Still Waiting on Comcast TiVo - Though the wheels continue to turn...
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Still Waiting on Comcast TiVo
Though the wheels continue to turn...
(old news - 10:23AM Friday Aug 31 2007)
tags: business · hardware · cable · content · Comcast
TiVo service via Comcast has been a long time coming, considering the deal was originally announced back in 2005. Comcast certified the platform for deployment to customers last June, though no deployment date was specified by either company.

This week sees reports that Comcast will fund further development of the software for use on both Motorola and Scientific Atlanta boxes (the latter making up around 25% of Comcast's userbase), with a New England Launch "shortly":
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Comcast is expected to roll out TiVo-powered DVRs on Motorola set-tops "shortly" in the operator's New England division, which includes metro Boston, Southeast Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. That marks another delay on the project, as analysts had expected the deployment to begin as early as August.
Meanwhile, Tivo released some unimpressive earnings that are being blamed on TiVo's "failure to anticipate how quickly consumers and retailers would fall in love with HDTV products." Apparently, TiVo is awash in a surplus of standard definition DVRs as consumers take the high-def (and pesky CableCARD) plunge.

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banditws6 @ 31st Aug 10:21AM:
Scientific Atlanta support

quote:
This week sees reports that Comcast will fund further development of the software for use on both Motorola and Scientific Atlanta boxes
As a Comcast customer in a Scientific Atlanta area, plus a TiVo customers who loves his old Series 2, this was good to hear. TiVo software would make the 8300HD the perfect DVR, IMO.

We've got a while to wait, but it sounds like it's finally coming.
--
"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent
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jjoshua @ 31st Aug 10:25AM:
Likely scenario

Comcast is probably fighiting with TiVO to cripple the box as much as possible.

LOL.
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NOCMan @ 31st Aug 10:27AM:
Yeah failure.

They failed to anticipate that a HD Dvr that costs nearly the same as their regular higher end dvr's would sell better. Go figure.

Perhaps they need to be at best buy or costco and see how many people are always in there buying new tv's.

Some places can not even move a tube tv out the door.

Btw I'm enjoying my new TivoHD
--
Mac Chatter
»www.macchatter.net
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DaveNJ @ 31st Aug 10:49AM:
Re: Likely scenario

I agree with you, they need to pass a law, that the cableco must support cable card 2 immediately, including customer self installation, via web.
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PaulieORF @ 31st Aug 10:49AM:
SA, Comcast, Tivo

I'm in a Scientific Atlanta area, and do realize that we make up the minority of Comcast's customers. We were told last year that Comcast was creating a version of the I-Guide for SA, and would roll it out in Q3 of 2007. Well, there has been absolutely ZERO news or info on this since the initial report well over a year ago (closer to 2 years, probably). So it looks like that won't be happening anytime soon.

Now with Tivo, just hearing now that they will begin porting the software over for SA boxes, I'm not going to hold my breath. It's likely that by the Tivo is available on the SA boxes, the 8300 will be obsolete.

I am very tempted by the new TivoHD DVR, but the fact that the HD war is about to begin (as soon as DirecTV starts making all their new HD channels available in a few weeks), I'm afraid that Comcast may start using switched digital video for new HD channels sooner than later, and I'd be stuck without the new HD channels on a Tivo HD DVR, waiting for someone to actually create the "tuning resolver" so I can watch them.

I'd settle with Comcast giving us a sexier interface on the SA boxes. It's so clunky! But, it is functional.

Rant over.
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balazone @ 31st Aug 10:49AM:
TiVo vs. DVR

What is the difference between Comcasts existing DVR boxes and TiVO powered ones?
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DaveNJ @ 31st Aug 11:06AM:
Re: TiVo vs. DVR

said by balazone :

What is the difference between Comcasts existing DVR boxes and TiVO powered ones?
Tivo is 400% better
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NGOwner @ 31st Aug 11:12AM:
Re: TiVo vs. DVR

I'll take a stab at this.

1) Series 2 Tivo's can be networked together to move/copy shows from one location to another within the same house.

2) Content can be pulled off of networked Series 2 Tivos and dumped to a computer/ipod/dvd in the same house.

3) Amazon Unbox content can be downloaded to a Tivo for watching (Movies and TV Shows)

4) Content stored on your computer can be accessed by the Tivo for watching on TV (Photos, videos, etc.)

5) Search: The Tivo search software is arguably the best in the DVR business. It never misses shows. Its search is intuitive and easy. The latest enhancement to search: The Swivel Search is freakin' awesome:»www.tivo.com/whatistivo/tivofeat···dex.html

6) Suggestions: Tivo catalogues what you watch and suggests shows based on what you watch that it thinks you may like.

7) Expandibility: with little effort you can take that 40 hour Tivo and make it a 1000 hour Tivo. It's just a hard drive after all.

8) Tivolutionary Lodge: »www.tivocommunity.com

9) Lifetime Resale Value: I've got three lifetimed Tivo's. I could likely go out and sell those units today for about the same price I paid to acquire them. If you go the Tivo route, make sure to get lifetime (only available on the resale market, Tivo discontinued new lifetime sales about a year ago).

[NG]Owner
--
It is impossible to create an idiot-proof product. Humanity is simply too adept at churning out better idiots.
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banditws6 @ 31st Aug 11:13AM:
Re: TiVo vs. DVR

Basically, the difference is in ease-of-use and flexibility of the user interface. Scientific Atlanta DVRs are especially bad; the Motorola boxes have software that at least looks good. SA can't even do that.

With my TiVo, I can instruct the DVR to watch for a show of my choosing, either by title, subject, actor, etc., and have it recorded whenever the DVR sees it -- even if that show is not on the grid anywhere in the next two weeks. My Comcast DVR cannot do that. If I want to make sure a show gets recorded, if that show is not on my grid, I can't do it. If I know a new show is gonna begin airing on September 25th, say, I have to remember come back to the DVR within 10 days of that date and set up the program.

If you like, TiVo can also record "suggestions" of shows it thinks you will enjoy, based on what you've told it to record. I not only use this to discover "new shows," but also to catch stuff I already enjoy that I didn't know was going to be on. Suggestions are automatically deleted as needed to make sure the programs you set up yourself always have room to be recorded. I really like this feature. Some TiVo users leave Suggestions turned off.

The TiVo's handling of season passes, recorded programs and other stuff is just much more intuitive and functional. On my Comcast DVR, if I have a season pass to a show, I can't cancel recording just one episode. It can only cancel the whole season pass, which I then have to re-add again. The TiVo will let you cancel recording individual shows without affecting the overall season pass preferences.

I could go on.

One crappy thing about my old SD TiVo is that, since it translates analog video to digital, it has to employ its own compression scheme which is pretty ugly and inefficient. I doubt this is a problem on the new HD TiVos.

Edit: D'oh, too slow. NGOwner beat me to it and also has additional good points. I agree about the Lifetime Service; I have it on my TiVo and wish TiVo still offered it. It's a major discouragement to me from buying a new TiVo HD...
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Chuckles @ 31st Aug 11:18AM:
Re: Likely scenario

No.
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jester121 @ 31st Aug 11:40AM:
Idiots.

The truly amazing thing is that management was suprised (!!) that people weren't going to continue to buy and pay subscriptions for crappy, pixelated images on their new HD set. How can you not see this coming!?

Anyone who has ever called to cancel Tivo service knows the lengths they go through to give you the third degree about why you're cancelling. Apparently management never saw those reports.

Tivo's only chance for survival is to prune things down, and transition from a box seller to a software development company. Their revolutionary interface and (for the time) amazing technology that got them started is what's enabled them to last this long, and they need that same innovative spirit to survive.
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cypherstream @ 31st Aug 12:21PM:
I've been waiting. How many more delays ?

I've been patiently waiting since it was supposed to go into field trials last December. Then they said, oh Spring, then early summer, then August, now it's the last day of August and still no Tivo Softare. Last I heard it might not be until the end of this year until a widespread rollout occurs.

I'll believe it when I see it in person. Comcast cried wolf far too many times.

Our headend supposedly has all of the hardware installed to support the Tivo service, but theres no software to load on.
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Ahrenl @ 31st Aug 02:22PM:
Re: TiVo vs. DVR

I'm not sure about the SA boxes, but it sounds like the Motorola boxes are a little better than the SA's.

They (Tivo and Mot guide) do both get their data from the same place, and you can search by title etc. You CAN cancel individual series recordings, but there is no equivalent functionality to "suggestions". I DEFINITELY like the Tivo interface better (although I haven't used it in a LONG time), the mot interface has at least gotten more responsive.

Some of those TIVO things in NGOwner's post look REALLY exciting. Especially the display of content from computer networks. Maybe I could finally decomssion my HTPC, or just set it up as a storage server. :)
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banditws6 @ 31st Aug 02:57PM:
Re: TiVo vs. DVR

said by Ahrenl :

I'm not sure about the SA boxes, but it sounds like the Motorola boxes are a little better than the SA's.
Yes, they tend to be -- at least, the guide software that's supported on the Motorolas is better in most markets. My dad has a cable co. DVR in a Motorola area, and can search by title -- although he says that search still only covers shows that are on the grid, i.e., going to air within the next 10 days or so.

On my SA box, I can't even do that. It's either the [ugly] grid or a huge alphabetical list of every show, on every channel, for the next 10 days. Not only is that alpha list unmanageable, I've also discovered that it frequently does not contain the same data as the data in the grid! (I saw a movie on the grid view that simply did not show up in the alpha list.)

said by Ahrenl :

Some of those TIVO things in NGOwner's post look REALLY exciting. Especially the display of content from computer networks. Maybe I could finally decomssion my HTPC, or just set it up as a storage server. :)
I like the new broadband and network-friendly stuff TiVo has been adding. You can subscribe to broadband mini-shows and webisodes, and they transparently download to your TiVo and show up in the list like a regular TV program.

I also like the fact that I can access my TiVo through my Web browser, download shows to my computer and then convert them to standard MPEG using a little command line utility. The only problem is, that's when TiVo's admittedly poor compression rears its head, as the file sizes are huge given the quality you're seeing.

Also, I should point out that this command-line utility is not exactly supported. ;)
--
"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent
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MacLeech @ 31st Aug 03:13PM:
Re: Likely scenario

said by DaveNJ :

I agree with you, they need to pass a law, that the cableco must support cable card 2 immediately, including customer self installation, via web.
Cable companies do support CableCARD 2.0. See this:
»broadband.motorola.com/business/···tops.asp
»sciatl.com/products/customers/pr···CARD.htm
Those are the latest boxes just about every cable company is using.

What you want is 2-way cable boxes (which isn't related to CableCARD 2.0) and that's been possible since CableCARDs came out, it's just that few box makers actually produce them.

Self-Installation via web will drive trouble calls and mad customers through the roof. Currently that's mostly because of flaky CableCARD support from the TV makers. Customers don't seem to understand thier new TVs often need firmware updates for proper CableCARD support.
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anon @ 31st Aug 09:09PM:
tivo

when will comcast rollout in colorado??i wonder because i had a hard time here. when my cable bill went up another 30% that i had to skip powerboost.and digi cable.now im on the lowest tier and i still have to cough up money for them at commmie cast.
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fuziwuzi @ 1st Sep 09:20AM:
waited too long...

I waited and waited, over 2.5 years now for a decent DVR from Comcast. The promise of TiVO was enticing. But now I'm tired of waiting, and since I'm in the process of moving to a new location where I'm no longer restricted to Comcast for service, as of Sept. 6th, I'll be enjoying my DirecTV TiVO again, a REAL DVR that actually does what it is supposed to do. And with the updates that DirecTV and TiVO have made for it, it is only better than I remembered.

Sorry, Comcast. You snooze, you lose.
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