Comment TV Guide and Open Source (Score 1) 357
It seems to me that the service is what is Replay and Tivo hope to abuse. I'm sure it will only get worse as they know they have you hooked once you buy a unit.
I think a good project might be for the linux/pvr crowd to get involved with TVGuide. If TVGuide (maybe they already do - I don't know), were to offer a dial-in or broadband subscription service, I imagine it wouldn't take much to re-point the Replay to download the programming from them. Maybe you could even download to PC and then on to the Replay.
As a matter of fact, at that point why even use the Replay, as many have said the service is what makes the thing useful so once you have an alternative way to get programming, your PC would do just as well.
It would seem to me that if you do NOT agree to the terms of Replay's service, then you would be free to choose your own service. Obviously they *will* sell you the unit without the service knowing that you have nowhere else to go anyway. But their sale of the unit without the service seems to imply that you can choose your own. The fact that you are free to not agree to their service but are still able to keep/use the box also seems to imply that you can go find your own service. (IANAL) I would say that TV listings are not an essential part of the system in that they are not unique to Replay, there are lots of TV listings providers. Much like the MS/IE bundling issue that basically says there is competition for this browser and MS used it's position unfairly to force it browser to the top, I think a similar arguement can be made for the RePay/TV listing service. They are tying their specific hardware/os to a non-specific service to eliminate your choice. I think that can be beaten.
--Paul
I think a good project might be for the linux/pvr crowd to get involved with TVGuide. If TVGuide (maybe they already do - I don't know), were to offer a dial-in or broadband subscription service, I imagine it wouldn't take much to re-point the Replay to download the programming from them. Maybe you could even download to PC and then on to the Replay.
As a matter of fact, at that point why even use the Replay, as many have said the service is what makes the thing useful so once you have an alternative way to get programming, your PC would do just as well.
It would seem to me that if you do NOT agree to the terms of Replay's service, then you would be free to choose your own service. Obviously they *will* sell you the unit without the service knowing that you have nowhere else to go anyway. But their sale of the unit without the service seems to imply that you can choose your own. The fact that you are free to not agree to their service but are still able to keep/use the box also seems to imply that you can go find your own service. (IANAL) I would say that TV listings are not an essential part of the system in that they are not unique to Replay, there are lots of TV listings providers. Much like the MS/IE bundling issue that basically says there is competition for this browser and MS used it's position unfairly to force it browser to the top, I think a similar arguement can be made for the RePay/TV listing service. They are tying their specific hardware/os to a non-specific service to eliminate your choice. I think that can be beaten.
--Paul
