Does DTV and Tivo hava a contract? If so, does it have a termination date?

[af250xxl]

Does DTV and Tivo hava a contract? If so, does it have a termination date?
(as in discontinuing support for DirecTiVo DVRs and forcing all customer to
DTV's own DVR?)

[fredandbetty]

as far as i know they will continue to support the older boxes, i just had 2 new boxes shipped to me ( which i need to activate this weekend) to replace two old rca boxes that are at least 8 years old...

heck i have even read that there are still some ultimate tv's around even...

[Stanley Rohner]

I won't worry about it.

It's like you'll wake up one day and the tv with the DIRECTV/TiVo will be displaying a blue screen with this message -
THIS HARDWARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED, YOU'RE SCREWED, CALL DIRECTV CUSTOMER SERVICE IMMEDIATELY !!

[tbeckner]

I won't worry about it.

It's like you'll wake up one day and the tv with the DIRECTV/TiVo will be displaying a blue screen with this message -
THIS HARDWARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED, YOU'RE SCREWED, CALL DIRECTV CUSTOMER SERVICE IMMEDIATELY !!Actually, it may be more like,

WE ARE SORRY, BUT DIRECTV NO LONGER TRANSMITS BY SATELLITE, IF YOU HAVE TO HAVE A BROADBAND INTERNET CONNECTION TO RECIEVE DIRECTV PROGRAMMING.

And this will likely happen long before the current 2.5 Million plus DirecTiVos die.

Everyone should remember that it will likely take over 4 years (2010) before the majority, and then just a slight majority will be DirecTV DVRs. No the DirecTiVos will be around a long time, because DirecTV could never afford to replace the DirecTiVos and would not deactivate them, because they would likely lose close to 2 million customers. :eek:

[Dkerr24]

As long as I can find IDE hard drives, I plan on keeping my Directivos operational.

[Curtis]

Does DTV and Tivo hava a contract? If so, does it have a termination date?
(as in discontinuing support for DirecTiVo DVRs and forcing all customer to
DTV's own DVR?)

From TiVo's quarterly SEC filing:

"Our current development agreement with DIRECTV does not expire until February 2007. Neither TiVo nor DIRECTV will have any further obligations to each other if our current development agreement with DIRECTV expires without being renewed, amended, or replaced. While DIRECTV would have the right to continue to service existing DIRECTV receivers with TiVo service without payment to us, it would not have the right to add new DIRECTV customers with TiVo service. And while TiVo would no longer be able to generate additional revenue from the thencurrent
DIRECTV customers with TiVo service, we would have no further obligation to provide upgrades, fixes, new features, or software support. DIRECTV, however, also has the option under our current development agreement to buy a royalty-bearing software and technology license from us. This license would grant DIRECTV access to our source code and technology to make, modify (with certain exceptions), sell, and distribute DIRECTV receivers with TiVo service to add new subscribers after the expiration of our current agreement."

[MikeF]

From TiVo's quarterly SEC filing:

"While DIRECTV would have the right to continue to service existing DIRECTV receivers with TiVo service without payment to us, it would not have the right to add new DIRECTV customers with TiVo service. And while TiVo would no longer be able to generate additional revenue from the thencurrent
DIRECTV customers with TiVo service, we would have no further obligation to provide upgrades, fixes, new features, or software support."
So If D* doesn't renew with TiVo, they can continue to support the existing DTiVos out there. But would we continue to get the TiVo guide data that is enhanced over the D* guide data? I think this is critical for keeping the DTiVos working as they do now. One of the problems I see talked about with the R-15 seems to be due to a lack of guide data information that is currently supplied to those units (so deciding what is a rerun and what is a first run is impossible for some shows so the R15 just records everything on a lot of setups).

[LostCluster]

TiVo has always been using D*'s Avanced Program Data, which is the same data stream that UltimateTV always use and continues to use, and same with any other receiver that can see more than 3 days ahead on the schedule.

[SecureTalk]

My DirecTiVos don't call in to TiVo any longer.

What happens to the majority of receivers that do call TiVo a few times a month?

[Billy Bob Boy]

My DirecTiVos don't call in to TiVo any longer.

What happens to the majority of receivers that do call TiVo a few times a month?Your directTivos never called in to tivo. They always called Directv.