TIVO lied to MAC users and continues too!

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Hush... or I'll take your iPod

If you really want to get geeked out, see what I'm trying to do with Home Automation

 

Did someone piss in the OP's cornflakes today?

 

I am a big fan and have two Tivos and two Macs. (Notice Mac is not captitalized.) Unfortunately, Tivo screwed up (yes I used these words) on a number of fronts. They thought that the cable companies would pay huge fees to them but instead the cable companies bought other DVR services and Tivo lost out. Tivo rightly developed TivoToGo for Windows since 95% of computers are Windows and they wanted to compete against Microsoft's Media Center. However, now Apple is gaining market share and is now going to blow everyone away with the Mac Mini as a Home Media Center. The TivoToGo for the Mac is great and I have been waiting for it -but it might be too late. Also, Tivo has to compete against SlingBox.

Now be happy that you are using the best device for you TV. Who knows in the future their might not be Tivo. But there will be Media Computers for your house that ate their lunch and the one we are waiting for is made by Apple.

 

I think llarsondc made a good point in their recent reply. While Mac may make up only 3-5% of the global market share currently, do you know what percentage are actually TiVo owners? Maybe in TiVo ownership it is lower, or maybe it's substantially higher. It could well be that of TiVo owners 3% use Mac or 25% use Mac. I don't think it would be unreasonable to think the number is higher (even if only slightly)... LOTS of video hounds have Macs in their house... and lots of video hounds like good AV equipment. Mac meet TiVo. TiVo meet Mac.

And Mgm, it's also a valid point that Mac has gained a lot of strength and expected to keep growing. I have believed for a long time that it would have just plain been good business for TiVo to get their TTG Mac support out (as promised) earlier... and not this endless wait. People wanna give the reason as CC support for lack of HD, whether I agree or not I'll give it to ya... okay... but there's no excuse to make people wait over a year for promised Mac support. Just my opinion.

 

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so many things wrong in this post.
TiVo never thought the cable companies would pay them HUGE fees, but the deals that cable was offering did not make economic sense to TiVo. the cable companies most likely thought TiVo would go the way of Replay and not be much of a presence currently. Yet the battle is still on.

How TiVoToGo helps compete against Media Center is beyond me. It is the series 3 that competes against Media center. TTG did not come out for the Mac because TiVo could not get it done. If they could have it would have come out earlier -
now many early TiVo Adopters used Macs as well. We do not know the percent but I am betting it is well above 5% - TiVo knows the number better I am sure.

How many people are recording things with a Mac mini ? Do you really think the Mac mini will get majority in market share in the DVR market ?

slingbox adds on to a DVR, cable box, output on a TV or a PC with a TV out card and will stream what is output anywhere and send remote control commands back. That is not competition to any of them but a whole new market for a whole new cool product.


mostly you start from this idea that people are wanting to put a PC in their living room and deal with it. 44% of the market do not even have a cable box because it is a hassle to deal with

 

If cable wanted to really screw companies like TiVo they would just make their product completely free, no monthly charges or anything. NOT likely to happen though as they are ALL about money.

I think the people who will have Mac mini in their living rooms are the same people who would have an MCE box or a Freevo box or any of the other computer based DVR programs floating around out there, not to mention ReplayTV once their software hits the market. I also think those people are people like many of us sitting here having these conversations and while there may seem to be many of us here I would venture to bet we make up and very small portion of the market. Heck many people cant figure out how to make DVD players work correctly or make their VCR's stop flashing 12:00 and people expect them to figure out a DVR let alone a computer with a DVR in it? I would tend to think thats not ver likely.

Honestly I think TiVo should have just said hey we have issues with our Mac TT2G software we are working on it. I know that would have created a whole flood of what type of issues and the people saying OH NO TiVo is going out of buisness because they can't get Mac to work right post's but at least then people would know whats going on.

 

I could parse that sentence and extract many questions, but I'll just start with asking when is "now?" So far most people have no idea that a Mac Mini even exists, let alone that they should have it in their living rooms...

 

Well that statement isn't quite true a lot of people know that the Mac mini exists, but most just don't own one. Though like yourself I seriously doubt we will start seeing them in all living rooms when/if they make it to market. Though I am sure lots of people here would get one just because it's a new cool toy (me included)

 

but a Mac Mini would never really be as simple an interface as a dedicated machine like Tivo where I open the box and it's ALWAYS the same way to setup from NY to California. A Mac could be setup an infinite amount of ways and have an infinite amount of reasons why something doesn't work from OS variations to 3rd party plug in conflicts.

 

Sure. But what about "most people have no idea that a Mac Mini even exists" is not true?

When someone states that Apple is "now" going to "blow everyone away", I'd like to get some reasons for why someone thinks that. Other than "I have a Mac".

 

Actually as long as it comes up to the DVR portion right off the bat the interface would be just as easy, actually if you think of apple in general I am sure they could teach many people a thing or two about a good UI design.

 

The part that I believe isn't really true is that with all the marketing and popular mainstream press, many people know that the machines exists. Now if they would buy it or use it thats a whole different story.

I think the statements about blowing everyone away isn't based on anything other then what they have done with the iPod and I seriously doubt that will carry over into their other ventures.

 

I think it's more likely that the current DRM scheme was a stop gap measure. Remember, we were originally all supposed to be carrying around little TiVo Logoed USB Keys for HMO to work. When they (thankfully) abandoned that idea the MS DLL route was probably the quickest solution. Apple does not have a counterpart to that. I think the fact that Mega's photos shows the apple HMO files being plain MPEG may indicate that they have a solution which will likely be implimented on both platforms, but that's just my guess.

 

yep, quick, dirty and out the door and no regular software can defeat it. Then the few that popped up they disalloed from getting the key so you would have to break the encryption deliberately and thus DMCA is broken and TiVo is covered.

my big hope is they just went to watermarking a straight mpeg file so it could be traced back and then let macrovison (or cable labs equivelent) copy protection take care of anyone opposed to that like an HBO.

 

TIVO lied to MAC users and continues too? Possibly you could see it that way. On the sales pages of TiVo where I first shopped it, Fri., I was lead to believe there was no problem networking Mac OS. Now I find Tiger 10.4.4 is a no go, I upgraded in November! Now I have no iTunes, the main reason I chose TiVo, on my New TiVo DRT400 and am out $$. I am pretty disappointed, this was my birthday present from my wife and she is really POed. But I will hold out before returning it all, to see if they backup what was advertised. I hope they do.

 

curious to see the link that led you to believe 10.4.4 would work. TiVo, inc should be asked to pull it down if it is there.


In case you have not come across it elsewhere - TiVo is slated to have a new version of desktop out early nmext year, hopefully with an update to make music sharing work as it should on 10.4.4 and they have committed to having TiVoToGo portion working in mid 2006 on Mac.

If those dates will be met are the subject of debate as you can see but if TiVo does give a time frame then they will get the product out, might be late, but they will get the product out.
PS - mid 2006 is the first that TiVo committed to a an actual time for an updated desktop for Mac since TiVoToGo was anounced at the end of 2004

 

TiVo Desktop works fine in 10.4.4 here.

 

yes but to be fair , you have to read up a little and deal with an install that is not typical of how installs should go on a Mac.

 

Well, there is a light at the end of this tunnel . Thanks Arcady!
@ZeoTiVo Yeah they never state 10.4.4 is compatible on the sale pages, just a general Mac OS is for Itunes and such.
And I assumed, and you know what that gets me.
BTW the Linksys USB200M network adapter has a twin that is 2.0 not TiVo recommended 1.0, not compatible. Same model #USB200M, this is mentioned on the schematic pages but not the Accessories links for point of purchase, so buy from TiVo not R.Shk like I did. Guess I should always dig deeper.
But I do like the service, and look forward to my Mac rockin in the TiVo world real soon.

 

I spent a bunch of time hunting around for the "correct" USB200M's and found some, but it is just easier to use a Netgear FA120. (And the adapter is better anyway - no goofy laptop-style connector.)

BTW, to install TiVo Desktop, just run the installer until it gives the error, then force-quit it (command-option-esc) and reboot. It will work fine. I've installed it this way on a PowerMac G4, a PowerMac G5, a PowerBook G4, and an iBook G4. If it behaves weird, delete the "com.tivo.desktop.plist" file from your preferences folder.