Big DVR patent news (TIVO owns it)

[jcarrera]

Big DVR patent news (TIVO owns it)

<<< That's a link to click

[Saxamoophone]

....and all of a sudden TWC/BHN are talking to TIVO for Tivo DVRS.....funny how that happens..

[Khandurian]

Actually, they talked to Scientific Atlanta/Cisco and got a box that plugs directly ontop of a tv box to be able to completely control the tivo box. It also allows for it to enable the ppvs. '

It's quite an interesting little box.

[jcarrera]

Actually, they talked to Scientific Atlanta/Cisco and got a box that plugs directly ontop of a tv box to be able to completely control the tivo box. It also allows for it to enable the ppvs.

Confused. It seems to say:

Talked to SA
Got an SA box (1) that plugs on top of an SA box ("tv box") (2--the existing SA DVR) to control a tivo box (3) ???????????

Where did the tivo box come from? BHN? Why do you want an SA DVR and a tivo?

[The Insider]

no no They have an SA box, that you can put ontop of your Tivo to control the Tivo. But still have full on-demdn and other functions.

[Khandurian]

Ya what he said. I was typing slower than my brain was thinking. So therefore, my fingers put the wrong part in there.

[jcarrera]

Ah, thanks for the clarification.

So, when this happens, we will have to pay for TWO things--the tivo AND an SA gadget, whereas now we only pay for one?

[Khandurian]

Were not sure, it all really depends on the outcome of the lawsuit between dish network vs tivo and directv vs tivo.

Whey the decided to go after the cable company last is a little confusing...

[The Insider]

I dont get TIVOS argument. I mean my VCR from the 1980s could be programmed to record a show at a certain time.

[Ken F]

I dont get TIVOS argument. I mean my VCR from the 1980s could be programmed to record a show at a certain time.

TiVo's patent isn't on the ability to record, but an implementation to do it on low cost hardware. This makes it possible to support simultaneous recording and playback with trickplay in a $15-20 chip.

If DVR manufacturers wanted to build $500-$800 DVRs based on 2+GHz AMD and Intel CPUs, then they could probably do that without infringing on TiVo's patent. But they have no interest in that. They want to build their DVRs for $150-300 with a single $15-20 chip.

It makes far more sense to pay TiVo $1.25/mo per DVR (Court's figure) than it does to replace $150-300 DVRs with $500-800 DVRs. Even if they could build a new, non-infringing DVR for $300-500 with the latest technology, that still doesn't do anything for the millions of infringing DVRs already in customers' homes.

Note TiVo does have a number of other DVR-related patents not at issue in this case, such as the on-screen progress bar and autocorrection on fast forward.