Here’s Dave Zatz’s extensive look at the new TiVos, which ship next month. As Dave says, TiVo is clearly trying to reposition its box from a DVR into a TV box that does a bunch of things. That makes sense. But my mind is already racing forward to think about all the things a next-next-generation TiVo might do. Here’s my wish list for the TiVo Series 5–and since it’s just a wish list and the Premieres’ replacements are years off, I’m going to ask for some things that may be technically or logistically impossible at the moment.

A TiVo.com that’s an extension of my TiVo. The biggest reason why I don’t use my TiVo even more than I do is because all the shows it finds for me are only available when I’m in my living room. How about incorporating Slingbox-like functionality into the box that lets me log in and watch DVRd shows from any Web browser?

Better TiVo to Go. When TiVo announced that it would add the ability to move TiVo recordings onto PCs and other devices a few years ago, I got all excited. But the service as it exists is so unwieldy and glitchy that I’ve almost never used it. I’d kill for a radically-improved version that made it a snap to get a DVRd show from the TiVo in my living room onto my phone. Here’s a fantasy scenario: Maybe a TiVo could have the necessary software and jacks right on the box itself, so you could do the job without a PC being involved at all.

Better access to video podcasts and other free content. My current TiVo lets me browse and watch video podcasts, but the feature is crude, incomplete, and not very reliable. Why not make it as easy to get Season Passes for this stuff as it is to do so with cable programming? (Maybe the Premieres do this and I just don’t know about it.)

Full-blown access to Hulu in all its glory. Hey, I can dream, can’t I?

Video on demand. When I switched from DirecTV to Comcast and got on-demand cable, I liked it a lot, and was startled to discover that dumping Comcast’s cable box in favor of a TiVo HD meant I’d lose access to it. In fact, I flirted with the idea of gritting my teeth and going with a Comcast DVR. TiVo needs support for Tru2Way so getting it doesn’t mean giving anything up. (Side note: Dave Zatz noticed mention of Comcast On Demand in a Premiere screen shot, but is puzzled about it and wonders if it’s a Photoshopping goof.)

Satellite support. Speaking of DirecTV, it’s a shame that the Premiere models, like the Series 3 ones before them, won’t work with it or with Dish Network. A new Tivo box for DirecTV is due later this year, but I’d love to see one TiVo that works with every major TV service–at least as a high-end option.

Phone apps. There are third-party iPhone applications for stuff like remote programming. But we need slick, official TiVo apps for iPhone, Android, and other platforms. At bare minimum, they should serve as a Tivo uberremote control. But should’t they also let you stream video from the TiVo onto the phone’s screen–at least when you’re around the house and can do so via WiFi?

Apps, period! TiVo should provide Yahoo Widget-like features that let purveyors of Web services bring their offerings into the living room. Or how about simply working with Yahoo to get its impressive TV platform onto the TiVo, period?

A much smaller box. The Premiere is the sleekest TiVo to date, but it’s still no Apple TV.

Solid state storage, maybe? It’s still too costly and restricted in capacity–the best TiVo could do right now would be a 256GB model that cost a fortune. And maybe there are technical limitations I don’t know about. But in a decade or so of DVR ownership, I’ve found that rotating hard drives inside the boxes flake out on a regular basis. Seems like solid-state ones would be more reliable and permit for a far more compact box.

A DVRless device called a TiVo. The TiVo folks are right: TiVo isn’t about recording programming from a cable signal onto a hard drive for later watching. It’s about helping folks find the TV they want and watch it on their terms, period. Someday–maybe quite soon–universal video on demand and comprehensive Internet TV options will render the DVR part of TiVo obsolete. So why not get ahead of the curve by introducing an Internet-only TiVo–one that competes with devices like Roku and the Boxee Box, but with the familiar TiVo interface and remote?

Any other proposals, TiVo fans?

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Dave broke the news back in August that Comcast would be coming out with a new remote DVR scheduling feature in the near future. Since then, I’ve kept an eye on the myDVR page in hopes I’d get a heads-up on regional availability. Today, after reading about guide updates over on the Comcast blog, I revisited the bookmarked URL and hit the jackpot. I can now manage all of my DVR recordings online. It appears that I’m in one of the early market rollouts, but the rest of Comcast’s digital subscribers with a Motorola set-top should get the upgrade over the next several months.

In addition to letting me manage recordings, the new myDVR Manager site includes decent search functionality with content filters (HD, sports, movies, etc.) and keyword results that incorporate both live broadcasts and on-demand offerings. The UI is easy to use and even anticipates what I might need next. A search on Duke, for example, let me quickly isolate just the Duke college basketball games.

The series recording options are also much easier to manage than they are on the traditional guide. See further pics after the jump for a look at menus and options.

(This post is republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

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As TiVo (TIVO) investors are aware, TiVo linked up with Comcast(CMCSA) to deliver their DVR experience onto third party cable company hardware (Motorola). And while the initial fruits of their labor began deployment as a Comcast offering in New England in late 2007, we’ve yet to see a broader release to other markets. Making ComcastMelissa’s tweet, a response to a customer request for an improved DVR interface, notable.

However, I suspect she will be proven wrong. I seriously doubt Comcast intends a nationwide TiVo roll-out in the few remaining months of 2009 and doubt their ability to execute on such a plan, should it exist. Most likely, “ComcastMelissa” is good intentioned but misinformed of the Comcast TiVo deployment strategy. Anyone who’s followed Comcast and TiVo statements on the matter would probably agree that the parties have a more conservative market-by-market deployment plan in place. Some supporting evidence from TiVo CEO Tom Rogers at their recent earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha:

They continue to work through in Boston the infrastructure issues that particularly relate to the installation in individual homes. And I can’t say they are where they want to be yet; there are clearly things that Comcast needs to solve for both TiVo and for themselves so the product can be more smoothly installed. They are totally committed to solving those issues and we believe they will be solved in the near future. Obviously, there’s frustration on both their part and ours that it’s not quite solved yet. But I think, as Mark Hess’s quote indicated, the commitment to continue to roll TiVo beyond the two named markets that we’ve mentioned, they indicated in last quarter earnings that they were focused on a market rollout where TiVo would be the primary DVR and then again today have announced yet another yet to be soon-named market.

[This post republished from Zatz Not Funny.]

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TiVo’s quarterly call

Unlike TiVo’s successful David v Goliath battle with DISH/EchoStar (SATS), things may play out a bit differently this time. First, there’s likely no smoking gun. Based on the evidence presented, it sounds like DISH may have helped themselves to an early TiVo prototype which was subsequently reverse engineered. Second, digital video recording technology may not be as patentable as TiVo would like. (Not to mention, it’s possible Judge Folsom and the Eastern District Court could run out of patience with TiVo’s community stunts and their own nationwide reputation. Then again, maybe not – these cases keep them in the spotlight and are good for the local economy.) Lastly, given the language in yesterday’s call, TiVo may just be looking to force AT&T and Verizon into some sort of licensing deal.

Another difference this time around, is that the defendants are relying heavily on third party tech. Verizon has constructed their own FiOS TV DVR software, but currently runs on Motorola hardware. AT&T’s set-top box platform is also Motorola, but the U-Verse software is largely Microsoft (MSFT). So it’ll be interesting to see how Moto and Mister Softee, plus others such as Broadcom, could be pulled into the fray. As an observer, and given TiVo’s pressure to license, I hope their contracts with DirecTV (DTV) and Comcast (CMCSA) are called into evidence.

My blogging partner Davis Freeberg has tracked down and purchased the PACER court filings so you don’t have to. Verizon here. AT&T here and below:

(Photo by Zandir; this post republished from Zatz Not Funny.)

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The Times story includes one statistic which, if you like TiVo as much as I do, is alarming: Two years ago, there were 1.727 million households with TiVos, and that number has fallen to 1.6 million today. Most of the defectors have presumably left TiVo in favor of renting DVRs from their cable companies for a few bucks a month, and I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them did so when they upgraded their TV setups to HD and needed to replace aging standard-definition TiVo units.

As good as TiVo is, it’s a far costlier entertainment option than a cable DVR: You’ve got to both buy a box and pay Tivo a monthly fee that’s higher than cable DVRs cost. (Some of us choose to pay TiVo a sizable one-time fee rather than the monthly subscription.) I’d like to see the world look at TiVo as a premium product that’s worth the extra bucks, and perhaps the arrangement with Best Buy will result in more folks buying and loving TiVo. I know I don’t want to be part of a relentlessly dwindling cult…

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Their set top HD DVR could only record standard definition programming over cable, something they left out in their demo to me. Want to record HD? Hope you are in range of a high-definition over the air station. The box was big and clumsy and well, the whole product seemed to suck.

I was on their beta program for a matter of about two weeks before the product went under (in fact, the DVR still sits in my basement in the box, I forgot to send it back — feel free to e-mail me Digeo if you’re reading this with your mailing address). I didn’t even get a chance to set the thing up — and once I found out about the DVRs bizarre limitations I decided to pass.

Color me surprised after Digeo’s spectacular flameout post-CES 2008 to see them attempting to make a comeback. But sure enough, Dave Zatz has discovered a brand new unit has appeared on Digeo’s pages. So lets look over the enhancements.

Sexier, smaller set top box? Check.
CableCARD HD support instead of OTA? Check.
No monthly fees like TiVo? Check.
Reasonable retail price? Sorry, no dice.

Zatz has found out this box will retail for $800. I don’t know what they’re thinking. TiVo, the market leader, had a hard enough time selling its HD DVR for $600. What makes Digeo think its going to be able to break into the market with a device that a) has a smaller hard drive than TiVo HD XL at $200 less, and b) is all but an unknown with consumers, but is coming at a premium?

I’m sorry — not to be blunt — but it seems like this company is just destined to repeat its errors over and over again. I’m glad they’re trying again, but come on, this is a bad economy. You really need to have an awesome value proposition in order to charge a high price for your products.

What I’m seeing so far tells me this new Moxi DVR is not. It’s actually disappointing: I think TiVo could use a little kick in the pants.

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Like the TiVo HD and Series 3, the XL uses a CableCARD, which eliminates the need for the user to rent a set-top box from the cable companies. At least here where I live, Comcast doesn’t charge for CableCARD usage, so I’m saving myself the $8 monthly or so fee it costs to rent the box.

It has dual-tuner functionality, so if you have the right card (an ‘M’ instead of an ‘S’ card), you’ll be able to take advantage of that. You can record two channels at once, and both in HD, so that is nice.

Really, there is not much different here: it’s essentially the same old TiVo with a big hard drive. That 1 terabyte hard drive should be plenty: it would allow for the recording of about 232 hours of standard def programming, and around 150 hours of HD programming.

This is a serious jump from the previous unit, which only allowed for about 20 hours of recording time in HD.

Altogether, our experience with the device was positive. Being that this was the first TiVo I’ve used that didn’t need the cable set-top box to operate, it was nice not to have to deal with the annoying banner of the set-top box, or the connection process there.

Picture quality was excellent, and the digital recording does not lose as much of the sharpness of HD programming as you’d expect.

You will lose On Demand, so if that’s a big hit in your household, the TiVo HD XL may not work. However here, we rarely use it, so at least in my own personal case, I’m not missing it.

I found one negative, and its very annoying. When selecting programming, and there is both a standard def and high def option, the Season Pass automatically defaults to SD. You have to manually go in and change it to HD, or use the online website to ensure it records only the HD channel.

If this is an HD DVR, it should be recording the high def versions by default, but thats only my opinion.

Overall, we’d recommend this unit over its smaller sibling. If you’re going to spend $1,000+ on a good HDTV, why skimp out on the DVR? Add to this the fact that the difference between recording times is like night and day, and this is a no brainer.

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Here are a couple of screen images, looking…well, looking like TiVo, which is one of the highest compliments you can pay a software interface:

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Nero says that its version of TiVo will support almost all of the features of the standalone box, including stuff like Season Passes and KidZones. Not only will it let you move recordings to portable devices such as iPods or burn them on DVD, but it should be faster and easier than with a TiVo box, since the latter requires you to move the recordings over your home network from box to PC first. (With Liquid TV, they’re already on the PC in the first place.) The features that are missing-such as support for Amazon movie downloads and for podcasts–sound superfluous; you’re running Liquid TV on a PC, so you’ve got access to that stuff anyhow.

Nero says that Liquid TV | TiVo PC will be available in mid-October, in two versions: a $200 one that inclkudes a TV tuner card and TiVo remote control, and a $100 software-only one. (I have a hard time imagining the TiVo experience without the TiVo remote, but Liquid TV can also be controlled with mouse and keyboard.) Both versions include a year’s worth of free TiVo service–it usually costs $13 a month, so that’s a deal. It sounds pretty cool, and it’s one more reason for me to at least flirt with doing something I’ve postponed until now: put a PC in my living room.

But there are a few points to ponder:

System requirements. Nero says you’ll need a PC with a 3-GHz CPU to get the most out of Liquid TV. It also requires at least 20GB of free disk space, but that only provides enough elbow room for 10 hours of standard-def recording, so you’ll likely want a lot more than that.

High-definition issues. Nero’s site says you can record over-the-air HD programming; this post over at CNET seems to say that a properly-equipped PC could also record HD from cable or satellite. But most PCs aren’t properly equipped. TiVo’s own TiVo HD box lets you record high-def cable, and the company has announced it’s working on an HD box for DirecTV.

This is a PC we’re talking about. One of the nicest things about TiVo is that when you set up a recording, you can be reasonably sure it’ll actually record. I’m a little worried that even if Nero’s software is rock-solid, general reliability issues with PCs or other applications running in the background could cause problems.

Despite any gotchas, I’m glad to see TiVo come to the PC. (It stands every chance of faring better than one-time archrival ReplayTV, which ditched its hardware business to go PC-only with a software package that looked good but is apparently now defunct.) Nero’s Liquid TV announcement was part of a busy day of news for the company: It also unveiled Nero Move it, an interesting-sounding Windows application for moving media between devices and converting it on the fly, and Nero 9, an upgrade to its flagship digital media suite,

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Media companies had sued to prevent this form of networked digital recording, fearing that it would make DVRs more pervasive, and therefore increase the odds that TV watchers will skip the ads that pay for their content.

Over at Barrons, Eric Savitz has a good post on the implications of today’s ruling. It’s obviously good news for Comcast and bad news for the media companies who had hoped to prevent it from offering this technology. Eric says it’s also a bummer for DirecTV and Dish Network, since there’s no way to deliver networked DVR functionality via satellite. I imagine that TiVo isn’t thrilled with the ruling, either–anything that helps make DVRs provded by cable companies more popular presumably hurts the sales of the box that’s still synonymous with “DVR.”

Mostly, though, I’m wondering: Should consumers be pleased with this ruling?

One benefit seems to be obvious: If Comcast can put the DVR at its end of the network, it should be able to let its customes sign up for DVR service without having to swap a non-DVR cable box for a new one. It should also allow folks with multiple cable boxes in their homes to get access to their recorded TV from any TV set.

I’m not enough of a cable-TV technology guru to know whether a cable box will be required at all to get access to a networked DVR. I’d like to think that a TV set with a CableCard would be up to the task, but I assume that it will require the elusive piece of technology known as the two-way CableCard.

If any of this happens, it would be pleasant but far from earthshaking. But centralizing the DVR would also open up the possibility of letting people get access to their recorded TV from any PC or phone with an Internet connection–in other words, providing the functionality of Sling Media’s wonderful SlingBox without requiring the SlingBox. You might even be able to get at your shows from any TV with Comcast service.

That would be neat. I’m not holding my breath that we’ll see it anytime soon, though–and even when it does show up, I suspect it might be in a form that’s nowhere near as usable and lovable as the TiVo/SlingBox combo I’ve been using for awhile to watch my favorite programs anywhere at any time. (I haven’t used Comcast’s current DVR box, but as far as  can tell, you can divvy its users up into two groups: Those who find it adequate, and those who can’t stand it.)

Of course, as a Court of Appeals ruling, this decision is subject to further change. It may be a long while before Comcast or any other cable company gets to put DVRs in the cloud. But to answer the question I asked a few paragraphs ago, I hope that they do–I can’t see any way that such a technology would be anything but a happy development for consumers. (Unless you take the “If consumers skip past all commercials, advertising, and therefore advertising-supported TV, will go away” scenario into account, which you probably should–but that’s a subject for another post…)

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