TiVo's Jim Denney responds to Engadget!

We can't say we were expecting any sort of response to our state-of-TiVo piece yesterday, but we just got a note from VP of Product Marketing Jim Denney. It's not long, but he says that TiVo takes comments like ours "very seriously," and that TiVo's always looking to build on customer feedback. Sure, uh, we're glad to help, but we'll be even happier to write about a new TiVo that actually changes the game -- let us know, won't you? Full letter after the break.

Hello Nilay and Engadget readers.

I wanted to quickly thank you and your readers for the input - it is vital in how we develop our offerings. Feedback like this was instrumental when we brought back product Lifetime service, when we developed TiVoToGo, and when we integrated Netflix into our library. Further, our TiVo Search beta is focused on explicitly asking for feedback. In short, we take commentary like this very seriously.

Frankly, TiVo has changed a lot in the past few years. TiVo has gone from being a time-shifting device to being a converged entertainment device. We've gone from being available only in the living room to now accessible from a PC or cell phone. We've gone increased capacity from 14 hours of SD to 150 hours of HD. And the whole time we've stayed true to our roots, bringing simple, easy to use, and elegant design to discerning entertainment lovers.

In the end, we just wanted you all to know we're listening and we appreciate your comments. Keep 'em coming.

Best –

Jim Denney & the TiVo team

[Michgar @ Apr 29th 2009 1:07PM]

I appreciate Jim responding to the feedback, but throwing in a netflix integration app and TivoToGo isn't exactly a paradigm shift. Just do exactly what Nilay says, and I will be on board.

[a ham sandwich @ Apr 29th 2009 1:16PM]

agreed. almost all of nilay's points in that piece yesterday were spot on. here's to seeing it all happen, jim!

+1

[Nick @ Apr 29th 2009 1:24PM]

100% agreed. I love my Tivo HD but as it stands now, there's no way I can convince others to rationalize the huge expense. If they were to implement what Nilay suggests (ALL of which is spot on), I'd finally have a chance of spreading the gospel.

[JB @ Apr 29th 2009 1:19PM]

I agree. Nice to see a company jump in every once and awhile.

While I have been a Tivo user for years and love the service I have often wondered why they don't dominate the world.

Part of it is they sell a commodity of sorts (at least from a cable/satellite company perspective) and part of it is the shitty deals they strike in other countries, like Australia - you guys are so going to fail there with that model as most people don't want to pay for TV AND there are only 6 channels of shitty US reject TV to watch.

However, rant aside (sorry Oz, I love yaz all), I think they need to focus on one or two things that will really drive adoption. The activities that have been adding are sweet (as in cute) but seem to be ad hoc reactions to events or even serendipitous and without any clear goal in mind. Many of Nilay's suggestions sound cool, but I hope they ask themselves....does it fit into our strategy and where is the business case.

After all I don't want to end up having to use a shitty Comcast DVR.

[MadMike @ Apr 29th 2009 1:46PM]

A few major points about the TiVo that NEED to happen.
1.) With a paid monthly fee, No Ads, no exceptions.
2.) 16:9 HD interface
3.) Ability to use *ANY* eSATA DVR-capable HDD. Don't lock us into the overpriced WD ones.
4.) Ability to view what your TiVo is set to record from any PC (so I can make sure its not already being recording before I set it to record)
5.) No More Ads
6.) No More Ads
7.) No More Ads
8.) If you ignore everything else, at least pay attention to 1,3,5,6 & 7

[coyotej @ Apr 29th 2009 2:34PM]

@MadMike: outside of the "concept" of ads themselves, what about the TiVo ads on the devices bother you?Personally, I don't find them intrusive, they don't take away from the functionality of the device.

[Microdot @ Apr 29th 2009 2:42PM]

agreed. as it stand right now, i have absolutely NO reason to purchase a tivo... my uverse dvr offers me more in the way of usable features (like being able to set it to record from the road, see whats recorded, etc), and is free. paying $500 plus a monthly fee is out of the question without some serious incentive. i already get netflix on my xbox and roku... there really isnt a lot more to the tivo than that at the moment. so add the features that make me WANT to buy a tivo... features i cant live without (like what was listed). until then, i will happily keep my $500 + $12/month in my pocket.

[MadMike @ Apr 29th 2009 2:49PM]

@coyotej: Poorly targeted and they are really poorly thought out and placed. It's more than just the principal of the matter, but principal is part of it. Take a look at Gmail. Gmail has ads, but they do not bother me at all. 1 - yes, Gmail is a free service and 2 - 99.999% of the time I don't even notice them. So it's more than just the fact that they have ads, but I disagree with the entire principal as well. I pay a monthly fee, I shouldn't have to see ads. Actually, I think I should be refunded my monthly service fee for all the months that I have been a member and had to suffer through advertising.

[Bogey @ Apr 29th 2009 3:13PM]

This is really a reply to MadMike... My AT&T Uverse DVR SUCKS. Compared to Tivo the interface simply blows. I switched to AT&T because I was tired of ComCast. I think my broadband is generally better, but the TV... I get HD dropouts all the time - and trying to watch a recorded HD show last night, it was so bad it was unwatchable. Although you can watch shows recorded on the DVR from another STB, you can't add/edit/delete recordings from the non-DVR unit. I am seriously thinking about going back to a ComCast/Tivo combination, except I don't want ANOTHER monthly fee... at least the AT&T offering records HD and the unit is $10 per month. It's gonna take a lot of months of that to cover a Tivo Series 3 or 4...

[Josh @ Apr 29th 2009 3:27PM]

Completely agree with you Michmar. Well said.

[Spiny Norman @ Apr 29th 2009 4:13PM]

Ads? What ads? If there are ads, they're so unobtrusive that I've basically blocked them out.

Turn on TV.
Hit TiVo button.
Select 'Now Playing List'
Scroll to desired program and enter select
Enter select to play program
Program ends and prompts for save/delete response
Up arrow (to delete option), and hit select
Return to 'Now Playing List'

OK, where's the ads?

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Apr 29th 2009 4:35PM]

Yeah. Big props to them for responding, but I think listing "bigger hard drives" as an improvement makes their case weaker rather than stronger.

[ralph @ Apr 29th 2009 1:08PM]

Why does Engadget always sound shocked when somebody takes their comments seriously? It gives your site a sense of small community which is nice but lets be honest, Engadget is huge and owned by AOL.

[Chris Are @ Apr 29th 2009 1:43PM]

AOL?! Get the hell out of here! :-)

[Samo @ Apr 29th 2009 2:24PM]

To indicate how big Engadget is; the "E" was a logo on the Optimus Maximus keyboard :)





...What?

[Tarnation @ Apr 29th 2009 3:22PM]

Its hard to believe Engadget is owned by by what I once thought of as the great evil in the internet world. I hated the old AOL minutes per month thing back in ye olde 14.4k days. Alas sometimes companies do change.

[NoPhoneForYou @ Apr 29th 2009 1:07PM]

WHAT???? TiVo nows come with Lifetime??? I hate that channel!!

[Ethan @ Apr 29th 2009 1:19PM]

True, but apparently the Series4 will be able to censor out depressing content, so the channel will basically be black except for some commercials ... which you'll be able to skip.

[jeremyturnley @ Apr 29th 2009 2:03PM]

No, it will be nothing but commercials and 5 minutes of "Touched By an Angel" before the top of every hour.

[Dillinger @ Apr 29th 2009 2:14PM]

Well lifetime has 1 use, Mondays from 6-7 is how i met your mother hour.

[Sulley @ Apr 29th 2009 2:14PM]

@MadMike:

Even though I agree with you, you're going to have to throw out the entire management team at TiVo in order for advertising to disappear. They have made it clear -- more and more every year -- that ad revenue was going to be part of their business model and they are going to find more ways at every turn to integrate it wherever it was profitable.

The reality is, if you don't want advertising, then you might as well get rid of your TiVo (if you have one). You really might want to just build yourself a home in the hills with just books. That's the only place you'll avoid it. It's here to stay until such a time as TiVo's board of directors sees fit for a clean sweep of management and makes it an absolute rule that advertising is not going to be used.

I cannot think of a single thing that I subscribe to (from my iPhone service, cable, magazines, etc.) where advertising is not a part of their revenue, to varying degrees. Obviously some items have advertising as a large source, while others may have it as a small revenue source. It's everywhere. It's going to become more pervasive and appear in places you and I can't even dream of now. Heck, you might even find someone selling a service just so you can hide from advertising for a period of time. In all reality, think of somethink akin to the movie "Minority Report." It's at simple as that.

In the market we have now, whether we like it or not (and I DON'T to be absolutely clear), businesses are looking for ways to compliment their revenue in any way possible in order to remain going concerns (and not filing bankruptcy). Advertising is one of those simple methods to add to their bottom line.

[MadMike @ Apr 29th 2009 2:58PM]

@Sully - I fear "Minority Report". However, I do have a TiVo and I don't like to lose. So, lets just say I will make myself the biggest pain in the ass to tne ENTIRE TiVO board if I have to, to get no ads on TiVo. I also plan on getting a Moxi soon. Once Moxi matures, I may just drop TiVo. So, that right there, even though I am 1, person - there are many more like me and when a competitor arises, TiVo will need to compete. So, even though the TiVo board may be part of the Illuminati to bombard us humans with countless ads for life, they may need to forfeit that.

Also, there are a lot of apps on the iPhone that do not have ads. Again, like Gmail it's free and it has ads - but I'm fine with Gmail. If I pay for it and they show ads? I take exception to that. Like my Comcast cable box, started to show ads. I wrote a few letters and spoke with executive support. Not more than a few weeks later, the ads stopped showing up on my cable box. So it CAN be done, if you complain enough.

[arcticpenguins @ Apr 29th 2009 1:07PM]

Engadget has ultimate power, they can make companies kneel before them.

[loocas @ Apr 29th 2009 1:30PM]

It seems it works quite the opposite way, when it comes to Apple, though...

[The WC @ Apr 29th 2009 1:59PM]

@loocas:

Bringing Apple into a TiVO-related post? What are you, a mac fanboy?

[luminne4 @ Apr 29th 2009 1:07PM]

cool

[Jaspa @ Apr 29th 2009 2:39PM]

thats a good one! hope theyre seriously taking costumers critics serious! i think thats what makes a company sucessfull... in entertainment-industry more than anywhere else! but sadly a lot oh those companies seems like theyve forgotten that point.

yea... keep 'em coming!
awesome!

[Dee @ Apr 29th 2009 1:08PM]

Dude looks like Hugh Laurie's little bro.

[lax @ Apr 29th 2009 1:12PM]

lol, thats crazy, i never noticed that until you mentioned it, its kinda uncanny

[Waffle Slayer @ Apr 29th 2009 1:12PM]

I wonder if he's seeing dead double chins too.

[Beaker.gj @ Apr 29th 2009 1:36PM]

I think he looks like Andy Dick's twin. You know, the guy from NewsRadio. Ugh, nevermind.

[THJ @ Apr 29th 2009 3:48PM]

For some awesome Hugh Laurie TV, check out the Jeeves & Wooster miniseries.

[Kate @ Apr 29th 2009 6:34PM]

Weird, I was thinking he looked like Dana Carvey.

[Eric R @ Apr 29th 2009 1:08PM]

Talk is cheap, Jim Denney. But I love you guys.

[Dean Murphy @ Apr 29th 2009 1:09PM]

Hi,
Bring a Tivo style service to Holland and I'll be pleased :P

[NoPhoneForYou @ Apr 29th 2009 1:09PM]

Also, how do we know the letter is real. We just have to take your word? What about the letter being scanned and showing the real deal. Did he also send you his picture?

[a ham sandwich @ Apr 29th 2009 1:14PM]

dude both of your comments on this thread are idiotic. give me a fricken break.

[NoPhoneForYou @ Apr 29th 2009 2:32PM]

@ ham: Idiotic or not, they both got responses... and for the first one... very funny!!!

[Ive @ Apr 29th 2009 1:17PM]

You failed to point out that Jim Denney politely corrected you for not checking your facts that the lifetime subscription that you ranted about has been available for sometime now.

[Rick Wills @ Apr 29th 2009 2:07PM]

We get no-frills HD DVR service from Comcast for $5 a month, don't have to buy the box upfront. I'd gladly pay more for TiVo but the $200 minimum for equipment on top of the $130 a year is a little much. Either come up with something super-innovative (again) or find some way to drop the price...or at least structure it to make it SEEM like you've dropped the price.

[StrangeVisitor @ Apr 29th 2009 3:06PM]

I agree that the initial cost seems prohibitive for most ...

But TiVo doesn't require you to have any specific service package. Comcast wouldn't provide DVR service to use with my basic cable package ($19 per month.) Instead, I had to pay $11 for the box monthly, and HAD to subscribe to the $65 dollar per month digital starter package. So to compare:

-$179 (hardware) + $130 (TiVo subscription) + $228 ($19 basic cable, monthly x 12)= $537 TiVo first-year cost
-{$11 (hardware, monthly) + $46 (difference, basic cable v. digital starter, monthly)} x12 = $672 annual cost w/ Comcast
Savings of $135 the first year with TiVo

Also, since I own the hardware, the cost drops $179 after the first year. My savings versus Comcast's DVR after the year one: $314

I love TiVo.

[Kyle Starr @ Apr 29th 2009 1:23PM]

From what I remember, TiVo was much easier to use than DTV. Maybe setting up exclusive contracts with the cable companies would be a good start?

[sweet greggo @ Apr 29th 2009 1:24PM]

Why is there a picture of Andy Dick attached to this article?

[sweet greggo @ Apr 29th 2009 1:25PM]

Why is there a picture of Dana Carvey attached to this article?

[Kristian @ Apr 29th 2009 1:34PM]

Seriously, keep going. You'll eventually say something funny..

[electronymous @ Apr 29th 2009 1:46PM]

Why is there a picture of Poop attached to everything you say? Oh, yeah...

[Doug Deep @ Apr 29th 2009 1:30PM]

It all comes down to price. You want me to pay $13 a month (monthly rate) for something that a cable co will deliver for $8 a month. And that's after an up-front box purchasing fee of $200. A cable-co doesn't have any up-front fees. Worse yet, I have to worry about the box I now own from becoming obsolete before I get return on my investment.

What exactly are they providing me for a monthly fee? Program guide data? SchedulesDirect delivers that for $20 a year.

That's a tough sell, regardless of feature set. Tivo must find a way to get rid of their monthly fees, or they will not survive.

[Brian @ Apr 29th 2009 5:55PM]

What world are you living in? Maybe your non-asshole cable company wants $8/mo for a DVR, but here in Comcast land they want $15/mo. That's up from $10/mo a year ago.

TiVo for me is $10.83/mo plus $1.50 for two S-cards. That's $12.33/mo total, or $2.67/mo cheaper than the Comcast DVR.

Yeah, the box (TiVo HD) was $180 (refurb) up-front. Considering that I would have paid $99 for the Netflix/Roku box anyway, the TiVo cost me $80 net. And while I'm not going to break even for another year and a half, I think it's worth it to not have the Comcast POS DVR.

If you're paying $8 for your cable company DVR and like it, more power to you. But TiVo is far, far ahead of Comcast's POS DVR, and it's cheaper per month too.

[Gregg @ May 5th 2009 9:47AM]

Cmon guys - let's give them some credit for responding.

Here's hoping they implement a lot from that article yesterday. It was a fantastic write-up.

[fluxusfuxus @ Apr 29th 2009 1:29PM]

Dude, who cares? -Look at him! He's Gorgeous!