Tivo On Board With YouTube's New API

impuLsive writes "YouTube has announced they're rolling out a brand new API. The API will allow you to integrate YouTube into a website, allowing for features like: uploading videos, adding and editing video metadata, fetching localized feeds, custom queries, and a customized player UI with controlled video playback. Alongside YouTube, TiVo announced that they will be supporting the site's content via the Series3 and TiVo HD DVRs starting later this year."

How about just putting in a browser...

... and calling it WebTivo, or maybe just WebTV?

and so begins the end of....

those conversations at work that start out "did you see show_xyz last night?"

Television is about to get more customizable, whether you believe this is a good thing or not, if YouTube makes itself available to anyone that can plug in a box like a Tivo, well that means joe six pack will watch more YouTube.

Wonder what the response of the MPAA and others related will be? Outlaw YouTube on television screens?

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those conversations at work that start out "did you see show_xyz last night?"

More like, "Did you download feed_xyz? No? Want to take a look on my iPhone? Ya, I know ur busy, but that feed was so awesome. I'll send ya a link."

Watercooler talk will be more

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I think you're wrong. We've talked about this in my workplace before and come to the conclusion the release of a new episode of a well-regarded show (whether it's Joe Dickhead on YouTube or a new series of BlackAdder) will be announced by RSS (or its futu

Apple on board?

I wonder if Apple will put this functionality into Front Row? It seems like a natural extension to what is already on offer.

I'm sure they'll charge for that "convenience"

I received a TiVoHD unit for the holidays, and while it has some interesting features, I'm continually frustrated at the nickel-and-dime tactics of TiVo. People often don't realize that TiVo, while still charging a fee for the unit and a monthly service fee, still has advertisements laced into it. The subscriber agreement allows TiVo corp to activate even more intrusive ads if they so chose to. And the "added features" on the box, especially PC-related features, often require paying for TiVo's upgraded computer software to do anything but the basics. And then there's the DRM and non-anonymous statistics reporting.

What concerns me is that TiVo is that these new "features" are just going to end up as more annoying ad clutter, and at every menu option will be a prompt to pay for some new feature. Just like so many other devices spawned of the communication age.

TiVo corp has yet to turn a profit, so I'm sure they're just looking for more revenue streams. I'm sure the latest software update will be just what I'm waiting for.

Re:I'm sure they'll charge for that "convenience"

I'm going to play Devil's advocate here. I have a TiVo, I love the thing. I have a Series 3, which I paid full price for shortly after release.

I don't care much about the ads. I've been using TiVo since before then, and they don't bother me, I just tune them out. If they tried to stick in their own commercials, I would complain very VERY loudly. But adding a little extra item to the main menu? That's nothing. A little thing on their "you're done with this program, now what?" screen? Fine with me. The little "pop-ups" during commercials? Also doesn't bother me. If companies I cared about used them, I might click on one.

Do they charge you a monthly fee? Yes. Totally worth it. For that you get software updates, guide data, suggestions (which is what's most valuable). For the amount of TV I watch the the amount I love my TiVo, I consider it money well spent. You also get some of their services. The Amazon Unbox integration, the downloadable shows (like The Onion videocast), and some other things.

Paying for the extra features? If you're on Windows, you don't really have to pay for any of them as far as I know. That's OK. I don't care much about viewing my photos from my TiVo (which is free).

As for the YouTube feature? Kinda neat. I'll probably never use it. The only feature I'd like at this point is Netflix integration (especially HD movies). But that won't happen any time soon. I'm happy.

If you're on the Mac... they've forgot about you. It's sad. I'm on a Mac, and it annoys me. I used to be able to use TiVoDecodeManager (which was awesome), but that seems to have broken with Leopard. You could pay $100 to get some piece of junk from Roxio... but at least the option is there. Even that wasn't available just a few years ago.

As for their revenue problems, I see a few reasons:

1. Dish Network - Stole their technology, advertised it out the ears, made a fortune, forced a lawsuit which they haven't paid up on yet (probably on appeal)
2. DirecTV - Held more TiVo subscribers than TiVo, I think. They dumped the far superior TiVo product so they could save $1 per month per box
3. Comcast/etc - Advertise their vastly inferior boxes as "Better than TiVo"
4. TV Guide - Have a junk patent on grid views of time. They sued TiVo, and now charge them a monthly fee and force the TV guide logo to be displayed on the boxes
5. Misc - TiVo has some expenses that could go away. They have to maintain dial-up accounts for all the boxes to dial in on (they have UUNet do that for them, IIRC). If they could get more subscribers over to broadband, they could cut the size of that down and thus reduce their costs

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I'm using TivoDecodeManager on Leopard. What's broken for you? The only problem I have is if I'm queuing multiple shows, anything after the first has the file name all wrong, so I only do one at a time. But it's hardly unusable.

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Comcast/etc - Advertise their vastly inferior boxes as "Better than TiVo"

Actually, I believe it's Dish Network that's doing that, and to be fair, from what I've heard the DishPlayer has made huge strides since the buggy mess it was a few years back. It probably beats the DirecTV DVR hands down, but I'd be surprised if it beat

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But adding a little extra item to the main menu? That's nothing. A little thing on their "you're done with this program, now what?" screen? Fine with me. The little "pop-ups" during commercials? Also doesn't bother me.

You forgot the ones at the end of the list of shows gathered together in groups, but you may be watching your shows before you end up with two or more unwatched. I was delaying watching Lost so a friend could catch up. There was an ad entry at the end of

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People often don't realize that TiVo, while still charging a fee for the unit and a monthly service fee, still has advertisements laced into it.

I have a TiVo, and the advertisements don't bother me.

And I'm the kind of guy who won't browse without AdBloc

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I have been a Tivo supporter for years, but I think they are headed down the crapper.

My new TivoHD actually breaks down on occasion and needs a reboot (It loses sound and background colors sometimes).

They have not made switched digital video work (SDV). I

Implications are intense...

The TV industry only recently acquired a commodity model like the music industry (little pieces of plastic), and most of its history, has been one of broadcast. If any website can route around using the a youtube API, and TiVo is in on it, then one should be able completely skirt the broadcast model completely. Instead of a "tube" going from broadcaster to audient, the tube is removed and then anyone can talk to the audient.

The only thing that remains are issues of "quality" that one gets from expensive productions (crane shots, long tracking shots, fancy lighting tricks, quality make up, good direction and acting). So, the funding would have to come from somewhere - the economic model would have to work - but if it is settled either through fees for DL or subscriptions or whatever, then basically two things happen: the broadcaster business model is mortally wounded and the advertisers that support it will have a harder time keeping eyeballs...

This youtube / tivo thing is a harbinger of the future of TV, and is a BIG step in the right direction.

RS

Welcome Google

Sounds exciting. Perhaps the best brains in the business are now having an impact at YouTube? The interface is a lot better these days too.

Yay!

Yay!

I'll be able to watch over-compressed, out of focus home videos at 320x200 blown up to 1920x1200 on my HDTV!

Re:Tivo's Series3 is a ripoff

The remaining question is, do you have the skills to do this fast enough, and do you work cheap enough, for it to take less than $400 of your time?

Don't get me wrong, I'd do it regardless -- although VideoDownloader is absolutely NOT what you want to be doing from your couch; I'd look for whatever API they gave the iPhone and just stream h.264.

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Or the skills to do it at all. I'm definitely a geek, but I'm a mechanical engineer... while I physically built my computer, I've just never delved into Linux based systems. I just don't program anything, and rarely have the time to start from scratch. Bu

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It's called 'spare time' for a reason. By the way, I would kill for a job that landed $400 for 2-3 days of work. Perhaps I'm just looking at it wrong, but unless I'm taking time off work, my time has no monetary value.

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Where do you live?

If you're employed in tech in the US and not making $400 or more for 2-3 days of work, there's a decent chance you're doing something wrong. $16-$25/hr is not particularly special, it's entry to mid-level pay depending on exactly where yo

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I made a solid attempt to do just that. But, the POS box i got didn't have a supported video card, so that's another 100 bucks on top of the 100 for the HD Tuner. Then Zap2It got killed and none of my roomates could work the thing, so we got the crappy D

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Well, I have the time and resources to do that, but I would still pay $200/$300 more. I'm also lazy, have lots of work, and don't want to worry. That, of course, supposing it works as I want it to.

Sometimes, even us geeks just want to sit back and relax.

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Dude, the Series 3 is discontinued. It's replacement, the Tivo HD, is about 2-fiddy. And it does a bit more than just play YouTube videos.

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Amen. I bought an HD for ~$300, and really couldn't be much happier with it. It has a Rhapsody and Unbox client, the Tivocast content is nicely geek-targeted (much comes from ZDnet/CNet, so you get Dvorak's talk show, DLTV, etc.). More to the point, the

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Instead of spending $600 on a Tivo Series3 device, you can buy a cheap $200 computer, use MythTV to replicate what the Tivo would offer, put Firefox and the VideoDownloader extension on there to watch all the YouTube videos you want on your own time.

You're either a troll, or grossly misinformed.

Let's see what it would really take to assemble a MythTV system that could do everything the cheaper ($300, less if refurbished) HD-TiVo can do:

1. Record two HD streams simultaneously: Two ATSC/QAM Hauppauge HD-

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erm... no, not just yet...

That will make sense once there's decent quality (and non-copyright infringing) material at a much higher resolution -- we are several years away from that being YouTube.

Although, I guess it's perfect right now if you norma