How would you change TiVo?

People spent the weekend answering the question "How would you change TiVo?" over on Engadget. Even TiVo loyalists will admit that there are imperfections with their PVR of choice. While the perennial favorites "Get rid of TiVoToGo DRM" (which is the root of the "Support x non-Windows platform" suggestions), "built in networking hardware," "dual tuners," "expandable storage" and "sell out to Apple" were all well represented, here are a few of the more interesting ones:

• The Jeremy : Viewer voting options. Actually voting on the quality of the show you just watched, and the ability to give feedback to "Thumbs Up" or "Thumbs Down" actual networks. I detest UPN and G4, so I'd like to actually have my TiVo upload my vote to TiVo to share with interested advertisers.
  Offer an option to get "free" service by agreeing to watch a certain amount of downloaded commercials tailored to your aggregate viewing habits.
• Haggis!: Exclusions in the wish lists so you could automatically record anything about say, Scotland, but not anything about golf that was played in Scotland.
• telstar: Ability to order the soundtrack to movies that are playing, and have it synced to my iPod
• Jen: The ability to download commercials via product line, category or client specific.
• Jim: Wishlist to select 4 star movies
• Grafix: detection on all channels of when a certain word is use to record that segment. such as program to seach "PSP" then using scientific mathematics to detect a similar sound our picture in a broadcast then recording the program [ed. I think what the commenter wants is some sort of closed captioning search]
• C9: Record by Folksonomy, make it social, allow for greater skinning.

There are also a lot of complaints in the comments, hopefully TiVo is listening to all this free market research.

Comments

[Surfacedamage]

I've been looking all over trying to find an easy way to transfer just the audio from my TiVo to my iPod. Not all shows would be warranted, but being able to listen to last night's Daily Show in my car on the way to work would be fantastic.

A TiVo Desktop - iTunes communication path would be a great addition!

[John Bryson]

I would simply like to see TiVo be a little smarter at the basics - recording programs. Now that the networks have come up with the brilliant strategy of running some shows a minute or so long, I wish TiVo would be able to figure this out to ensure all requested programs record.

As an example, last night I had the Raymond finale scheduled as well as 24. I have DirecTiVo so the dual tuners should have worked fine, even though both programs were scheduled for 8:00pm CST. The problem is that the pre-Raymond special ran one minute into the next hour, so I got 24 at 8:00pm but didn't get the series finale of Raymond, because the special ran over.

Ironically, CBS did this scheduling stunt to ensure that viewers watch both shows - by playing this game, they actually prevented me from watching the second program on their network.

It would be nice to have TiVo search back to try to record a requested program once the other tuner is free.

[Wild Bill]

I think you've missed the obvious one. Have Tivo be able to interrogate, list and play media from local devices on the network.

As well as write to DVD Dual layer disks in DVD format. And play DVD's.

So the Tivo remains the center of my media universe - not some rubbish from microsoft.

---* Bill

[Karl Kennedy]

I have 5 TiVo's ...... 1 each for ABC, CBS. NBC, FOX and ESPN
Do I think TiVo is a good thing? I dunno, let me get back to you on that. Right now I'm gonna go watch whatever I want whenever I want and right now I want.

Karl

[MMB]

The ability to set bookmarks within a recorded show. Sometimes when my wife and I are watching a show, one of us falls asleep before the show is over. Would be nice to be able to set a bookmark so you could go back to that point without fast forwarding. Also would be cool to mark sports highlights or exceptionally funny moments in a show, especially if you want to show someone at a later time.

[Lighthouse]

1. when i call up the Tivo guide, i'd like to see some indication that I have already marked a show for recording.

2. i understand that there's only so much you can do w/ the interface on the tube, but the interface on the Tivo Desktop could be better. For example, i'd like to look at the list of programs in my Tivo and checkoff the ones I want to delete and click the delete button ONCE to clear them all. actually, now that i think about it, that shouldn't be too hard to do from the couch either.

same thing w/ entering my recording choices. i DON'T like doing it one at a time. I'd like to be able to do a search, get a list of results (including alt view times, when appropriate), mark my choices in a list and submit it all at once. i'd be happy even if I could only do this from my PC

3. w/ my network setup i want to view video clips i d/l from the internet, just like i can now listen to mp3s and look at jpgs.

4. how about being able to plug in a usb video cam/microphone combo and teleconferencing w/ anohter Tivo user? One-way, two-way, or more. Split screen or walkie-talkie style (one speaker on screen at any time for all participants). Anybody could host their own 'fireside chats.' The ultimate "public access channel." Got something to say? Post a notice online, plug in your cam and start narrow casting. Tivo could post viewer statistics at the bottom of the screen so you would know if anyone was watching. interactivity w/ the audience could be added by "voting" or answering survey questions w/ your tivo remote.

i could go on and on. basically, there's so much more potential that this box isn't delivering yet. let's GO tivo!

[Mike]

Lots of good suggestions, but many require hardware changes. Which I guess is fine, but these days they would have to come up with some fantastic application to motivate people to buy their hardware, if they want to compete with cable companies.
I propose a scheme like the cell-phone companies have: free or heavily reduced hardware costs if you sign up for a certain period of time, for example 2 years.

Also, I would like to see individual user accounts, so each viewer could have his/her own "Now Playing" list, and start or stop shows as he/she wanted.

/Miie

[Oskar Austegard]

802.11g support
Allow transferring Tivo2Go media back to the DVR, essentially using a large capacity PC as overflow storage.

[missdona]

I'd like to thumbs up/down at the category level. Thumbs up for sports/tennis and interests/fashion, thumb down for sports/auto racing and kids programming.

Maybe an optional survey that will probe your preferences better-- something like "do you like old movies?" or movies by decade?

[Jamie]

Seemless integration with Netflix... be able to search for any movie on TV or on Netflix... if the movie is not on TV, it will allow you to put it on your Netflix list (assuming that you are a Netflix member).

[CJ]

I would like the ability to tell TiVo that I like a program (for the purposes of recommendations) but PLEASE DON'T RECORD IT. Ie, hey, I like Star Wars (thumbs up!) but I own all of them, so just use this as info about me to help you pick other programs for me... but I don't need it to be taped. (This is espcially true for things like Star Trek or Friends, where you might like it but don't need to have it taking over your whole TiVo).

[Adman]

I think they'd get a lot more people familiar with DVRs if they had a TiVo-lite in hotel rooms. It would record the weeks worth of most popular shows - unless someone staying there specifically picked out a program. This would be really good for road warriors, bad for Spectravision sales.

[Ala]

Nice site :)
http://www.virtualsearching.com/