TiVo

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TiVo (pronounced tee-voh, IPA: ) is a popular brand of digital video recorder (DVR). It is a consumer video device which allows users to capture television programming to internal hard disk storage for later viewing (sometimes called "time shifting").

Operation

TiVo systems function similarly to VCRs, but use non-removable hard disk storage, and contain much more sophisticated software to record programs—not only those the user specifically requests, but also other material the user is likely to be interested in. Additionally, programs being watched "live" can be paused or "rewound" to repeat a sequence just watched. Unlike tape-based recorders, a recording can be viewed while it is being recorded.

DVR function

A TiVo DVR allows a user to specify which programs to record by time, by program title, and by specifying combinations of genre, actors, directors, etc. Based on a database of programs available to the user — dependent upon his or her location and/or cable/satellite services he or she uses, and updated roughly once a day via phone or network connection to TiVo headquarters — it selects and records the desired programs. Programs may be stored until internal storage is filled, at which time the unit will dispose of older programs (unless flagged to be saved until manually deleted), to allow for new programs to be recorded. The program information is supplied by Tribune Media Services and the TiVo has data for approximately two weeks into the future.

TiVo has a "Season Pass" feature that instructs the TiVo to record a show through the entire season (and beyond) on a particular channel, with the option of recording First Run Only, First Run & Repeats, or All Episodes. An episode is considered "First Run" if it is airing within two weeks of the original air date. TiVo also follows a "28 day rule" wherein it keeps track of each program it records and it will not record the same program again within 28 days. The "All Episodes" setting overrides this rule.

TiVo also has a WishList feature. WishLists are stored searches, and there are five types: Actor, Director, Keyword, Title, and Category. The first four types can be further limited by restricting them to a specific category and sub-category. For example, you could have a WishList for "FORD, HARRISON & Movies/Action Adventure" to find any Action Adventure movies starring Harrison Ford. WishLists can also be set to automatically record, referred to by TiVo users as an Auto-Record WishList (ARWL.) An ARWL operates much like a Season Pass; however, it is not restricted to any specific channel as is a Season Pass.

Recordings are prioritized in the Season Pass Manager. Prioritization is used for conflict resolution. If two SPs and/or ARWLs have programs which would both be recorded, which overlap, the higher priority recording will be recorded and the lower priority recording will either not record or be "clipped" at the beginning or end of the program. If the TiVo can record a later airing of the lower priority program, it will do so. (For systems with two tuners, conflict resolution only comes into play if three or more programs overlap, with the two highest priority programs being recorded.) In addition to recording programs specified by the users, a feature pioneered by TiVo is the recording of additional programs based on the viewing habits of the household, called TiVo Suggestions. TiVo users can also rate programs favorably or unfavorably, ranging from three "thumbs up" to three "thumbs down." These ratings, and the ratings of other TiVo subscribers, are used in a collaborative filtering-based model to produce a recommendation score for unrated shows. This recommendation score is heavily based upon what other TiVo subscribers with similar viewing habits watch. For example, suppose Subscriber A has positive ratings for The Simpsons and Family Guy but no rating assigned for Futurama. Additionally, suppose Subscriber B has positive ratings for all three of those shows. Subscriber A might then receive a recommendation for Futurama because, other than that show, Subscribers A and B have identical preferences.

The TiVo unit constantly records the incoming television signal, allowing users to pause or rewind "live" TV within a 30 minute buffer. Many viewers use this capability to watch "live" TV with limited interruption for commercials, starting to watch from the beginning of the program 10–15 minutes after it started, then fast-forwarding or skipping through commercials.

Another advantage over traditional tape-based recorders is that users can watch a recording from a TiVo unit as it records another program. In addition, unlike generic DVRs, TiVo Series2 units can be easily connected to a home network^*, allowing TiVo users to schedule recordings on TiVo's website (via TiVo Central Online), transfer recordings between TiVo units (Multi-Room Viewing (MRV)) or to/from a home computer (TiVoToGo), play music and view photos over the network, and access third-party applications written for TiVo's Home Media Engine (HME) API. TiVo has also been forging partnerships for 3rd party network content; currently TiVo users can access Yahoo Photos, Weather, and Traffic, Fandango movie listings (including ticket purchases), and Live365 music.

TiVo is also moving into the broadband content delivery market. There have been a handful of trials in the past, and TiVo has been offering the Rocketboom video blog for many months. More recently TiVo began technology reviews from CNet, and on June 7 2006 TiVo announced TiVoCast TiVoCast is a broadband download service initially offering content from the NBA, WNBA, The New York Times, Heavy.com, iVillage, CNet, Danger Rangers, H2O: HipHop on Demand, Union on Demand, Rocketboom, and Here!. TiVo has also announced an agreement with BrightCove[http://www.tivo.com/cms_static/press_90.html to provide additional broadband content.

Hardware anatomy

The TiVo unit was designed by TiVo Inc., which currently provides the hardware design and Linux-based TiVo software, and operates a subscription service (without which some models of TiVo will not operate). TiVo units have been manufactured by various OEMs, including Philips, Sony, Hughes, Pioneer, Toshiba, and Humax, which license the software from TiVo Inc. To date, there have been two "series" of TiVo units produced, and a third series has been announced for production late in 2006.

TiVo systems are based on PowerPC (Series1) or MIPS (Series2) processors connected to MPEG-2 encoder/decoder chips and high-capacity IDE/ATA hard drives. Series1 TiVo units used one or two drives of 13–60GB; current Series2 units have drives of 40–250GB in size. Although not supported by TiVo or equipment manufacturers, larger drives can be added.

Some recent models manufactured by Toshiba, Pioneer, and Humax, under license from TiVo, contain DVD-R/RW drives. The models can transfer recordings from the built-in hard drive to DVD Video compliant disc, playable in most modern DVD systems.

All standalone TiVo systems have coax/RF-in and an internal cable-ready tuner, as well as analog video input—composite/RCA and S-Video—for use with an external cable box or satellite receiver. The TiVo unit can use a serial cable or IR blasters to control the external receiver. They have coax/RF, composite/RCA, and S-Video output, and the DVD systems also have component out. Audio is RCA stereo, and the DVD systems also have digital optical out.

Until 2006, standalone TiVo systems could only record one channel at a time, though a dual-tuner Series2DT (S2DT) box was introduced in April 2006. The S2DT has two internal cable-ready tuners and it supports a single external cable box or satellite receiver. The S2DT is therefore capable of recording two analog cable channels, one analog and one digital cable channel, or one analog cable and one satellite channel at a time, with the correct programming sources. Note, however, that the S2DT, unlike earlier units, cannot record from antenna. This is due to an FCC mandate that all devices sold after March 2007 with an NTSC tuner must also contain an ATSC tuner. TiVo therefore had to choose between adding ATSC support, or removing NTSC support. With the S2DT they opted to remove NTSC, the forthcoming Series3 will support both NTSC and ATSC.

The Series2 systems also have USB ports, currently used only to support network (wired Ethernet and WiFi) adapters.^* The early Series2 units, models starting with 110/130/140, have USB1.1 hardware, while all other systems have USB2.0. There have been four major generations of Series2 units. The TiVo-branded 1xx and 2xx generations were solid grey-black. The main difference was the upgrade from USB1.1 to USB2.0. The 5xx generation was a new design. The chassis is silver with a while oval in the faceplate. The white oval is backlit, leading to these units being called 'Nightlight' boxes. The 5xx generation was designed to reduce costs, and unfortunately this also caused a noticeable drop in performance in the system menus as well as a large performance drop in network transfers. The 5xx generation also introduced changes in the boot PROM that make them unhackable without serious soldering. The 6xx generation resembles the previous 5xx model, except that it has a black oval. The 6xx is a new design and the only model available today is the S2DT with dual-tuners and a built-in 10/100baseT Ethernet port as well. The 6xx is the best performing Series2 to date, outperforming even the old leader, the 2xx, and far better than the lowest performing 5xx.

Some TiVo systems are integrated with DirecTV receivers. These "DirecTiVo" recorders record the incoming satellite MPEG-2 digital stream directly to hard disk without conversion. Because of this and the fact that they have two tuners, DirecTiVos are able to record two programs at once. In addition, the lack of digital conversion allows recorded video to be of the same quality as live video. DirecTiVos have no MPEG encoder chip, and can only record DirecTV streams. However, DirecTV has disabled the networking capabilities on their systems, meaning DirecTiVo does not offer such features as multi-room viewing or TiVoToGo. Only the standalone systems can be networked without additional unsupported hacking.

The latest DirecTiVo units (HR10-250) can also record HDTV to a 250GB hard drive, both from the DirecTV stream and over-the-air via a standard UHF- or VHF-capable antenna. They have four tuners (two DirecTV and two ATSC over-the-air) and, like the original DirecTiVo, can record two programs at once; further, the program guide is integrated between over-the-air and DirecTV so that all programs can be recorded and viewed in the same manner.

In 2005 DirecTV dropped TiVo and developed its own DVR.

On July 8, 2006, DirecTV announced an upgrade to version 6.3 on all remaining HR10-250 DirecTiVo receivers, the first major upgrade since this unit was released.^* This upgrade includes features such as program grouping (folders), a much faster on-screen guide, and new sorting features.

Subscription service

The information that a TiVo device downloads regarding TV schedules as well as software updates and any other relevant information is available through a monthly subscription. The cost originally was $9.95/month, which has since increased to $12.95/month. A different subscription option formerly available was a one time fee for the lifetime of the hardware. This fee increased over time from $199, to $249, to the final price of $299. The lifetime subscription is attached to the TiVo device and cannot be transferred to another TiVo box. If the box is resold it includes the lifetime service. Early on there was also a $99/year option, but this has since been discontinued.

In March of 2006 TiVo discontinued offering lifetime subscriptions. Instead, TiVo started a new business model in which they would bundle the hardware and subscription fees. If you buy a unit from TiVo.com there are six options -- three monthly plans and three pre-paid plans. The monthly plans are $19.95/month, $18.95/month, and $16.95/month for a 1-, 2-, or 3-year commitment, respectively. Pre-paid plans are $224, $369, and $469 for 1-, 2-, and 3-year commitments, respectively. All of these plans are for the 80-hour S2. Three upgrade options are available for an additional fee: $30 for the 80-hour S2DT (dual-tuner), $130 for the 180-hour S2DT, and $180 for the Humax DRT400 40-hour S2 with integrated DVD-RW.

Alternatively, if customers buy the hardware at retailers the hardware can be subscribed for $12.95/month, or pre-paid service-only plans are available for $155.40, $299, and $399 for 1-, 2-, and 3-year commitments, respectively.

Once a bundled unit's commitment expires, it will continue to be billed at the respective monthly rate, unless the user contacts TiVo to change his subscription. Once out of the original commitment period units can be dropped to the $12.95/month rate, or resubscribed to a pre-paid service-only plan.

There is also a Multi-Service Discount. If an account has a unit with lifetime or a full-price subscription ($12.95/month or a bundle), then additional units may be added to the account for $6.95/month each. Note that bundles are not eligible for the MSD themselves. Customers need to purchase the additional unit(s) at retail, as TiVo.com only sells bundles.

TiVoToGo

TiVo has continued to expand their offerings as a media convergence device. January 2005 saw the release of TiVoToGoa feature allowing the transfer of recorded shows from TiVo boxes to Windows PCs. TiVo partnered with Sonic in the release of MyDVD 6.1, a software program which allows for the editing and conversion of TiVoToGo files. Other means of manipulating files are described at the [http://www.zatznotfunny.com/ttg.htm TiVoToGo Unleashed tutorial.

In August 2005, Tivo rolled out software^* that allowed users to transfer MPEG2 video files from their PC to their TiVo for playback by the DVR.

TiVo hacking

Many people and groups have organized to "hack" the TiVo box, some to improve the service and others to provide service in countries where the TiVo is not currently being sold. TiVo has generally remained on good terms with these projects, although it has lately tried to clamp down on many of the "back doors" in the software, citing threats to their corporate interests.

Many users have installed additional and/or larger hard drives in their TiVo boxes to increase their recording capacity. Others have designed and built Ethernet cards, a web interface, and figured out how to extract/insert or transfer video among their TiVo boxes.

TiVo enthusiast groups located in countries where the TiVo is not sold have been able to reverse engineer the television subscription service schedule files needed by the TiVo and the protocol used during the transmission of those files to the TiVo. This allows the TiVo to be supplied with television scheduling data not available by subscription from the U.S. In some countries, these groups operate a simulated TiVo central server to make and distribute the necessary files for programs broadcast within their country. In other countries, each individual TiVo owner operates a simulated server and makes his own files using software that obtains free television scheduling data from the Internet. Because the ability to supply television scheduling data to the TiVo without paying a subscription fee threatens TiVo's subscription-based business model in the U.S., these groups usually have strict controls over who can access the necessary software or join their group.

Improved encryption found in more recent versions of the TiVo hardware and software have made it more difficult to create the necessary files or to simulate interaction with the TiVo server.

Green Screen of Death

The Green Screen of Death (GSoD), sometimes called the Green Screen of Intensive Care to distinguish it from an actually fatal Microsoft-style Blue Screen of Death is an error message produced by TiVo machines. The causes of it vary, but it is generally regarded as a "good sign" despite its scary appearance. The message is displayed while the TiVo attempts to repair the data contents of its hard drive.

The GSoD text reads as follows:

A severe error has occurred.

Please leave the Receiver plugged in and connected

to the phone line for the next three hours while the

Receiver attempts to repair itself.

DO NOT UNPLUG OR RESTART THE RECEIVER.

If, after three hours, the Receiver does not restart

itself, call Customer Care.

History

The device was created by TiVo, Inc. , a company started by veterans of Silicon Graphics and Time Warner's Full Service Network digital video system. TiVo can also refer to that corporation, as well as to the TiVo service, which is the network that the recorder unit itself communicates with. TiVo, Inc. made its IPO (Initial Public Offering) on September 30 1999 its first profitable quarter was quarter 2 of 2005[http://www.thestreet.com/_yahoo/markets/marketstory/10239630.html?cm_ven=YAHOO&cm_cat=FREE&cm_ite=NA

There are several other brands of DVR currently available.

TiVo is sometimes used as a verb to describe the digital recording of a television program, regardless of whether the equipment is a TiVo-brand DVR (e.g. "Could you TiVo Star Trek for me tonight?"). The TiVo corporation discourages the use of TiVo in this way, for fear that it could cause the name to become a genericized trademark.

Service availability

The TiVo service is only available to the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Taiwan at present. TiVo does not sell boxes in Canada however, so Canadian residents must purchase boxes in the U.S. and import them, or buy them online. TiVo DVRs have also been modified by end users to work in Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and South Africa.

TiVo service was launched in the United Kingdom in the autumn of 2000. As in the U.S. it acquired a niche market position, selling about 35,000 units over the next 18 months with users reflecting the U.S. experience of not being able to imagine watching TV without it. However, Thomson, makers of the only TiVo model in the UK, decided to cease production in early 2002, and soon Sky+ began to dominate the PVR market. The TiVo service continues to be provided to existing customers, and the price of second-hand machines with lifetime subscriptions has soared on online auction sites above the original market price of £400.

Market share

Despite its innovative functionalities and ease of use, popular perception is that TiVo has had difficulty penetrating consumer markets, which is not exactly accurate, since TiVo technology has rolled out slightly faster than DVD players did. Many TiVo adopters testify that they love TiVo so much they cannot imagine watching TV without it. TiVo is well known for its users' loyalty compared to generic DVRs from cable box manufacturers or Echostar. Nevertheless, TiVo has only a 30 - 40% market share of a total DVR market of roughly 10 - 12 million systems. Some argue that this is because consumers are unfamiliar with the benefits of a system like TiVo. It may take a few weeks of use to fully understand the magnitude of the change TiVo brings to television viewing. Consumers who are not comfortable with such technology tend to prefer less expensive, more familiar systems like traditional VCRs.

Another factor is the cost of the monthly or lifetime subscription fees. TiVo's market share has dropped as cable television operators have offered free or low-cost DVRs which are widely seen as inferior (at least by TiVo users), but which are still a huge improvement over plain old TV and are "good enough." They are often touted as having no up-front equipment costs and a lower subscription fee as well as seamless compatibility with the cable television system.

While its former main competitor, ReplayTV, had adopted a commercial-skip feature, TiVo decided to avoid automatic implementation of that feature, fearing such a move might provoke backlash from the television industry. ReplayTV was sued over this feature, as well as the ability to share shows over the Internet, and these lawsuits contributed to the bankruptcy of SONICblue, their owner at the time. Their new owner, DNNA, dropped both features in the final ReplayTV model, the 5500. However, the automatic commercial-skip feature was simply replaced with Show|Nav, which requires only the push of the arrow buttons to jump between segments. ReplayTV now has a zero market share, as they no longer manufacture DVR hardware. (TiVo does have a 30-second skip feature, which can be activated by entering SELECT - PLAY - SELECT - 30 - SELECT on the remote while watching video. It will work both when watching something from the "Now Playing" list or Live TV, assuming you are more then 30 seconds behind, of course. The Advance (aka "skip-to-tick") button then acts as a 30-second-skip button. Entering the code again toggles it off. Similarly, Select-Play-Select-9-select enables an on-screen clock and elapsed time indicator. Both features are disabled following a reboot and the codes must be re-entered to enable their functionality.)

Future

TiVo and cable television giant Comcast reached a nonexclusive distribution deal in March 2005 easing some investor concerns over TiVo's future. The companies announced that they would make TiVo's service available over Comcast's cable network, with the first co-developed products available by the end of 2006, using the TiVo brand. TiVo is porting their software to the Motorola 6412 cable DVR as part of this deal.

In January 2005, TiVo announced a long-term strategy that includes support for HDTV recording, integrated tuning using CableCARD technology, the ability to download and view content from the Internet, and a program allowing third parties to develop applications for the platform.

In January 2006 at the Consumer Electronics Show the TiVo Series 3was introduced.[http://www.tivolovers.com/252572.html This revision represented an evolutionary step in the TiVo service, adding the capability to record high definition television and digital cable content utilizing CableCARD technology. The Series 3 includes two discrete video tuners. Each tuner is capable of tuning QAM (digital cable), analog cable, over-the-air (OTA) ATSC, and OTA NTSC. Encrypted digital cable channels will be decrypted via CableCARD. The Series 3 will work only with cable and antenna input, it will not support satellite television. Unlike earlier standalone models the Series 3 has no A/V inputs aside from one cable coax and one antenna coax. All content is recorded via the internal tuners.

The Series 3 model also includes a 10/100 Ethernet connection port and an external SATA port which supports first- and third-party storage upgrades - a first for TiVo. As an HDTV recorder, the Series 3 also has an HDMI output in addition to composite, S-Video, and component video. TiVo has scheduled the Series 3 model for release in the second half of 2006, a price point has yet to be revealed.

Controversies

Privacy concerns

Some users are concerned about TiVo's ability to collect usage data from units via the telephone line; TiVo stipulates that (currently) all usage data is aggregated by ZIP code, so that no information about individual viewing habits is being collected. In the United States, users can request that TiVo block the collection of Anonymous Viewing Information and Diagnostic Information from their TiVo DVR by calling 1-877-367-8486. Nielsen and TiVo have collaborated to track anonymous usage information.

Automatic software updates

TiVo, Inc. has always provided updates of the software that runs TiVo units, usually downloaded along with programming data. These updates have been seen as improvements, offering additional functionality and fixing bugs. Rarely, updates have introduced new bugs or (perhaps inadvertently) removed features available in the previous versions, which has resulted in criticism from affected TiVo users. A small percentage of early TiVo units were marketed without being clearly labelled that a subscription was required for full functionality, and some non-subscribing customers were unhappy when they were unable to use new and improved features that subscribers received. It is believed that early dissatisfied non-subscribing customers received some form of settlement, probably a money-back offer on the hardware, and TiVo now clearly labels its products with a notation that a subscription is required for full functionality.

Some Tivo hardware can still be used as a normal digital recorder, recording by date, time, and channel, without a subscription. Specifically, any Series1 which shipped with software revision 1.3 or earlier, as well as Toshiba and Pioneer standalone units, which include TiVo Basic. Nearly all Series1 units originally shipped with 1.3 or an earlier release, however, late in the life of the Series1 some units did ship with 2.0 and those units require a subscription. All other standalone TiVo systems require a subscription to function. All DirecTiVo units require an active DirecTV subscription to function.

Pop-up advertisements

In March 2005, TiVo began testing "pop-up" advertisements to select beta testers, to explore it as an alternative source of revenue. The concept is that, as users fast-forward through certain commercials of TiVo advertisers, they will also see a static image ad more suitable and effective than the broken video stream.

At its announcement, the concept of extra advertisements drew heavy criticism from TiVo's lifetime subscribers, who have historically been among the company's biggest supporters. Some were upset that they had already paid for a service based upon their previous ad-free experience, while others argued that they had purchased the service for the specific purpose of dodging advertisements.

Early testers complained that the pop-up detector was buggy, and would sometimes pop-up during unrelated commercials, or even during regular TV programming. They also state that the ads are aesthetically unpleasant, and take up a quarter of the screen. TiVo says that they are looking into these issues and will fix all of these problems before the advertising functions are rolled out to the public. It is unclear if these advertisements will be rolled out to TiVo enabled boxes with DirecTV and Comcast or just to their own standalone boxes.

Content flagging

In September 2005 a TiVo software upgrade added the ability for broadcasters to "flag" programs to be deleted after a certain date. Some customers had recordings deleted, or could not utilize their flagged recordings (transfer to a computer or burn to DVD), as they could with unflagged material. TiVo has stated this was a bug in the software. ^* In 2004 TiVo entered into an agreement with Macrovision to make TiVo machines copyright-protection flag aware, ostensibly to protect future pay-per-view and video-on-demand content.

Service contracts

Also in September 2005 TiVo changed their customer agreement, instituting a one-year service contract for all new activations after September 6, 2005. Customers wishing to cancel the service early are subject to an early cancellation fee of up to $200.TiVo has not commented officially on this change, but with their recent drive to attract new customers, as well as subsidizing new hardware through large mail-in rebates, the company could be looking for ways to discourage users from cancelling. [http://www.betanews.com/article/TiVo_Institutes_1_Year_Service_Contracts/1127501776

Rebates

TiVo has been a heavy user of mail-in rebates. According to BusinessWeek, the company recognized $5,000,000 in additional revenue when nearly half of the 100,000 new subscribers to the service failed to successfully apply for a $100 rebate, known as the shoebox effect. While this rate of compliance is fairly typical in the rebate field, the company's heavy use of the promotional practice caused a large positive impact on its bottom line.

External links

TiVo corporate info

TiVo related blogs

TiVo related communities

TiVo user resources

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