USAToday article: DirecTv vs TiVo

[wwood_98]

Any opinions on the ramifications of the article from today's USAToday? (Can't post the link since I am a new sub)

It essentially talks about the fact that DirecTv plans to drop TiVo and make their own proprietary DVR. I have a D* install scheduled for today and plan on being a TiVo customer 2 years!

Hmph.

(feel free the post the link since I cannot)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

The link is http://www.usatoday.com/tech/products/services/2005-08-23-directv-tivo_x.htm

Sorry about that, we do that to cut down on spam.

 

[jbcheshire]

I thought it was interesting to note that you CAN'T skip the ads with the new D* DVR. Does this mean if you are trying to do the 30 second skip forward that if it is on a commercial it will drop you out each time a new one starts???? Does it even have a 30 sec skip forward feature???

 

[Hogarth]

Does it even have a 30 sec skip forward feature???

No, it does not. The Skip-ahead button on the remote makes you jump to the end of the program.

H

 

[SRW1000]

No 30 second skip button, and there's still a montly fee. That's too bad, I was looking forward to this product.

Scott

 

[kbohip]

This is priceless:

Carey blasts that as an example of TiVo's "Big Brotherish interface." He adds that DirecTV will "focus on making it easy and friendly to use and not junk it up."

Then just below that:

DirecTV will reserve about 60 hours' worth of disc space for its own purposes, leaving consumers space for 100 hours of shows.

Yea, THAT doesn't sound "Big Brotherish" at all . This is nothing more than Dish Notwork's 625 DVR "Dish on Demand" feature (yea right) that always records PPV crap to the drive on a reserved space so you can watch it later. Too bad if you wanted to use that space for something else, Big Brother says otherwise. At least with Tivo suggestions you have the option of turning them off.

 

[jbcheshire]

Man that is a bummer, I was hoping that they would come up with a DVR similar to E* for the skip ahead/back buttons.

 

[JustBob]

And I heard that it's going to have to be plugged in for it to work. I was hoping it would be solar powered or have it's own nuclear power source. Dammit, now I'm going to have to hurt somebody!

(Sorry, I just got tired of the petty gripes. They're never going to be able to please everybody.)

-JustBob

 

[Chado]

And I heard that it's going to have to be plugged in for it to work. I was hoping it would be solar powered or have it's own nuclear power source. Dammit, now I'm going to have to hurt somebody!

(Sorry, I just got tired of the petty gripes. They're never going to be able to please everybody.)

-JustBob

Priceless!!

 

[wwood_98]

Man that is a bummer, I was hoping that they would come up with a DVR similar to E* for the skip ahead/back buttons.

There is a readily available "easter egg" key combination that enables 30-sec skip on this new Tivo I got yesterday. Search the web for it.

 

[jbcheshire]

I am not complaining per say, i am just stating a "nice to have feature"...
And, this is for the D* DVR not the Tivo...

Thanks.

 

[sams_club]

No 30 second skip button, and there's still a montly fee. That's too bad, I was looking forward to this product.

I'm very fond of my 30-sec skip but given the other advantages, I suppose one could learn to live with a fast forward button only. It does move 2x as fast as the current model.

 

[wwood_98]

I'm very fond of my 30-sec skip but given the other advantages, I suppose one could learn to live with a fast forward button only. It does move 2x as fast as the current model.

Once again: it is very easy to acivate the 30-sec jump "hidden feature" in my Tivo. Converts the jump-to-live button to 30-sec skip.

 

[BillyT]

2x as fast with no jump back will be hell to control. Give me TIVO FF over this anyday.

 

[HDVoomer]

Will it be able to record in HD? Also who is the manufacturer of the STB?

 

[dsclark]

Who ever said you'd be able to FF the direct box? I had a moxie box and that "skip ahead" would skip to the end and FF didn't work! The new Direct box sounds the same way.
To clarify how this moxie box worked, while watching a recorded show, suppose you watched 30 minutes of it. Ok, you can now reverse it to the begining. Now, if you want, you can use FF to get you back to where you last watched, but no further. Pretty useless, eh?
The people at charter thought this was a petty complaint (it was the least for this p.o.s).

 

[hongcho]

> Will it be able to record in HD?

The one mentioned in the USAToday article is only for SD (no HD, no MPEG-4 AVC). However, DirecTV will eventually have one. Eventually.

Hong.

 

[peterl1365]

Who ever said you'd be able to FF the direct box? I had a moxie box and that "skip ahead" would skip to the end and FF didn't work! The new Direct box sounds the same way.
To clarify how this moxie box worked, while watching a recorded show, suppose you watched 30 minutes of it. Ok, you can now reverse it to the begining. Now, if you want, you can use FF to get you back to where you last watched, but no further. Pretty useless, eh?
The people at charter thought this was a petty complaint (it was the least for this p.o.s).

This would be business suicide for D* if they did this. I can see 90% of the DVR users on this board ditching D* if there wasn't some method of FF'ing through the commercials.

 

[wwood_98]

2x as fast with no jump back will be hell to control. Give me TIVO FF over this anyday.

I recomend trying the 30sec skip. Since commercials are almost ALL 30 secs long, using this feature along with the skip-back-8-sec button is very easy. I suppose it is whatever you are used to. But I would at least sample both methods.

 

[hongcho]

I think BillyT was talking about R15, the new non-TiVo SD DirecTV DVR. Its top FF speed is twice of that of TiVo. But due to the patent that TiVo holds, it won't go back.

Also, it is believed that R15 will not have 30-second skip.

Hong.