Chris Blount
04-25-04, 06:56 AM
Debra Baker tells people she has TiVo. But she really doesn't. The 33-year-old New York tax consultant has a variant-- a digital video recorder offered through her cable company. She didn't know what "DVR" stood for until then.
"I thought DVR was Time Warner's name for TiVo," she said.
So, like many others, Baker simply uses the leading DVR brand as the catchall term for the new love in her lounging life: a machine that lets her easily record her favorite TV shows and watch them whenever she wants.
It's a flattering curse for TiVo, whose revolutionary technology records TV programs without the hassles of videotape, letting users pause live TV, do instant replays and begin watching programs even before the recording has finished.
As more clones crop up, the pioneer that helped popularize DVRs is in danger of becoming marginalized.
"TiVo was the proponent of time-shifting TV and their name is synonymous with it, but everyone else in the world that puts together a set-top box is doing the same thing and that's not helping TiVo," said Mike Paxton, analyst at In-Stat/MDR.
The key ingredients of a DVR are a hard drive to store video, an electronic programming guide to facilitate recording, and software to tie together the technology and give the user navigational control.
DVRs are primarily reaching the mass market through cable companies, and TiVo has yet to get its software, including its widely touted user interface, into their DVR-equipped set-top boxes. They are instead using unbranded DVR software from their longtime set-top-box suppliers-- Scientific Atlanta and Motorola.
"The cable train has left without TiVo onboard, and I don't think they're coming back for TiVo," said Sean Badding, an analyst with The Carmel Group.
Full Story (http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/tivo25.html)
"I thought DVR was Time Warner's name for TiVo," she said.
So, like many others, Baker simply uses the leading DVR brand as the catchall term for the new love in her lounging life: a machine that lets her easily record her favorite TV shows and watch them whenever she wants.
It's a flattering curse for TiVo, whose revolutionary technology records TV programs without the hassles of videotape, letting users pause live TV, do instant replays and begin watching programs even before the recording has finished.
As more clones crop up, the pioneer that helped popularize DVRs is in danger of becoming marginalized.
"TiVo was the proponent of time-shifting TV and their name is synonymous with it, but everyone else in the world that puts together a set-top box is doing the same thing and that's not helping TiVo," said Mike Paxton, analyst at In-Stat/MDR.
The key ingredients of a DVR are a hard drive to store video, an electronic programming guide to facilitate recording, and software to tie together the technology and give the user navigational control.
DVRs are primarily reaching the mass market through cable companies, and TiVo has yet to get its software, including its widely touted user interface, into their DVR-equipped set-top boxes. They are instead using unbranded DVR software from their longtime set-top-box suppliers-- Scientific Atlanta and Motorola.
"The cable train has left without TiVo onboard, and I don't think they're coming back for TiVo," said Sean Badding, an analyst with The Carmel Group.
Full Story (http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/tivo25.html)