RSSDirecTV, TiVo Cozy Up Once Again
By Ed Oswald | Published August 1, 2007, 1:01 PM
With a new owner, it appears relations between DirecTV and TiVo are on the mend. TiVo says a software upgrade is on the way to owners of DirecTV TiVo units.
Under the ownership of News Corp, relations between the two companies soured after DirecTV said it would opt for its own in-house digital video recorder system. However, the DVRs were not well received by customers, and News Corp's exit from DirectTV opened the door for TiVo to make a return.
Without DirecTV, TiVo has struggled to both make a profit as well as attract customers. Consumers have seemed to be more apt to sign up for TiVo service as part of a television package rather than as a stand-alone service.
Thus, the company has attempted to recreate the success of the DirecTV partnership through tie-ups with cable providers. It hasn't worked too well -- over two years after the first partnership was announced with Comcast, there still are not any widespread deployments of the service.
It may be too early to read too much into Wednesday's announcement, however it seems to make it possible for TiVo set-top boxes to appear again in DirecTV's lineup.
"It is important to us that our customers with TiVo service also have access to the latest DVR technology and we look forward to exploring additional opportunities with TiVo," DirecTV's content strategy and development chief Derek Chang said.
The update will be available to customers using DirecTV DVRs early next year, and will add several features that stand-alone TiVo users have enjoyed for several months, and in some cases, for four years. This includes online scheduling, the 'Recently Deleted' folder, and overlap protection.
TiVo said it will continue to look for other ways to implement features that may be missing from DirecTV's feature set at a later date.
Instead of suing Dish Network, they should start talks with Charlie, about possibly making a receiver with built-in TiVo. I'll bet this would make some Dish Network customers happy.
Myself, I'm happy with my Dish 625 DVR.
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|I have had no problems with the DirecTV HR20 at all, the DVR is intuitive and works great. The Comcast HD DVR was a huge turd that always hesitated or froze.
If you have an HR20 or any DirecTV HD box, you will need those filters on the lines from the LNB's to recieve all the new HD content they are adding.
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|I concur... after a really bumpy introduction, the HR20 is now a really sweet piece of equipment... The DVR functionality is, in some ways, even MORE intuitive than TiVo.
I previously had a DirecTivo unit before upgrading to the HD package which forced a move to the DirecTv DVR. I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the functionality I was used to was present... especially after hearing horror stories from friends about how bad their non-TiVo Cable company DVRs were. Highly recommend the HR20, but would welcome TiVo back to DirecTv as well - together I really believe they represent the cream of current DVR technology for mainstream consumers.
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|Fast forward / rewind compensation please!
I'm going to have to finally retire my HD DirecTivo in a few weeks in anticipation for all those MPeg4 HD channels. The sooner the above happens the better.
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|The HR20 HD DVR does have FFW auto correction now. It was included in the software updgrade early last week.
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|I keep hearing how it's not quite as convenient as Tivo's. I guess I'll see in a couple of weeks.
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|I think it's a complete toss-up now... as someone just pointed out... the fast-forward/rewind compensation feature has been recently added which makes the DirecTv DVR pretty much on par with the old DirecTivos... of course, standalone TiVos have some additional functionality I'd like to see surrounding downloads and sharing of media, but I can see why, from DirecTv's persective, these features are not around on the DirecTivo or the their own DVRs.
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