TiVo to Let Users Record Shows Via Cellphone

Carl Bialik writes "Verizon Wireless plans to offer a new service called TiVo Mobile that will allow its customers who also have TiVos in their homes to schedule TV shows for recording when they are on the go, the Wall Street Journal reports. ' A customer might use the service to impulsively schedule a sitcom for recording after the show is recommended by a friend at a party,' says the WSJ, adding, 'Verizon Wireless executives said the service, to begin this summer, is expected to cost less than $5 a month, in addition to normal cellphone-service charges and TiVo subscriber fees, which are $12.95 a month.'"

Yawn

[yotaku]

Media Center, and I'm sure the linux htpcs too, have been able to this for ages. And we dont have to pay a monthly fee.

sounds like this thing that works on ALL carriers

[montale127]

http://www.dvreverywhere.com/ [dvreverywhere.com]

or... don't waste $5 a month

[loraksus]

And use the tv.yahoo's tivo scheduling.
Wow... $5 a month?

$5 / Month?!?!?

[brunes69]

You can do this for free with MythTV via MythWeb.

You can also do it for free at tivo.com

Totally ridiculous.

Re:MythTV has web front end

[RedWizzard]

Yeah, and you can do on-line scheduling with TiVo as well. Just need a browser that can login to the TiVo website. No, it isn't an extra feature.

But the Tivo has to call in to get the new schedule, right? So anything you schedule before the next time Tivo phones home will be lost. MythWeb doesn't have that problem - it directly controls the system.

Re:Yawn

[Locutus]

this has been something Tivo hackers have had for quite some time with the webserver access hack. I guess now, Tivo finally feels this is something they should provide as part of the "Tivo Service".

Obviously, this isn't really news to techies and/or hackers but the general public is clueless as to what's available to them. Heck, I've told friends who great the Tivo DVR is but only til they get one with some new service, do they then tell me that they'd not want to be without a DVR... I guess that is why marketing is so expensive. The people have to be told over and over again before they finally "get it". :-/

LoB

Re:MythWeb...

[pivo]

TiVo also runs on a Linux box. And as others have pointed out, you can scheduule TiVo via a web browser.

Re:RTFA damn it!

[Dynedain]

And considering every cellphone that will have the ability to use this feature will also most likely already include at least a WAP browser (if not a full HTML browser).... what was your point again?

A couple corrections

[Anonymous Coward]

You can actually do without the service if you don't mind entering all your start and top times by hand.
This hasn't been true for years; in fact, it stopped being true back in the days of the Series 1. Later Series 1 models and nearly all Series 2 models are doorstops without a TiVo service subscription.

(Back before TV listings became available online for free, people used to spend $3/month for TV Guide just so they'd known what was on. Same idea, only more advanced.)
$3 a month for TV Guide? Maybe in 1962. The cover price of TV Guide has been almost $2 for several years now, and I can't count the number of people I knew (my parents included) who just grabbed a Guide at the checkstand every week during grocery shopping.

Up until TV Guide quit doing TV listings, TiVo was pretty price competitive with newsstand purchase of weekly issues.

What bugs me is that they no longer allow you to buy lifetime service for a flat fee.
This is untrue. Lifetime service is still available, and is still $299.

They also still offer the ability to buy an annual subscription if you prefer.

Though if you were unlucky (as I was) your TiVo died on you before the 18 months was up!
If your TiVo dies on you out of warranty and you have a lifetime subscription, you simply send it to TiVo for a standard flat-fee repair. If your unit is repaired, your subscription will keep working when you hook it back up. If your unit is replaced by TiVo, they will transfer the lifetime to the replacement unit. This is not a new policy; it's been active for years.

Nickel and Dimed...

[EMIce]

...for just a few ip packets. Uhh, I hope the way Verizon runs their cellular business is not an indication of how they'll treat us under tiered internet, but who am I kidding?

Anyone who has compared developing applications for Verizon phones vs. Sprint/Nextel vs. Cingular knows that Verizon is simply not an option unless you have $$$ and enough clout to negotiate access. No feature that Verizon thinks they can get an extra fee for is left unlocked. DRM is built in and all applications are signed so as to grant just the permissions that have been paid for.

Compare this to Cingular and international gsm providers, who have no DRM and allow access to the phone hardware (bluetooth, gps, ringtones, other content)and the network via java. You own the hardware, you pay for network access, and use it as you will. No getting billed for every single permutation of features like with this Tivo app.

Verizon considers each application a billable "feature" in and of itself, while more open providers bill for network access and leave applications to open hardware and software.

The later architecture allows anyone to get in on the game, while the former restricts access to those that pay up. You can bet that development companies who pony up for access will need to make a return asap, and so will be pushed towards making applications that maximize return quickly. This will only lead to fewer experimental ideas attempted, and fewer niche applications being developed.

If \.'ers want to support more open cell standards I'd suggest looking into Cingular, who at first advertised themselves years ago as "the company the support self expression" - of course no one got it. I hear their network has gotten much wider since the AT&T merger so they are worth a shot.

Re:Yawn

[Anonymous Coward]

In fact, TiVo has a SDK you could use to build an app that does exactly this (scheduling using a cell phone) without any hacks.

Re:MythWeb...

[ydrol]

For me the quality loss of myth isn't aceptable (hr10-250 HD tivo's) and that is not going to change untill firewire recording from digital cable becomes possible.

Being in the UK I'm not fully clued up on the US situation, but I understand you guys can get direct Digital feed into the PC via ATSC cards and (I think) Cable Cards , thus no quality loss and no encoding overhead. Here in UK we can use DVB-T cards, and Satellite cards. We cant get a direct cable feed into the PC without going via analogue though.

Re:A bit obsessive

[KarateExplosions]

Although that's true, say you're out somewhere and you hear on the news that the president is addressing the nation tonight -- Tivo will pick up him blathering but it will push Lost back a half hour because Tivo doesn't cover unscheduled changes in the TV lineup (impromptu presidential addresses, press conferences, late-running NCAA games, etc. You can reschedule Tivo yourself with any Internet connection (this Verizon thing is a rip-off) provided you have your Tivo on your home network.