Luckily, though, I accessed my favorite shows on my DVR and TiVo. Whenever I had a chance to check out an episode, I did. And when I realized that what I was watching was really not worth it, I deleted it and moved on. Best of all, I didn’t have to watch a single commercial.

[Image credit: Leo Reynolds]

My DVR experience over the last several weeks has solidified my belief that a world without the DVR is one that I don’t want to live in. In fact, I think it would be a crying shame if we were forced to go back to a time when the DVR wouldn’t be available.

I realize that there are many people that don’t have DVRs and they’re just fine without them. They sit down at a specified time each night to watch their favorite shows, and they might even enjoy watching commercials. It’s a ritual of sorts that they’ve grown comfortable with. And it’s something that those people wouldn’t want to lose.

But I have a different take on it. I’m one of those people that can’t stand online ads, commercials, or any other advertising initiative that distracts me from what I’m trying to enjoy. So, when I have the chance to skip commercials, I can’t wait to take advantage.

There’s also the issue of watching all the many shows I want to to watch. At any given time, I might have two or three shows on that I would really like to watch. Rather than pick one, DVRs afford me the opportunity to not miss either show. It’s a great option that I think far too many people look past when they’re deciding against buying a TiVo or paying just a few bucks a month for their cable company-provided DVR.

Of course, I realize I’m not covering new ground by saying DVRs are a fine option for the living room. And I’m sure the vast majority of you out there agree with everything I’m saying. But I wonder — given TiVo’s history and the sub-par quality of standard DVRs — if enough people see value in them. TiVos aren’t exactly flying off store shelves, and I’m still shocked by the number of people in my life who aren’t using DVRs — and see no reason to do so.

There appears to be a divide among those who are DVR owners and those who are not. One group couldn’t live without DVRs, and another can’t see a reason to live with them. Whereas some say they’re worth the cost, others say that they aren’t. And although there are some folks who say DVRs give us more time to do other, healthier things in our lives, like read a book or take a walk, detractors say they keep us tied to our couch.

So, what’s the truth? At the end of the day, it all depends on the individual. But as far as I’m concerned, DVRs offer a host of benefits — and very little, if any, downside.

The TiVo HD DVR combines the TiVo service with DirecTV’s HD content in a seamless interface along with TiVo’s unique peanut remote and Swivel Search feature. It allows users to easily set Season Pass Recordings, create WishList Searches, get TiVo show suggestions, record up to 100 hours of HD programming, and record two shows at once.

Users can access more than 7,000 on-demand movies and shows from both HD shows and movies from DirecTV Cinema. The set-top box costs $199, but an additional $5 per month TiVo service fee is required along with a $10 HD Access fee and a $7 DVR fee.

[via MarketWatch]

This update will bring you improved information banners so you’ll know even more about the things you should be paying attention to instead of reading, and you’ll now get multi-room streaming on top of it all. This is for you rich folks with your TiVo boxes in multiple rooms, of course. This feature was not available for early adopters, but like the rest of the updates, is available for all users now.

You’ll be getting additional updates this spring including a fully refreshed set of apps for YouTube and Netflix, not to mention Parental Controls in your HD menus! The update you’re dealing with right now goes by the code-name 20.2, and if you’re wise, you’ll be able to wait for it to come down on you in due time, hopefully sometime across the weekend hours. Otherwise you can be crafty and try to force the update with TiVo mind magic. Stay safe, folks, just wait for it!

[via TiVo]

TiVo’s DVR service offers users four ways to access content, including traditional live TV, recorded TV, video-on-demand, and other internet-delivered content, such as through Netflix, YouTube, and Hulu Plus. This latest study found that only 38 percent of viewing via TiVo is live. Of the TiVo users that also use the internet content services, such as Netflix, only 27 percent of viewing was of live TV.

The company’s audience research unit tracks anonymous usage across 2 million TiVo DVR devices on a second-by-second basis. An obvious trend is that for videos, users generally prefer on-demand, whether its recorded or delivered via broadband. Although the study doesn’t take into account the viewers not using a TiVo DVR, it does show a major shift in the way we watch television that will require the TV industry to adjust how it delivers ads and distributes its programming.

[via Hollywood Reporter]

Exactly what the tablet version will do differently has not been explained, though at the very least a UI better suited to larger-screen devices seems likely. The current app shows either the remote control for a TiVo box or a schedule guide on-screen at any one time; a tablet could easily accommodate both simultaneously.

There’s also social networking integration in the existing software, allowing viewers to post to Twitter or Facebook about what show they’re watching. With more screen real-estate to hand, a stream of Facebook and/or Twitter updates relevant to the show could be included as well.

You can download the current app here though you’ll need a TiVo Premiere DVR to take advantage of certain features.

[via Dave Zatz]

According to GigaOM, it seems like gradually over the years, TiVo has been “transforming itself from a CE player to a licensing entity”. The company has been losing end-user subscribers for years now, only recently being able to increase subscriptions through partnerships with Virgin and RCN. Moreover, the only way TiVo has really been able make bank in the most recent years was, well, via patent lawsuits, followed by generally lucrative settlements, like this particular one with AT&T. Just last year, Dish Network and Echostar consented to fork over a total of $500 million to TiVo to settle a lawsuit brought against their, well, you guessed it, DVRs.

It seems like that AT&T can’t get a legal break, whether it be from the court, or the FCC. SlashGear readers, what do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.

The forum post reveals that the new TiVo set-top box will be available only in the following ten major US cities: Chicago IL, Denver CO, Los Angeles CA, New York NY, Philadelphia PA, Phoenix AZ, Sacramento CA, San Francisco CA, Seattle WA, and Washington DC. A nationwide rollout for other markets is still being evaluated.

However, this new TiVo-powered DVR will carry a $5 per month TiVo service fee in addtion to the $7 DVR service fee and the $10 HD Access Fee. With the new TiVo box, users will be able to access all of DirecTV’s live, on-demand, and pay-per-view videos. Updates will be downloaded via satellite and remote DVR functions are supported.

[via CNET]

You won’t be able to use this new Elite system with analog cables or over-the-air antenna, such is the nature of this digital cable system ONLY solution. This device is a THX Certified DVR, and it maintains TiVo’s “gold-standard,” user interface, Neflix, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and YouTube. The TiVo Premiere Elite outputs to HDMI, component video, composite video, optical audio, and analog audio.

Video outputs range from 480i to 1080p, and you’ll be able to input video with CableCARD, Cable coax, and of course, ethernet for all your internet-based content. You’ll get 2 USB 2.0 ports, eSATA for external recording space, and TiVo wireless N or G network adapter capability. This system supports digital cable, HD digital cable, and Verizon FiOS, and the entire system is built on TiVo Series4 architecture. This Elite system will be available through tivo.com, authorized home theater installers, and Magnolia stores nationwide immediately if not soon for $499.99 MSRP.

“In our view, Apple should be in no rush” J.P. Morgan proffered in an investor note. “The other tablet entrants have stumbled so far, and that trend-line could persist deep into 2012. [Motorola] and RIM have been recent disappointments, and we expect more stumbles from others.”

Meanwhile, MobileTrax analyst Gerry Purdy has spent the time to write an open letter to Cook, flagging up some of what he reckons would be “insanely great” things to do now that he’s at the helm. Ranging from rebranding – changing “iTunes” to “iMedia” – to boosting the iPhone and iPad ranges with various model sizes, Purdy’s advice also includes dipping into the company’s $70bn purse to acquire TiVo, a firm he reckons has “an excellent UI but could do 100 times the business as part of Apple.”

The analyst also calls for broader support for rival platforms from iCloud, “so that [it] can truly transform mobile computing while allowing users to own any smartphone or tablet mobile device they want in order to benefit from iCloud’s services.” That, frankly, sounds about as far away from something Apple would choose to do as imaginable. The company’s strategy right now is creating an almost hermetically sealed ecosystem for its products and services to operate within, and unlocking the door for Android, Windows Phone or any other platform would inevitably take its toll on usability and simplicity (not to mention potentially cut into sales of Apple’s own products).

Whether Cook will pay any attention to the unsolicited suggestions remains to be seen, though our sneaking suspicion is that Apple, as when Jobs was at the helm, will continue to plot its own strategy rather than take the advice of others.

[via AllThingsD and via TNW; Image credit Evil Mad Scientist]

Four tuners means you can record four different shows at the same time and watch a fifth. Apparently, the DVR need to get an analog tuner waver from the FCC, which is expected to be granted. Once that is given, it will hit stores for $500. The DVR is also broadband connected. That means that it can stream all sorts of content from Netflix, Pandora, and Hulu Plus.

The big downside to this TiVo DVR and any other TiVo for that matter is the monthly TiVo fees on top of your cable plan. TiVo will charge you an extra $20 monthly for service or $500 for a lifetime. The DVR is THX certified for sound quality. There is no indication if users will get a discount on multi-units or lifetime upgrades. Still, the DVR sounds really cool.

[via Zatznotfunny]

Originally, the TiVo HD DVR for DirecTV was expected in 2009, but it never came to be. Sadly, the DVR that is coming next month sounds like it is packing tech from 2009. The DVR will reportedly be using the older DirecTV HR22-100 hardware and will use the old TiVo interface as well. The real deal killer for DVR fans on DirecTV is that the TiVo DVR will not be able to be used in the whole home DVR system.

The TiVo box is said to be unable to stream programming to other DirecTV DVRs on the same network. The existing DirecTV DVRs will also not be able to stream to the TiVo units. The price and fees associated with the TiVo units are also unknown. I want whole home and if this thing won’t work, I just don’t see a big market this side of users not interested in whole home DVR service. If the box has more tuners inside or a huge amount of storage, it would be more appealing.

[via Zats Not Funny]

There’s also Audyssey and SRS sound processing, and integrated support for Rocketfish wireless sound, promising uncompressed digital audio input to the TV or output to speakers. Connectivity includes the usual variety of HDMI, composite, component and others, and there’s a remote in the box too.

The most interesting part, though, is the software, and while the new Insignia sets won’t function as TiVo DVRs, they do get access to streaming services. Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Pandora and Napster are supported, assuming you have the relevant accounts, and there are Chumby widgets for  Twitter, Facebook, Photobucket, Accuweather, Reuters News and Sports, Stocks and Traffic.

The set combines the TiVo interface with a standards HDTV. That means there is no DVR functionality integrated into the set, but it can connect your shows, web content, and streaming programming using the TiVo interface. Considering I have never used the TiVo before I could just as easily learn another interface but for TiVo fans, having that interface might be a big deal.

The set has 1080p HD resolution and there is no monthly fee to use the TiVo interface. The set will connect to the web using either an integrated 802.11n WiFi connection or a wired Ethernet cable. The platform will also support apps like Facebook, twitter, and Chumby offerings. The set also supports Pandora music and Netflix with the latter being the app most people will likely use the most. The screen of the TV is LED backlit with a 42-inch set expected to sell for $999 and a 32-inch set at $599.

[via ZatzNotFunny]

Previously, in order to play a TV show recorded from another TiVo set-top box in your house, you had to copy and transfer the file before you could watch it on the second TV. With the TiVo Premiere set-top box and the latest software update, you will no longer need to do this. Instead of transferring to watch, you can now stream the content from one TiVo to another.

The original method of copying and transferring made sense when home networks were much slower. Now, as more and more content are getting streamed, it seems like a logical step for TiVo. And although no official announcements were made for the new streaming capability, some folks in the TiVo forum have indicated that the feature is already turned on. However, reviews on the performance are mixed, which could still require more tweaking, hence no official announcement.

[via Electronista]

If the user finds a program that they want to view, the newly updated app allows them to flick the program from the iPad to the TV screen. That sounds really cool. The app detects and integrates the operators brand, programming, and VOD catalog when it is connected to a TiVo box provided by the operator. I wish my satellite DVR was a TiVo box, this would be great for checking shows that are coming on later without making up most of the screen while my family is watching something else.

“Operators are constantly looking for new ways to connect with their subscribers,” said David Sandford, TiVo’s Vice President and General Manager of TiVo’s service provider business. “The enhancements we have made to our iPad App help cable operators bring TiVo’s innovative user interface directly into the hands of their subscribers, thereby offering consumers the ultimate remote control and viewing on demand experience. We have only just begun to refine our offering to the operator community and look forward to bringing additional elements to the TiVo iPad App.”

I did not cut off TiVo because of incompatibility problems, though those do exist. I have eschewed satellite television and IPTV solutions like AT&T U-Verse because they are incompatible with TiVo. I suffered cable service, and I was using cable cards before the cable company installers themselves even knew how to use them. I recently moved to a new apartment, where I had a choice between Time Warner Cable and AT&T U-Verse. After 3 weeks of meditating on the issue, and living without cable TV or wired Internet, I chose U-Verse.

(Disclosure: I work for Samsung in the mobile phones division. We sell stuff on AT&T.)

When my wife and I split, I got the good TiVo. She got the Series 2, I took the TiVo HD. I thought she would live with the non-HD model, but I went to visit one day and sitting above her TV was a shiny new TiVo Premiere. She asked me to help set it up, but I had already returned my cable cards. She needed a professional. Of course the installer showed up without the proper cable cards, and though Time Warner claimed to have scoured the North Texas area, none could be found for half a week.

At first I was jealous. It was a shiny, new black box. The remote was fresh, with no buttons worn down or missing. I couldn’t wait to give it a whirl. Then I noticed the WiFi adapter sitting next to the box. It was the old adapter I had used for my Series 2 and my TiVo HD. It cost a fortune, because the TiVo HD requires a TiVo-branded adapter, which is a scam and a half (maybe there are 3rd party solutions, but I went the easy and lazy route).

I turned on the new TiVo, expecting a shiny, new, modern interface. Nope. Same old interface. The same design I’ve been staring at for years and years. New features, of course, but these are mostly buried in the menus, and not obvious to users. The device didn’t seem to perform any better. There was still a long delay after button presses. Search was unimproved. Season Pass management is still a slog.

The biggest change? TiVo service is now $20 per month. For $20, you mostly get a TV Guide listing. It’s not even 100% correct. It’s especially bad at separating first run shows from reruns on the same channel from syndicated reruns on less-popular networks.

I never bought a TiVo lifetime pass. When I bought my first TiVo, actually a Sony box, I was living paycheck to paycheck in New York City. I couldn’t scrounge the money for a lifetime pass, but I could handle the $12 monthly fee. I’ve been paying the monthly fee ever since, for almost 12 years. When I finally could afford the lifetime plan, I was never convinced TiVo would be around long enough to justify paying in advance. I’m still not convinced.

When I finally cancelled my TiVo service, I was paying 2 monthly fees, one for each TiVo. One was $12, the other was about $16. Almost $30 per month for a TV Guide. You can use TiVo without paying the fee, but you have to manually assign each recording, and they show up in the recorded program menus with a time stamp, not a program name. Too much hassle.

My ex-wife bought her TiVo Premiere for $300. With that ‘subsidized’ price (excuse me, I just threw up a little in my mouth), the user still has to pay $20 per month. You can pay more for the Premiere, and then you get a cheaper monthly plan. But there is no lifetime option any more.

Where to begin? When I was pricing Internet and TV packages, I compared similar offerings from Time Warner and AT&T U-Verse. Time Warner was cheaper, but the difference was less than a hundred dollars over the course of a year, with all of the discounts and premiums thrown in. However, AT&T U-Verse came with a multi-room DVR, while my Time Warner plan involved skipping the provided DVR in favor of my TiVo. The DVR provided by most cable companies is an embarrassment. It’s horrible to use, and I think DVRs would be much more popular, and more highly regarded, if the cable companies spent more than 5 minutes on interface design.

Including the monthly TiVo fees, the cable service is much more expensive. This comparison does not take into account the quality of service. I wasn’t worrying about compression issues with HD programming over IP (U-Verse), or the saturation of users on available modem bandwidth (Cable). I was only thinking about the channels I wanted, and the download speeds I require.

Then there is the hardware. The TiVo Premiere box is huge. It’s about the size of a large gaming console, and much larger than an HTPC that you could buy to perform the same tasks, and much more. There is no WiFi built in. How can that be? I suspect a cynical grab at more money from accessories, which is also why the sliding remote control with a QWERTY keyboard, which is really a necessity for power users, is also an add-on.

The reliance on cable cards would have been a convenient option if the cable companies had played along, but they did not. They charge a similar rental fee for the cards as they do for the box, and getting cards installed properly can be unreliable, depending on your technician. I’ve had the cards installed three times in three states, and only once did a tech get it right on the first try.

Most offensive, though, is the pricing. On TiVo.com, the company prominently promotes generous upgrade pricing for existing users. In fact, TiVo’s prices are higher than Amazon’s. TiVo doesn’t care that I’ve been a member for 12 years. It doesn’t offer any real discount for existing members, even though I would trade in my older hardware for a new box if they would knock $100 off the price. They have even raised the monthly fee, and existing users don’t catch a break on this increase.

TiVo treats its customers like dirt. As an original TiVo owner, I feel like TiVo has been riding my coattails, milking me for all the money I’m willing to shell out without making any significant improvements. There have been no great hardware improvements, no great software design improvements. The logic behind the search and program management systems is horrendous and confusing. TiVo has failed to innovate for the last decade.

This might have been acceptable when there were no better alternatives. For years, TiVo customers could be happy knowing their boxes were better than the DVR offered by the cable company. But a Windows 7 Media Center PC is a great improvement over TiVo. AT&T’s U-Verse seems like a much better interface, with more features to boot, though I’ve only been using it for less than a week.

TiVo, I’m sad to go. I have great affection for my TiVo, in the same way I’ve had great affection for many groundbreaking products over the years. I thought it was the best product of the last decade, even though it was launched before the turn of the century. But it’s still just that, the best product from the last decade. Instead, I want the best product for right now.

Still, many folks are huge TiVo fans and will pay whatever it takes to keep their beloved service. TiVo has announced that it is trying to make its prices easier for shoppers to understand. Unfortunately easier to understand and simplified means that the cheap plans are getting the axe in favor of the more expensive plans. The new monthly fee for TiVo Premiere users will be $19.99 with a 1-year commitment required to start with.

The lifetime service option is offered again at a whopping $499, which is the most the lifetime service has cost in TiVo history. There are rumors that multi-unit service discounts will continue, but at an increased rate of $14.95 from the $9.95 currently. The lifetime multi-unit option will cost $399. The TiVo hardware pricing has the Premiere selling for $99 and the Premiere XL going for $299.

[via Zatznotfunny]

TiVo has announced that the settlement in the case resulted in Dish and EchoStar agreeing to pay TiVo $500 million. The initial installment of the settlement payment is $300 million with the remaining $200 million to be distributed to TiVo in six equal installments between 2012 and 2017. The upside to the agreement for Dish and EchoStar is that the settlement sees litigation end between the companies.

More importantly, the settlement dissolves all injunctions against Dish and EchoStar so the device isn’t the field can continue to operate, which is very good news for users owning the devices. “We are extremely pleased to reach an agreement with DISH Network and EchoStar which recognizes the value of our intellectual property,” said Tom Rogers, president and CEO of TiVo. “The compensation from this settlement, including the resulting reduction in legal expenditures, puts TiVo in an enviable financial and strategic position. This settlement, which brings the total compensation paid by DISH Network for use of TiVo’s ‘389 patent family to over $600 million, demonstrates the significant return afforded to our shareholders by diligent enforcement of TiVo’s intellectual property rights. Those efforts will aggressively continue with other parties.”

DISH Network and EchoStar have issued a statement regarding the recent ruling from the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals in their legal battle with TiVo over technology patent infringement. The battle has been ongoing since 2004 with rejected appeals and small victories along the way for DISH Network and EchoStar. The Federal Circuit ruled today that it has unanimously vacated a previous district court’s contempt ruling but has a 7-5 split decision on the court’s ruling regarding disablement of subject devices.

DISH Network and EchoStar plan to seek a review over of this part of the decision from the United States Supreme Court. They’re response to the ruling is as follows:

“DISH Network and EchoStar are pleased that the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously vacated the district court’s contempt ruling regarding our software design around. We are disappointed, however, that the Federal Circuit in a 7-5 split decision has affirmed the district court’s ruling on the disablement question. We intend to seek review of that part of the decision by the United States Supreme Court and seek a stay of the injunction while doing so. We also will be making a motion to dissolve the injunction based on Tivo’s recent representations to the Patent and Trademark Office substantially limiting the scope of the claims at issue in this case. Existing DISH Network customers with DVRs are not immediately impacted by these recent developments. The disablement ruling covers only certain older generation MPEG2 DVRs. We have already upgraded many of these customers and, if we are unsuccessful in obtaining a stay, we will work as quickly as possible to upgrade the remaining customers to our current generation DVRs, as these are not at issue in the ruling.”

The legal battle began in 2004 when TiVo said DISH Network, named EchoStar back then, was infringing on TiVo’s “time-warp” technology that allowed users to pause, fast-forward, and rewind during live television. Many set-top boxes allow this type of functionality now. DISH Network is also looking to dissolve an injunction on a previous ruling based on TiVo’s representations to the Patent and Trademark Office regarding the scope of the claims at issue.

DISH Network says current customers should not be affected by the Federal Circuit’s disablement decision, and that the ruling would only affect older MPEG2 DVRs. Most of their customers have upgraded beyond this version, but if DISH Network’s request of a stay of injunction is unsuccessful they will upgrade the remaining customers as soon as possible. DISH Network’s current generation of DVRs are not at issue with this ruling.

• Record two programs and watch live TV on another channel
• Record three live programs, or
• Record three live programs while also watching something you’ve pre-recorded

The boxes were automatically upgraded, so there is no need to download anything.

[via Tivo Community Forum]

One thing that the Best Buy Insignia brand is lacking is connected TVs and according to sources cited by Zatz Not Funny a HDTV packing in TiVo tech for Insignia might be in testing right now. TiVo and Best Buy announced last year that they would be working together on TiVo TVs and as of now, nothing has surfaced. The hint that the set might be in testing right now comes from the logs of a networked TiVo game with the string “has-recording-storage = false listed”.

Zatz Not Funny reckons it could be a TiVo extender, but the TiVo TV for Insignia is more likely. However, there are some rumors that a powerline or MOCA TiVo extender might be in testing right now. The source on that extender testing also claimed that it will be only for newer TiVo hardware and existing S3 and HD models won’t support the extender.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

Among the topics in the survey was a question asking users how they might feel about being able to “stream live TV, DVR recordings and TV shows from a cable company’s On Demand library to one’s iPad.” While there’s no guarantee that a positive response from subscribers will actually see iPad streaming enabled, TiVo does already have an iPad app which supports previews on the Apple slate.

TiVo first talked about Hulu Plus functionality back in September 2010, though since then there’s been no movement on the service.

Back in 2005, DISH, then Echostar, was gearing up to use DVR technology from IBM.  TIVO sued claiming that the IBM DVR technology was too similar to TIVO in the way it stored digital video content and, therefore violated several of their patents.  DISH countersued and lost, forcing them to discontinue development of their own DVR.  But since every cable company and even DISH competitor DirecTV has their own DVR technology, it seems only fair that DISH get to play, and so the judge ruled in their favor.  But this is just another legal skirmish in a long war of attrition.

[via The Hollywood Reporter]

From the off, Charter will offer the TiVo Premiere for regular DVR recording together with access to the cable company’s on-demand TV catalog. The Premier UI will incorporate both the traditional system and any IPTV on offer from the new partnership, as well as online streaming video in a similar manner to Google TV.

After that will come “new devices, features, and third party applications” all using TiVo’s search/navigation/discovery engine, in an ecosystem which Charter is hoping will be somewhat easier to use than having dozens of different STBs. No word at this stage on what the Charter TiVo Premiere will cost.

Press Release:

Charter Announces Next Generation TV Strategy With TiVo

Charter and TiVo Enter Into Strategic Relationship to Deliver Innovative IP Enabled Video Platform
ST. LOUIS, MO and ALVISO, CA, Jan 24, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –

Charter Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR) and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), today announced that Charter is setting its strategy for the next generation of television into motion with TiVo Inc. Charter and TiVo have finalized a multi-year agreement that will leverage the TiVo user interface to bring a new and enhanced entertainment experience to customers using a hybrid platform that leverages traditional cable and next generation IP technologies. Through this agreement, Charter is making a significant commitment to deploy the TiVo service to enable an enhanced television experience for consumers.

The initial phase, which is expected to launch in Charter markets later this year, will utilize TiVo’s latest generation high definition user interface and TiVo(R) Premiere set top box, as well as upcoming multi-room and non-DVR platforms. Beyond the initial phase, the strategy will encompass next generation platforms that will expand the service with new devices, features, and third party applications — all enhanced by TiVo’s highly regarded discovery, search, navigation and recommendation features which allow Charter customers to experience the best of traditional and next generation television, including linear TV, video on demand, vast libraries of Internet-delivered video and IP applications.

Consumer electronics research indicates rapidly increasing numbers of Internet-connected devices in the home, and Charter is developing the strategic means to become the advanced television solutions provider for customers, bringing simplicity to the increasing complexity of home communications and entertainment. This new generation of television service will complement Charter Internet and wireless home networking services.

“We’re integrating formerly disparate worlds of traditional television and online content, and making it simple for customers to quickly find the content they’re looking for, as well as greatly expand their entertainment choices,” said Mike Lovett, Charter’s President and CEO. “Our strategic relationship with TiVo is a significant step in Charter’s multi-year effort to become the solutions provider for home entertainment and consumer information technology. With our superior IP infrastructure, we’re leading the way with TiVo to create a user-friendly entertainment experience that leverages an open standards platform to enable IP content and bring a whole new world of applications to the television.”

Tom Rogers, President and CEO of TiVo Inc., added, “We are thrilled to have been selected by Charter for its next generation video platform, which builds on the distribution momentum we saw throughout 2010 for our products. Charter’s strategic direction is highly aligned with the way we see consumer entertainment demands evolving. We believe Charter is uniquely positioned to offer consumers a ground breaking video service combining the best of traditional cable television with the dynamic world of Internet delivered video. We are pleased to offer a solution that seamlessly delivers DVR based video on demand, traditional network based video on demand, and the newest in broadband to the TV video on demand. While numerous consumer electronic players point to so called connected experiences on various platforms, our relationship with Charter underscores our mutual recognition of the importance of a fully integrated user experience in building a video platform that truly unifies all available content in a world of rapidly expanding choices for the consumer.”

The following features are planned for the initial product:

– TiVo’s high-definition user interface including integrated search:
Instantly scans across all channels and sources, including TV, VOD,
and available online content, to help find what customers want to
watch
– Web applications: Allows customers to access local news, sports and
weather, as well as Facebook and Twitter(TM) updates, right from the
TV
– OnDemand: Offers access to thousands of hours of video from Charter’s
OnDemand library, including 900+ high-definition titles
– Online: Internet video from top destinations
– iPad app: Serves as command central, with an ability to browse the
program guide and recorded shows, schedule recordings, post on
Facebook or Twitter, schedule, search and browse for shows from
anywhere, and much more
– Control live TV: Allows pause, rewind, slow-motion, and instant replay
functions during live TV
– Multiroom DVR: View a common list of recordings and playback recorded
content throughout the home, pause a recorded program in one room and
resume playback in another, use trick-play functions on recorded
content and delete recordings from any room*
– Remote Management: Search and schedule recordings from the Web or from
a mobile phone
– TiVoToGo(TM) transfers: Transfer photos and movies from a personal
computer to the TiVo Premiere, for viewing on the TV set; or from the
TiVo Premiere to a laptop, media device, or smart phone, for viewing
outside the home*
– Automatic recordings: Records favorite shows each week with Season
Pass(R) recordings on the TiVo Premiere. In addition,
WishList(R) searches will find and record suggested programs based
on customer interests
– Content storage: Records up to 45 hours of high-definition (HD)
programming or up to 400 hours of standard-definition programming –
equivalent to more than 16 days of content
– Full HD support: Offers full support for 1080p and 1080i HD formats

*Only video programming without copy restrictions may be transferred using multi-room viewing or TiVoToGo.

Both one-off and season pass recording scheduling is possible, as is managing the to-do list. Users can also review their recorded content and remotely begin playback from the iPad, while keeping the currently-showing program full-screen on their TV.

If you’ve a Netflix or Amazon Video on Demand account, you can also browse those streaming services from the iPad as well. You’ll need a a TiVo Premiere or TiVo Premiere XL box, as well as an iPad obviously, in order to make use of the free app.

However, the ambitious software – which will be a free download – has failed to drop into the App Store quite as soon after announcement as TiVo owners had hoped, with the company’s site only saying that it was “coming soon.” When it does arrive, you’ll need a TiVo Premiere or TiVo Premiere XL box to use it.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

“Currently, Hulu Plus will not be available on MVPD-provided TiVo Premiere DVRs,” Netflix told GigaOm, meaning there will be a significant feature-gap between standalone TiVo units and those supplied by cable providers. Suddenlink rolled out TiVo Premiere units as a $15 per month option recently; however, $5 more a month gets you TiVo’s own lease, and a box with Netflix support and Hulu Plus incoming.

The content issue could see TiVo struggle to pick up customers among cable companies, which had previously been identified as an under-staturated market for the DVR firm.

Video demo after the cut

For instance, using the new app users can send out Facebook or Twitter messages about the currently playing show. There’s also Season Pass and one-time recording control, together with the ability to search across TV shows, movies, actors or directors available through both broadcast and broadband from Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand and other services.

Finally there’s background information on actors and shows, all of which can be viewed without pausing playback and without shifting your TiVo into picture-in-picture. More details in the video below.

Press Release:

TiVo Announces Companion App for iPad

App Combined With iPad Creates the World’s Ultimate Remote Control

With the TiVo app for iPad, you can search, browse, explore and share your favorite entertainment all without interrupting whatever is playing on your TV.

TiVo’s best in class user interface is coming to a small screen near you. Get a sneak peek of the TiVo Premiere app for iPad.

ALVISO, CA — (Marketwire) — 11/22/2010 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced a powerful new TiVo app for the iPad. The app will be available for free from the Apple iTunes App store in the coming weeks. The TiVo® Premiere App enables you to search, browse, explore and share your favorite entertainment all without interrupting whatever is playing on your TV. Since the app works in tandem with what you are watching, iPad is now the ultimate remote control and companion device for TiVo Premiere users.

By bringing its best in class high-definition user interface to iPad, TiVo has created a true two-screen TV experience. TiVo Premiere users will get access to a full set of TiVo capabilities on iPad, providing a richer TV viewing experience for both live TV and Internet video while kicking back on the sofa. Plus, users will also be able to schedule and manage their DVR recordings while on-the-go.

The TiVo Premiere App for iPad includes:

Gesture based control — Take complete control of all recordings, even dragging forward and back through a show with a simple tap or swipe
Start watching what you want — Launch a recorded show, live TV or streaming video with the swipe of a finger
Program guide — Browse your full-screen TV program guide without interrupting TV viewing
Schedule — Schedule one-time recordings and Season Pass recordings from the device at home or on-the-go
Get more from your shows and movies — Explore cast and crew and other recommendations of your favorite shows without interrupting the big screen
Search — Search for all of your favorite TV shows, movies, actors or directors across both broadcast and broadband from Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and more
Share comments with your friends — From within the TiVo Premiere App, comment and share your thoughts to Facebook or Twitter about the show you are currently watching
“We’re bringing TiVo’s innovative user interface from the TV directly to your fingertips, taking your TV viewing experience to a whole new level,” said Jim Denney, vice president and general manager of product marketing for TiVo. “The new TiVo Premiere App takes our best in class user-interface and brings it to iPad’s stunning, high-resolution display and innovative Multi Touch interface. There’s no better example of TiVo’s passion for innovation and focus on ease-of-use than the TiVo Premiere App for iPad, and no better reason to give the gift of TiVo this year.”

The TiVo Premiere App will be available for free from the App Store on iPad or at www.itunes.com/appstore/. Users must have a TiVo Premiere or TiVo Premiere XL box and an existing account with TiVo.

To learn more about the app visit www.tivo.com/ipad.

The Perfect Holiday Gift
Holiday pricing for TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL boxes makes it even easier to give the one gift that will keep on giving the best of TV, movies, Web and music all year long. For a limited time, TiVo Premiere is available for $99.99 with a one-year commitment of $19.99 per month — a $200 upfront savings.* TiVo Premiere XL is available for $299.99 with a one-year commitment at $19.99 per month.**

*Compared to TiVo Premiere $299 MSRP.
**Promotional offers for TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL expire December 31, 2010. See tivo.com for offer details, terms and conditions.

And then the fun began.

[Image credit: Steve Garfield]

As I turned on my DVR, it took about 15 seconds to start. When I tried changing the channels, it took about 10 seconds to perform the action. And in the moments when I hit a few buttons, like the channel up and channel down keys to test response time, it locked up for about a minute or so. When it came back, it performed all those actions in about a second.

At that point, I had enough. I knew the drill from talking to my cable company’s customer service agents in the past that the best idea in that situation is to unplug the DVR, wait 30 seconds, and plug it back in. So I did.

And then, as I stared at the black display on my television for, oh, about 5 minutes, I realized something. DVRs today are arguably the worst set-top boxes in any person’s entertainment center. And yet, many of us have them, so we can watch our favorite programming and record shows we want to see.

That is precisely why I can’t wait to get rid of my DVR. I long for the day when a single set-top box (or even a few) will be able to deliver me all the content I care about, so I can finally call the cable company and tell them that their DVR services are no longer required.

The best part is, I think I’m getting close to that point. I have Netflix streaming for old programming, the prospect of using Hulu Plus on my Roku set-top box at some point in the near future for the new stuff, and the possibility of seeing all kinds of content with Google TV once the search giant can find a way to coax studios into seeing its potential as the next big thing in home entertainment.

But alas, I’m not there yet. I watch too many cable shows for me to just ditch Time Warner Cable. And the content I’m currently accessing on other set-top boxes, like that on the Apple TV, can in no way match what I’m getting from my cable provider. At this point, I need to take the abuse my DVR doles out so I can be entertained.

But my patience is wearing thin. I have had countless DVRs over the years, and none of them have worked up to a standard that I even find adequate. There is no attention to detail put into the design of the boxes. They are simply poorly designed pieces of equipment that have no place in the home.

Now, I’m sure some might say I should get a TiVo. I should note that I have one in the bedroom. I replaced it in my living room with my DVR due to the issues I was having with my cable provider’s switched digital video adapter that accompanied the TiVo in order to access several channels. It was a major issue for me.

So, as I sit here contemplating what I will do tonight, I’m afraid I’ll have to go back to the DVR. It’s not that I want to — that’s certainly not the case — but at this point, I simply have no other choice.

What sort of DVR replacements do you think would solve this problem?

The only stipulation is, unsurprisingly, that the TiVo units themselves must be broadband connected for the new online manager to work.  All of the company’s broadband-compatible DVRs will support the service, and you still get online scheduling as well.

The new TiVo Online Season Pass Manager will be available later on today at tivo.com/spm.

Press Release:

TiVo Launches Online Season Pass Manager Giving Customers Superior Control Over Their Recordings

Enhances TiVo’s Already Robust Online Offerings So Users Never Miss an Episode of Their Favorite Programs

ALVISO, CA — (Marketwire) — 10/13/2010 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the launch of a Season Pass® manager on tivo.com. This tool, requested from customers directly, enhances TiVo’s already robust Web features, allowing TiVo customers to easily manage and transfer their Season Pass recordings online. This new feature joins TiVo’s online scheduling functionality on tivo.com for browsers and m.tivo.com for mobile devices, both of which allow customers to schedule recordings from anywhere they have access to the Internet.

For years, TiVo has allowed customers to remotely schedule recordings and set up Season Passes from tivo.com. With this updated tool TiVo subscribers can now also reprioritize or delete Season Passes on tivo.com, so that they have more control over their TV than ever. Customers can also transfer a Season Pass recording from one broadband-connected TiVo box to another box on their TiVo account making the addition of new TiVo DVRs or the transition from one TiVo DVR to another even easier.

“This is just another example of TiVo leading the way for in-home entertainment innovation and listening to customer feedback. The Season Pass manager is something that our subscribers have asked for and we are pleased to make it available to them today, saving customers time and giving the unique ability to ensure they do not miss a single episode of their favorite shows when they upgrade to a new box. No other company makes this level of control so easily,” said Jim Denney vice president and general manager of product marketing for TiVo. “TiVo has always been the easiest DVR to use and the Season Pass manager gives consumers even more control over how they choose to manage their recordings and settings.”

To manage Season Pass recordings online the TiVo box must be broadband connected and connected to the TiVo service. The Season Pass manager is available to all broadband-connected boxes including TiVo Premiere, Series3™, HD and Series2™ DVRs. To learn more about the Season Pass manager visit www.tivo.com/spm.

TiVo announced today that they would be making Hulu Plus available on their TiVo Premiere DVRs “in the coming months.” That means you’ll have to pay the $9.95 to get your hands on the full Hulu catalog, as well as your standard TiVo subscription. Check out the full press release below.

Press Release

TiVo Will Offer Hulu Plus on TiVo Premiere DVRs

ALVISO, CA — (Marketwire) — 09/28/2010 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advanced television services including digital video recorders (DVRs) for consumers, content distributors and consumer electronics manufacturers, today announced that it has teamed with Hulu™ to provide TiVo® Premiere DVR subscribers with access to the full-array of Hulu Plus™ content streamed instantly to their TVs. The Hulu Plus channel will be available via subscription to all TiVo Premiere customers in the coming months.*

The agreement solidifies TiVo’s leading position as the only one-box solution on the market that delivers the most complete entertainment content to the TV with the unmatched ability to use one user interface and one remote to access a sea of broadband, linear and video on demand content.

Hulu Plus offers one of the deepest offerings of current TV shows on a streaming platform to subscribers in the U.S., including every episode of more than 45 current hit programs from ABC, FOX and NBC like Modern Family, Grey’s Anatomy, Glee, Family Guy, The Office and 30 Rock. In addition, TV lovers with TiVo Premiere DVRs will be able to enjoy full series runs and numerous back seasons of dozens of classic shows like The X-Files, Law and Order: SVU, Arrested Development, Saturday Night Live, Miami Vice, Ugly Betty, Quantum Leap, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Roswell and Ally McBeal.

“Adding Hulu Plus to TiVo’s content offering was really the key missing piece to the programming portfolio that TiVo needed in order to deliver a truly comprehensive advanced television offering on the market today — bar none,” said Tara Maitra, VP & General Manager, Content Services and Ad Sales, TiVo Inc. “TiVo is the complete TV entertainment solution. No other service is as robust or offers consumers the ability to access live TV, Web video, and video on demand content from one box like TiVo does.”

Pete Distad, VP of Content Distribution for Hulu, said, “We are laser focused on helping people find and enjoy the world’s premium video content when, where and how they want it. Our goal for Hulu Plus is to provide as much consumer choice as possible, and Hulu Plus on TiVo’s Premiere DVR offering is a compelling way for us to drive our mission forward.”

* Separate subscriptions to Hulu Plus and the TiVo Service will be required to access Hulu Plus on TiVo Premiere DVRs.

Progressive search queries across local and TV content, together with YouTube, Amazon Video On Demand and Netflix media.  As for installation, the Slide Remote comes with a USB dongle that plugs into the TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL units, TiVo Series3, TiVo HD or TiVo HD XL units, and then you’re good to go.

The regular keys are backlit, and the remote will control your TV and volume as well as the TiVo itself.  The TiVo Slide is on sale today via TiVo’s site, and in Best Buy stores from the weekend, priced at $89.99.

Press Release:

TiVo Types in a Winner: Launches New TiVo Slide Remote with Slide-Out Keyboard

“Thumbtastic” Keyboard with Bluetooth Connectivity Lets People Spend More Time Watching and Less Time Searching

ALVISO, Calif. – August 24, 2010 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the availability of the TiVo® Slide Remote with an easy to use, slide-out, QWERTY keyboard. The TiVo Slide provides users a richer TiVo experience through the delivery of progressive search in the television, making it easier to find your favorite series or celebrity on TV, YouTube, Netflix, Rhapsody and more.

“This finger-friendly device strengthens TiVo’s product offerings, giving consumers the best tools to find what they want more quickly,” said Jim Denney, vice president and general manager of product marketing for TiVo. “This is the first ever DVR remote with a full QWERTY keyboard, and we are certain that users will be excited to get their thumbs on it. The slick design has the same fun look of the classic TiVo remote, but makes it even easier to get more from your TV experience.”

TiVo was the first to deliver progressive media search and now with its new slide-out QWERTY keyboard, the TiVo Slide Remote allows consumers quickly and easily to find the latest and most relevant entertainment – whether that be via YouTube, Amazon Video On Demand, Netflix and more – all in one place, and all with one box.

The TiVo Slide Remote is an all-in-one remote control for the all-in-one entertainment box. Its Bluetooth technology increases the remote’s reliability, and range up to 30 feet away. Its sleek, peanut shaped design is fully backlit, and includes power and volume controls for the TV. And installation is fast with easy plug n’ play functionality. Just plug the USB receiver into the port on the TiVo box, and play.

To celebrate its availability, TiVo is giving away one TiVo Slide Remote control each day for 30 days! To enter the 30 Slides in 30 Days Sweepstakes, people must first become a fan of TiVo on Facebook or follow TiVo on Twitter. Fans and followers can then enter the giveaway for one of the thumbtastic prizes at www.tivo.com/30slides. We additionally encourage fans and followers to respond with the name of a favorite TV show, movie or web video – which they will be able to search for oh so much faster with the TiVo Slide.

TiVo Slide is available today at tivo.com for $89.99 and coming this weekend at Best Buy stores nationwide. The new remote will work with TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL units, TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL.

# # #

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO – News) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.tivo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo’s intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.tivo.com

TiVo and the TiVo Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2010 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Cox won’t be offering its subscribers TiVo DVRs as an option, but it will make its entire streaming catalog available via the TiVo Premiere DVR starting in early 2011 in all markets it serves. This is the first time that a cable firm has integrated on demand service with a third-party device.

Reports clam that out of the 6 million Cox customers around the country only about 45,129 cable cards are in use inside TiVo units. The agreement between Cox and TiVo will see the DVR as an optional set-top box. Only Cox subscribers will be able to get access to the VOD content.

[Image credit Ryonix.com]

Hayes-compatible 1200 baud modem

This is sort of a cheat, because the Hayes-compatible modem was definitely important, but it came bundled with a membership to the Prodigy network. Signing up for Prodigy was one of the most important moments of my life, and it started my contentious relationship with the Hayes modem.

For those of you who are a few years younger than I, Prodigy was sort of like AOL without the rest of the Internet behind it. It was a pay service with tons and tons of original content. You could shop on Prodigy. You could read the news and send e-mail. You could post messages on bulletin boards and comment back and forth on what other people were saying. Except for the multimedia, there is little about today’s Internet that wasn’t already possible on Prodigy, 20 years ago.

For those of you decades younger than I, Prodigy is what the Internet would be if it were only Wikipedia . . . with comments. We had flame wars. We had anonymity. We had modems that made crazy loud beeping noises, followed by the static white noise sound. I often wonder if my toddler son will understand that sound in 10 years when he hears it in an old movie.

I could say more about Prodigy and its effect on me, but let’s just say I blossomed on that early network. I made some of the best friends I’ve ever made. Real friends; in-person friends. I took a girl to my Junior Prom after getting to know her on Prodigy. I still talk to old Prodigy friends. But Prodigy was inseparable from that modem. I had one computer at the time, a huge beige desktop. I couldn’t tell you the brand; at the time we just called it an IBM-compatible.

The modem was a giant unit that had its AC plug built into the box. You plugged the entire modem into the wall, and then plugged the phone line into the modem. My parents had to get a new line installed in our basement, where I kept the computer for homework. I had no games on the computer, since it used only a CGA graphics card, and my gaming consoles were much better. It was a computer for word processing and Prodigy.

At some point during my Sophomore year, my grades slipped a bit. It wasn’t Prodigy’s fault. I was hanging out with friends after school. I was blowing off work I didn’t enjoy. My grades slipped from “A”s and “B”s to “B”s and “C”s, but never lower. My parents blamed Prodigy. It was easy to blame, because it was right in front of them.

When I was home, I was usually tucked into the basement, keeping up with my new online friends. Even when my parents couldn’t see me, they could pick up the phone in the kitchen and hear that modem connection. Since it seemed like the modem was always connected, Prodigy was an easy scapegoat for my falling grades.

They didn’t take away Prodigy, they took away the modem. Except that my parents had no idea what a modem looked like. They saw the hardware: a large AC plug with a cord running to the PC. The cord ended in a pin adapter. The modem came with two, one each for two differently sized serial ports.

Instead of taking away the modem, they took the adapter. Thankfully, the modem came with a spare that fit the other port size, and this worked fine with my machine. They took the serial adapter and hid it away in an antique apothecary scale that my father displayed on the mantel.

I kept connecting. When I heard footsteps upstairs near the phone, I would quickly kick the modem out of the wall. With no power, the connection terminated instantly. Using this deception for about a year, I was only caught once. That was enough. They couldn’t figure out my trick, but they did figure out that canceling my subscription would solve the problem.

Not really, though. Like with AOL, every Prodigy account came with 6 different login names. I lost my account, but a good friend, the girl I took to prom (the one for whom I made mix tapes as well, if you read the first half of this column), gave me one of her login names. I never got caught again.

As a post script, that apothecary scale sits on a new mantel in a new house, my parents having long-since moved. I checked last thanksgiving, and the serial adapter is still there. Perhaps if my grades improve, I’ll get it back, someday.

Macintosh Powerbook 520c

It almost seems like a copout putting this machine on the list. It’s just too awesome. The Mac Powerbook 520c was the low end of Apple’s Powerbook line at the time. There was a 540c using an active-matrix, full color display, but my machine used a passive matrix screen that left trails and a foggy picture. I loved that computer.

It wasn’t the color screen, the first I’d seen on a laptop computer. It wasn’t the trackpad, either, the first I’d seen anywhere. I’ve owned computers since I was 10 years old, and Macs since I was 17. I was 19 when I bought my Powerbook 520c, a sophomore in college, and it changed my education for good.

I had always typed papers for school, since I was in middle school. But my note taking was atrocious. I managed to squeak by. I had a good mind for math equations, and I could fake my way through any English test. But in history, science, even my language studies, I was at the mercy of my own memory. My handwriting is nearly illegible, and in all my time in grammar school, I don’t once remember studying from my own notes.

After a month with my first laptop, I was bringing it to every class. In 1994, I was still the only one with a laptop in class. By the end of college, I could type out an hour-long lecture verbatim. I was sharing my notes with other people, comparing my notes to make sure they were correct.

I don’t think that reviewing notes later necessarily improved my education. But being able to take accurate notes and follow closely as the class was in session was a priceless advancement for me, and I think it would help an incomprehensible number of today’s students.

Note taking is a difficult skill to teach because it is so personal; but every teacher expects students to take notes and follow closely at the important moments. If every student went to class armed with a computer of her own, it would change the way students interact in a classroom.

I’m not talking about advanced networked classrooms sharing multimedia presentations and taking digitized quizzes at the end of a term. I’m talking simply about taking notes. Writing things down. Processing and recording the information as it is being thrown your way. I can’t think of a better way to pull underperforming, bright students into the modern age than arming them with the proper tools for the job. In today’s education system, those tools are no longer notebooks and pens, but laptops and wireless networks.

TiVo

This seems like an easy choice, and I’m sure plenty has been written about how TiVo has rocked the entertainment world. But it all hit home for me about ten years ago. I was a very early adopter for TiVo. I’ve been a customer since the first boxes hit the shelves.

A professor of mine once said that the VCR was the most disruptive thing to happen to performance art in a hundred years. For the first time, you could pause a work of art while it was happening, leave the room for a snack, and start the piece where you left off. Before the VCR, you couldn’t stop a movie, you could only choose to miss some of it. You couldn’t stop a play, you couldn’t only interrupt it, or remove yourself from it.

TiVo is similar, but it adds another component. TiVo is always recording what you see on television. It has a constant buffer, so if you see something you want to save for later, you can hit record and it’s already done. On my oldest TiVo (of the three I’ve owned), I have an assortment of shows that I’m keeping for posterity. Some I even have cued to my favorite part. Press a button and George Costanza says “Well, there’s nothing dirtier than a giant ball of oil.” Start up my favorite Simpsons and the first thing you hear is Homer asking: “Are you really the head of Kwik-E-Mart? Really? You?”

TiVo changed the world for me on September 11, 2001. I was faxing resumes, looking for a teaching job. My wife was working in midtown Manhattan. She called to tell me to turn on the news, something big and evil was happening downtown. I turned on CNN, and even in my initial shock, I knew to press the record button. I still have those first hours of the newscast from that day.

Some day I’ll show it to my children. I know they could probably find archival footage, but I want them to see the moment as I saw it. Aaron Brown starting to speak mid-sentence. The camera cuts to a building billowing smoke. That’s when I pressed record, and created a memory that I’ll never forget.

Treo – I first used a preproduction Treo at the end of the 2001 and wrote my first review in the January of 2002. It wasn’t the first device to merge a Palm OS handheld with a phone but it was arguably the first device that did it well enough to be used on a regular basis. Treo bucked the trend at the time by eschewing multimedia features; there was neither movie-clip playback nor MP3 audio support. Rather, it targeted business users, merging voice and data with personal information management functions and it did it well. Other devices of the era tried to integrate these functions, but they failed because they tried to add either telephony features to PDAs or organizer features to phones and neither approach worked well. Treo was the first device that successfully merged features in harmony, producing a sum that was greater than its parts.

Things that we take advantage today were part of the Treo experience. Flip it open and your speed-dial list was ready to be used. Tap a few keys and you could instantly find the contact you wished to call. All the familiar Palm applications including an e-mail client, Handspring’s Blazer Web browser and an SMS application were present. Take a look at the iPhone’s dialer and you’ll see the direct descendent of the work Handspring did a decade ago. Treo no longer defines state of the art but most devices that are state of the art today would not be here without Handspring’s efforts and the smartphone you might dread to leave behind is the direct heir to the original Treo.

TiVo – It quietly changed television – and how many of us watch TV today? – but it took a lot to get the mass market to understand the value. We called it the TiVo paradox. It was how you explained something that so many users appreciated and were excited about, but that still sold in relatively few numbers. So what’s the reason for the TiVo paradox? TiVo’s by themselves were not “killer applications”. In fact, there’s a multitude of features in TiVo that are totally contextual, that at a given moment in time BECOME the killer app. Want to pause TV when the phone rings? That was the killer app at that moment. Recording a show using an EPG to simply search for it? That was the killer app at that moment. Skipping commercials when you watch recorded content? That was the killer app at that moment.

Contextual functionality ONLY comes together when you get to see the whole, not a piece or part. When you see only pieces, you just get a very expensive VCR not a DVR. And that’s the moniker TiVo was stuck with for many years, an expensive VCR. The reality is that TiVo and later DVRs totally changed the way many of use consume TV and it’s quickly become on the of those indispensable phenomena.

GPS – Whether it was integrated into your vehicle at the turn of the century at a cost of thousands of dollars or an external unit that might have cost only a few hundred, the GPS totally changed the way many of us drive. Whether we took to the streets with a gas station map, or later Mapquest directions, the GPS forever changed how we got from point a to point b. Today, a full functioned GPS might be well under a $100 purchase and if you’re using a phone from Nokia or Google, that feature has now trended down to free. Like watching a TV with no DVR, I find it hard to drive a car with no navigation system but I discover that GPS has come indeed at a price. Once upon a time, if I drove to a new place (with directions) I found that I could easily get back there anytime in the future. The route was now part of my repertoire. With the GPS assisted driving, not so much anymore. I find that I’m paying more attention only to where the next turn is and not the route as a whole. I may be getting to where I’m going better than ever before but I feel less smarter about it overall.

Kodak DC120 digital camera – It wasn’t the first digital camera. Both Apple, Casio and others had models in the market well before Kodak. But the DC120 was a very special camera in 1997. It was the first consumer 1MP digital camera priced below $1,000. It was no paragon of style with a binocular look and a 3X zoom lens, but also had an optical viewfinder and a color LCD. Crossing the magic 1MP threshold at that price meant for the first time consumers could begin to take photographs and print them out with near film-like quality at sizes up to 5×7. The DC120 wouldn’t hold itself well to the most of the cameras integrated into today’s phones but it helped start a revolution for consumers that ultimately paved the way from analog to digital.

iPod –The first MP3 players I used changed the way I listened to music under certain circumstances. Going to the gym, for example, with a Creative RIO was a fantastic experience that let you take a solid workout’s worth of music in a device a fraction of the size of a cassette player. It was the iPod, though, that helped me rediscover music. When the iPod came out, I felt intuitively that there was more to this product than met the eye. Among the first research projects I did in 2002 at Jupiter Research was to understand what about the iPod was special.

It turned out the iPod balanced three critical features for users: battery life/form factor/sync and capacity. It didn’t have the “best” of those features but it had the best balance of them. Mapping into what was the average size of a consumer’s digital music collection of the era, fitting easily into a pocket and able to sync 1,000 songs in minutes not hours (or days) separated the iPod from the pack. There’s of course much more to this story but the bottom line is iPod brought digital music to the masses and personally helped me rediscover music I’d already owned and neglected.

Those are the five archetypical gadgets that make up the digital world that I value most. While none of them would likely be good enough to use by today’s standards, they each set the tone for a revolution in their space. What are the five gadgets that matter most to you, whose modern equivalents you’d be loath to give up?

Under the hood lurks Intel’s Atom 1.66GHz processor – a single-core chip in the Ultra 4 and a dual-core chip in the Ultra 6 – together with 1GB of RAM and a choice of four or six 3.5-inch drive bays.  They can be configured in RAID 0, 1, 5 or 6 striping for data redundancy, and of course there are various USB ports including a front port with a dedicated backup button that will automatically suck the content from whatever drive or memory card reader you plug in.

Unfortunately, all this functionality doesn’t come cheap.  The Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 will be $899 for twin 2TB drives while the Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 6 will be $1,349 for six 1TB drives when they both drop later this month.  The company will also sell the enclosures drive-free, and are planning a smaller model for release later in 2010.

The first question you might ask is: what is mobile TV? Right now, most mobile TV devices sold are cell phones, and the carriers have shot themselves, and Qualcomm, in the foot over this option. Carriers have for years been pushing their concept of mobile TV, which until recently was really streaming video clips, not true broadcast TV. By the time Qualcomm finally decided to bring its own personal television device to market, the market was so confused about what to expect that nobody bought one. It’s a portable device with a rate plan and a subsidy, but it doesn’t make phone calls? Carriers had been pushing their lousy on-demand streaming clip service so hard, by the time a real broadcast device hit the street consumers wouldn’t trust the mobile TV promise.

The second question you might ask is who needs mobile TV? Obviously it’s not something you’d use in your house, not while the big TV is sitting right in front of you. Mobile TV has caught on among commuters. If you’re in a country where people take long train rides and wait in line to get on the bus, you’re probably going to find mobile TV. In the U.S., many of us drive to work, and plenty of subway commuters find themselves underground more than above it, where reception is weaker. We use planes, not bullet trains, to get from state to state. So, mobile TV already faces some hurdles in simply finding an audience, but these are not insurmountable.

The final question you might ask is why someone would pick mobile TV as their entertainment of choice. Here’s the biggest problem mobile TV faces. Chances are, if you have TV reception, you also have cellular network reception. Why watch video on a dedicated mobile TV device when you can simply use a device you already have? I’m not even limiting this argument to cell phones, either. Tablet computers, laptops and portable media players all have plenty of options for streaming video. Between Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and the many network-supported apps hitting the market, it’s easy to find television shows to watch. Even last night’s TV is available today on the right app or Web site.

Furthermore, pre-recorded videos are even easier. If you can load videos onto your iPad or laptop, why watch mobile TV? If you can bring along a portable DVD player, why bother bringing a mobile TV device, as well?

Mobile TV is better than streaming services because the quality is much better. It’s not perfect, but it beats the hell out of streaming clips. If you want to watch a television show, on mobile TV you start watching at the time the show starts, and you watch the entire show all the way through. Unlike clips, which require multiple 5-minute downloads, mobile TV keeps running, and since it uses its own network, it doesn’t hog your data plan. This could be a benefit, but it’s also the first problem that needs fixing.

Mobile TV could use an on-demand service, but it absolutely needs DVR capabilities. The lack of DVR features is the main reason I would never watch mobile TV. There are commercials. The shows don’t start when I want them to start. If I miss something, it’s gone, I can’t rewind, start over or pause the show. Mobile TV is an anachronism because of all these issues. It’s a new (in the U.S. at least) video service, but it behaves like a 60 year old TV.

It would be easy to add real DVR features to a mobile TV device. Just add a few gigabytes of storage and a solid DVR interface, and I’d be much more likely to carry a mobile TV in my pocket. This is an opportunity that TiVo has sorely missed. You can transfer TiVo programs to a mobile device or portable computer, but the process is long, slow and difficult. It’s not automatic, it requires separate apps, a powerful computer to encode the video for a mobile and a huge amount of storage space. If I want to watch last night’s Jimmy Kimmel or the finale of Lost that I’ve been saving, there should be an easy way to sit on the train on my morning commute and watch my shows. A mobile TV device with a built in video recorder would be a fine option, offering my saved shows and fresh programming if I get bored of my saved choices. If TiVo offered a portable device with their own interface and features that worked on today’s mobile TV networks, then I might consider buying one.

The best way to save mobile TV would be to make customers feel like they need one. There is a limited program selection on mobile TV. It’s not simply a rebroadcast of what the networks are showing, it’s usually a different lineup. Sometimes it’s intelligent, like when the networks rerun last night’s late night talk shows in the morning. Often, it’s kind of dull.

Mobile TV needs appointment television. If there were one or two fantastic shows that were only available on mobile TV, it would be a real coup for the technology. I’m talking about a water cooler show. Something that makes you feel like you’ve missed out if you haven’t seen it.

I subscribe to HBO not for the movies, but for the couple of original shows that I love. The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Bill Maher’s show; these are shows worth paying an extra few bucks a month. Mobile TV needs that kind of programming. A few original shows to get people talking would broaden awareness of the technology, and more importantly, get the TV press talking more about it.

Mobile TV also needs to improve quality dramatically. While it’s already better than the streaming services, that’s a low bar to set. The video quality needs to be as good as, preferably better than, pre-recorded movies. High definition quality would obviously be a bonus. If I can stream Netflix in high-def on my laptop, I certainly wouldn’t want to watch a smaller, mobile TV device that wasn’t even DVD quality.

I don’t think mobile TV is dead in America, but I don’t think it’s taking the competition seriously. People will not simply adopt mobile TV because the technology is there, but that’s been the attitude of mobile TV broadcasters so far. There has been no real argument for mobile TV against the myriad forms of video content already available. The recent Hulu Plus announcement should only light a bigger fire under the mobile TV movement, because Hulu is now bringing real, network television to mobile devices. If mobile TV can’t offer a service that is better than what we already have, there’s no reason for it to exist.

Exact details on the functionality the new HDTVs will offer is unknown, though it’s repeatedly described as “non-DVR capacity”.  That suggests that the Insignia sets will have access to the same YouTube, Netflix, Amazon VoD and Blockbuster VoD as the Premiere DVR, as well as Pandora and FrameChannel.

Still up in the air – and not, we fear, especially likely from the tone of the PR – is whether the Insignia HDTVs will be able to access and play back content stored on a TiVo DVR somewhere else in the home, using the company’s multi-room viewing technology.  No word on when the new TVs might arrive in Best Buy stores.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

Press Release:

TiVo, Insignia Developing Connected Television for Superior, Seamless Consumer Experience

Collaboration Leverages Insignia’s Customer Insights and TiVo’s World Class User Interface Capability; First TiVo User-Interface Without a Set-Top Box

ALVISO, CA and RICHFIELD, MN, May 25, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) –TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO) and Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) today announced that development is underway to integrate TiVo’s software and advanced television services into broadband-connected Insignia televisions. TiVo is a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), for consumers, content distributors, and consumer electronics manufacturers. Insignia is a Best Buy exclusive brand and leader in quality, customer-driven electronics innovations.

The new Insignia televisions will provide Best Buy customers with an exceptional, intuitive user experience for accessing online content by utilizing the latest TiVo non-DVR software and advanced television service. TiVo’s easy-to-use platform will give the viewer a one-stop-shop for delivering and searching content right on the television.

“Consumers tell us they want the best of Internet-based content delivered right to their televisions without the hassle of having to fumble with multiple devices, wires, and remotes,” said Fernando Silva, vice president of Best Buy Exclusive Brands. “The beauty of TiVo software is that it creates a single interactive interface right on the television and integrates the myriad of online content and services. Insignia is thrilled to work with TiVo to bring this superior experience to our customers through our TiVo-powered Insignia television.”

Jim Denney, GM and Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo Inc., said, “TiVo has evolved into so much more than a DVR. We are able to customize and deliver solutions that best meet the needs of our partners like Insignia with the ability to integrate TiVo’s software and advanced television services onto either set-top boxes or consumer electronics devices in a non-DVR capacity to deliver one of the best in-home entertainment experiences for consumers. We are extremely proud to be teamed with Insignia to bring the TiVo experience to this leading consumer electronics brand and we look forward to continuing to work with Best Buy on possible future endeavors.”

Installation looks straightforward, though it’s not quite as plug-and-play as a regular USB WiFi adapter; instead it works more as an ethernet bridge, with two connections: one for power and the other plugging into the Premiere’s ethernet port.  While it’s billed as a TiVo Premiere accessory it will in fact work with all TiVo DVRs bar the DIRECTV DVR with TiVo.

The TiVo Wireless N Network Adapter is available to buy online from the company’s webstore now, priced at $89.99.  It’s also expected to land in Best Buy stores later on this week.

[via Zatz Not Funny]

$299.99 bags you a basic, stock TiVo Premiere, but for $499.99 you can get an upgraded one with a bigger hard-drive good for up to 2070hrs of standard definition content or 236hrs of HD.  Step up to $699.99, meanwhile, and an even bigger HDD upgrade makes for a whopping 2777hrs of SD or 317hrs of HD.

Finally, $999.99 gets you the biggest TiVo Premiere system of them all, pairing the upgraded DVR unit with an external hard-drive for up to 5600hrs of standard-def or 640hrs of high-def.  Despite the upgrades, the boxes are still eligible for TiVo’s Lifetime Service, and if you use the promo code “ZNF” – negotiated by Dave Zatz – you can save 5-percent on the sticker price.

[via Zatz Not Funny]