[John Corn]

Consumer-electronics maker Sonicblue announced Thursday it will start charging a subscription fee for its digital video recording service starting this summer when it releases new recorders.
Sonicblue Vice President Steve Shannon said the company will offer a lifetime subscription first, followed by a monthly subscription later this year. He did not disclose prices, but said they should be in line with the competition's rates. For comparison, rival company TiVo charges $249 for a lifetime subscription. ("Lifetime" refers to the life of the recorder.)

Until the subscriptions become available, the company will continue to build the cost of maintaining the service into the price of the recorders.

DVRs (digital video recorders) are similar to VCRs, but instead of recording shows to a tape they are stored on a hard drive. Sonicblue's DVR service allows subscribers to pause live broadcasts, pick shows to record in the future and jump past commercials that are stored on the hard drive of its DVRs.

Further details on the subscriptions will come when the ReplayTV 4500 recorders are released this summer. The company will also start selling its recorders in retail stores. The subscription fee for the DVR service will not apply to owners of ReplayTV 4000 recorders.

The move to subscriptions comes as Sonicblue tries to capture more market share in the DVR market, which is lead by rival TiVo. TiVo started selling its Series2 recorder earlier this month

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[lee635]

RE: "For comparison, rival company TiVo charges $249 for a lifetime subscription. ("Lifetime" refers to the life of the recorder.)"

I thought that you only had to buy one lifetime subscription even if you own more than one receiver. So if the original receiver that you bought the lifetime subscription on goes out, you have to buy another subscription? How would the man find out that my original unit died? If it doesn't phone home, do updates stop on the downstream units????

 

[spanishannouncetable]

Stand-alone TiVos require a seperate lifetime sub for each unit ; DirecTiVos require only one lifetime sub which covers up tp 8 units on the same account.

All units call in to TiVo by some means (dial-in, TiVonet, etc.) to verify subscripition service. SA TiVos also get guide data via the phone calls as well so they need to call in nearly every day while DirecTiVos, whose guide data is delivered via satellite, only HAVE to call in once every 28 days. Since DirecTiVos are also used to buy PPVs most of them are constantly hooked to a phone line anyway, so if they miss calling in for a few days it's no big deal.

If any unit fails and cannot be repaired by an official warranty repair shop, the lifetime sub can be transferred to another unit.

 

[dlsnyder]

The Sonicblue units were designed to be networked and need a high-speed internet connection to work. They don't work with a dial-up connection. I assume they stay in contact with their corporate home server more or less constantly this way. The cool part though is that you are supposed to be able to share programs you have recorded across the internet. This is why all the major program producers filed lawsuits and injunctions against Sonicblue to try and stop this thing. I have yet to see one in a store anywhere but they supposedly have been available for purchase since late last year.