TiVo at CES 2010

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excellent point! I've been wasting my super-human abilities for far too long...

 

kmttg is pretty straight forward. Getting (to) the latest "mcbrine" version isn't very pleasant, however. I would say TiVo Desktop Plus "auto transfer" would be an easier to setup alternative to pyTivo, but TD+ (I believe) would transcode the mp4 into mpeg2, defeating the purpose. pyTivo would push it "as-is".

 

I think there is a big difference between 'the average geek' and 'the average person'.

 

Geeks make a bigger % of the population now that enough cool gadgets are out but there is the new dividing line. Doing cool things with firefox and facebook is one thing writing the bookmarklets to do those cool things is another level altogether.

Somewhere in the middle is setting up things to move video files around and get smooth transfers and playback.
The avergae geek can set that up, the average person would need more handholding on such a task versus finding cool ways to add to firefox.

BTW - this is why the average geek thinks HTPC on win7 with cable card tuners is the up and coming thing while the average person is not even considering using a PC to 'record' shows.

 

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Until they start offering it off-the-shelf. Adding a tuner card to an OTC PC with Win7 is something the AVERAGE 15 year old can do in 20 minutes or less. I find it impossible to believe that you won't be seeing the things at BBuy and Walmart before very long. Tuner cards included along with monitors & printers.

 

I agree. Also there will a few people designing there own dvr's. All you need is a shelf case, and your set.

 

all the above already happens. The only new thing is Win 7 and Cable Cards. While that is significant to the average geek - The hassles of SDV and no PPV/VOD remain.

The average person barely considers buying a TiVo, getting a PC to record with wont be any closer in their mind.

 

The average 15-year old is a lot more sophisticated than the average 30-40 year old. The number of 15-year olds with hundreds of dollars to spend on a new HTPC and Ceton card is insignificant.

 

I agree. The PCs will still have to compete with the cable company offerings, and they will lose most of the time.

However, the battle between TiVo and PC solutions will no doubt intensify, for the remaining (and probably shrinking) market share.

 

It is the first device that for a decent price can simply hook up to your cable and a simple call to the cable company to agree to terms to activate decryption on it is all that is needed which will win.
All others best market to the geeks niche.

 

I believe I said off the shelf, didn't I? The point is to produce a DVR today does not require electrical and software developers. It only requires the capability of packaging a standard PC in a case that looks decent in a media center and adding an off-the-shelf tuner card. Microsoft did the software, the hardware is mass produced. And it all works well. Very well indeed.

 

This device already exists and already won the market by the huge margin - it is called cable company DVR. With most cable companies you can pick up DVR at no cost and simply hook it up. Anything at retail that cost money upfront even if it will be simple to plug-in and activate is reserved for the niche market.

 

Just because you can make a Computer into a DVR does not make it a good solution for most people, the power to a computer is from 3 to 5 times that of the TiVo-HD, and if you want to use the computer for say sending some E-Mail when your wife is watching a TV show off the computer...well you get the idea.

 

Actually, I have the facts - since I have one. The computer goes to standby when it's not being used and wakes to record. That reduces the average power consumption.

What? You send email on your TiVO? We don't send it on our media center PC either -- but we could. And surf the web. And watch Netflix without the hassels and select what to watch, and watch Internet TV on CBS and PBS and watch movies on Vudu and Hulu and.....espn.com sports and .....

 

Actually I play games on my PC all the time while it is recording or my roommate is watching something via the 360 extender.

 

On Netflix note that for PC streaming "HD" streams are not supported, so the quality of streams are significantly inferior to what you can get to non-PC devices such as TiVo, xbox, PS3, Blu-Ray player, etc. I know this because there are some cases when Netflix/TiVo fails and I have to resort to using a PC instead and the quality totally blows in comparison...
This is actually one of the down sides I see in contemplating switch to MCE (in addition to lack of advanced wishlists and lack of affordable extenders). I know you can use xbox360 for Netflix streaming, but that requires Live Gold subscription for ~ $40/year which sucks...

 

I'm in the Bay Area, and I have *slightly* more than just broadcast channels in analog. Discovery is still in analog for example.

BTW, do all of those tools run *on a Mac*? (Boot Camp doesn't count.)

 

pyTivo and kmttg both do. Those are all you need to do what petew was suggesting(digital to pc to mp4 to tivo). I haven't kept up with the absolute latest developments, but it's all mostly (if not entirely) automated too.

 

You make it sound so easy, I don't find it to be so effortless.

Easier to just record analog, but then you get the grey screen bug.

It's annoying and frustrating to say the least, if I want to record in analog I should be able to without having my TiVo go into a grey coma.

I don't mind bugs, I expect them in almost everything, I even beta test some things because I am good at finding bugs, but they should be fixed promptly, not tossed to the wayside because it only affects a *few* people.

A bug is a bug is a bug, fix it.

 

Uhmm yeah... Bay Area too... Discovery is basically the only one. Woo-hoo! My series 2 Single Tuner without cable box now gets about ten actual channels.