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TiVo Series4
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Posted by: bywi

I feel that blatantly lying to people about a fictional Series4 would spark a lot of interest, but I simply don't have the heart to mislead people like that (I myself would be excited and then annoyed and then depressed).

I'm a somewhat new TiVo owner (had the unfortunate craving to get TiVo right between two rebate periods which I knew nothing about), but was quick to hop on the HMO-train with the lowered price. I like the additional options it affords me, and I love my PVR. I do not, however, value TiVo much.

Why? TiVo appears to only be limiting itself and its market. An option like HMO should come with the capability to do more:

Watch TV while listening to music. (solely on TiVo, I'm an owner of a TurtleBeach Audiotron)
Visualizations of music (MoodLogic currently) that are rendered on the video output.
Advanced features, even if encapsulated in downloadable plugins created by 3rd party developers.
GUI customization options
Web connectivity- News, Theater showtimes, Email alerts, and anything else developers or owners want to add.
OPEN machines. TiVo needs to open them, not us. A backdoor to turn on privileged features (telnet, etc) for use by the owner.

And that's not all.

Say TiVo did have the ability to render images and text on moving video, and allowed developers to take advantage of that feature and others described above. What would you see?

I see it creating a whole new TV experience limited only by the imaginations of the TiVo community. I see balloons above characters in the ever annoying prescription drug commercials. I see myself selecting the option for "Anything goes" humor. I see TiVo users everywhere watching a commercial, and hitting a button to create a Save Point, and then overlaying information onto this stored video from my computer. Putting a balloon above Mr Smiley's face in a Ciallis commercial that reads: "My testicles have shrunken but I'm still smiling." For every 1000 showings of a commercial on cable television there may be 50 different 3rd party (user) alterations and customizations to make it more appealing, tolerable or enjoyable.

Now back to reality. It is highly unlikely that TiVo will ever function like this, but PVRs will only get better. TiVo takes advantage of home networks, but doesn't do much with them (or let anyone else utilize them much, aside from simple minded things such as playing mp3's and showing pictures from a computer).

TiVo may just become an entity like IBM, though much smaller in size. Its units seem to be robust enough to handle its functions, and it is simple enough for most novices to use. However this isnt going to cut it when better PVRs make a name for themselves with ingenuitive features not yet seen in the PVR world.

I love my PVR, but to be honest I expected more from TiVo, especially after adding the HMO. Unfortunately I'm not paying per month for HMO (its not an option) so I can't pull the plug to send a message to TiVo that its time to expand its services and functionality.

Not really looking for a response, just thought I'd put some new ideas in the heads of the community around here. I'd buy a 2nd TiVo to make use of the Multi Room Viewing, if not for the fact that TiVo functionality seems to have stagnated and I'd only be supporting a dying fad. I hope that this is not the case, but I have yet to be proved wrong.

Posted by: Jonathan_S

I think you are jumping the gun a bit. :D
Series 3 is the current totally hypothetical upgraded / next gen TiVo. Speculating about a series 4 seems; excessively forward sighted.?.

:)

Posted by: bywi

Jumping the gun? Yep.
Speculating? Yep.
Forward sighted? Yep.

I'm aware of the talk of a Series 3 and the occasional excitement that discussion of it produces.. my belief (and I surrender that I very well may be wrong) is that no serious advances will be made for a series 3. I hate to be so negative about it but TiVo caters to advertisers, not us.

So I decided to skip to Series 4 as a title and maybe downplay the Thumbs Up-Thumbs Up-Thumbs Down-Enter-Clear shortcut that may appear in Series 3 and do something almost as cool as playing a TiVo animation [/sarcasm].

Posted by: ADent

Other Blue Sky features the S4 will have
- Free Space Indicator
- Soft Padding
- Sort by Epiration Date
- NOT in Wishlists
- Search by dates, 'Repeat', basically any of the meta-data
- Ability to transfer shows recorded on any TiVo to a DVD-R unit via HMO and burn those shows
- Discount on mutliple units, if all units are plugged into your internet connection

Posted by: fdawg2k3

nice post.

what are the specs for the upcoming Series3, anyone?

i'm brand new to the series2 and TiVo in general and was also dissapointed in the limits.

Posted by: classicsat

Read the wishlist sub-forum. The S3, at least to the public's knowlege, is a theoretical (read not real) next gen unit with hardware features, and software to go with that, not on current models.

About the feature list:

1: A separate audio codec would be needed, as well as an audio mixer. Maybe doable with an addon USB device, and an aux A/V in which is switched/mixed for the output (also with a second tuner, controlled by USB, fed ineo a switched aux input).

2&4: Need a better overlay than Tivo currently has. I'd take this opportunity to use one that can do PIP (either live video/recorded, or live/live with two tuner/encoders), and be able to do richer graphics alone or over video.

6: You'd have to balance protection of the service and the content with that.

Posted by: Dan203

quote:
Originally posted by ADent
Other Blue Sky features the S4 will have
- Free Space Indicator
- Soft Padding
- Sort by Epiration Date
- NOT in Wishlists
- Search by dates, 'Repeat', basically any of the meta-data
- Ability to transfer shows recorded on any TiVo to a DVD-R unit via HMO and burn those shows
- Discount on mutliple units, if all units are plugged into your internet connection

Every single one of those is a software feature and entirely possible on the Series 2 hardware.

Dan

Posted by: ADent

quote:
Originally posted by Dan203
Every single one of those is a software feature and entirely possible on the Series 2 hardware.

Dan

And been asked for since 1.3 was the current SW (OK, well not the HMO/DVD-R thing).

-----
If we want to talk about new stuff then things I'd like to see
- I guess the commercial enhances shown above would be good to encourage watching them (not that I would)

- Batch save (also a long requested feature). TiVo is so handy to record a whole season of stuff w/o repeats, but the only thing you can do is watch it. Creating your own archive could be so much easier with TiVo

- Linear editing, where you can snip out commcerials, etc. Handy for sports where you recorded long combined with batch save.

-Multiple User support. Some shows don't get deleted until both users watch or check it off. Others only need to be watched by one person. [tricky to implement, but start on it]

- Multi-TiVo Scheduling (also a long requested feature). SPs across units to resolve conflicts.

- Parental Lock more flexible. Its by rating or channel now, and some shows are a pain. It would be nice to specifically lock some shows in the Now Showing list, maybe lock shows by WL or something.

- Watch TiVo on any TV. Those WiFi demos by Moxi were cool. Little remote boxes, or broadcast LP over TV channels, or soemthing combined with RF remotes.

- Media server. Put MP3s, photos, and other media content directly on TiVo and you play them back on any TV, computer, radio (instead of the opposite direction with HMO).

- If we are talking advanced, TiVo needs to figure out when shows really end and adjust in real time. Sports is always going long. President's speeches mess up schedule.

- Figure out how to record every F1 race and race only. Today there is no way to not get qualifiying, practice, etc.

- There should be a mode to say I want to watch every Broncos game and TiVo figures out how to record them - instead of the setting up ARWL with @ and Broncos that run long, etc and catch other crap. For major sports there should be a way to do this.

-----
That is all I really need.TV.

I suppose it could be cool to read email, see the local weather web site, etc. But it may just be easier to partner with a PC vendor and put a special video in on TiVo.

Caller ID w/name would be cool on screen too.