The Challenges of A DVR Service

ChelleChelle writes "'The two burdens that are probably most annoying to the user are a complex and difficult control interface and lack of reliability.' So says TiVo cofounder Jim Burton as he describes the challenges of designing and delivering an easy-to-use yet highly effective and reliable DVR service. The article is quite broad in focus, providing information on the design aspects of TiVo (hardware, security, source code, etc) yet also taking into consideration the human element, with a large section devoted to service design principles. Overall, a good read for anyone interested in purpose-built systems." Update: 04/21 18:54 GMT by Z : Tim Burton no longer cofounding Tivo.

Tim Burton != Jim Barton

[tepples]

From the blurb: "So says TiVo cofounder Tim Burton" From the article: "by Jim Barton, TiVo". Jim Barton is not the director of Batman [wikipedia.org].

I can vouch for tivo... they got it right

[yagu]

We have both tivos and a Comcast HD PVR (I believe made by Magnavox), and I can attest to the interface being the hardest thing to get right, but maybe the most important. And, by far Tivo has come closest to the transcendental interface over any competitors (I've also sampled the offering of some of the others).

Here are some of the "wows" about Tivo, many of which I'd discovered over time:

• the infamous but invaluable 30-second skip hack. It's controversial and I don't know why, since the Comcast box offers the 30-second skip out of the box. Anyway, if you have Tivo, and you don't know about this one, you HAVE to get it.
• the tick-mark FF. When fast forwarding at any speed, whether in the live buffer or watching a recorded show, the "->|" button will advance the video to the next tick mark on the screen. The tick marks are typically 10, 15, or 5 minutes depending on the length of the show. This is a GREAT convenience factor!
• the same tick-make REW function... Same button, if you're rewinding, you can move immediately to a previous tick mark. If you're in the live buffer, it takes you all the way to the beginning (oldest video) of the live buffer.
• the "ENTER" button, in any list context will take you alternately to the beginning and then end of a list.
• the "ENTER" button also is "Previous" for last watched channel.
• the 8-second backward button
• overloaded buttons, e.g., when browsing show listings, the "channel up and down" buttons move you one page up and down through the listings respectively. Same is true when in any list context. Also, the FF and REW buttons are overloaded in TV Schedule list mode and advance the "frame" of the listings forward and back by 30 minutes.
• wish list... great feature, really does work
• translucent screens for most interaction, you can continue to watch while scheduling recordings.
• Season PASS is MUCH more accurate and reliable than the competition
• "recently deleted" folder for shows manually deleted, you can go back and retrieve them if you need to as long as the Tivo hasn't permanently deleted them for lack of space.
• grouping of shows into folders to more easily navigate recorded shows (optionally on or off)

This barely covers the features, but Tivo has done an AMAZING job in ergonomics!

The Comcast box, on the other hand, is abysmal. It is almost unusable, but for now is the only available option to record HD shows. Here are a few of the annoyances:

• On a regular basis, shows appear (that were requested to record) in the "recorded" list with no title and a recording date of 1999, impossible since this device never existed then. They can't be deleted, and they accumulate over time.
• If you try and play one of the "anonymous" shows, it locks the box solid, the only option is a power recycle.
• The ONLY way to turn CC (Closed Caption) on and off is to power the unit down with the remote, then hit the menu within a timeout interval, and scroll down through an internal systems menu and turn CC on.
• Oh, and by the way, when you do the previous bullet to toggle the CC, any recording shows stop recording, and don't resume upon re-power.
• There is a well known and hated "lag" in the Comcast box. Apparently the software has NO concept of prioritization. When the box is particularly bogged down, the response to button presses from the remote can come in fits and starts. I've literally gotten lost in what I thought I pressed and would put the remote down and "cool down" and let the box take sometimes up to 3 or 4 minutes to "catch up". Oh, and yes, it captures EVERY button press, and honors them, and yes, because of that we have accidentally deleted shows we didn't want to.
• And, related to previous bullet, there is NO way to tell whether the unit has seen your button presses, there is no hourglass, no indicator, NOTHING to indicate is has seen a remote comm

It's a bit of a history rewrite

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

Concerning subscriptions. To read the article, one would think that the only way you could ever purchase a Tivo would be with a recurring subscription fee. The reality is that *many* of us bought series one Tivo's with a lifetime fee. The lifetime fee was, by far, the best value for the consumer and is no longer offered.

Re:Tim Burton != Jim Barton

[Anonymous Coward]

"Fixed", yet still not correct. Typical.

Re:Huh?

[ChelleChelle]

It's not that Tim Burton is no longer cofounding TiVo...it's that I somehow managed to get "Tim Burton" out of "Jim Barton" when submitting the article...how did this happen? No idea, I apologize. Although I was entertained by your comment ("Hi, Son. I am no longer your daddy. I unprocreated you") But to make things clear--Jim Barton did cofound TiVo. Tim Burton is apparently involved in movies.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:offtopic, but why can't I "save" my live buffer

[Lordrashmi]

Uh, my Tivo does this already.

Re:Inaccurate

[Jonathan_S]

As a corollary, we could not build in a dependency on network bandwidth available to the DVR. All data transfer, including eventually video, would be handled through download.

Not true. More than once I've been up at 4 AM and noticed the Tivo had gone into record, reeling in a commercial hawking an upgraded Tivo box or someone else's product or service. Tivo regularly buys airtime early in the morning to broadcast and reel in their own program material.

They mean download rather than streaming. The overnight video broadcasts are a form of downloaded material, just not downloaded over the internet. (It is certainly not live streaming material).

Unless you happen to be watching something at 4am (actually I thought it first tries at 2am), you don't know that the TiVo is doing that. If you have something scheduled to record the TiVo grabs a later airing of that material. Eventually it either manages to record it and turns it into a showcase or menu entry (ad), or it failed to record it and skips that item.

But the user either sees all of the video played off the hard disk, or non of it. The TiVo isn't attempting to stream the video over a network while the user is watching it.

You can, with a tivo.

[raygundan]

I don't think you've tried enough DVRs. Tivo's buffer may be a measly 30 minutes, but if you hit "record," it copies everything in the buffer back in time to the beginning of the show you are watching.

There are still some gripes with the Tivo buffering system, but this isn't one of them. Gripes:

1. It's only 30 minutes
2. If you wait too long to hit record (ie, into the start of another show) you'll only get the airing show, not the buffered one. It should ask which one you want.
3. It clears the buffer on every channel change. (Annoying to some, beneficial to others-- perhaps a setting we could switch depending on preference?)

Update

[hackstraw]

Soon Zonk will not be confounding Slashdot with sentences like:

Tim Burton no longer cofounding Tivo.

Founding is something that is completed in the past. Pluperfect for grammar enthusiasts or those that have learned more structured languages than English is structured.

Nobody can no longer found or cofound something.

Re:offtopic, but why can't I "save" my live buffer

[Brian360]

MythTV (0.19+) does this too. Since the Live TV "recordings" are basically the same as a regular recording but with a short lifespan, you can hit "record" at any point during a show of any length and it'll flag it as a recording and automatically save the rest of the show, even if you back out of LiveTV. I do this all the time, and its great.

Re:I can vouch for tivo... they got it right

[Atlantix]

Maybe you have an older Comcast box, mine has many of the problems you describe, but I can explain others.

There is a swap button to switch between tuners so you're not locked to one station if you are recording it. It's at the very bottom of the remote, second from the left.

As for the front display, it really isn't that complicated:
The LED in the lower left is the power indicator (yellow is on, off is off).
The LED in the lower right, comes on when it gets input from the remote. Normally it just flashes yellow, but if it stays on, don't hit any more buttons because it is lagging.
The LED is the upper left indicates if you have any messages (red is yes, off is no).
The LED in the upper right indicates the state of the tuner you're NOT watching (the red light is on if it's recording, off if not).

The display in the middle gives the state of the tuner you ARE watching (it says REC if recording, or the time if you're just watching live TV). It will also say PLAY here if both tuners are recording you start watching a program from the hard drive.

--Atlantix

Re:Apprently with tivo

[Dare nMc]

> The lack of HDTV support was, in simple terms, a deal-breaker.
> Maybe that new Series3 will change things. When is it shipping again? :-/

I have had a HD TIVO for about 6 months now, it is a pretty nice unit.
I would bet the blame for lack of a standalone HDTV TiVo goes to the cable industry. They probably aren't standardized enough to make a box to allow the design of a single unit you could move from company to compnay, house to house.

MY HD TiVo does record all the Over The Air HD content that is available as well as the DirectTV stuff, a huge advancement over the regular definition Direct Tivo.