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SA 8000 ships 387K in year
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Posted by: interactiveTV

http://www.sciatl.com/news/03Jul17-1.htm

Some highlights:

Scientific-Atlanta shipped 387 thousand Explorer 8000 home entertainment servers in the fiscal year, including 158 thousand in the fourth quarter. At the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) show in June, the company highlighted high-definition (HD) and multi-room versions of the Explorer 8000 home entertainment server, which are currently in development.

The company received substantial orders for the Explorer 8000 home entertainment server from Time Warner Cable in both the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2003 and the first two weeks of the new fiscal year. In addition, the company received a substantial order for the Explorer 8000 product in the fourth quarter from Comcast, in support of their future plans for a wider deployment in their Scientific-Atlanta systems.

-------------------------------

Obviously, there are different fiscal years here, but both capture the same Q4..."During the year ended January 31, 2003, we activated approximately 245,000 new subscriptions to the TiVo Service"

_ITV

Posted by: zaknafein

so?

How many of those are sitting in cable co. warehouses unused?

Posted by: megory

I have one. It's a neanderthal compared to Tivo. Unreliable. (misses 50% of Seasons Passes)

If this were the first PVR I ever had, I'd be off PVRs forever.

It sems to have the same bugs I read that were posted in October, 2002 and that are reputedly fixed but in reality are not.

Thank goddess I have my Tivo and that this is just a backup -- (like a spare tire that has a leak in it).:rolleyes:

Posted by: LoadStar

quote:
Originally posted by megory
I have one. It's a neanderthal compared to Tivo. Unreliable. (misses 50% of Seasons Passes)

If this were the first PVR I ever had, I'd be off PVRs forever.

It sems to have the same bugs I read that were posted in October, 2002 and that are reputedly fixed but in reality are not.

Thank goddess I have my Tivo and that this is a backup like a spare tire that has a leak in it.

Well, just to play devil's advocate of sorts, there apparently are 2 totally seperate operating systems for these boxes, with a possible 3rd on the way. So it's entirely possible that the bugs were fixed (or never existed) in one, but not in another.

Posted by: megory

Loadstar, that's good news.

I WANT to like this and I want it to work. (I'll be happy if it works -- I don't _have_ to like it)

I plan to keep it even if only for the 2 hour cache/buffer and the ability to manual record and the attempts and long term recording. . . so if they will update this, that'll be great.

I don't quite understand why Scientifc Atlanta rolls these PVRs without updating them first--it affects my opinion of SA products . . . but . . . oh well.

Posted by: Dajad

Even a basic PVR (especially one without a monthly service fee above and beyond what one already pays for a set-top) is a competitive threat to TiVo. Remember, since most people have never tried a TiVo they won't necessarily be dissappointed with a basic PVR because a basic PVR, even one that can only record manually, is a significantly better TV-show recording solution than the VCR is.

...Dale

Posted by: CaptainStupid

quote:
Originally posted by Dajad
Even a basic PVR (especially one without a monthly service fee above and beyond what one already pays for a set-top) is a competitive threat to TiVo. Remember, since most people have never tried a TiVo they won't necessarily be dissappointed with a basic PVR because a basic PVR, even one that can only record manually, is a significantly better TV-show recording solution than the VCR is.

...Dale

That makes a lot of sense.

A friend at work just got the TimeWarner PVR for his digital cable (he didn't tell me make/model). It sounds like it has most of the TiVo functionality (minus HMO) and it costs him about $5 a month, with no upfront cost for the hardware. Granted TimeWarner is gonna flood the market at first with way below cost prices and then raise them later, but no matter how you look at it, it means less people buying TiVo.

Posted by: phone1

Anyone who thinks that an integrated DVR/Cable Box is not direct competition for TiVo has their head in the sand. The fact that the UI is vastly inferior doesn't matter. There are siginificant benefits, such as recording the digital signal directly from digital channels and the ability to record two programs simultaneously, like a DTiVo. Did I forget to mention not having to deal with the IR emitter hassle?

TiVo needs to start working with cable box makers to include their technology rather than trying to compete with them. They seem to have totally missed the boat here.

Posted by: Zirak

The threat to Tivo is primarily the "one stop shop" that the cable company provides. Ultimately, the cable companies will see the tivo fee as a revenue stream and decide to compete. This doesn't bode well for tivo, unless Tivo can license their software to the cable companies, like they essentially have with Direct-TV.

This market development has been in the back of my mind for some time. Tivo is certainly not blind to it. Perhaps it is a large motivation with Tivo light on DVD recorders. Cable companies certainly won't go there...

Posted by: Crrink

quote:
Originally posted by phone1
Anyone who thinks that an integrated DVR/Cable Box is not direct competition for TiVo has their head in the sand. The fact that the UI is vastly inferior doesn't matter. There are siginificant benefits, such as recording the digital signal directly from digital channels and the ability to record two programs simultaneously, like a DTiVo. Did I forget to mention not having to deal with the IR emitter hassle?

TiVo needs to start working with cable box makers to include their technology rather than trying to compete with them. They seem to have totally missed the boat here.

OMG, somebody alert the mods, I think phone1's account has been hijacked.
He'd never post anything negative about TiVo.

In the unlikely event that he did write what was posted, don't tell me, because I'll die of shock

:eek: :eek: :eek:

:D

Posted by: rexdart

Makes me wonder if somewhere down the road TiVo might not just go the Sega route. Drop the hardware and focus on the software. Recent deals with Pioneer and others turn my mind in that direction.

The very fact of not having to pay an upfront cost for the hardware makes the extra monthly fee (I thought it was $10 in Texas, not sure) easy to take. Plus the beauty of a software upgradable device is that the interface can always get better down the road.

And let's not pass up the wonderful irony of Time Warner offering a DVR after the statements made by TNT's Jamie Kellner (sp?), isn't all this entrapment? :D

Posted by: rexdart

Oohh, just checked the Time Warner website from back home, if you already have digital cable, the box is free. Well, as was stated above, it's free for now.

Not too crazy about the 40 gig hard drive, obviously with no option to upgrade but hey, they are just starting.

Posted by: dgh

quote:
Originally posted by rexdart
Makes me wonder if somewhere down the road TiVo might not just go the Sega route. Drop the hardware and focus on the software. Recent deals with Pioneer and others turn my mind in that direction.

That's the original plan.

"We'll know we've succeeded when the TiVo box vanishes" - Jim Barton (TiVo CTO) 1998.

Dealing with hardware was just part of the bootstrapping process of getting boxes powerful enough to run the service into living rooms.