Comcast (Xfinity) to offer On Demand via TiVo Premiere

I posted it in coffee house. I tend to avoid the Premiere subforum these days.

morac said:

In related news, the TiVo powered Comcast set top box is dead.

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It's been dead. More like they killed a zombie.

Hopefully, this actually happens on a broad scale within a reasonable time frame...and as for the the Comcast version being dead...that seems better in the end if this works as promised. Why would you want two different versions that work slightly differently, etc.? And you know if there were two, Comcast would support their version better than the standard one, and you'd probably have to rent it.

This had me rolling with laughter:

CEO Tom Rogers said in a statement. "Traditional TV channels, On Demand and broadband delivered content will all be accessible with TiVo's universal search capability and TiVo's stunning HD user-interface."

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I hope this materializes. So far the similar agreement quite a while back with Cox has yielded nothing. A few times when I have talked to Cox CSRs they knew nothing about it.

My mom still has a Comcast Tivo. She likes it. I wonder if they will offer her a deal on a Premiere. Will they lease the Premiere's?

i am thinking if i lived in the bay area i wouldn't be jumping up at this announcement as we all have to wait and see what is really happening. just remember tivo track record in the past, all the promises we have had on the guide and hulu plus. hulu is still not here and the guide is not complete months later but plenty of promises it will be soon

thinking if living there i would expect a delivery date of maybe xmas time

My bet is that it is available in SF this month. This is not that difficult and only required the agreement to be signed.

I wonder if they'll disable things like Netflix, Blockbuster and Amazon VOD so as not compete with Comcast VOD.

jrm01 said:

My bet is that it is available in SF this month. This is not that difficult and only required the agreement to be signed.

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The bottom of the press release mentions early next year.

morac said:

The bottom of the press release mentions early next year.

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That's what I get for stopping my reading of press releases when the "lawyer talk" kicks in.

This is a ridiculous announcement. Next year is far away.

jrm01 said:

That's what I get for stopping my reading of press releases when the "lawyer talk" kicks in.

This is a ridiculous announcement. Next year is far away.

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I think the only reason they do the announcements is because people will find the info anyway due to the filings. This way they can at least get out in front of it. Knowing TiVo if they could hold off they would.

moyekj said:

This had me rolling with laughter:

I hope this materializes. So far the similar agreement quite a while back with Cox has yielded nothing. A few times when I have talked to Cox CSRs they knew nothing about it.

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I think they mean stunningly bad ?

Yep, I think I will trade out my remaining HDs for Premieres if this ever sees the light of day, but given Tivo's track record lately I'm not holding my breath.

morac said:

The bottom of the press release mentions early next year.

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It's astonishing to me how many announcments TiVo makes for "next year".

Offhand, IIRC the DirecTV collaboration and the Comcast collaboration were "next year" for many many years. I'm sure that there have been other such proclamations with other cable companies, but I'm too lazy to search for that drivel.

Why can't TiVo ever deliver anything useful? It's always "wait for next year"!!!

I was told this week that Comcast and TiVo just signed an agreement for TiVo customer to view OnDemand programs. So I purchased the TiVo Premiere but Comcast in Washington, DC will not allow me to install the Cable card myself so I have to make an appointment so that a Comcast installer can install it for $19.95.

morac said:

I expected to see something mentioned about this here already.

Comcast (Xfinity) and TiVo have partnered to provide Comcast's On Demand service to TiVo Premiere customers. It will be first implemented in San Fransisco and later in other markets.

Here's the press release as well as an article by Dave Zatz about it.

In related news, the TiVo powered Comcast set top box is dead.

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Here in the SF Bay Area we can go to a Comcast location and pick up a multi-card. That's what I did.

I would call a supervisor or drop by their retail stores and see if you can pick one up.

miwi98 said:

I was told this week that Comcast and TiVo just signed an agreement for TiVo customer to view OnDemand programs. So I purchased the TiVo Premiere but Comcast in Washington, DC will not allow me to install the Cable card myself so I have to make an appointment so that a Comcast installer can install it for $19.95.

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Hi,

I hope this is the right thread for this. Recently got my first HD tv. Using Comcast as my provider they talked me into their DVR. We couldn't stand just about everything about it (used to have a S2 Tivo I loved, but alas no HD). I talked the spouse into us getting a Premiere with lifetime service. I just got my Premiere today and haven't even unboxed it when I saw Comcast is going to team with Tivo for set top boxes.

Here are my questions: Should I return the Premier ($250) with the lifetime service ($200) and wait until Comcast offers it for a monthly rental of about $15 so that I can get OnDemand as well as everything else? Any idea of if keep this Premiere if it will be able to get Comcast OnDemand when the deal goes through?

Thanks!

cruzbabe63 said:

Hi,

I hope this is the right thread for this. Recently got my first HD tv. Using Comcast as my provider they talked me into their DVR. We couldn't stand just about everything about it (used to have a S2 Tivo I loved, but alas no HD). I talked the spouse into us getting a Premiere with lifetime service. I just got my Premiere today and haven't even unboxed it when I saw Comcast is going to team with Tivo for set top boxes.

Here are my questions: Should I return the Premier ($250) with the lifetime service ($200) and wait until Comcast offers it for a monthly rental of about $15 so that I can get OnDemand as well as everything else? Any idea of if keep this Premiere if it will be able to get Comcast OnDemand when the deal goes through?

Thanks!

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You will be waiting a while. The last time Comcast and Tivo made an announcement it took 3 YEARS to get it into peoples homes. They only offered it in New England and it is now dead.

davezatz said:

It's been dead. More like they killed a zombie.

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"Stillborn" I think pretty much sums it up. No matter how dumb porting Tivo software to Motorola DVR hardware sounded initially or now, it's hard to blame Tivo though since turning down suitcases full of Comcash is hard to do when you're teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.