The Tivo Effect

How big is something when it gets an "effect"? And what about when no one can decide what that "effect" is?

I'd been hearing about "The Tivo Effect" for a while, and I figured it'd make a good post, so I went looking for a definition. I found this article, this one, this one, this one, and dozens of others, all claiming something different about "The Tivo Effect."

As near as I can tell, it could mean:

• the tendency for advertisers to increase product placement within TV shows (since actual ads can now be skipped)
• the echo created by two TVs in the house watching the same show while one of them is "time-shifted" because of Tivo's ability to pause live TV.
• the inability to go back to life before Tivo
• the increased spare time you have now that you can reduce your TV watching into concentrated blocks of time
• the decreased spare time you have now that you record and watch shows you might never have recorded before

So I still have no idea what The Tivo Effect is, but what's important is that Tivo has affected television viewing to the point where it has a "named effect." And evidently so many of these effects that no one can agree what the most important one is. Do you have a definition for "The Tivo Effect?"

Someday there will be a "Gadgetopia Effect." When that day comes, someone please tell me what it is.

Beyond TiVo: The Next Generation (Of
Ads)

TiVo Hacks Put to Bed

Raffi, my young TiVo Jedi friend, good on you, mate! I've learned more about my TiVo over the past month than I'd ever wanted to. Now where'd I put that screwdriver...

The book will be in brick-and-mortar bookstore shelves sometime in August, but you can of course pre-order it from Amazon.

NBC tries to outsmart TiVo

NBC has scheduled the final broadcast of Friends to start tonight at 8.59 p.m. Why? To beat TiVo recording, obviously. I'm not sure if they don't want us to watch the penultimate episode of Survivor: All-Stars (confession: I'm addicted). But it's clear that starting it a minute early is intended to disrupt digital recording of shows that run 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. The fix is simple. On my ReplayTV, I just set a manual record from 9:00 to 10:00 for NBC (or I could set an 8:00 to 8:59 Survivors recording). But it's clear that this is a direct DVR pushback. But how does this help the network? I link to a post about Fear Factor in which the thread explores on a discussion board why Fear Factor was getting chopped or not recording.

The TiVo Olympics

Every fourth summer, IT trade pubs write about the technology that powers the Olympic Games. It's always an interesting topic, but apart from an enhanced focus on security, the Athens 2004 stories were little changed from their Sydney 2000 counterparts. And yet, this Olympics was utterly transformed, for me and for a few million other viewers, by TiVo.

Thanks to this cheap, Linux-based appliance, I was able to compress all of the events that interested me into a fraction of the time it would otherwise have taken to watch them. I'll always remember the Athens games as the first TiVo Olympics. Now I'm thinking about ways to make the next one even better.
...
In our world -- where blogs, Wi-Fi, and computer-attached video cameras are the norm -- we've begun to redefine the art of event coverage. If you want to see how the Beijing Olympics should be covered in 2008, visit a tech conference next year. [Full story at InfoWorld.com]

Tivo Desktop 1.6

Dear TiVo,

The G(r)eek Tragedy of Tivo

Regulate TiVo?

New TiVo jargon

# Passkilling is when someone cancels a Tivo request to change channels and record a Season Pass show.
# A Passkiller is someone who cancels an in-progress Season Pass recording or cancels a channel change request.

Who will buy Tivo for scrap?

OK, I have to admit it. Tivo's goose is cooked. I've been a Tivo user for years, and like most Tivo owners, I absolutely love the product. I've been convinced since I first plugged it in that some day, all TV would work like this. And I'm still convinced of that. Television as a fixed schedule grid determined by networks and cable operators is doomed. User control is the future of TV.

Unfortunately, Tivo the company hasn't done as well as Tivo the idea, or Tivo the product design. The latest bad news is that Marty Yudkovitz, the ABC veteran brought in as President, is resigning. This after Mike Ramsay announced he would step down as CEO. Maybe someone else will come in and pull off a miraculous turnaround, but it seems unlikely. Cable operators and companies like Microsoft are launching their own digital recorders (DVRs), limiting Tivo's growth prospects.

Tivo, though, still has two big assets. I'm reasonably confident those assets will be valuable enough for one of the major industry players to purchase, or perhaps a consortium. The assets are Tivo's brand, and its patents.

Like Google, Tivo has reached "verb" status as a technology brand. People talk about "Tivoing" programs, because they associate the name with the whole concept of DVRs. That's worth a lot, even to a company that plans to scrap Tivo's actual technology. Just ask the good folks at Roxio, er, Napster.

Perhaps even more significant, though, is Tivo's intellectual property. I don't know exactly what patents Tivo holds, but it has a significant portfolio of assets, because it has been in the game so long and innovated in so many areas. Big interests that want to compete in the video space -- and that, today, means some very big interests -- won't want to be on the other side of those patents. We saw a similar story recently with Intertrust, which held key digital rights management patents that led to an acquisition by Sony and Philips.

Saving TiVo

I'm quoted in this Kin Girard article in this mnth's issue of Business 2.0. Only problem is - you can't see the entire article unless your subscribe.

Oh well.

Anyway - here's the opener to the article.

It's been written off by the experts. But thanks to a Silicon Valley software legend, the company that invented digital video recording says it's about to change the way we watch TV -- again.

By Kim Girard, September 01, 2004

Obituaries for the nearly departed TiVo Inc. (TIVO) have been written up for months now, all ready to go when the sad day comes.

They're poignant, these eulogies. There's the part about how feisty little TiVo created a beloved and revolutionary product -- the digital video recorder -- on a shoestring. The word TiVo, like Google and Xerox (XRX) and only a handful of other product names, went on to be used to describe what the gadget does -- in this case, learning what you like to watch, recording similar stuff for later viewing, and allowing you to pause or otherwise time-shift live action. TiVo promised to transform television, advertising -- hell, the culture itself, not least by sparing humanity from having to sit through commercials. Alas, it burned through $567 million between 1999 and mid-2004, and was run down by huge and ruthless competitors that mimicked its technology. But take heart, the eulogists conclude: TiVo will always be with us -- as a verb, if not a company.

There's at least one problem with that scenario, however. His name is Arthur van Hoff. He's an obscure but revered high priest of software coding. And he thinks he's devised a way to pull TiVo back from death's door.

[Business 2.0]

Here's my quote:

" 'Strangeberry works and it's totally cool', says Marc Canter, co- founder of Web media tool maker Macromedia, who was given an early view of the technology."

It does. I am. Here comes TiVO - again.

The only question remains - is it pronounced TeeeeeeVOH or TehVoh. Inquiring minds wanna know.

tivo my life please......

The TiVo Paradox

Archos AV400 Appears Fully Saleable

Looks like the Archos AV400, a 20GB portable video player -- excuse me, "Multimedia Centre" -- is available via QVC UK, of all places. Three easy payments of £135.08!

Archos showed a PVP called the AV500 at CeBit a few months back. Perhaps this is a cheaper, get-it-out-the-door version they can sell as a QVC exclusive. (Thanks, Daniel!)
Read [QVCUK]

Related
More Archos AV500 Info: Ignore What I Said About PMPs Before, I'm Getting Excited [Gizmodo]
Archos AV500 Nips, Tucks [Gizmodo]

New: Archos Pocket Video Recorder AV400

color=339933 size=+1>Archos AV400 Series

Sonic Debuts Blu-ray Disc Burning and
Playback Software at CeBIT 2005
(23/3/2005)

Archos Gmini 400

So I almost missed this catch on DAPreview (because there was no pretty picture and I can barely decipher), but apparently Archos is coming out with a new version of their often- and sadly-overlooked Gmini hard disk player, now called the Gmini 400. The original Gmini [pictured] was a solid device, but had only a black-and-white screen - something that just didn't quite cut the mustard for many people who would have otherwise purchased it as a photo-storing device. Fortunately, it looks like the new model will have a color screen (a nice 262k color one, too), as well as do all the other good stuff like play video, MP3s, record its FM stereo, and of course, copy images from Compact Flash cards to its internal 20GB hard drive.

And at around $480 (probably less when/if it hits the United States), it's not a horrible price, either. I expect good things from this one - it fixes all the failings of the first Gmini by a yard.

Read - New DAP from Archos: Gmini 400 [DAPreview]

Related
Archos Gmini 220 On-the-Road Review [Gizmodo]

Archos Widescreen PMP

Archos AV420 Reviewed

Laptop Magazine scoops themselves with their review of the Archos AV420, the $550 portable media player with a 20GB hard drive and the ability to function as a relatively full-featured PVR. They pretty much love it, noting that the 3.5-inch 262k-color screen is very "easy to watch." Their only complaint is the AV420s inability to multitask -- if you're listening to music, you can't look at pictures, for instance.

Read - Pocket TiVo Plus [TechWorthy]

Related
Sony's HMP-A1 VAIO Video Pocket Video Review [Gizmodo]
Archos AV420: More Information, Pictures [Gizmodo]
Archos AV400 Appears Fully Saleable [Gizmodo]

Archos Gmini 400 (P)Reviewed

CNet has reviewed the Archos Gmini400, confirming my suspicions that it is indeed scientifically awesome. Sure it has some downsides, like a less-than-intuitive interface and no ability to multitask, but a 20GB player the size of the iPod with the ability to play back video and an integrated CompactFlash slot? What's not to love?

Okay, maybe the sort of crappy battery is not to love, but I kind suspect that CNet flubbed the numbers when they said 10 hours of video and 5 hours of audio playback. I'm hoping they meant 10 and 15. And for once the video is worth watching, if only to watch James Kim spin it around in his hands. (Thanks, Old!)

Read - Archos Gmini400 [CNet]

Related
Archos Gmini 400: Everything But A Price [Gizmodo]
Archos Gmini 400: First Picture, Specs [Gizmodo]
Arc hos Gmini 400 [Gizmodo]

Update: The Archos site says 5 hours for video, 10 hours for audio. Could be, should be better, but still hot.
Read - Product Page [Archos]

Archos Gmini 400: Everything But A Price

Archos has their Gmini400 catalog page online with details about the updated hard disk-based player with 2.2-inch color LCD screen, although they don't have a price yet on the 'Buy Now,' so it may still be a few days before you can have one of your very own. They pretty much answer any questions you might have about the new unit, though, and I'm still on point saying this one looks like a winner. Sure, a 2-inch screen isn't anything to write home about, but a 20GB hard disk that can read four different types of flash memory cards (with adapter), a built-in file browser that lets you create and delete folders and move files around, the ability to watch movies - all of this in something that can actually fit in your pocket... Let's just say that for photographers and people like their gear actually portable, this could be the Gmini that finally breaks through.

Assuming, of course, that Archos takes that godawful song off of the website. Turn down your speakers. (Thanks, Tim!)

Read< /b> - Product Page [Archos]