Tivo Announces Dual Tuner Upgrade

ethaz writes "Tivo has announced dual tuner support in version 2.5 of it's software for DirecTV-capable Tivos (DTivos). So much for Ultimate TV's advantage." Too bad it's only DIRECTV TiVos - with the larger hard drive, better output, my TiVo pales in comparasion.

no new hard drive

Actually, the hard drive is the same size. The increased space is due to the fact that it takes the actual mpeg2 stream straight from directv, so it's a lot more efficient than the SA tivos, since it doesn't have to be reencoded. the increased quality is due to this as well, since DTV uses hugely sophisticated encoders to get the best mix of quality and size, the tivo doesn't have to use it's $5 encoding chip to do the work.

Nice "financial speak"

On August 28, TiVo closed a $51.75 million private placement with financial and strategic investors.

The private placement was done using what is commonly referred to as "death spiral notes," aka "toxic notes." These are convertible notes (bonds), but unlike typical converts, their conversion rate is based on a fixed dollar amount, not a fixed share rate. The lower the stock price goes, the more shares the bonds can be converted for, which equals more dillution for current shareholders, which equals a lower stock price. Rinse, repeat.

Excite@home issued these notes just weeks prior to its demise. These notes encourage the holder to dump the stock price of the company (via shorting the stock.) The lower the stock price goes, the more shares the toxic note holder gets. Unlike @home, TiVo has a "floor" (maximum conversion rate), but these are not standard convertible bonds by any stretch.

I wish TiVo the best of luck (I own one), but the future isn't so bright they have to wear shades...

TV good, TiVo better?

According to Reuters [yahoo.com], India plans to subsidize television sets so couples can sit back and watch television instead of having sex and contributing to India's burgeoning population.

That's the kind of news I'd expect to hear from adequacy.org [adequacy.org], but it's gotten me thinking: if mere television can be successful, then how much better would India's public funds be spent on TiVo instead? Television can be watched at length, but there's a limit to the amount of interactivity. With TiVo, couples would not only be watching more television than they'd previously wanted to (because of the convenience TiVo offers in recording shows otherwise missed); they'd spend additional numbers of hours every year fiddling with options and programming their device.

If there are any Indians in the audience, I encourage you to write your representative in parliament and encourage him or her to consider TiVo instead of television. Thousands of geeks use it, and they're having less sex than perhaps any other segment of our population. The choice is clear.

My TiVo Wish List:

Something I really wish TiVo would release is a unit with a built-in Ethernet interface. Granted, I have TiVoNET, and it rocks, but for those not-so-ardent TiVo fans (and not as technically inclined) a factory installed eth0 would be terrific.

That provides a perfect segue into my next request: an easily configurable web-based interface. I've installed the Tcl-based TiVoWEB package, and I have to say that aside from Slashdot, it is my favorite destination on the web now. Something similar that comes pre-installed would be an instant hit for home users.

I'm pretty darn proud to own a TiVo, and it's great to see a good company who makes a great product do so well.

What about standalone TiVo?

Must we wait until a competitor comes out with dual-tuner for our boxes to get the dual-tuner upgrade as well? My understanding is that the hardware is there, it's just not activated. grrr...

Maybe ReplayTV will burst back on the scene and increase their feature-set. It's pretty lame that TiVo only upgrades when they *have* to.

Re:What about standalone TiVo?

What are those technical details? I know they sell TV sets with dual tuners for Picture in Picture that only need one cable hookup. For those of us who hook the cable right into the back of the TV(no cable box) why wouldn't this be an easy thing to? (with additional hardware of coures)

They wouldn't just have to have dual tuners. Straight dual-RF would be pretty easy. The problem is that they'd also have to deal with dual cable boxes, which means twice as much hardware. And the interface would become exponentially more complicated, as you try to explain which input is connected to which cable box, and try to configure two separate IR blasters running on the same frequencies, etc. etc.

Right now, TiVo is not being marketed to power users (which are the ones who would want dual-tuner capability). They're trying to sell it as a VCR replacement.

LOL, I've been pirating DirecTV for about 6 months

now, does this mean I can pirate TIVO service as well. I really LOVE those Canadian satelite hackers. For under 100$ I have all the DirecTV I can handle, and HU card in a reader/writer atached to a pc to do the decoding and protect my fragile card from a BURN signal. By my calculations it is traffic in the FREE airwaves and MINE for the taking :)

Cable TiVo

I wonder is there will come the day where Cable service will offer TiVo's as part of a package, much like cablemodems are dealt with these days. It would be a bonus, but seeing as TiVo offers the service and the Cable companies would have to pay TiVo subsidies, how likely is it that we'll see this any day soon? TiVo could in itself build a cable service branch out of itself offering the service and cornering the market. Wouldn't it be sweeet :)

Replay

Replay today announced somethings too.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010827/en/tele vi sion-replay_1.html

"ReplayTV is planning a post-Labor Day introduction of a souped-up DVR that could store as much as 320 hours of TV programming and send programs by email to other DVRs. It may also allow users to copy photo files from a PC to the DVR."

"Survey describes in detail the new product and asks respondents how much they would be willing to pay for it. Pricing proposals in the survey range from a model with 40 hours of storage capacity that could retail for $699 to a 320-hour model that might sell for $1,999."

"According to the email survey, the product could work with a standard dial-up phone modem for a monthly fee of $4.95 or a broadband Internet connection using an Ethernet home network at no monthly charge. The broadband connection is required for sending TV programs by email."

I love my ReplayTV 3030. I might have to get a second one...assuming my job stays there when these have been out a while.

Hmm

Too bad it's only DIRECTV TiVos - with the larger hard drive, better output, my TiVo pales in comparasion.

Sounds like Hemos has Tivo envy.

Dual tuner? Kinda nice.

I'll admit, as a TiVo owner, the thought of having a dual tuner would be really nice. A few times it is a problem, but I haven't ran into anything so serious that I would record on TiVo while watching another program on another channel on another TV. Of course, this isn't the same for all people.

For those of you who MUST have this functionality, you've got to decide if you're going to swap for a DirecTivo/UltimateTV (where possible --- major markets), or buy another standalone TiVo aka a "conflict TiVo" with limited storage.

Conflict TiVos are somewhat popular, and you only need a 15gb drive to handle the cases (typically prime time) where it happens. And TiVos are running REALLY CHEAP right now!

Nice to hear about TiVo's cash burn rate. As a *subscriber*, that is good news. If it didn't have a service element to it, and I wasn't dependent upon TiVo, personally, I'd go for a company that has a very high cash burn rate and get all the goodies I can below cost.

My current favorite is "1-800-555-TELL" (YES, an ACTUAL REAL telephone number... try it, especially the "phone booth" option). I'm calling an 800 number for free to get news/weather/games and to make a free 1 minute telephone call. I'm attracted to companies that have a high burn rate. Except, of course, ones that I am dependent upon.

TiVo Web Project

Shameless plug. The Tivo Web Project [lightn.org] is designed to give you a web interface to your TiVo. And it does, the TCL branch allows you to browse, edit, create, delete entries in now showing, todo, season passes, browse the channel guide, look at suggestions, preferences (thumbs ratings), etc. It's themable, modular, runs directly on the TiVo and is pretty mature.

The last time I posted on a tivo article the TCL branch wasn't released, and I haven't seen as many downloads as I would expect so far. So have fun. :)

What I want to see...

I want everything the Tivo offers, plus:

1. The ability to add drive storage as I see fit.
2. The ability to record and play back MP3s from any source (TV, radio, CD, etc), as well as load MP3s from a network or CD-ROM.
3. The ability to record into the system from any video medium (tape, DVD, VCD, mpegs off the net, etc).
4. Other file storage for regular data files, etc.
5. Network support using standard protocols.
6. Open spec system, to allow OS choice!

In other words, a very damn nice file server, with special hardware for sound and video recording, ala Tivo. I want this to act as a central home server (there could be other possibilities as well - x-10 control, video security, web admin, etc), that was nice and expandable, easily - like a PC.

It damn near can be done today with commodity hardware, but the video record/simultaneous playback/channel guide stuff isn't there yet - we need a fast filesystem for that stuff (the simultaneuous record/playback so you can "pause" TV). Does anyone know of such a filesystem being worked on?

I am planning on building a largish networked fileserver, but it won't be anything like I described - at best it would be able to play back MP3, maybe record to it, but it wouldn't be an all-in-one solution. Is there anything like this at all - even ultra-expensive solutions used by TV studios for quick DVR editing?

I doubt we'll ever see such a thing (short of a major hacking effort - though I bet the antcomputing guys could pull it off) - it would allow the user too much control...

Not much to see here

but I thought I'd share it anyways. Getting rid of the frustration of one day is worth some Karma. ;)

I promise it's somewhat on-topic though!

Today a person came by to install my DirectTV dish. This 6 weeks after I had bought the dish and UltimateTV (bad, bad me!) from Circuit City. The 6 weeks is particularly important because we where very interested in the "free" installation, about which we would be contacted within 48 hours to make an appointment, so assured the salesman. Needles to say that I had to contact them after roughly 48 days...

The "free" installation cost $75,- (Ah,- chimney mount, that's $25,- extra. Ohw, dual LNB, that's $50,- for the extra line.). I think we got away pretty cheap.

The salesman told me that a phoneline was needed for the 'guide' services, and the person installing was obviously not too keen on running the 'included with free installation' 25ft of phone cable. Hence recommended a "wireless phone-line" solution. A while before (say 6 weeks), the salesman was thinking about selling it to me, but remembered (and told me!) though that that did not work with UltimateTV. The installer told me that few salesmen know how to operate a remote control let alone saying anyting remotely clever about wireless phone-lines. And thus left with the phone-line uninstalled.

!!!The on-topic part!!! Taking this a step back: The installer went on to tell me that Tivo had dual tuners and could record/watch two show at the same time. The salesman had told me that this was the exact advantage of the UltimateTV over the Tivo, but he must have been fiddling with his remote a lil too much.

Additionally it is interesting to note that I pulled the harddrive out of the UltimateTV upon arrival back home, and attached it to my removable Firewire IDE setup, connected to a Win2K machine (Oops, did I say that out loud?). Consequently, Win2K locked up to only revive after a push of the 'BIG' button. Hmmm, "Chinese wall" uh, Microsoft?!

As I sit here typing this, I am rudely interrupted by people actually watching this great new addition to personal entertainment, with the urgent message that the sound/video synchronization of the TV is fsck'd up. Great...

I'm glad I'm only programming OS's for a living. Don't want to think of what it would be like to get a real job.

Breace.

actually...

they plan to upgrade the TiVo units with the dual tuners first, alla DirecTV ones. then they will upgrade the rest. they said the priority is the DirecTV systems then the normal ones.

more digital tuners

But when are these devices (and TVs) going to come with built-in digitial tuners for all types of digital signals? That is, someone with The Dish or cable digital service can't take advantage of these devices yet, can they?

Just got a Tivo

WOW! How did I ever get along without this thing? I've had it for two days, and have very rarely actually watched "live" TV.

I got the Sony 30 hour (Tweeter says the Phillips had a lot of returns). I started punching in the shows I wanted to watch (easy searching) and it started to record other shows that I might be interested in. If I don't watch those shows, they just get erased. Given the local PBS station is showing Red Dwarf and Red Green at 1AM, I can get my Red* fix the next morning, since Tivo has already recorded it for me.

My wife and I are still getting used to being able to hit "pause" to go to the bathroom, answer the phone, etc.

Now watching: Son of Flubber

roll your own tivo

It seems like a lot of the functionality of a tv-recording unit that people want can be implemented by hooking a computer (with an mpeg-2 compression chip on some video capture card) up to the tuner box, and making a little infrared control that comes out of your serial port or something, and controls the tuner box. That way you can have as many tuner boxes as you like, the computer will capture it all onto a hard drive that is as big as you see fit, and you can play it all back whenever you want. So what I'm asking is this -- why isn't there a software package out there that does all of this already? Maybe it would come with a $100 tv card... It seems like there's a spot in the market for it.

Re:Where is the source???

The modifications that they made to the kernel and GPL tools are right here [tivo.com] in source form.

On the other hand, the application that does the recording, scheduling and rendering has been written by them from scratch, and as such they decided to keep it closed source. It's their right.

Re:I've been beta testing TiVo w/ dual tuners

There's not realy a non-disclosure agreement on bbeta testing, is there?