Entries Tagged 'TiVo' ↓

Mike Cullison has been playing with DIRECTV’s New HD DVR. His report is not encouraging: 

The box works, but I’m not sure it’s really ready for prime time. Last night, for instance, I had to do a hard reboot two times because it locked up and would not respond to the remote. It did a terrible job recording Ugly Betty (on ABC) last night. The video was really mangled, almost to the point that it was not watchable.

The recordings also seem to stall during playback, almost like a bad DVD. When it stalls, no amount of button pushing — fast forward, reverse, play — seems to make it go. It just sits there for a while and then starts over again from the beginning of the recording.

Earlier in the week, the box lost its mind somehow, and would no longer receive my local HD channels. Just all of a sudden they weren’t there when it was time to start recording prime time shows. I called on that one and they sent some data to my receiver and then had be reboot and they came back.

Ugh. I’ve been hoping that this new DVR (with an updated antenna dish) would finally replace my slowpoke DirecTiVo and allow me to get local channels in HD. Looks like this one isn’t ready for primetime.

Meanwhile, DirecTV pushed a setup message to me over the weekend informing me that the long-awaited 6.3 software update will arrive “soon.”

And no, I won’t fork over a grand (including the cost of a lifetime subscription) to TiVo for its new Series 3 box. For one thing, that price tag is ridiculous. For another, it would mean switching to Comcast. Shudder.

Dave Zatz has a picture of what appears to be an upcoming TiVo offer. Apparently you’ll be able to transfer your “product lifetime service” from an old TiVo to a new CableCARD-equipped HD-ready Series 3 for $199.

I had an inkling this was coming, because I currently own lifetime service on a TiVo Series 1 and received a questionnaire from TiVo a few weeks ago that asked a bunch of questions about whether I would be more or less likely to purchase a new TiVo if they would honor that lifetime agreement. (No details on TiVo’s site yet, just a sign-up sheet for e-mail announcements.)

Now, at $800 for the box and $200 for the lifetime service agreement (in lieu of a probable $15 monthly charge, giving it a payback period of  about 14 months) and who-knows-how much for Comcast to rent me a pair of CableCARD devices… Well, let’s just say I’m not feeling a thousand bucks worth of love.

It’ll be interesting to see what the street value of a “product lifetime service” plan on an older TiVo is after this deal becomes official.

OK, I have serious gadget lust. As much as I love the interface of the DirecTiVo HD box, it has too many flaws. No local HDTV, horrible lags (sometimes more than minute) when saving changes, no folders or multi-room features like Series 2 TiVos…

So I was thrilled when PVRWire provided a link to Earl Bonovich’s review of the new DirecTV HD DVR at DBSTalk. I first wrote about this last October, when it was just a rumor.  The review format is a strange one, chopped into a series of forum posts with pictures available only via links. But it’s loaded with information from someone who has clearly spent time with this product.

Some details:

Here is a brief summary of the HR20 features

• High Definition TV Output (via HDMI and Component)
• 2 Sets of RCA (Red/White/Yellow Outputs) - 1 S-Video
• 1 Optical Digital Output
• Dual SAT Tuners
• Dual ATSC Tuners (functionality is disabled at this time, see notes later in the review)
• Wired RJ-45 Ethernet Port
• External SATA Connection
• 300gb SATA Internal Hard Drive
• RF Remote Compatible with the Included RC24, and the soon to be released RC32RF

Estimated Recording Space (Not a cumulative value)

• ~ 30 Hours of MPEG-2 (OTA) HD
• ~ 50 Hours of MPEG-4 HD
• ~ 200 Hours of Standard Definition (SD)

Unit was manufactured by PACE

The Official Model Number: HR20-700

I could have used more direct descriptions and comparisons of the interface, which after all is the TiVo’s big strength. But the existence of an external SATA connector is a huge plus.

If you’re looking for a DirecTiVo HR10-250 recorder, something tells me I’ll have one for sale real soon.

The (unofficial) TiVoBlog has a snippet from an e-mail exchange between a Time Warner cable customer and a cable rep. Here’s what the rep said (emphasis added)

Time Warner Cable of Raleigh does not provide support for or allow TIVO devices on our cable network. Time Warner Cable provides DVR service and equipment for customers that would like to record programs and watch them later. Cable Cards will only be installed on Cable ready, Cable Card slot available television sets. This policy is subject to change at the discretion of Time Warner Cable of Raleigh.

I’ve been predicting this for a while. The cable companies have a powerful incentive to delay and obstruct any alternatives to their set-top boxes. If they can do thi with a TiVo Series 3, what’s to stop them from blocking a CableCARD-enabled Media Center PC when those are available next year?

Dave Zatz reports: TiVo Confirms Series3 Testing, Hitting Retail “Soon”.

TiVo has notified both the FCC and cable operators that CableCARD compliant HD Series3 units are currently being tested and should be released to retail… soon!

Dave has details from a letter TiVo sent to the FCC. Two tuners, HD capability, no set-top box required? Sounds good. I worry about the price, however. I believe my local cable company wants to charge $5 each for a CableCARD device, and TiVo will want another $13 a month plus the cost of the box. That’s a steep premium over the $10 that the cable company’s PVR costs to rent, and you know their sales staff will try every trick in the book to talk customers out of switching. For digital media fanatics, upgrading to the new TiVo will be a slam-dunk. For anyone else, not so easy.

Meanwhile, I’m still waiting for any word on when we can see and touch and watch recorded TV on CableCARD devices for Windows Vista Media Center computers.

Dave Zatz says 180 HR dual-tuning TiVo units are now available. But there’s a catch:

FYI The dual-tuning models work best in homes using analog cable without a cable box and it doesn’t work at all with satellite installations or even plain antennas. Consider yourself warned.

That’s an understatement. Here’s the TiVo ordering page for the new box, which boasts that it’s “optimized for cable!” The fine print at the bottom notes what you can do:

Record from two basic cable channels, or one basic cable and one digital cable channel, at once. Does not support recording from two digital cable or satellite channels at once. Supports recording from cable and satellite sources only; does not support recording from over-the-air antenna.

Hmmm. TiVo’s blurb says, contrary to Dave’s assertion, that this box will work with a satellite source. But it sounds like that’s only for the first tuner, with the second tuner being limited to a direct analog cable connection. I tried to find the user guide for this model, but the TiVo Customer Support site isn’t responding right now.

This product might have made sense two or three years ago, but it’s a little late right now, don’t you think?

Lost Remote thinks so:

A research company called Brandimensions said it scanned over 80,000 sites and concluded that the generic terms “recorded” and “DVR” are gradually replacing the words “TiVo’d” and “TiVo.” The study also concluded that consumers are growing increasingly concerned with TiVo’s standalone box and its inability to record in HD or two shows simultaneously.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that an innovator had been passed over. For years, Xerox was the brand name that everyone used when they wanted to talk about photocopies, even after other companies had overtaken Xerox in market share.

Back then, people said “I’ll make a Xerox of it,” even if they were using a Canon copier.

Today, I know people who still talk about TiVoing a show, even if the actual recording is being made on a Media Center PC or a cable company DVR.

We sat down to watch last night’s episode of The West Wing, the one with the live debate between Jimmy Smits and Alan Alda, and found it was completely unwatchable. The soundtrack was off by at least 15 seconds - we were hearing dialog in some cases before a character was even on the screen. I’ve experienced out-of-sync soundtracks before, but usually the difference is measured in a second or less and is mildly annoying but tolerable. Needless to say, this episode was completely unwatchable and we gave up after the first couple minutes.

Anyone else see this? Has anything this off-the-wall ever happened to you?

Update: Interesting. We tried again tonight. At four minutes in, Forest Sawyer’s voice track hiccuped a few times and all of a sudden everything was back on track.

Dave Zatz says the Netflix-TiVo partnership is dead. He points to a Reuters report:

Netflix Inc. will postpone a test launch of its online movie download service indefinitely because of problems obtaining licensing agreements from Hollywood studios, Chief Executive Reed Hastings told analysts on a conference call on Wednesday.

Hastings said the company would continue enhancing its infrastructure and developing technology to deliver online movies so the service “will be ready to launch when the content climate begins to thaw.”

The brave new world of digital media is rapidly evolving into an archipelago of tiny islands with fanatical border control officers.

Dave Zatz has a look at the latest updates from TiVo and adds this news:

Originally, we were under the impression the dual-tuner HD TiVo box with CableCARD support might be ready Q1 2006. Based on what I was told (and what I wasn’t) I’m thinking we’ll see something mid 2006… if we’re lucky. One possible reason for a delay could be the slow acceptance and release of the multistream CableCARD specification. While it’s very early, I get the sense TiVo is looking at much friendlier pricing than the HD DirecTiVo model which premiered at a $1000.

All those screaming at Microsoft for not getting CableCARD support into the latest Media Center version might want to read this item and follow the links.