It’s Showtime TiVo!
Speak TiVo! Speak!
It’s CES week! And as a TiVo addict my first duty (as in past years) will be to check out TiVo’s new Digital Video Recorder offerings for 2010. (2009 was a major disappointment)
In the past few days, we’ve seen rumors of a new TiVo called the TiVo Premier. Sadly, this doesn’t look like anything new – just a slimmed down version of the TiVo HD – which itself was a slimmed down version of the first TiVo Series3 HD (which yours truly has been using at home for about *three* years now).
Three years is an eternity in the world of consumer electronics to wait for new technology. It’s a recipe for financial ruin. And TiVo would be teetering on the brink if it weren’t for that nice little $120 million patent infringement settlement which they received from Echostar’s Dish Networks. How long can that $120 million really last? And if all they have to offer is a minor revision on top of the XL, then I’d say we’re going on four years without anything new.
A couple of years ago TiVo showed a preview of a Series4 DVR – promising to incorporate the long desired interactive tru2way compliancy. tru2way would deliver the ability to access the cable company’s interactive features – most notably Video On Demand access. (Frankly, I don’t miss VOD. The last time I tried it, it was *very* slow.)
It seems unlikely that TiVo is going to deliver that Series4 device at CES (I hope I’m wrong!) – given that the company recently filed a complaint with the FCC regarding problems working with cable industry standards. Now, TiVo is spot on in their complaint about the anti-open/anti-competitive way the cable industry produces its connectivity standards. But, that’s no excuse for going 3+ years without any innovation – and their sales show it.
What can TiVo do? What should they have been delivering in the first place? Well, for starters:
- Faster hardware – How about putting a Cell Processor or something better inside? The Series3 is just slow when it comes to menu transition times, boot up time, and general responsiveness to button presses. The slick new TiVo Search beta has great features and a great user interface, but I find myself not using it because of how slow it is to navigate through its screens.
- Integrated Web Server – No, not to run a public web site on. I’m thinking more of a web based management interface for program scheduling, search, maintenance, etc. TiVo does run Linux. And there’s open source web servers for Linux. Come up with a web interface to do TiVo search, program guide navigation, scheduling, etc. Sure, I could go to my.tivo.com, but that’s not real time. If you try and schedule a recording on my.tivo.com you’ll get a warning that it’ll take some time to propagate that request to your TiVo. And even then, there may be scheduling conflicts that you may not be aware of. You wouldn’t have these problems with a real time integrated management site. Heck, instead of fighting with your kids over the remote so you can schedule a recording while they’re in the middle of watching Spongebob, you can just mosey over to your laptop and get the job done without a fight.
- A Web API – What if TiVo was programmable? Developers can open up a new world of possibilities where there’s an application programming interface? Once there’s a web server running on TiVo, a web API (REST/SOAP/whatever) shouldn’t be far behind. Using a Web API, a myriad of applications could spring up – tools to back up your TiVo contents to a PC, auto transfer and delete certain programs, smarter program schedule searching, more specialized Season Passes.
- IPTV – Like TiVo, most of us TiVo users hate the cable company. And a lot of us have high speed internet. TiVo could work on a way to bypass the cable company altogether. This could be quite attractive. For instance, what if there were “online cable companies” that you could subscribe to and access via TiVo. Then you’d be able to get some of the critically acclaimed channels that cable companies for whatever reason refuse to offer – like HDNet, CurrentTV, and my personal most wanted channel – BBC America HD.
- New Remote – The existing TiVo remote control is already one of the best designed remotes ever. But it could do more. Like make our lives easier when trying to enter text into TiVo Search, Wish lists, YouTube searches, etc. Maybe they can figure out how to build a mini slider keyboard into it next. (Vizio’s is about to introduce a slider keyboard for their Internet connected TVs).
So, what’s it going to be TiVo? Are we going to see an attempt to build your user base with new innovations? Or do we keep waiting?
Found your blog with hope of the new DirecTV Tivo
Still no love
Couldn’t agree more. As a long-standing TiVo enthusiast, I’m anxious to see the product evolve. The home media sharing features were great when they first came out, but Apple TV does a better job with this now. I’m hoping we hear something about the new TiVo-branded DirectTV DVR this week.
It’s not looking promising on the DirectTiVo front … yet. TiVo wasn’t present for any pre-CES press events. They did host an investment analysts’ meeting on Tuesday, but they talked up potential partnerships with Comcast and Best Buy – not DirectTV.
Tomorrow the show starts for real, so I’ll be stopping by their booth (meeting room actually) and asking a bunch of questions. I’ll post afterwards.
TiVo has an API – but they callit an SDK. http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/
TiVo has a web server, though not as detailed as you want. You can only download shows from it.
Thanks for the comment, “Just a guy”. I’m actually using TiVo’s HME Java SDK to develop a TiVo app. But I’ve found that it’s quite limited in its feature scope. From the first paragraph on the HME site:
“At this time, HME applications cannot control any of the TiVo DVRs scheduling, recording, or video playback capabilities.”
For me, I wanted my application to query the program guide, schedule and record shows.
Also, it’s old. TiVo hasn’t updated the HME SDK in over two years.
It’s also only available for Java – though that’s not a big deal for me personally. But a Web API (See Boxee’s API’s for example: http://developer.boxee.tv/remote-control-interface/) would allow you to write applications for computers, smart phones, etc. in the language of your choice.
[...] like me were waiting for something new. I speculated on (or rather dreamed about) what might be coming prior to the start of CES. But TiVo disappointed us and announced nothing new at the big [...]
[...]IPTV – Like TiVo, most of us TiVo users hate the cable company…[...]
If only…this alone would turn Tivo’s fortunes around in a heartbeat. I’m sure it would be a bear to wrangle all the channels in, but if they could pull it off and let people go ‘ala carte’ and pick channels they want for a buck or two each they’d be golden.
Perfect!Just keep your work!Thanks for your nice sharing!Just keep on.around in a heartbeat. I’m sure it would be a bear to wrangle all the channels in, but if they could
Great article, I think you covered everything there.
Thank you.
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thanks you .
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