At last, some good news for the DVR market

[Randy_B]

I know this only affects Tivo right now, but in light of court decsions lately and the proposed INDUCE Act, overall this is good news for the DVR market. Small, measured steps for now.

"TiVo users will be able to share copies of digital TV shows through the Internet with a small number of friends and family members, the Federal Communications Commission said Wednesday.

The Alviso, Calif.-based company, which sells a popular digital video recorder, had applied for government authorization so its customers could receive digital broadcasts and share them with up to 10 other TiVo units that share the same customer account. " Full story can be found at:

http://news.com.com/FCC+lets+TiVo+users+share+shows/2100-1041_3-5296756.html?tag=html.alert

[SimpleSimon]

Well, both good and bad news. The whole set of copy restrictions is onerous. We are all now considered guilty until proven innocent when it comes to any entertainment content in our possession.

If anything should be outlawed, t's the undue influence of the RIAA and MPAA.

It's not that I agree with piracy - that's theft, plain and simple. Among other things, I'm a software developer, and am sensitive to having my work stolen.

However, take a good look at the software industry - there's been almost no damage due to piracy - even to Microsoft, which of course is the biggest victim of it.

[dfergie]

Replay has had this feature for awhile, but the newer models do not have the send function as they were afraid of the copy protection police :sure: It is a nice feature to have :) But if tivo does implement it they need to make sure it is faster than the Replay version.

[mallu2u]

This is a great feature. Hope it comes to Dish soon. Also the feature that one can schedule recordings online.

[Jacob S]

I would say that the only new receiver that even has the possibility to do this is the 522, and I am not even sure if it is even going to be possible with it.

[SimpleSimon]

Jacob: I don't know why you say that. The 921 has plenty of expansion ports. I believe the 721 does, too. My old 501 has a fat expanion port on the back, so I suppose it's possible that some custom hardware could be created for it.

[Marvin]

Since the NFL doesn't like what Tivo is doing (saying that this can be used to share games with people in places where the games aren't supposed to air/blacked out), Id say it was a good thing that Directv already renewed the Sunday Ticket package.

[Randy_B]

Because Tivo can do it, doesn't mean DirecTV will implement it. DirecTV has not added HMO have they?

[JohnL]

Because Tivo can do it, doesn't mean DirecTV will implement it. DirecTV has not added HMO have they?

Randy,

One note, there are signs and rumours that Rupert Controlled DirecTV will drop TIVO in favor of Ruperts own DVR products already available in Europe.

I'd put money on the TIVO/DirecTV partnership dissolving over the next year or so.


John

[Randy_B]

I think the "marriage" is contractually hooked up through 2007. After that, it will be interesting. With at least 1M DirecTivo subscribers, Rupe could have a significant revolt if he decided to dump the DirecTivo box.

[travrichard99]

Randy,

One note, there are signs and rumours that Rupert Controlled DirecTV will drop TIVO in favor of Ruperts own DVR products already available in Europe.

I'd put money on the TIVO/DirecTV partnership dissolving over the next year or so.
John

I confronted D* directly about this and similar rumors / news. In their responce, DirecTV made it CLEAR that, first of all, these rumors are just that... rumors... and then they made it very clear that they have absolutely no intentions of dropping their relationship with TiVo anytime in the forseable future. When I said that I would cancel my subscription the day TiVo service and new DVR's w/TiVo are not avaiable... They made it clear that I need not worry about that. They also made it clear that recent "news" was also unreliable.

As for the TiVo sharing thingy... if you goto TiVo.com and read the official press release from TiVo, the FCC gave them permission to go ahead with the technology... WITH restraints... the FCC makes it clear that it will not tolerate equipment that allows for the mass distribution / sharing of programming. I'm sure that D* and TiVo can come up with a way to not allow certain things to be shared at all... such as NFLST stuff, PPV stuff.... etc.

[travrichard99]

While I realize that DirecTV is not going to respond to my inquiry with "Sorry, but the rumors are true, nice having you as a sub, have a nice life!"

Likewise, IF the rumors WERE true... it's more likely they would send me a responce like they do whenever a sub mentions programming... "Your concerns have been forwarded to the appropriate department. Thank you so much for righting! We appreciate your concern and thank you for being a DIRECTV customer." blah blah blah blah blah....

However... in the responce... they OUTRIGHT DENY these rumors... stating that they are SIMPLY NOT TRUE... They would not be willing to make such a bold statement unless these rumors actually were untrue. I challenge each of you to email customer care and ask them about the rumors... betting you get the same responce.

In short, they're not going to lie to all the subs. If the rumors were true, the would simply keep quiet about it... they wouldn't outright lie.

[Unthinkable]

Jacob: I don't know why you say that. The 921 has plenty of expansion ports. I believe the 721 does, too. My old 501 has a fat expanion port on the back, so I suppose it's possible that some custom hardware could be created for it.

I'm obviously not Jacob, but I believe he mentioned this knowing full well that none of the receivers above have ever had actual expansion options introduced and sold for them. Sure it looks nice and yes it does give the impression that the receiver was engineered to be somewhat forward thinking in the future, but in all seriousness, you are kidding yourself if you honestly believe this would be rolled out by Dish. Past history indicates these expansion ports are more for show then for any fully realized functionality years later.

[Bob Haller]

Companies will say anything they like about long term stuff in 2007. If you held and refered back to their letter, a simple things changed covers the statement... Its in their best interest to calm a upset sub today, about a undecided situation years in the future..

Expansion ports on E are a joke, most never get activated and some even disappear:(

[travrichard99]

If it's not till 2007, that's fine... There's absolutely no gaurantee that I'll still be around in 2007... or ANY of us... and anyone that thinks otherwise is really taking things for granted and needs to stop doing that :hurah: Enjoy today, nobody has promised you a tomorrow.

[SimpleSimon]

Unthinkable: You're absolutely right - E* has almost never used any of the expansion prots they provide. USB Keyboard for the 721 is an exception, tho.

However, I repliying to Jacob's comment regarding "possibility", not "likelihood". :)

[BobMurdoch]

As to the rumor question, I have the following response.....

Rumors are always false, ... until they aren't anymore. They will tell you one thing until a decision is made, then they will make the announcement and deal with any fallout. Feel free to call them up and give them feedback, but a CSR is not "lying" to you when they say them have no plans to leave Tivo. When and if it occurs, it will be an uppermanagement decision which will then land like a ton of bricks on CSRs desks for them to try and deal with....