo is cost. I love my Tivo, but I still have my Series 2 and lifetime plan (best decision ever). I have no need for HD, but would like the updated services, but not spending the cash for a new machine unless they'd give me a no extra cost lifetime membership.
I also recommend Tivo to friends and family, but cost is always the negative mentioned.
TiVo also needs a low-cost extender too. Otherwise they are going to lose out further in features to Cable Providers that allow multi-room viewing of DVR content. Essentially it could be a cablecard cable box with no recording functions (well perhaps a small ram based buffer) and no service fee. it would be able to do everything to current tivo software could w/o the recording capabilties. If they could get something like that for less than $200 they would have a winner.
Probably a good idea. That's what all the cable company DVRs are moving to.
Sell a whole-home DVR. Sell it with great big disks (2 x 2TB even) and a subscription model. It records everything for the whole house. If there are internal slingbox capabilities, or over the internet access with transcoding, this is the box that does it. If it needs multiple mult-stream cablecards, so be it. At least four tuners.
Sell a small cheap box for each TV. It should be able to do remote management on the whole-home box. Like deleting things, scheduling new recordings etc. But it just streams programs from the whole home DVR. These are cheap and have no monthly service fee.
All of these boxes need to have both Ethernet and MoCA (over cable) support. The latter will work for most households that don't have Ethernet, and is what the cablecos will be using.
The DirecTv dvr is just fine, it's not something that I would compare to cable dvr's in the slightest (Optimum). My wife, who is a raging Tivo fan, actually even prefers the DirecTv HD and non HD dvr to the old series 2. Although, admitedly the HD unit is a little laggy but I'll take it over a tivo unit.
I'm a huge Tivo fan, but Series2 single tuner did not help Tivo's image. I "upgraded" to one from my S1 Tivo and it was WAAAAYYY slower. I refused to use it. I then tried a dual tuner and found the performance acceptable. I long for the whiz fast menus from my old Tivo which was fully hacked and had about similar functions. Still considering to this day that I should go back because Tivo hasn't given me much motivation to keep the newer boxes. I guess that's why this article is spot on. Not much innovation since the Series1.
I just use Windows Media Center with the Xbox extender. It's just more convenient, and it's not really too hard to set-up. I don't really have to pay much extra for a separate piece of hardware, and servicing fees.
My biggest thing is the monthly service charge. Thats the reason i havnt gotten a Tivo yet. I dont mind paying $300 for the device, but the monthly charges add up.
Bring TiVo back to the UK? I remember seeing their boxes in stores many, many years ago...they disappeared soon afterwards.
I haven't had the pleasure of using TiVo, since I don't watch TV all that often and using Windows Media Center instead. So I'm not sure if a feature that I would like to see in future models is already implemented in some form, but here goes: when I watch my favorite shows, sometimes certain things catch my fancy--could be a song being played during House, a remix used to sell the Lincoln MKZ, or a Slanket on 30 Rock. When that happens I think to myself, 'Cool, I gotta remember to check-that-out/look-it-up/go-get-one after this show' but usually forget. It would be great if there could be an optional "Buy Now/Add to Cart" feature as I watch--true impulse purchasing at its best.
I'm not gonna go into details as to how I imagine this would be implemented, 'cause I wanna keep this post to a manageable length =).
One more suggestion that MUST be added to this list: Throw a ****ing BluRay player in the box already!
The HUMAX/TiVo DVD Recorder is/was actually an awesome product, except that (a) nobody cares about DVD anymore, we want BluRay if anything; and (b) Nobody cares about DVD *recording* -- just give us a BluRay player! The huge hard drives these days are more than enough to collect libraries of media, so we're not interested in burning TiVo'd shows -- with commercials -- to optical media. Trust me, we're not.
Damn, it makes me ILL that I have to have two devices -- a DVD player and my TiVo -- in my entertainment stack. Why?!?! Especially when my TV only has one HDMI input ?!?!?! So, do I spend money on (a) a new TV with multiple HDMI inputs; (b) a new BluRay player to upgrade from my DVD player; or (c) a new TiVo with a built-in BluRay player that can become the one and only device I need? Well TiVo? Which do you think I should do? No wonder you're not getting my money -- you're not giving me what I want!!!!
Um, the product lifetime subscription option's there on the tivo website:
https://www3.tivo.com/store/plans.do
Dunno when it came back, but there it is...
#1 should be: Abolish the monthly fee. They're charging you for a small amount of scheduling data that is readily available for free throughout the internet.
PS. Forgot to say that the I was thinking TiVo could get a cut of the sales, making the feature another way for them to make money.
Excellent article. Really hit the nail on the head w/ those points.
I think it's safe to say that, in 10 years, if they haven't implemented the vast majoity of those suggestions, they will indeed die off.
one of the more insightful posts in the last month. like the thinking that tivo needs to advance their game. reminds me of palm.
How about a $5/month subscription? I can't afford $15/month. I just want to use my Tivo like a VCR. I don't need a bunch of high tech stuff. I just want basic recording abilities.
I now get that after cancelling my subscription. I don't get any search functions or a program guide, but I can still record. I'm worried though when the HD breaks. Why isn't there more competition? Why can't I buy a DVR for the TV and not the PC without paying a monthly due?
More people in America need to realize that we're all not rich, and not all of us want to pay $100s a month for TV entertainment. I want more tiered options.
tivo should just buy snapstream and beyondtv, then use their software.
Tivo should take a lesson from Apple - find a cable company sponsor, go exclusive with them, and let the Tivo/Cox (or whoever) combo draw customers to the cable company host for the better DVR. Most cable customers couldn't hook up a Tivo - they have to get with the installer/service base that's out there.
The problem with that is not all cable companies have access to every market - thank you franchise agreements. TiVo would be silly to sign an exclusive with any single cable company.
Now, if you had said satellite company, there's an argument to be made.
TiVo hasn't innovated in 10 years because it has NEVER innovated...
ReplayTV innovated like crazy! It had:
*An OFF button (which doesn't keep the HDD spinning 24/7!!)
*Photo Screensavers
*You can pull up your pre-recorded shows menu WHILE watching a show
*You can pull up your TV Guide while watching a pre-recorded show. (TiVo JUST ADDED THIS LAST YEAR!!)
*They could skip commercials automatically (until they got sued too many times)
*It was easy to tell your Replay to record something remotely from a webpage (they did this before TiVo could)
*With DVArchive you can pull your TV shows off your Replay, store them anywhere, and actually have your ReplayTV PLAY THEM BACK through DVArchive (Think Unlimited NAS for your DVR!)
*Replay records in MPEG-2 format and at Medium Quality it’s already the exact format DVD needs to burn directly, no transcoding needed!
*You can SEND and RECEIVE shows to your friends ReplayTV anywhere else in the world
*You can watch and transfer shows from one ReplayTV in your house to another.
Seriously... SERIOUSLY! Innovation at hand = ReplayTV.
I am sure my comments my be lost in the crowd but here it is anyway. I am a major TIVO user I still have my Sony Tivo with a lifetime membership and 3 TIVO seris 2 units. First and formost TIVO is not just a HD product it all started with and will continue to be a product for all TV viewers. So drop the line about cutting the SD people loose. That will loose me as a customer and I am sure bring about a class action suit. If TIVO wants another 10 years then they need to STOP makeing units with feature that people with older units can not use. As stated I have 4 units and no way am I going to spend another grand to change all my boxes to HD boxes I would quit the service and use my dvd recorder.
Why are they still selling TIVO 2's but not giving us all the updates that TIVO 3 and HD have why can's I delete an entire folder with one click? Why can I not have Youtube on my TIVO there is nothing stopping me. The slow adoption of TIVO is beacuse as soon as you buy one a new one comes out and you are left with an outdated box. I should be able to use one of the USB ports on mine to off load shows as a back up TIVO 2's get no extra storage why?
I love TIVO but as a 10 year user I am not in the mood to spend alot more to get a little more.
#4 is the only reason I don't own a TiVo yet. Hurry up and take my money TiVo!
Tivo should allow older models of their hardware to upgrade to HD/digital models and keep their Lifetime service plan (maybe with a small fee).
Lots of cable companies are converting to 100% digital and the older models lose many of the nicest features (Series2 DT less than a year ago, sigh).
If my cable company Mediacom offered an upgrade from their regular DVR service and equipment to a Tivo designed cable box for a couple extra dollars a month, I'd be all over that. Right now, getting a Tivo with cable is a costly decision, and not worth the battle with cablecards and support.
HD Netflix videos of TivoHD in action:
Basic TiVo functionality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNvgoLVzijE&fmt=22
Netflix, Youtube, Internet Video on TivoHD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mCIKSj8bvY&fmt=22
Changes to the TivoHD software since mid-2007:
* revamped wishlist functionality
* support for eSATA expansion
* support for multiroom viewing
* ability to download recordings from DVR to computer
* ability to transfer recordings from computer to DVR
* improved manual recording screen
* improved menu and guide responsiveness
* significantly improved MRV performance
* ability to single-click delete with clear button
* ability to single-click play individual recordings and entire folders with play button
* ability to jump to top/bottom of menus with -->|
* ability to browse the guide while watching recorded programs
* ability to advance 1.5 hrs at a time in the guide (>> and | and replay buttons)
* ability to watch Amazon Unbox as it downloads
* Crestron integration and remote control via tcp/ip
* native support for MPEG-4 and VC1
* support for Netflix SD/HD streaming
* support for 1080p24 from Amazon Unbox ($2.99 per HD episode, $3.99-$4.99 per HD movie)
* swivel search, recently replaced with the 16:9 TiVo Search (broadband users only)
* scheduling from a mobile phone (http://m.tivo.com)
* occasional ad banner on TiVo menu and end-of-playback delete prompt (yuck)
* pause menu (yuck)
Things the competition (Moxi has done, that TiVo has yet to do):
* 16:9 HD interface (as opposed to a 4:3 interface on a 16:9 HD background)
* 1.5 hour HD buffer per tuner (compared to 30 minutes for TiVo)
* DLNA 1.0 client support allows access to music. photos, and videos on computers, network attached storage, mobile phones, and other devices without proprietary software.
* No advertising whatsoever in the UI.
* Storage expansion works with any external eSATA drive up to 1.5TB, not just the My DVR Expander (500GB, 1TB).
* External drives can be added and removed at will to archive recordings; each recording is not split across internal and external drives (as on TiVo), so recordings are not lost when a drive is removed.
* Adjustable duration on skip button (30 seconds, 3 minutes, etc).
* Ability to display a small guide at bottom of the screen.
* Picture window on every menu screen that shows the current liveTV channel and/or current recording.
* On-screen widgets for weather, sports scores, stock quotes, etc, updated in real time.
* Online scheduling with real time conflict resolution and the ability to edit/delete scheduled recordings online.
Well written, however there would have to be plenty of these features and a good price for me to consider buying one. Otherwise I would much rather spend my money on a HTPC just because I know ill be able to update and add new features whenever the community makes them.
Of course no one's buying a Tivo. They cost $300, not even including the monthly fees.
For network connected TiVo 's (i.e. not dial-up), they should ping the box every few minutes to confirm connection. If, as often happens with TWC digital, the connection drops TiVo could automatically download the (remainder of the) show once connectivity was restored. Assurance that the customer won't miss a special show because of the level of service from their provider SHOULD be a killer app.
My biggest question about the TivoHD is that if it can stream Netflix, why is it that I can't connect to other computers and/or Windows Home Server. No, I don't want to download it to the Tivo, I want to stream it. Tivo's been sitting in its laurels throwing their paying customer a crumb every once in a while. But, they need to do more before, like mentioned in the article, MS, and even Apple, eats their lunch. Google came from out of nowhere and ate all the search engines' lunch. Tivo could have the same fate and have someone else take their customers. I enjoy having two in my house. But, for $12.95, you better give me more. After all, I also paid for the unit as well.
I love TiVo. That said, I no longer use TiVo. I am forced to use DirecTV's HDDVR and I hate it. TiVo runs so much smoother but since I converted to satellite, you can only watch/record one channel at a time on the TiVo, which of course defeats the entire purpose of a DVR. The talks have been forever that a new series was coming for satellite and of course, no go. Highly disappointed.
# 1 should be: Abolish the monthly fee. They're charging you for a small amount of scheduling data
# that is readily available for free throughout the internet."
Guide data isn't available free for commercial use. Tribune's wholesale price for guide data is about $1.66/mo, and that doesn't include the cost of the servers or infrastructure to deliver it in a format the TiVo can use. TiVo also pays extra for dial-up Internet access to allow those without broadband (or home networks) to download guide data using a phone line.
TiVo's monthly service is significantly higher than $1,66/mo the purchase price doesn't cover the full cost of the hardware, nor does it cover any of the software's cost. TiVo loses almost $100 on every TivoHD sold (see FY2009 annual report), and that doesn't cover once cent of the software's cost. The monthly fees goes to pay for the hardware subsidy, the cost of the software...plus the $2/mo or so it takes to license and deliver the guide data.
TiVo essentially "broke even" last year (excluding the Echostar settlement), so it's not like they are making loads of money at the expense of customers.
# But you can't -create- folders at will. My main TiVo is so full of random kids shows it drives me nuts.
# I'd like the ability to create a "KIDS" folder, then move all those shows into it. And maybe one for all
# my wife's House, Heroes, Southland, and every other generic drama on TV right now. I need plenty
# of room to see all of my Modern Marvels shows..."
You can create your own folders to do that, although it's not very intuitive. For instructions, see the Using TiVo and TiVo Tips sections of the TivoHD FAQ:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=419994
I like how there's a lag on my Comcast remote for button press, yet I can get razor-sharp responses from any of the major 3 video game console makers. Maybe they should be making cable TV remotes on the side.
Folks, the subscription fee is necessary for them because they aren't making much of anything on the boxes themselves. It's not about assuming you're rich, it's the reality of being viable as a company.
They only have about 1.5 million active stand-alone units out in the wild. They would have burned through that cash faster than Dominos can deliver a pizza.... through Tivo, which is a rather stupid new feature Tivo now has.
The only other viable option (for them) is for customers to buy the lifetime service for a couple hundred extra bucks.
I just moved from Moxi to Tivo. HUGE mistake. Tivo's UI is archaic compared to Moxi. I can't believe how unintuitive it is. Since Tivo is the market leader I was expecting much more. I am still thinking of cancelling the service and buying a Moxi and lifetime service for $800...it was just so much more of a pleasure to use!
screw tivo and their bs advertising and subscription fee...give me play tv already...