I saw TiVo for the first time at a buddy's house (at Boston DevDays, actually), and was blown away. I investigated TiVo vrs Adelphia's DVR box (Adelphia is the only game in town here in Vermont--though my experience with them has been very positive for the last 4 years), and went with the Adelphia DVR for several reasons:
- Only additional charge to my monthly Adelphia bill is $4.95. (No TiVo subscription fees)
- I don't pay for the box.
- 50 hrs recording time vrs 40 on the TiVo box
- Can record 2 channels on Adelphia's Scientific Atlantic simultaneously
- Local support (take the box or the remote back to the local Adelphia office for a new one if I want to)
- No additional box. Swapped out my digital receiver for the DVR
Seemed like a no-brainer. We didn't throw away the VCR, but it is boxed up and in the basement. DVR has soooo many benefits over traditional video recording. You owe it to yourself to go to Circuit City or somewhere and see a demo of TiVo. Whether you watch TV a lot or a little (like us), its a Quality of Life thing. Do it.
But this is not an [OT] post. It was prompted by an interview with Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo, in the current (April) issue of Business 2.0. I subscribe to the mag, but noticed the online version of the article is available here.
One of the discussion points was TiVo being connected to broadband and not to a digital cable pipe alone. Definitely has some possibilities making VOD and other services a reality. Since I discovered the article is online, I'll just cut-n-paste the essence of Ramsay's example:
...Say I'm looking for Martin Scorsese movies, and I search for Scorsese on TiVo. Back comes all this stuff that's on television, but there's also some website that's got an interview with Martin Scorsese that's never been shown on TV. Say we can index that and it will show up on our program guide, so if you choose it, it'll start to "record" -- download over broadband onto your TiVo.
We've got the ability to integrate broadcast and broadband in a way that doesn't change the user interface one bit. The paradigm is exactly the same. There is no shortage of ideas around this stuff. For example, there's no doubt in my mind that in 5 to 10 years video-on-demand and pay-per-view and physical video rental will all collapse into one thing.
I hope TiVo continues to thrive. With guys like me opting for local providers (who own the feeds and can undercut TiVo on prices), I don't know what the future will hold. But its an interesting subject to consider, and if you haven't seen TiVo (or DVR) demonstrated, take an hour away from coding and give it a spin.