The Rocky TiVo-DirecTV Relationship 219
Thomas Hawk writes "Phillip Swann's TV Predictions is out this morning alleging that before dumping their TiVo stock last year, Rupert Murdoch's DirecTV had made a pass at buying a controlling stake in TiVo. According to Swann, 'TiVo's top management did not like Murdoch's offer,' and Swann alleges that this is why you had a fallout between the two companies. As an interesting aside, Rob Pegoraro over at the Washington Post was out yesterday warning people to not buy an HDTV TiVo, as DirecTV will be changing their high-def signal later this year and that if you bought the HDTV TiVo that you might not be able to watch network TV in high def. As an owner of one of those expensive high-def DirecTV TiVos, I sure hope this isn't the case."
YAFM (Yet Another Fine Mirror) (Score:5, Informative)
Thomas Hawk [networkmirror.com] writes "Phillip Swann's TV Predictions is out this morning alleging that before dumping their TiVo stock last year, Rupert Murdoch's DirecTV had made a pass at buying a controlling stake in TiVo [networkmirror.com]. According to Swann, 'TiVo's top management did not like Murdoch's offer,' and Swann alleges that this is why you had a fallout between the two companies. As an interesting aside, Rob Pegoraro over at the Washington Post was out yesterday warning people to not buy an HDTV TiVo [networkmirror.com], as DirecTV will be changing their high-def signal later this year and that if you bought the HDTV TiVo that you might not be able to watch network TV in high def. As an owner of one of those expensive high-def DirecTV TiVos, I sure hope this isn't the case."
it's true (Score:5, Informative)
A couple of good sites to find more info are:
http://www.dbsforums.com [dbsforums.com]
http://www.dbstalk.com [dbstalk.com]
http://www.tivocommunity.com [tivocommunity.com]
Re:No problem. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:When will they (Score:4, Informative)
-Em
Yes it is true (Score:5, Informative)
Wikify:HD Tivo is obsolete (Score:2, Informative)
Re:When will they (Score:3, Informative)
They're doing both. (Score:4, Informative)
It's likely that they will offer you a replacement box (although this is just me speculating) for free or at a steep discount, since those of you with the HD-Tivo are highend customers. Unfortunately for the Tivo faithful, it won't be a Tivo.
Re:cablecard (Score:2, Informative)
There is no FCC mandate of HDTV content. The FCC has asked nicely, with a cherry on top, that broadcasters produce and deploy HDTV in hopes that the 15% of the US population that currently receives their TV content from NTSC broadcasts would go out and get a shiny new digital TV that can recieve and decode the mandated ATSC digital broadcast signal and the HDTV feature in supposed to entice that portion of the population to do so.
Note: Those broadcasts are not required to be HDTV. They can be SDTV (480 interleaved @ 30fps) like current NTSC signals. EDTV (commonly 480 progressive @ 30fps) or HDTV (720p@60fps or 1080i@30fps). The broadcasters can choose to transmit 4 or 5 SDTV streams or one HDTV stream on their bandwidth allocation. It's their choice.
The FCC has mandated a transition to ATSC from NTSC. The FCC has mandated ATSC tuners in television sets for sale in the US. The FCC has NOT mandated HDTV.
Re:cablecard (Score:5, Informative)
the Cable companies do NOT hate the cablecard. It's motorola, Scientifica Atlanta and Jerrold as well as other sattelite and Catv headend gear makers.
all of them REFUSE to follow any standards and intercooperate to ensure headend and plant lock-in on cable companies. If you are an all motorola cable company you haveto throw away EVERYTHING to use any SA gear. Motorola Loves that. SA does the same damn thing.
the cablecard gives up the monopoly of locking in the cable companies to a single vendor for their headend gear.
the rest of the world uses a single standard... the US has several that are bastardized by each equipment makes to ensure there is no interoperability.
so take your cabletv company hating LIES and go elsewhere.
if you want cablecard to exist then tell Motorola to quit fighting it as well as the other equipment makers.
if they ran the damned DVB standard like the rest of the world this all would be a non issue.
Rumored Trade-in Plan for new HMCs (Score:5, Informative)
Here is the rumored trade-in plan to get the new HMCs. It is very generous but I hope they stick to it.
HMC Cost update.
Latest info:
Two base (HD HMC) units with different capacity.
1) 240 GB - $499 + $99 for SD units and $199 for HD remote units
2) 480 GB - $599 + $99 for SD units and $199 for HD remote units
Trade in Values:
HD-TiVo -> High capacity unit + 2 HD remote units
SD TiVo -> Low capacity Unit + 1 SD remote unit
SD Receiver -> Low Capacity unit and 1 SD for every three (3) SD receivers.
It's basically a price match. For example, if you have two SD TiVo's and an standard HD unit, you can obtain the High Capacity + 1 HD remote unit in exchange.
Values on units for trade in:
Standard SD Receiver - No value for HMC - 1 for 1 on SD remote units
Standard HD Receiver - Low cap HMC or 1 HD Remote unit
1 TiVo - Low Capacity HMC + SD Unit
2 TiVo - High Capacity HMC + SD Unit, or High Capacity + SD Unit
Dollar Value:
SD Receiver $99
HD Receiver $399
TiVo $199
HD TiVo - $899
Re:cablecard (Score:1, Informative)
But you lose some features like the onscreen menu guide, video on demand, and ppv stuff because the card can only receive and decode the information and can't send anything back to the head end.
At least that's what a quick google search seems to indicate. (It also mentioned that TiVo was going to release a cable card compatable DVR in one of the results)
It hasn't even helped with stand-alone Tivo! (Score:4, Informative)
I can't see why CableCard would help with satellite systems, since you can make the argument that the satellite signal format is a function of competitive advantage (channels, dish sizes, etc).
The real reason is that both Dish and DTV want their systems as incompatible as possible, as it is a barrier to migration to the competitive product.
I do like the idea, though, of an uber-smart 'cablecard' enabled Tivo that can tune digital cable, DTV and Dish simultaenously (presumably with two, self-aiming dishes).
Re:cablecard (Score:4, Informative)
However, at the same time, cable operators are afraid of CableCard. The advantage of freeing them up to use any frontend that they want also scares them. At least by forging a relationship with Motorola or SA, they can get their boxes branded and control the content. With CableCard, anybody can make a set-top box, with no branding, no advertising lock-in, and no guaranteed content protection.
What I would really love to see is a PCI card that accepts a CableCard, which can be used to decrypt the digital cable content. Not so that I can spread the shows around the Internet, but so that I can use the features of my MythTV machine. (Yes, the content has to be decrypted for MythTV to really make any use of it, otherwise the PCI card has to have video out. MythTV would still lose the OSD feature, and it would be harder to configure.)
Microsoft might be the closest ally on that, since they'll need a way to capture digital cable content for their Media Center platform (if they wish to continue that).
-- Joe
Re:DirecTivos suck (Score:3, Informative)
On the other hand, you can run dual tuners, which is HUGE. And you can download schedule data from teh satellite instead of having to keep the phone chord plugged in, if it's not a convenient run.
Re:I can't wait for the new formats! (Score:3, Informative)
8PSK - A new modulation system that allows 3 bits to be represented instead of 2 with each sample. PSK uses the phase of the signal to encode data. QPSK uses 4 different "levels", 8PSK allows 8. This also translates into higher-bandwidth.
MPEG-4 - A new encoding system that provides better picture quality with less bandwidth.
So, what does this mean?
SPACEWAY, DIRECTV's new satellite family (there are 2 in-space satellites plus a third to be launched later), combined with the new band, new encoding, and new modulation will allow the holy-grail of satellite broadcasting: HD Local-Into-Local.
By FCC law, DIRECTV can't transmit local stations to subscribers who live in a different designated market area (DMA). A person in Denver can't get channels from New York, for example.
Currently, DRIECTV transmits local channels in pretty-lame-quality SD. There are almost 1500 high-power broadcasters in the US, so it's a tough job to cover them all.
SPACEWAY has a lot more bandwidth. That means that DIRECTV will be able to carry *all* of the local channels in the US in HD.
It's a long road, as DIRECTV has 13 million customers. Replacing all of those boxes will take a long time. It's probably reasonable to assume that DIRECTV's Ku-band services will continue at least until 2010, if not longer.
So, what does this mean for the HD-Tivo user?
- You will continue to get what you get now for a good long time
- You can still recieve and record HD locals off the air
- You will need a new dish, new multiswitch, and new recievers for HD locals off the satellite
Also interesting is Echostar's ("Dish Network") response to SPACEWAY. E* is purchasing Rainbow DBS ("VOOM"), which will give them plenty of room for national HD channels. Even with VOOM and their current satellite arsenal, though, E* has nothing to really compete with SPACEWAY. E* will have to launch one or more new Ka-band satellites in the next few years if they want to stay competitive with DIRECTV.
It is true (Score:2, Informative)
Re:it's true (Score:3, Informative)
Re:cablecard (Score:3, Informative)
I have several friends in the Cable TV biz, they all DESPERATELY want the cablecard to become a reality. They want the FCC to force a standard down the throats of these Digital headend equipment makers because they refuse to do it themselves because they will not be able to sell a $75.00 converter box for $500+ at lots of 10,000+ the digital cable box is one of the BIGGEST moneymakers for motorola and SA. The DOCSIS standard was the very first steps taken by the cable Tv industry to stand up to the companies like SA and Motorola.
If it was not for DOCSIS and the cable companies banding together to effectively force the equipment providers to play ball (it also helped that there were lots of little players happy to get in on the game.... it's the same in digital TV recently, look up "cherrypicker" on google for one example.) then cable modems would still be a rent-it only item with the horrid bitrates from 3 years ago.
I just wish that the FCC would give other companies the nod and certification to make headend and cable gear, some healthy competition from elsewhere might make the big equipment makers pay attention and settle on a real standard.
Re:DirecTV's DVR is still vaporware (Score:1, Informative)
If DirecTV does not renew and expand its relationship with TiVo, they are idiots - or rather, Murdoch is.