If TIVO did this, they would RULE

[ricocarlos]

If TIVO could download season pass shows instead of users recording them, users would be guaranteed to never miss them, even if they lost cable service or if at the last minute the broadcast were interupted. I'm sure legally, things would have to be worked out, and TIVO wouldn't be able to transfer the show until it had been broadcast...but just think about it. If instead of recording your best loved shows, they were downloaded to your TIVO, it would also solve recording more than one TV show at the same time.
Would we be willing to pay a little more for such a service?? I know I would. Does anyone else think this idea is as smashing as I do?
I have a few other TIVO ideas up my sleeve. But I am first interested in a response to this.

[EvilMidniteBombr]

I would love to see any kind of service that would allow me to download tv shows directly to my TiVo. Amazon Unbox has the potential but they don't have anything current. I would be willing to pay as much as a dollar to catch an episode of a show that I couldn't record for whatever reason. BUT, the 24 hour watch rule would have to go, and if I am paying for the episode don't include commercials.

[supasta]

This all exists....it's called iTunes.

[ricocarlos]

Supasta, I think you miss the point. Of course you could buy past seasons or past shows with Amazon, if that's all there were to it. I am talking about a service level, where you pick your season passes, and are not buying them all at once like Itunes. Instead as the season goes on, it downloads to you box. This would be Tivo leveraging both its recording abilities and its video transferring abilities, plus partnerning closer with the networks and cable channels.
So, every Thurs. night, I've got Survivor on my box. I could record other shows that come on at the same time if one should catch my eye, and never worry about conflicts. What Apple TV lacks is that ability to record something that happens to catch your eye on TV. It also lacks a service. Two important items that Tivo should be leveraging as an advantage over straight pay as you go type services like Itunes with Apple TV.

[EvilMidniteBombr]

This all exists....it's called iTunes.
But itunes doesn't download directly to the tivo. Plus you have to crack the drm on it in order to watch it on a tivo box. (I don't use itunes at all* so if I am wrong, please correct me) Then I would bet that you have to transcode the itunes video to a format compatible to tivo. If I am going to do all of that, I'll stick with bittorrent.



*Until iTunes drops their DRM I won't support them in any way shape or form. I'll continue to use services like emusic, allofmp3. I'll go to bittorrent as a last resort if I can't find what I am looking for on the other two. (I do use bittorrent to catch an episode or two of my favorite TV shows that I missed. I have never used it for music.)

[warrenn]

If TIVO could download season pass shows instead of users recording them, ...

You'll probably see a service like this sometime in the near future. If it's not Tivo, it'll be AppleTV or something like that. Essentially, it could be a replacement for cable.

I find myself watching pre-recorded shows about 90% of the time. I could care less if Tivo downloaded the show or if I recorded it from broadcast TV. I would prefer if the shows were downloaded because then I wouldn't be constrained by the shows delivered by my cable company.

Oh, and you ought to change the subject of this thread to be something more descriptive. You might get more people to look at it that way.

[scottjf8]

Fix their relationship with Directv :)

[Ckought]

This sounds more like it should be on the Amazon side of things. Maybe a season pre-order type option -- you pre-order a season, and they bill your card and upload the episodes to your Tivo as they become available throughout the season (maybe with a discount-per-episode for pre-ordering an entire season).

It'd be even better if they offered it as a rental -- give the usual 30-days to start & 24-hours to watch as they do with rental movies, but only charge 49-cents per episode.

[Da Goon]

Fix their relationship with Directv :)
:up: Seriously.

[lrhorer]

I find myself watching pre-recorded shows about 90% of the time.
Ninety percent? I haven't watched a "live" TV program in years.