Questions about Starz VOD for DTV

[AFH]

Last night I checked out the Showcase icon in the DTV menu for my DTivo. In the Showcase menu there was a Starz VOD icon. I selected the icon and was taken through the process of signing up for the free trial period of this VOD service. I signed up for it and it enables to you watch 5 pre-selected Starz movies a week any time you like.

I called DTV and asked them how long the free trial period would last and was told for six months from Aug 02 to Feb 03. The csr did not have pricing info or any other info. My question for anyone that can answer it is, Have any of you heard of this service being provide by DTV? Secondly, with VOD I thought that you could pick any movie that Starz has in its movie library to watch any time you like. Isn't that supposed to be the case? Also the crs said that non-Tivo recievers cannot use the VOD service at this moment. It seems to me that all recievers should be able to use such a service.

[timf]

It's not really VOD. The Starz! movies are recorded similarly to suggestions, although the titles are pre-determined by Starz! and not based on other programs you watch. I've found a couple of movies I liked while using this service, but more often than not the titles are things I've seen before or have no interest in. This isn't a service I would pay to use, at least not in its current form.

[The Old Wizard]

I had SVOD for about 2 months. It is free during the test period. In the two months that I had it, I found I was interested in watching about 10 of the movies it recorded. Everything else was either movies I had no interest in, or very old movies I had seen way to many times on the commercial channels. For example it offered the "Back To The Future" trilogy, movies I have seen too many times.

One thing I noticed, shortly after I subscribed, My Tivo Suggestions started to reflect the type of movies that were being recorded by SVOD. Even though I am no longer subscibed to SVOD, Suggestions is still showing all kinds of movies that I have no interest in. Pesonally I would not reccomend it. You have more control over what you want to see by using the search features of your D-Tivo.

[Atomic Buffalo]

The Starz! service is ideal for people with no imagination and no desire to ever search for anything. It guarantees that you'll have a tired and trite mainstream movie to watch every night. It reminds me of what you could depend upon HBO and Showtime to give you in the good old days before they packed their prime-time hours with lame series.

:: Atomic Buffalo

[James_F]

As The Old Wizard said, it just records movies that Starz thinks shows. If you look at the Guide from time to time, it would be the same a SVOD. I've turned it off because if its lack of sophistication.

You only need a subscription to Starz to make it work.

[platinum]

i just hooked up my hughes tivo receiver, can you tell me how i can try svod please.

[James_F]

Its somewhere in the showcases I think.

[platinum]

can you tell me how to find it please

[James_F]

On my Series 1 DirecTiVo you go to the showcases option on the main menu. Scroll down to you see the Starz VOD icon (mine was on the third row) and select it. From there you can either activate or deactivate it. It says "Free Preview", but from what I understand there are no plans to charge you for it in its current form.

[platinum]

thank you for your help.

[James_F]

np