TiVo on Wednesday added the ability for video podcast providers to publish their shows directly to certain TiVo machines. The DVR service provider also added hundreds of new, free Web videos to its library.
The additions are available to TiVo Series3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL subscribers. They include hundreds of new podcast channels from outlets like CBS, FOX, Oprah, and G4. Podcast creators can publish original content, meanwhile, via RSS and H.264 video.
TiVo users can watch the videos directly or set up rules to record preferred shows as they are published. They can also stream podcast content from shows not available from TiVo by entering the URL for a video podcast in the “Video On Demand” menu.
“What makes this announcement unique is that everyone has the ability to publish their content to the TiVo DVR,” Evan Young, senior director of broadband services for TiVo Inc., said in a statement. “With a robust library of Web videos already available through the TiVo DVR, and the ability to enter the URL for other podcasts you want, this announcement puts the control in the hands of the user to search for and retrieve exactly what they want to watch and from the comfort of the couch.”
Broadband-connected HD subscribers can start accessing this feature today via their DVR’s. Available podcasts are searchable via TiVo Search.
You knew it couldn’t be over, right? The long running TiVo vs. DISH / Echostar patent case took a not-so-new twist yesterday when the Patent and Trademark Office issued a preliminary finding rejecting some of the claims of its Time Warp patent. While DISH was pleased, considering the PTO’s conclusions as “highly relevant” to its ongoing appeal, TiVo issued a statement calling this step “not unusual” pointing out that the exact same thing happened when its patent was reexamined in 2005 (and subsequently upheld in 2007,) and that the next step in the process is where it will be able to present its explanation for the first time. All you need to know is that it will still be a while before anyone involved (except the two company’s lawyers) are cashing any large checks, or gets their DVR taken away.
Remember when we thought that those $90 million and $190 million judgments in the endless TiVo / EchoStar case were big noise? Yeah, they were apparently pocket change: according to documents recently filed with the court, TiVo’s asking for nearly a billion dollars in contempt sanctions against EchoStar. Unfortunately, the original document in which TiVo made the request was filed under seal because it contains confidential information, but it appears that TiVo’s none too pleased that EchoStar violated the permanent injunction that ordered it to disable some 193,000 DVRs in the wild, and it’s looking for some payback. For its part, EchoStar says that it doesn’t have to comply with the court’s order because the injunction was put on hold pending appeal — an argument that appears on the surface to make perfect sense, but since we can’t read TiVo’s motion we can’t say for sure what’s going on, and there’s always a chance the company’s just playing hardball in order to force a late settlement. Given the rocky history of this endless case, we doubt that’s likely, but one thing’s for certain: all these lawyers are eating well tonight.
TiVo is teaming up with Best Buy to offer TiVo-brand digital video recorders that integrate Best Buy content.
The two companies will develop a TiVo interface for DVRs sold at Best Buy that will integrate the retailer’s digital content services.
“Best Buy and TiVo will investigate development of a series of consumer tips and insights that can be easily accessed for all kinds of digital home experiences, and Best Buy expects to explore opportunities with TiVo to provide unique Best Buy solutions that enable viewers to take greater advantage of transactional opportunities through the television set,” they said.
What that actually entails has yet to be established, but in July 2008, TiVo teamed up with Amazon to let its customers purchase Amazon.com content from their TVs using the remote, so is a Best Buy purchase widget in the works?
Best Buy also sells MP3 downloads via its Rhapsody-powered digital music store, and offers video game downloads, so those offerings could be purchased through TiVos.
The companies also promised “on-demand access to Best Buy’s trusted perspective in consumer electronics” but whether that means TiVo access to Best Buy’s Geek Squad or just ads touting Best Buy products remains to be seen.
TiVo said Wednesday that it will offer “dedicated customers” the chance to upgrade to a new high-def version of their TiVo DVR, and provide a $50 discount to boot.
“Beginning today, July 1st, TiVo will begin providing unique offers to dedicated customers that have owned a TiVo DVR for at least one year and are ready to upgrade to an HD DVR,” a company spokeswoman said in a note to reporters. “TiVo encourages customers to log onto their account through tivo.com as eligible customers can save $50 or more off of a new TiVo HD DVR.
“This program is ongoing and is designed to allow current and future TiVo customers access to great savings when upgrading to the best HD DVR with entertainment options no other DVR can match” including Netflix streaming, Amazon Video on Demand in HD, and advanced search features.
TiVo’s Series 2 DT DVR costs $149.99; the TiVo HD DVR costs $299.99. The monthly service plans for each box are the same. A factory-renewed HD DVR costs $199.99, but the discount only applies to “new” HD DVRs.
It’s possible that TiVo is trying to deplete inventories of its Series 2 DT DVR, and trying to move users over to its HD platform. It’s worth noting, however, that TiVo also lists its $599 HD HL DVR as “out of stock”.
It’s been a long, messy road, but now that TiVo’s beaten a victory out of EchoStar in that seemingly-endlessDVR patent lawsuit it sounds like the company is trying to exert some muscle — it’s already in talks to bring its service to Time Warner Cable, and sources have told Bloomberg the ultimate plan is to eventually collect royalties from every pay-TV provider in the US. That might sound bullying and even a little trollish, but keep in mind these patents have withstood pretty much everylegalchallenge EchoStar could throw at them, so TiVo’s operating from a position of some certainty here — especially since it’s got license agreements with huge players like Comcast and DirecTV to use as leverage in negotiations as well. Of course, none of this solves any of TiVo’s actual problems with its products, and the company’s topsy-turvy balance sheet has some analysts thinking its ripe for a buyout by one of the bigs, so things could change dramatically at any minute, but for right now it sounds like your chances of getting the TiVo interface on your cable or satellite company DVR just went up, and that’s almost certainly a good thing.
It’s the case that never ends — the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has issued a temporary delay of of the injunction and fine handed down yesterday in the EchoStar / TiVo lawsuit while it considers an appeal, meaning that DISH owners with older DVRs won’t have to worry about losing their pause-and-rewind functionality at least for now. That pretty much means we’re back in stasis with this one, with even more delay to come if the appeal is granted. That’s cool, we needed a nap anyway.
We’re a bit hesitant to call this one done given the history involved, but a federal judge in Texas has dealt DISH / EchoStar yet another serious blow in its long-standing dispute with TiVo, and this time he’s taken a number of other measures that could cause EchoStar to finally rethink its workaround-litigate strategy. The big setback for EchoStar, however, is the one-two punch of $190 million in damages it’s been ordered to pay TiVo and an order to disable the “infringing function” on all but 193,000 DVRs now in the hands of subscribers. The judge also found that EchoStar’s recently-implemented workaround technology still violated the patent in question and, as a result, he’s ordered EchoStar to inform the court before it decides to try its hand at another “design-around” of the infringing patent. For its part, TiVo says that it is “extremely gratified by the Court’s well reasoned and thorough decision,” while DISH / EchoStar would only say that it plans to appeal the court’s decision and file a motion to stay the order with a federal appeals court.
Read – The New York Times, “Court Awards TiVo $190 Million in EchoStar Patent Case” Read – TiVo Statement on U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Decision
People are always eager to point out cool technologies that America ignores, but what about the ones that we—and only we—use? Enough with the grousing: Here’s what we’ve got that they don’t.
TiVo For a long while, TiVo was the undisputed king of TV recording. Other DVRs have come a long way in the last ten years, but they’re all late to the party, and still playing catchup: The TiVo name is now permanently tattooed into the public’s consciousness, synonymous with recording shows and backed up by still-impressive hardware.
But the fact that TiVo has attained a near-Kleenex level of brand recognition in the US doesn’t mean a thing overseas. As of writing, the service is only available in a few other places—Canada, the UK, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia—where it has been met with limited enthusiasm. While the US, with its huge, old, fragmented cable industry, offers a fantastic opportunity for a meta-service like TiVo, smaller countries with one or two dominant pay-TV providers—which have their own increasingly formidable DVR alternatives—are tougher nuts to crack.
The Kindle This choice might seem odd—or at least inconsequential—on account of the steady stream of new e-reader hardware available all over the world, but Kindle exclusivity is actually a technological feather in America’s cap. Why? Because the source of the Kindle’s importance isn’t its hardware, but its connectivity and the service it’s tied to.
Anyone can slap a case around a panel of E-Ink and add an off-the-shelf Linux OS—and plenty of companies have. But being linked wirelessly to a massive library of legal downloads, bestselling books, magazines and newspapers, is what will make a reader great. For now, the only mainstream reader that can claim such a feature is the Kindle, and the only country that can claim the Kindle is the US. Not that it can’t go global—similar services for music and TV, like the iTunes store, have found ways to deal with tricky licensing and gone global—it’s just that it probably won’t for a while.
Push-to-Talk Without a doubt, this is the technology that feels the most American on this list. Intended primarily for the workplace, push-to-talk technology has tragically seeped into the mainstream, subjecting millions of innocent mall shoppers to that incessant, inane chirping, and the shouting at the handset that accompanies it. Who hasn’t been inadvertently pulled into the middle of a heated, long-distance argument about novelty Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwiches flavors while waiting in line at Walmart? Well, pretty much anyone who doesn’t live in America—and not just because they don’t have Jimmy Dean, or Walmart.
As it turns out, PTT’s Amerophilia can be explained by little more than poor marketing. According to ABI Research:
In other world regions MNOs have failed to market PTT successfully to business users or have opted to market to consumers, and it just hasn’t taken off.
Nextel, which was inherently crippled by a proprietary network technology that wasn’t built out in any other country but the US, found success with PTT by pitching handsets to businesses as turbocharged Walkie-Talkies, not by marketing them directly to consumers, most of whom would have trouble imagining a more efficient way to make themselves look like brash assholes.
Video On Demand iTunes has gone worldwide and services like BBC’s iPlayer have brought the Hulu model overseas, but America still has the best VOD situation in the world, bar none. The problem is simple: Even countries with a healthy entertainment industry import a tremendous amount of American TV, often well after it was originally broadcast. This regional disparity seems kinda stupid in the age of the internet and VOD, but it’s just as severe as it ever was.
European or Asian viewers have to wait for painful weeks or months for a domestic channel to license, schedule and dub international American hits like Lost or Mad Men, and hope, assuming their stations have a VOD service, that the show eventually finds its way online. As an ad-supported service and a product owned by the networks who profit from the above arrangement, Hulu’s reluctance to stream content to countries is understandable, but the despair is deeper than that: You can’t even pay for TV if you want to. People without American billing addresses are barred from VOD services like Amazon’s Unbox, and will find their iTunes video selections sorely lacking.
Satellite Radio Since is smells distinctly like a waning technology, satellite radio might not do much to stir your techno-patriotism, but goddernit, it’s ours. The US has far more satellite radio subscribers than the rest of the world combined, all through the remains of Sirius and XM, now merged under the lazy moniker of “Sirius XM”. Why? We have lots (and lots) of cars.
Satellite radio actually has roots as a proudly international service—after all, it is broadcast from frickin’ space—having been developed in part by a humanitarian-initiative company called 1Worldspace, which was established to broadcast news and safety information to parts of the globe without reliable terrestrial radio infrastructure. They still exist today, but they broadcast to fewer than 200,000 subscribers, mostly in India and parts of Africa. Satrad’s American success can be solely credited to our auto manufacturers, who eagerly installed satellite units in new cars for years, healthily boosting subscription numbers (but not necessarily car sales). With no comparably pervasive car culture to take advantage of anywhere else in the world, satellite radio is a tough sell.
This article was written on August 10, 2007 by CyberNet.
There is some bad news for those of you taking advantage of free media center software, such as MythTV or Media Portal. As it turns out Zap2it couldn’t continue to provide the television listings that many free media center applications were using.
As a result Zap2it had announced earlier this year that, starting September 1st, they were no longer going to be providing TV guide updates to users. Without the guides much of what makes a media center so great would be rendered useless.
You can sleep a little easier knowing that MythTV was able to work with Zap2it, and they will pickup where they left off…kind of. The new service will be called Schedules Direct, but being able to use the service is going to cost $15 every 3-months. That’s still less than what it costs to use a TiVo, and their goal is to get it down to just $20 per year.
Many people that I talk to hate having reoccurring fees hanging over their head that they are constantly having to pay. They much prefer to have a lifetime subscription to things like this. Unfortunately Schedules Direct doesn’t think that will be possible, which is something that might make people look towards software like SageTV or even Windows Media Center (which is included with Vista Home Premium and Ultimate editions). Both of those solutions off free guides after the initial purchase of the software.
Despite Linux users being accustomed to getting things for free, I think they would be willing to fork over the $15 every 3-months if only to support an open-source project. In the next few weeks we’ll be seeing how it all plays out though.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
You knew it couldn’t be 
People are always eager to 
TiVo
The Kindle
Push-to-Talk
There is some bad news for those of you taking advantage of free media center software, such as 