TiVo called me

[global_dev]

So, i filled out an online questionnaire for TiVo this week and apparently TiVo thought it worth to call me and ask me some questions about my answers. The young lady was quite nice and took a lot of notes. we spoke for about an hour. i guess they are listening...

[gweempose]

If you don't mind my asking, what was the gist of your conversation?

[global_dev]

We spoke about spontaneous rebooting, where I felt tivo was slow, menu transitions hdui, green circle occurences, guide refresh, season pass setting and the wait after its set to get back to viewing, guide variations...

[iceman527]

We spoke about spontaneous rebooting, where I felt tivo was slow, menu transitions hdui, green circle occurences, guide refresh, season pass setting and the wait after its set to get back to viewing, guide variations...

Did she say what Tivo was doing about the issues you mentioned? Can we expect any big changes soon?

[Phantom Gremlin]

This might do some good.

Glad-handing media executives like Tom Rogers probably don't give a f*** about what the engineers have to say. E.g. management and marketing said "ship it". Surely the engineers didn't think the Premiere was ready for prime time.

But this is different. Media types thrive on field feedback. E.g. they love Nielsen ratings, they love focus groups, they love screening pilots of new shows to selected audiences. If TiVo gets feedback from the field about people's unhappiness, it may cause them to reevaluate. Perhaps they'll start listening to the engineers. And if any of this software was outsourced to India, Ukraine, and other third world countries, maybe TiVo will bring back some of it to Alviso, where they'll be able to keep a closer eye on development.

Well, we can dream. Can't we?

[dcborn61]

management and marketing said "ship it".

Marketing comes from the customer's perspective. Sales might have been pushing to get it into the channel, but Marketing would have been worried about the reaction from early adopters and the bad word-of-mouth. Unless their bonus was tied to the ship date, Marketing would have said don't make an arbitrary date with a not nearly ready product.

[turbobozz]

Marketing comes from the customer's perspective. Sales might have been pushing to get it into the channel, but Marketing would have been worried about the reaction from early adopters and the bad word-of-mouth. Unless their bonus was tied to the ship date, Marketing would have said don't make an arbitrary date with a not nearly ready product.

I think the situation with the Premiere was something like this...
The S4 hardware was ready and in production... no reason to continue building older, more expensive S3/HD platforms.
Since they aren't going to make/sell anymore S3/HD tivos and their supply was drying up in retail... they had to launch S4.
Do you launch with a fast but unimpressive rehash of the same old SD UI? Or do you launch with a slow and far from complete HD UI?

My personal opinion is that they should have launched with the SD UI and demonstrated the HD UI potential at launch.
Instead... someone at Tivo decided it would be better to oversell the HD UI with an overblown launch and release it to the public in a form that was simply going to disappoint a significant portion of their reviewers and customers.

[Rebate_King]

I believe the reason that TiVo brought the Premiere to market when they did is very simple. TiVo has a deal with RCN cable that allows RCN to distribute the Premiere box to its costumers. TiVo could not alter the date of the RCN distribution and therefore had to bring the Premiere box out to market prior to RCN annouceing the new Premiere.

[ZeoTiVo]

I believe the reason that TiVo brought the Premiere to market when they did is very simple. TiVo has a deal with RCN cable that allows RCN to distribute the Premiere box to its costumers. TiVo could not alter the date of the RCN distribution and therefore had to bring the Premiere box out to market prior to RCN annouceing the new Premiere.

yeah - we have a winner. If I was adding value to this forum I would have happily replied this to all the folks going "sales/marketing" folks pushed it out the door.

Business happens and deals are made and a date needs to be made so all the arrangements for a release can be put in place and business plans/budgets can incorporate the expense/revenue projections and so on and so on. Sticking to a timetable is especially important when you have more than one company involved. So the engineers were given a date and asked to have as much ready as they could by that date, and RCN wanted HD menus with integrated search.

bottom line - TiVo is no longer just releasing a stand alone box or a box only to be used by an MSO but have made good progress on releasing one box that can be standalone or MSO. It does not appear to have been easy and the deadline did indeed force their hand to release something not quite ready but there it is.

[sghrush]

So, i filled out an online questionnaire for TiVo this week and apparently TiVo thought it worth to call me and ask me some questions about my answers. The young lady was quite nice and took a lot of notes. we spoke for about an hour. i guess they are listening...

What is the url for this questionnaire?

[global_dev]

What is the url for this questionnaire?

It came specifically to my email, but I'll check if it's a specific to me URL. . I got 2 more follow-ups, one by email and another call that I wasn't able to take

[jlib]

Very impressed they stayed on the line with you for so much detail. And very impressed you had the patience to participate.

[global_dev]

Very impressed they stayed on the line with you for so much detail. And very impressed you had the patience to participate.
the survey was user address specific and came from the research team area. I figured if they called me the least I could do to perhaps better my recent tivo investment was give them my feedback. There is a lot of potential in the DVR market UI-wise and I'd rather not be regretting my purchase.