TiVo Faces Off With Flattering Clones

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TiVo Faces Off With Flattering Clones

We've been discussing this very topic for almost as long as this weblog has been in existence.

"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.
TiVo's code also is missing from Panasonic's combination DVD Recorder-DVR and Mitsubishi's upcoming HDTV receiver with a 120-gigabyte DVR. Sharp is building DVR capabilities directly into some of its LCD TVs, again without TiVo.

Then later in the article...

TiVo, based in Alviso, Calif., has knocked on the cable industry's doors for years — and admittedly changed its take-my-TiVo approach to now a more flexible tactic of designing its software around the cable industry's needs.

"It's a kinder, gentler TiVo now," said TiVo president Marty Yudkovitz. "It's about building what your customer wants."

But why should cable companies pay more to get TiVo's technology and brand name when they already have apparently good enough DVR features from their entrenched partners?

Too little, too late? And Marty, is your customer the TV viewer, or the cable companies?

TiVo Faces Off With Flattering Clones [AP]

by Gen Kanai April 24, 2004 in News

Comments

TiVo Killed itself with a ridiculous subscription charge for its menuing features. I've used about four other types of PVRs and the reality for me is I could give a **** about the menuing services. I want to record a show or a series by pressing one or two buttons. That's all. I don't get attached to spiffy features and if it's not all that easy to use, that doesn't bother me either. Whatever my cable or satellite company gives me I will use because I'm not paying extra for unnecessary menuing and feature creep, in most cases I can record two things at once, and when a new model comes out, the cable company will provide me with an upgrade option. I understand why the TiVo freaks love it, but I'm not brand oriented. Whatever records my shows without miles of tape is fine for me.

Posted by: elise at Apr 24, 2004 6:43:25 AM

Has anyone done a comparative review of the UI/features for the cable company DVRs, compared to TiVo? I'd love to see screenshots of the major boxes.

Posted by: Andy Baio at Apr 24, 2004 11:02:50 AM

I tried my parents Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 - it made me want to get home to my TiVo. I spent a week visiting and man the SA8000 blows chunks. It was about as smart as my old VCR with none of the features I use constantly on my TiVo (season passes and wishlists).

Oh and both the cable companies and TV viewers are TiVos customers - they sell to several markets. They have the please the cable companies to get on their boxes - but they don't have to do the same thing for their standalone units of course.

Posted by: MegaZone at Apr 25, 2004 3:17:38 AM

I have been using the Motorola HD DVR that RCN offers here in NYC for the last week. It's a miserable, lazy copy of a Tivo and I'm going to go back to my non-HD Tivo rather than keep using it.

Programming recording of shows is difficult, and it's not very intelligent about what episodes get recorded -- we missed last week's Friends because it defaults to only keeping the most recent episode, and they ran a re-run right after. Also, it doesn't even show you where you are in the show when fast-forwarding, and the fast forward speed is miserably slow even at "FF4" speed. No jump-back at the end of fast forwards. And to set up recordings, you have to go to "Timers" in the menu, not the logical "My Recordings" option.

Posted by: Tom at May 2, 2004 7:04:17 AM

TiVo Faces Off With Flattering Clones

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