TiVo will (sadly) die Thursday, May 08 2008
TiVo is creating a new stream content from the internet service, but I don't think it's going to be very good. They want to let people download movies from the internet through their service and play the content back on their TV. While I think this is a great concept, I don't see it as being all that useful. Consider that even the fastest Cable service gives you 300KB/s download speeds (and that's a very high rate, and also consider that people have DSL which is going to top off at 150KB/s), downloading a decent-quality movie over the intarweb is going to take a long-ass time. This completely eliminates the "I want to watch a movie now" urge, or even the "I want to watch a movie in an hour" urge (even a DivX movie is going to be a gigabyte or so). So the only people this would be useful for is those who have the foresight to know they will want to watch a movie sometime soon, and TiVo is pushing this new feature as a distinguishing point from their competitors.
But who are TiVo's competitors? DirecTV just dropped TiVo so they're a new competitor. Comcast cable is a competitor. Time Warner cable is a competitor. Every cable company who doesn't want to license TiVo is now a competitor. While I fully agree that the cable companies' DVR software (in terms of function AND usability) is right now nowhere near what TiVo has (and probably won't ever accomplish what TiVo could accomplish), however it's just so much easier to go with your cable company's DVR than to get a TiVo.
1. TiVo does not support HDTV. They have an HDTV "reference architecture" for cable/satellite boxes, but they do not provide an HDTV-compatible box. In order to use HDTV with TiVo you have to go back to standard analog/digital signal to use the TiVo. The cable companies' DVRs can handle HDTV and can record HDTV signals and have huge hard drives.
2. TiVo is at least $129 and at most about $399, plus a monthly service fee of roughly $15 or a one-time fee of $200 for the lifetime of the box (not YOUR lifetime, the box's lifetime) which is not transferrable.
3. Comcast offers HDTV for $5/month and soon an HDTV-compatible DVR for $5/month. Ten bucks a month is much easier to justify than buying a $200 box and then paying a monthly fee on top of that. So you pay more monthly to have a TiVo, plus you had to buy the box.
That said, I am an avid TiVo supporter, although I am a reluctant TiVo supporter at the same time. The only reason I am still using my TiVo is because Comcast had a problem with the HDTV + DVR in my area and aren't offering it yet. The moment they finally offer it, I am scheduling a technician to come bring me one amd I am going to cancel my TiVo service. I won't have TiVo suggestions. I won't get the great, simple rating system (thumbs up, thumbs down). I won't have a nice, intuitive user interface. I won't have a feature-rich DVR software. But you know what? I won't care. I want HDTV support more. If TiVo can come out with a retail HDTV compatible box with a non-IR interface into cable boxes (only the satellite boxes supported the serial interface to changing channels), then I would seriously consider sticking with TiVo. If not, I wouldn't doubt that I won't be the first to jump ship.
But who are TiVo's competitors? DirecTV just dropped TiVo so they're a new competitor. Comcast cable is a competitor. Time Warner cable is a competitor. Every cable company who doesn't want to license TiVo is now a competitor. While I fully agree that the cable companies' DVR software (in terms of function AND usability) is right now nowhere near what TiVo has (and probably won't ever accomplish what TiVo could accomplish), however it's just so much easier to go with your cable company's DVR than to get a TiVo.
1. TiVo does not support HDTV. They have an HDTV "reference architecture" for cable/satellite boxes, but they do not provide an HDTV-compatible box. In order to use HDTV with TiVo you have to go back to standard analog/digital signal to use the TiVo. The cable companies' DVRs can handle HDTV and can record HDTV signals and have huge hard drives.
2. TiVo is at least $129 and at most about $399, plus a monthly service fee of roughly $15 or a one-time fee of $200 for the lifetime of the box (not YOUR lifetime, the box's lifetime) which is not transferrable.
3. Comcast offers HDTV for $5/month and soon an HDTV-compatible DVR for $5/month. Ten bucks a month is much easier to justify than buying a $200 box and then paying a monthly fee on top of that. So you pay more monthly to have a TiVo, plus you had to buy the box.
That said, I am an avid TiVo supporter, although I am a reluctant TiVo supporter at the same time. The only reason I am still using my TiVo is because Comcast had a problem with the HDTV + DVR in my area and aren't offering it yet. The moment they finally offer it, I am scheduling a technician to come bring me one amd I am going to cancel my TiVo service. I won't have TiVo suggestions. I won't get the great, simple rating system (thumbs up, thumbs down). I won't have a nice, intuitive user interface. I won't have a feature-rich DVR software. But you know what? I won't care. I want HDTV support more. If TiVo can come out with a retail HDTV compatible box with a non-IR interface into cable boxes (only the satellite boxes supported the serial interface to changing channels), then I would seriously consider sticking with TiVo. If not, I wouldn't doubt that I won't be the first to jump ship.
