From the article that was published today: "DVR pioneer TiVo on Wednesday said its latest research shows that viewership of recorded TV programs and Internet-delivered content is surpassing live TV viewership. Looking at Web-connected TiVo devices, nearly two thirds of viewing on them is now driven by delayed TV or online on-demand content, it said. TiVo's audience research division, which tracks anonymous usage across 2 million TiVo devices on a second-by-second basis, said that only 38 percent of viewing is live."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
The only thing I watch live is sports and even then, I usually watch on a delay of an hour or more so I can fast-forward through commercials.
- The original Kevin
Which is even nore interesting when you consider that only 38% of households have DVRs.
- RudĩϐЯaЯïan
I don't see anything in the article that supports the general claim. *For TIVO owners* DVR usage exceeds live viewing--and that would seem so likely as to be almost obvious. I think it's a crappy headline over a not-very-interesting story: Once you have a DVR, you delay almost everything to skip commercials.
- Walt Crawford
Walt, it wasn't true previously despite the expectation. In the past, among TIVo owners, live TV (or slightly time delayed) was the predominate way to view TV. Now, we're finally starting to see time shifting and Internet viewing take the lead.
- Stephen Mack
from iPhone
Sure, but that's *among TiVo owners.* The time it took is surprising: If I was adding 10% to our power consumption and $whatever to our monthly expenses to be running a TiVo, I'd sure use it for everything. (That "add 10% to our power consumption" is one compelling reason we don't and don't plan to own a DVR.)
- Walt Crawford
Stephen, I probably couldn't even tell you what nights the shows we watch actually air. We're entirely reliant on the Tivo to find and record them for us.
- The original Kevin
(Disclosure - I work at TiVo) Walt, you must lead a very frugal power consuming life. TiVo Premiere uses 25W, according to Scribd's analysis: http://www.scribd.com/doc.... That works out to about 220kWh/year. By comparison, using a 20" iMac for 2 hours a day, 5 days a week is 54.6kWh/year. If you have a refrigerator made between 2001-2010, it...
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- Ken Gidley
Ken: At 25W, the TiVo Premiere is better than the ones I'd seen (averaging 30W). I figured 300kWh/year. I know extremely well what our power usage is, since our 2.4kW photovoltaic system provides 99%-101% of our total electricity. "10%" might be an overstatement, but it would be a *huge* increment--our annual usage is somewhere between 3,000 and 3,500kWh. We don't run our TV anything like 5 hours a day; we don't use AC anything like 120 hours/year.
- Walt Crawford
In any case, Ken, here's the killer: DVRs for sale in Europe have the option of powering down when not being used, powering up once or twice a day to check program schedules. Is that just too complicated for TiVo in the US? My TV uses less than 0.5w in standby; my Blu-Ray player, no more than 0.1w. If we had a DVR, it might get used for 10 hours/week of recording, maybe 10 of playback. That means it's sitting idle, BUT USING FULL POWER, 124 hours a week. Which is just ridiculous.
- Walt Crawford
Walt, that is a good point. I know that today many of TiVo's signature features (Suggestions, in particular) can occur at any time, but those can be 'scheduled' and cause the box to power on when needed. And that feature can be disabled as well, further reducing the need for 24/7 operations. It's all just a matter of programming. :) Getting the feature request high enough on the 'to do'...
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- Ken Gidley
Ken: And we're so far out of the norm for your customers that I don't doubt that's true. The typical household in the U.S (outside California) uses around 950kWh/month, out of which the TiVo is insignificant--and that "5 hours a day" for the TV is probably also typical, and about 5 times our usage. (Hey, our 54" plasma uses 275 watts, which is damn good for a plasma...but we use it so...
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- Walt Crawford
From the post: "Six years after it stopped offering TiVos, DirecTV is bringing the DVR back with the scheduled Dec. 8 launch of a new TiVo-based high-definition digital video recorder in 10 markets, the satellite operator said Tuesday. The TiVo HD DVR from DirecTV is $199, plus a monthly service fee of $12 per month (which includes a $7 monthly charge for the DirecTV DVR service as well as $5 monthly for the TiVo service). 'We are excited to bring the TiVo product DirecTV customers know, love and want to get their hands on again,' TiVo said in a statement."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
Does the TiVo version provide functionality that the existing DirecTV HD DVR doesn't, or is it mainly the TiVo UI?
- Tinfoil 2.0
LogEx, I'm jumping the gun a little here because this has not been officially announced by DIRECTV or TiVo. So for now I'm just posting what the news sites are saying.
- Stephen Mack
Can we use our old Tiv's with direct tv or just the new one?
- Dario Gomez
does it use whole home dvr? That's the only dealbreaker for me.
- G Dub of the Carolinas
I read that it will not have many of the features that a more typical TiVo would have. :(
- Josh Haley
From the article: "TiVo Inc. (TIVO) said it is working on an app for devices powered by Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system to let users manage its digital TV recording devices. The Android app would follow an earlier remote-control application for Apple Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad that allows users to remotely manage their TiVo boxes as they record television shows and watch live TV. Android 'is on our active road map,' TiVo Chief Executive Tom Rogers told Dow Jones Newswires. He declined to provide a timeframe for the application's debut."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
"There’s an app for that!" (official TiVo Blog) -- iPhone app now available (free!), for TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, TiVo HD XL and TiVo Premiere - http://blog.tivo.com/2011...
From the blog post: "How great would it be to search, browse, explore and share comments about your favorite TV show or movie without interrupting what you’re already watching on your TiVo® DVR? What about being able to schedule your programs on the go? Lose the remote? Well there’s an app for all of these things! TiVo is proud to announce its TiVo App for iPhone, which is now available."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
Announcement from D&M holdings, final purchaser of ReplayTV: "The ReplayTV Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) Service will be permanently discontinued on July 31, 2011. After this date, owners of ReplayTV DVR units will still be able to manually record analog TV programs, but will not have the benefit of access to the interactive program guide. Effective immediately, monthly billing for the ReplayTV service to remaining customers has been suspended. The industry conversion to HDTV is complete and ReplayTV DVRs are unable to take advantage of the wealth of HDTV programming. Please contact your service provider for current offerings."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
"We expect the new receiver to launch in early 2011 and we will provide more information as soon as it is available. To receive updates on the new TiVo HD DVR, sign up at: http://www.tivo.com/product... "
- Josh Haley
The very moment we have a public date, I promise to let you know. Until then, all I can say is that a lot of people are putting in tons and tons of hours to make this happen.
- Stephen Mack
Blog post by Margret Schmidt (our VP of UI) at TiVo.com: "For the last nine years I have been responsible for the TiVo user interface. I wasn’t involved in the original creation of TiVo, but I worked hard to keep it true to that initial vision of simplicity as we added extensive functionality to our Internet-connected DVRs."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
I've heard reports of DNS issues, but that's really weird since it's working for me from both home and work.
- Stephen Mack
It's working for me now, but earlier it was just going to the normal tivo.com site. I suspect your DNS is misconfigured and returns the wrong IP from time to time.
- Otto
Thanks to details from Steve we're working on the DNS issues. As Otto suspected, one of our nameservers is misbehaving.
- Stephen Mack
This is fixed now. If you have any further issues reaching http://blog.tivo.com/ please let me know! And thanks to Steve for providing the technical details that helped us resolve this faster.
- Stephen Mack
I have to say that I like the new UI overall, it does stay true to the simplistic TiVo navigation which is very important. Flash concerns me a little but not too much. Like any techie, I just wish there was more changes but I'm hoping TiVo does well with the new S4 devices.
- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
So why can't I upgrade my current Tivo to this new OS? ;)
- Anthony Citrano
Announced today. From our press release: "TiVo Inc., a leader in the creation of television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs), and Virgin Media Inc., the UK's leading entertainment and communications company, today announced they have entered into a strategic partnership under which TiVo will develop Virgin Media's next generation TV platform. Under the mutually exclusive agreement, TiVo will develop a converged television and broadband interactive interface to power Virgin Media's next generation, high definition set top boxes. The terms of the deal are not disclosed."
- Stephen Mack
from Bookmarklet
Venture Brothers fan? Adult Swim accidentally aired the first half of the season 4 premiere twice but skipped the second half. Adult Swim has announced they will be airing repeats of S4E1 of Venture Brothers at 12:30am for the next few nights (through Friday at 12:30am). Your DVR schedule will still show that Aqua Teen Hunger Force is airing.
Late-breaking schedule update for ABC tonight: From 10:01pm to 11:00pm in all markets, ABC will air "The Barbara Walters Special" instead of the season finale of "Primetime: Family Secrets." The Barbara Walters Special is an episode devoted to the late Patrick Swayze. The season finale of Primetime: Family Secrets has not yet been rescheduled.
We just received this update from ABC via Tribune. Your DVR will not have its schedule data updated in time, so if you want to record the Barbara Walters Special, the best way is to do so manually, or to record the other program listed.
- Stephen Mack
Forced to upgrade my Tivo today (HD died apparently), so here's the steps for Series 3.
- Tim Hoeck
from Bookmarklet
anyone that can help me out with this? The problem I have is that a) I only have 1 sata port in my PC, so I can't directly copy the old drive, and b) I don't even know if the old drive works well enough to get the information off anyways. Is there a way I can get a bare Tivo OS on a new HD?
- Tim Hoeck
TiVo announced last week that its StopWatch ratings service (collects anonymous second-by-second audience research data from TiVo boxes) is now offering a new metric that it calls Pure Program Ratings. The metric, which TiVo says is derived using the number of TiVo subscribers viewing a program in live- or timeshifted mode, excluding the commercials, is designed to calculate the total potential audience for commercials during a given program. While "current industry services" measure a program's viewership rating without separating the program content from the commercials that air during it," TiVo says, "TiVo's Pure Program Ratings separates the ratings and makes it possible to determine the percentage of potential viewers lost during a program's commercial breaks."
- Tim Hoeck
from Bookmarklet
If only I could use my series three. Does it only work for the series 3?
- Dario Gomez
Correct, this new feature is for broadband-connected TiVo Series3 units or TiVo HD or TiVo HD-XL units.
- Stephen Mack
Wow, I'm almost in love again. Almost enough to upgrade my Series 2s Just need Season Pass ability for the custom RSS feeds, a much wider range of video formats and you got me drooling. I gave up using hacks to do all this (Miro, TiVo Desktop, pyTivo, etc) and just started using PC solutions but honestly I'd much rather stream all Audio/Video through the TiVo menu. The only other things...
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- manielse (Mark Nielsen)
We just received the following updates from our data provider for late-breaking schedule changes for this evening. The following updates will NOT be reflected in your DVR's guide data. Please make manual adjustments to your recordings if you are affected. We apologize for any inconvenience.
- Stephen Mack
NBC: Delete: 8:00pm-9:00pm: America's Got Talent Add: 8:00pm-9:00pm: Presidential News Conference (Live in all time zones)
- Stephen Mack
ABC: Delete: 8:00pm-9:02pm: Wipeout 9:02pm-10:00pm: I Survived a Japanese Game Show 10:00pm-11:00pm: Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil Add: 8:00pm-9:00pm: Presidential News Conference (Live in tall time zones) 9:00pm-10:02pm: Wipeout 10:02pm-11:00pm: I Survived a Japanese Game Show Please note: the special "Over a Barrel: The Truth About Oil" will air Friday at 10 p.m. as an episode of 20/20.
- Stephen Mack
ABCO ***Mountain & Pacific affiliates only*** Delete: 10:00pm-12:00am: Sign Off Add: 10:00pm-11:00pm: Primetime: Crime 11:00pm-12:00am: Sign Off
- Stephen Mack
In reading TiVo latest announcement, do I really want DVR functions built into my TV? I think I'd rather have them in a box that is also a A/V receiver that could expand the TiVo menu when new devices are plugged into the HDMI (and other) ports. Potentially can solve the whole universal remote and switching TV inputs issue.
I agree with most of what is in there. I would love to see them add support to allow for a usb or wireless keyboard. Would alleviate a lot of the issues with the peanut remote and progamming seasons passes.
- john deragon
Blockbuster and TiVo Announce Agreement to Make BLOCKBUSTER(R) OnDemand Available Through the TiVo Service and to Promote TiVo DVRs Throughout Retail Stores Nationwide - Yahoo! Finance - http://finance.yahoo.com/news...
"BLOCKBUSTER OnDemand, featuring content to both buy and rent, will be integrated into TiVo Series2(TM), Series3(TM), TiVo HD, and TiVo HD XL DVRs. The move by two leaders in home entertainment will make it even easier for all broadband connected TiVo subscribers to download Blockbuster's content and enjoy a complete television entertainment experience on their individual schedules using TiVo, the best and most comprehensive single solution for delivery and simple, intuitive navigation of broadband, broadcast, and cable content - all from one remote control."
- Stephen Mack
Hey Josh! TWP? Is that even up to date? Nothing against it, but AFAIK, you can do what it can, and then some with the standard Tivo now.. or what about Galleon (http://galleon.sourceforge.net/)? If you aren't going full out tivo, why not build a standalone media server instead?
- Tim Hoeck
Just started looking at XBMC. Trying to see if I can pull it off with existing hardware lying around. :D
- Josh Haley
You can pull OTA HD shows *off* a TiVoHD, but I'm not sure you can put them on, although I think Galleon might be able to accomplish this. It's not going to be streaming, I think it will work. Only Series3 units support h.264 video codecs. Series1/2 units are more hackable, but only MPEG-2, so it sorta sucks.
- Steve and 3 other people
I've had content streaming TO my series2 directv tivo using tivoserver before, but lately it just won't see it on the network. It uses a PC and makes it pretend to be another tivo on the network so you can use MRV. But yeah, it's mpeg-3, but then I don't have an HDTV in the house yet anyway.
- Josh Haley
Josh, I love my Tivo.. but when it comes to streaming content, I have a seperate media server (Running XBMC)... I don't think any Tivo server will compete.. :)
- Tim Hoeck
Hey Tim, I was just messing with the xbmc software for the past couple of days and love it. Did you build a special box or are you using an old xbox? I am ALL over this, for sure!
- Josh Haley
I am using my old PC :) Works pretty decent, although I am having some odd connectivity issues to my Win7 desktop (which stores the media). I never had problems before though, so it's my wireless or Win7.. XBMC is great.
- Tim Hoeck
Sweet! So Tim...can you help me find some scripts? I would like to at least have the youtube one, but I can't seem to locate a windows version of one online, only xbox. Plus, any other tips you have would be most excellent!
- Josh Haley
Starting today broadband connected TiVo Series3, TiVo HD, and HD XL subscribers can experience a beta version of the feature on their TiVo DVR, which can be found under Music, Photos, and Showcases. For an online preview and to provide your comments and feedback on this new search tool to TiVo visit www.tivo.com/tivosearch.
- Tim Hoeck
from Bookmarklet