eBay coming to TiVo

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eBay coming to TiVo

Jeff McManus, a developer lead at Paypal/eBay announced that his group released a eBay client for the HME. The developer package is here and like he says, it's an early proof-of-concept, but someday soon you may be able to browse and purchase items on eBay, from your couch.

These screenshots look amazing:

by Matt Haughey February 15, 2005 in News

Comments

Oh, man. If Amazon releases a similar client, I am sooo screwed. Time to sell the kids.

Posted by: Eric at Feb 15, 2005 12:31:54 PM

Yeah, this is the kind of thing that I like to see.

I'm hoping that, as they expand the API, there will be hooks into the regular TiVo screens - imagine being able to set a prefered DVD reseller that supports HME, and having a link from show titles to buy the DVD, etc.

Posted by: MegaZone at Feb 15, 2005 3:55:00 PM

Awesome. Yeah this is exactly what the HME should be for. eBay, Amazon, Flickr, ESPN.com... they should all be on my TiVo dangit.

Maybe some MovableType/TypePad plug in too. I know you can pull all the data (like you are now Matt), but I want a "Blog this" feature. Take whatever I'm watching and let me make an actual post. Throw in some show details, a screenshot, and I can instantly make a nice looking entry about tonight's episode of "24" for example.

Posted by: Brian at Feb 15, 2005 4:38:39 PM

Nice. Me wanteee an Amazon.com version of this. I'll never leave the house.

Seriously, TiVo needs a wireless keyboard to make this shine. No need for anything fancy; just add IR codes for the WebTV/MSNTV remote keyboard, which ReplayTV has had since the beginning.

These keyboards are simply oversized IR remotes with a QWERTY keyboard attached; all TiVo would have to do is add the IR codes to TiVo and these things would work without any major hardware or software upgrades.

TiVo, if you are listening, do this - like, yesterday.

Posted by: David Deane at Feb 15, 2005 6:05:47 PM

You should be able to use an IR keyboard with
HmeObject.handleKeyPress(int code,long rawcode).
Just find out the rawcodes for the keys.

Posted by: goMommy at Feb 16, 2005 6:08:50 AM

This is nice, but it isn't going to turn Tivo around. Not without a keyboard. Just way too slow for searching for anything.

Posted by: bruce at Feb 16, 2005 7:59:10 AM

The killer app, is of course, a TiVO based video version of Ebay, but alas, they do not release the Video manipulation code. And of course, something like that would put Antiques Roadshow out of business.

Posted by: Thomas Winningham at Feb 16, 2005 9:14:21 AM

like we need another reason to be any lazier ... sigh.

Posted by: matt at Feb 16, 2005 9:36:19 AM

Bruce:

You beat me to it. Is there (or can someone write) a TiVo extension for keyboards? After that can is there (or can someone write) a Bluetooth connection?

Posted by: peBird at Feb 16, 2005 10:52:54 AM

I think you are all missing the obvious follow-on for this. The "infommercial" capability so you can click a Buy button when watching the ad for the ThighMaster or whatever.

Posted by: Vincent at Feb 16, 2005 12:48:48 PM

According to the Ebay Developer site, it says you can "run it On the TiVo Box. (Requires a business agreement with TiVo)." I wonder what sort of business agreement that would be and what the advantages would be.

I'd like an amazon version. Don't think it would be that difficult.

Posted by: this is cool at Feb 16, 2005 2:14:19 PM

If it doesn't let me watch Homestar Runner, I'm not interested. :)

Internet content on the big screen is where it's at.

Posted by: soybomb at Feb 16, 2005 3:21:09 PM

Regarding a keyboard/mouse: why not simply plug-in (via USB) one of the many wireless mouse/keyboard units that are available on the market today. Or am I missing something?

Posted by: Gary at Feb 16, 2005 4:16:22 PM

"Regarding a keyboard/mouse: why not simply plug-in (via USB) one of the many wireless mouse/keyboard units that are available on the market today. Or am I missing something?"

Go to the TiVo Community forums and do a search for all the driver software problems TiVo had, just trying to support all of the USB-to-Ethernet and USB-to-WiFi dongles that are out there.

Yes, TiVo should support these USB wireless keyboard and mice, but, they need to start learning how to do this better than they have done in the past. They don't have a good track record, so far, for this kind of support.

But I reiterate my original point: adding additional IR codes to support existing IR keyboards is much easier, and involves no software driver support headaches.

Posted by: David Deane at Feb 16, 2005 5:45:18 PM

"You should be able to use an IR keyboard with
HmeObject.handleKeyPress(int code,long rawcode).
Just find out the rawcodes for the keys. "

Thanks; I did not know that. I have never looked into HMO and HME extensions; so far I have just used TiVo as it came out of the box, apart from the simple "hacks" like 30 second skip.

Anyway, ordinary users shouldn't have to play around with this or "roll their own" IR keyboard support, as it were. TiVo should be supporting this out of the box. ReplayTV figured this out back in 1999; I don't know why TiVo is so dense on this particular subject. It's a no-brainer, especially now that there are real reasons to want to use a keyboard with TiVo.

Posted by: David Deane at Feb 16, 2005 5:50:27 PM

A version for Netflix would be great.

Posted by: Colin at Feb 16, 2005 6:53:33 PM

Hmmm... all these additions to TiVo, make it sound like WebTV. What ever happened to WebTV? Oh well, seems as though TiVo will join them soon, where ever they are.

Posted by: Chris at Feb 17, 2005 1:39:16 PM

"Hmmm... all these additions to TiVo, make it sound like WebTV. What ever happened to WebTV? Oh well, seems as though TiVo will join them soon, where ever they are."

That's a silly comment. Don't you know how to use Google?

FYI: Microsoft changed the name from WebTV to MSNTV, and has finally come up with an updated version called MSNTV2, which has broadband support (Ethernet port), allows streaming of mp3s and pictures from one's PCs to one's TV, etc., much like what TiVo HMO does.

Everytime I hear people belittling WebTV, I know I am listening to someone repeating "conventional wisdom" with no firsthand knowledge or experience of the subject.

Posted by: David Deane at Feb 17, 2005 6:59:32 PM

I have first hand knowledge of WebTV, and I can say that its a very limited platform that has faded into obscurity for good reason. I'm alarmed at the prospect of Tivo banking their future on turning their product into a WebTV clone, or even a home media center (although I use HMO for music) rather than remaining a very user friendly DVR.

If they came out with Tivo that made toast, there'd be a few people giddy over the prospect of being able to have breakfast without leaving the TV room.

Posted by: pseudonym at Feb 17, 2005 8:55:05 PM

It's dumb of tivo not to have already added the msntv web service/browser,or similar(Opera),to their product. Dumb..dumb..dumb.

Posted by: BB at Feb 18, 2005 7:47:43 AM

Very good observations about the similarity between these new TiVo additions and WebTV. The thing is, almost everything mentioned here has already been done by WebTV. But Microsoft has done an abysmal job at marketing, so instead of being the market leader, WebTV is barely alive.

Several months before TiVo was released, WebTV came out with the DishPlayer. It was a DishNetwork reciever with the WebTV service built in *and* the same kind of digital video recording and live TV caching technology that TiVo would come out with a few months later.

And even when TiVo did come out, their UI was significantly less slick. Not only did they not have a keyboard, but the way you navigate the system was backwards from what most people were used to, while the DishPlayer closely resembled the TV listings you're used to seeing on cable/dish, but with the added ability to click on the programs you want to record.

But, sadly, Microsoft had no idea what they were sitting on, and didn't market it. So when TiVo came out with guns blazing and trumpers blaring, they were able to corner the market in no time, even with a technically inferior product. (Which was *incredibly* frustrating to those of us who worked for WebTV at the time, let me tell you!)

Having the ability to access eBay throug a custom-built app is cool. But having the ability to acces any web site you want to through a TV-based browser is infinitely more useful. Rather than waiting for other sites (Amazon, IMDB, EpGuides.com, etc) to come out with their own TiVo-platform versions of their services, you could just link to the existing site and be done with it.

TiVo really should look in to adding a web browser. They wouldn't want to buy the WebTV browser from Microsoft, since they've barely upgraded it at all over the past five years. And there are specific concerns that have to be taken into account for TV-based browsers (screen size limited to 560px wide, no mouse, awkward to scroll horizontally, etc).

But if they started an open source project to create a TV-based version of Mozilla, just think how many people would step up to the plate and contribute to that. Solving the screen size and no-mouse problems wouldn't be too difficult. And since TiVo has a hefty sized hard drive, they would avoid a lot of the hurdles WebTV had to deal with (the original boxes didn't even *have* harddrives).

Plus, since the browsers that are built in to handheld devices are going to share many of the same development issues as a TV-based browser, the project could even be genericized to just be a low-resource-device version of Mozilla. So manufacturers PDAs, smart phones, set top boxes, and any other internet-connected consumer electronic product could easily implement a feature-ric browser without having to reinvent the wheel.

But what would TiVo's motivation be? Partnership deals, of course. There are several places in the TiVo UI that one might want to link to related web content. And there are several sources for each type of content. Want to have a link to buy a the show you're watching on DVD? Imagine the bidding war eBay, Amazon, Besy Buy, and a dozen others would be willing to have over who gets to be the site that TiVo links to from their UI. Want to have a link to an episode guide for the show you're watching? Again, there are plenty of sources of this info on the web who would kill to be the one TiVo links to. Want a link provided to the official website for the show? Set a standard price, and let the broadcasters decide if providing that link to their viewers is worth a little extra cash. Talk about targeted marketing to an interested audience!

Add a wireless keyboard and a low-resource version of Firefox to TiVo, and just imagine the possibilities!

Posted by: Ray Hill at Feb 18, 2005 4:31:08 PM

I agree that TiVo would get a lot more early developer adoption if they provided a very simple browser (somewhere between WAP and what you'd write for a non-DHTML browser), with specific hooks for working with on-board data (programming recordings, extracting information, etc.)

The Java tools are so much better than not having java tools, but there are also so many innovative things out there on the web that could be ported to 'TiVoHTML' much faster than the site creator could learn Java.

Imagine also if TiVo had a central web registry where site creators could link their sites to specific shows or even episodes, and users could hit a 'web' button (the unused PnP button?) at any time to get a list of sites dealing with that show. They could collaboratively push sites up or down in popularity with the thumbs buttons, so quickly only the quality sites would be offered.

Just, you know, a thought...

Posted by: Kevin Fox at Feb 18, 2005 7:35:51 PM

Ok, how is this a good thing?
Your TiVo does NOT have a keyboard, if you want to surf for auction on eBay, use your computer, not your TV -- unless you can hook a wireless keyboard and mouse up via USB, I just don't see how this is practical.

Sure, it's cool, but something to save TiVo, naww.

Posted by: joe at Feb 21, 2005 1:39:18 PM

What's cool about the eBay hack is that it's a customized interface for eBay-ing.

A general purpose browser on TiVo would just be annoying.

Small screen + nicely designed, non-ASCII remote = need good, specialized UI design.

Posted by: fredm at Feb 23, 2005 7:34:03 PM

Question is can this TIVO beat my DSL in last second bids? Yea you know you all do it SNOOKER someone out of an item with 10 ticks left. DSL wins everytime

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Posted by: randy at Jun 8, 2006 10:32:28 AM

I heard about eBay aquiring http://www.bargainfindsonebay.com I think its great news!

Posted by: eBay at Oct 16, 2006 9:06:37 AM

Well, We already Order and Buy stuff from our Couch or chair, on Ebay, haha, so, whats so new? that you can see that ugly Gui on the TV screen?
well, be happy with your "futuristic" vision! -_-

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Posted by: get rich fast at Sep 22, 2007 8:55:48 AM

eBay coming to TiVo

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