Podcast
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We're streaming the podcasts from their source, and not all of the servers we're talking to support fast forward and rewind. The decision was made that it would be very confusing to customers to be able to fast forward and rewind some podcasts but not others. So it's not supported for now.
Pausing is another issue...as we're not hosting the podcasts locally, the connection to the server hosting the podcast will time out if left paused for a minute (some happen even quicker apparently). We thought of providing a pause feature with a countdown timer...but again, that would be a bit odd for our customers to understand.
The real solution is, as you may have guessed, to host the podcasts ourselves. Then we don't have to worry about dropped network connections or server settings. Authors of podcasts are a bit resistant to this, as they rely on playback stats to measure their ratings. That's something we could offer down the road, but don't today.
There are always tradeoffs to consider, regardless of the solution. Appreciate the feedback!
Pony
Pausing is another issue...as we're not hosting the podcasts locally, the connection to the server hosting the podcast will time out if left paused for a minute (some happen even quicker apparently). We thought of providing a pause feature with a countdown timer...but again, that would be a bit odd for our customers to understand.
The real solution is, as you may have guessed, to host the podcasts ourselves. Then we don't have to worry about dropped network connections or server settings. Authors of podcasts are a bit resistant to this, as they rely on playback stats to measure their ratings. That's something we could offer down the road, but don't today.
There are always tradeoffs to consider, regardless of the solution. Appreciate the feedback!
Pony
i'm new to this forum (and TiVo) but let me just say thank you for being on this forum and responding so quickly to questions/comments/suggestions.
would it be possible to give users the option to download the podcast to the TiVo box and then have full control over it? or is that a whole new can of worms?
would it be possible to give users the option to download the podcast to the TiVo box and then have full control over it? or is that a whole new can of worms?
Not hosting the podcasts is a problem. Would it be possible for Tivo to use a proxy as a keep a live server. Shouldn't that enable pausing at the minimum. I could also see a proxy solution where once a podcast has been requested that the proxy proceeds to download the podcast and stores on the proxy for certain amount of time thus enabling FFW and RWD. I imagine this would take up quite a lot of bandwidth. Still podcasters would not get an accurate account of how many end users are actually listening to their podcasts. Now downloading the podcast directly to the TIVO would solve the problem or even downloading it to a desktop would resolve all those problems. Podcasters would get an accurate account and TIVO users would get pause, FFW and rewind.
Hmmm...well, off the top of my head, I'd have to say: because TiVo isn't a computer?macmatt said:
I don't get the deal with podcasts. Nor do I understand why TiVo is supporting them. Download them to the hard drive? For what purpose? If you want to do that, use your PC. If you want to watch recorded TV, here's a concept: use your TiVo. That's what it was designed for.macmatt said:
TiVo = TV. Podcasts = radio. Therefore, TiVo != podcasts.
I think TiVo should stick to what it does best: recording shows. Stop working on useless features, and get the HD CC TiVo out the door by Q1 '06. Thousands - if not tens of thousands - of people are waiting for it!
I think that's the mistake right there. Saying "we may as well not support RW/FF on ANY podcasts" makes the entire feature less desirable.TiVoPony said:
One line in the release notes, or on screen "TiVo is not responsible for content or stream reliability. Not all podcasts support navigation" would suffice.
Give some credit to the customer, we're not ALL morons. I'd rather have 30 podcasts I could navigate, and 70 I could not... then 100 I could not... merely because of an artificial restriction created by TiVo.
As far as to why TIVO should support podcasts - think about it this way - TIVO becomes more then the center of your TV viewing - it is the center of your media. Most people have their TIVOs in their main entertainment center - which also houses their stereo - so listening to podcasts is a natural extension of doing that in the same place.
Moreover - the eventuality is that all media in your home is controlled from one central place. Anyway. Already some people are not only listening to podcasts as time shifted radio - but they are even ripping their DVDs and putting them on massive hard drives which their TIVOs can access as well - making the TIVO a central media client = getting at your music as well.
Once you begin to put all the pieces together - it's clear where everything is going.
Back to the podcast app - as someone else said - just cache the podcast so you can FF or RW and then delete from the HD - most podcasts are small enough that they would take up <1% of the TIVO's hard drive - and since you'd only cache one at a time anyway...it would be fine.
But I restate my request for the FULL YAHOO PODCAST DIRECTORY to be available and searchable - I HATE typing the damn URLs in.
--*Rob
Moreover - the eventuality is that all media in your home is controlled from one central place. Anyway. Already some people are not only listening to podcasts as time shifted radio - but they are even ripping their DVDs and putting them on massive hard drives which their TIVOs can access as well - making the TIVO a central media client = getting at your music as well.
Once you begin to put all the pieces together - it's clear where everything is going.
Back to the podcast app - as someone else said - just cache the podcast so you can FF or RW and then delete from the HD - most podcasts are small enough that they would take up <1% of the TIVO's hard drive - and since you'd only cache one at a time anyway...it would be fine.
But I restate my request for the FULL YAHOO PODCAST DIRECTORY to be available and searchable - I HATE typing the damn URLs in.
--*Rob
I would like to see the podcast functionality increase. I see the TiVo as the perfect delivery system for podcasts, video podcasts, and IPTV. I would like to see a subscribe option in Podcaster that allows me to automatically download new podcasts to my TiVo so I can listen to them when I want to via Now Playing. Being able to pause and replay the podcast is important functionality that I expect the TiVo to do. I generally listen to podcasts while I'm doing something else so there are lots of times that I either need to pause it because I need to pay attention to something else or rewind it a bit because I noticed I just missed something I wanted to hear.
That's my two cents. I hope that TiVo, Inc. will fold podcasts into the product like it has done with the Rocketboom video podcast.
That's my two cents. I hope that TiVo, Inc. will fold podcasts into the product like it has done with the Rocketboom video podcast.
I second this. If TiVo is supposed to be as important a device in the home (media) entertainment arena/center, it needs to have increased podcast capabilities - let's face it, we all need to pause or go forward or back at one time or another.robaustin said:
And typing in the URL is a pain. I have a Sony CD jukebox that allows you to hook up a keyboard and use that to enter information. TiVo allowing this is a must. Using the remote to type in the URLs is a pain.
Hmmmm... sorry HotStuff - TiVo IS a computer! It's just a very specialized one that is oriented toward recording live TV. However it is perfectly capable of doing many other things, just like your home computer. So don't be so quick to roll your eyes.HotStuff2 said:Hmmm...well, off the top of my head, I'd have to say: because TiVo isn't a computer?
In fact, podcasts are NOT only radio - that was only the first widely-distributed use. Video podcasts are already available, and the concept of the podcast applies to all manner of text and multimedia, not just radio. So no reason why TiVo (which we've already established is a fully-capable computer and multimedia device) couldn't handle all the types, including audio-only, video-with-audio, and even text.HotStuff2 said:I don't get the deal with podcasts. Nor do I understand why TiVo is supporting them. Download them to the hard drive? For what purpose? If you want to do that, use your PC. If you want to watch recorded TV, here's a concept: use your TiVo. That's what it was designed for.
TiVo = TV. Podcasts = radio. Therefore, TiVo != podcasts.
Too bad you think podcasting and other features are useless - clearly podcasts of all kinds (including video) have taken the community by storm, so it's not wrong for TiVo to get into this arena - and it's not hard technically. If you like TiVo, and want it to be a player in the whole "home media center" revolution, then they must pursue these hot technologies to be competitive.HotStuff2 said:
I do agree with you that emphasis should be placed on finishing an HD TiVo - with built-in DVD burner PLEASE! - I've been suffering through with my feeble Time-Warner box (Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300) for almost a year now, and it's a joke. I will ditch it in favor of TiVo the minute an HD TiVo becomes available!
Yes, this is the obvious solution to a lot of issues raised in this forum. Users could be given the option of "stream and don't save" or "stream and save" or "download and save for future use", pretty much just like the live TV functionality. The podcast functionality was clearly a "version 1.0" thing, and needs work.Aflat said:
I also second the suggestion for making URLs easier to enter - a directory to select from would be awesome, and also just adding some helpful shortcuts to the URL-entry page would be a plus: have a single keystroke for w-w-w (and include the trailing ".") and also dot-"com", dot-"net", dot-"org", dot-"gov", etc. This would go a long way to helping blunt the pain of entering URLs. (NOTE: I had to spell out the "dot" because the forum software wouldn't let me include it with the text - interpreted it as a URL.)
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