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Whatever happened to TivoMatic?
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Posted by: EricRobins

Didn't there used to by an icon on NBC that said something like "Press Thumbs Up to Record"?? I was watching NBC recently, and saw a promo (the remote was across the room) for a new show. Because the TivoMatic was not there, I had to manually enter the recording.

Are there plans to bring TivoMatic back?

Posted by: OLdDog

Talk to NBC. There are still TiVoMatics from time to time on Showtime. NBC must not be encoding the data stream for the TiVoMatic icons to appear.

Posted by: esperantisto

There was a TiVoMatic the other night for "Meet my Parents" on NBC.

Posted by: DrStrange

Here's a thing. A couple of weeks back one of my DirecTivos showed an ipreview icon for She-Spies (retch) during Scrubs, but my Series 2, which had recorded the same episode also from DirecTV, did not show one. Why would this be?

Posted by: scottjf8

Sounds like an infomercial... "It Slices, It Dices, it records shows, and you can pause live tv!!"

Posted by: TiVoPony

Yes. Please don't use that term, "TiVomatic"...it's like nails on a chalkboard!

The much more acceptable term for this feature is "Ipreview". As in "Ipreview Icon" or "Ipreview Technology".

TiVomatic...I've heard that will blend bass nice and smooth...or was it a floor wax/dessert topping? ;)

We continue to work with the networks to incorporate Ipreview tags into their promotions. And the authoring tools are light years ahead of where they were when we first introduced this...

Pony

Posted by: Otto

No way will I use "Ipreview". Blah. Sounds too apple-ish to me. I hate technology names starting with "I" as if it meant something.. but doesn't. Ugh.

I'd prefer the TiVomatic 3000! It slices! It dices! :D

Posted by: jsmeeker

quote:
Originally posted by Otto
I'd prefer the TiVomatic 3000! It slices! It dices! :D

Dan Arkroyd needs to be the spokesman for that product!!

:)

Posted by: phone1

Ahh..the memorable Bass-O-Matic. Check this out: But wait, there's more! :D

Posted by: grecorj

The lack of Tivom...well, ok, Ipreview Icons is probably due to the fact that most programming is in re-runs during the summer. IMO, you'll see an increase (at least in the case of NBC for the broadcast nets) in the # of Ipreview Icons you see as we get close to the beginning of the new fall tv season (3rd week in September). NBC does a good job using II's; you'll see them in commercial promos for upcoming shows, as well as during the preview segment at the end of regular shows for next week's ep. For example, at the end of this season, I was watching ER and they had a crossover episode with 3rd Watch, which is something I normally don't watch & don't have a SP for. Well, during the ER preview segment they used an II for the 3rd Watch episode, so I just "thumbs upped" and it scheduled the 3rd Watch episode. Cool! :)

Posted by: arkham999

I wish all channels would use them. I bet I'd watch a lot more of their shows.

Posted by: DrStrange

What I'm wondering though is if part of the lack of ipreview icons for some people isn't that they aren't there, but that some Tivos don't display them when they are there. Like I said, I caught my series 2 not showing one that my Directivo did, so not all Tivos display them all the time. The series 2 has displayed other ipreviews so I know it can.

Posted by: brianld

Are these iPreview things exclusive to particular networks (i.e. NBC / Showtime)? Or can any network choose to incorporate them (i.e. competitors of NBC - CBS, FOX, ABC)?

Just curious as to whether these are derived from "marketing agreements" with a particular network or not? It makes sense that those networks appearing in Showcases would incorporate them, as they already have a marketing pact in place with TiVo, but I was wondering if any other networks have ever used them, since I've only seen them on NBC.

Posted by: TheSimpsons

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony
Yes. Please don't use that term, "TiVomatic"...it's like nails on a chalkboard!

The much more acceptable term for this feature is "Ipreview". As in "Ipreview Icon" or "Ipreview Technology".

But the viewers guide refers to it as TiVomatic...:confused:

-The Simpsons :) :D :cool: :eek: :p

Posted by: Brad Bishop

quote:
Originally posted by arkham999
I wish all channels would use them. I bet I'd watch a lot more of their shows.

To me that is the key. When all (or most all) channels use them for upcoming shows it'll become a useful tool instead of a novelty. As it is right now it happens so rare that I usually think, "What was TiVo-looking thing?"

I usually equate these types of things with the telephone. When just a few people have a telephone (or email for that matter) it is just a novelty. When nearly everyone has a telephone it suddenly becomes a useful tool.

Have a great weekend.

Brad

Posted by: OLdDog

Of course the market penetration of TiVo is MUCH too miniscule for any network/station to put any effort into making TiVo recording easy unless they already have an interest in TiVo.

Posted by: Hunter Green

Here's another vote: TiVoMatic may be a wonky name but Ipreview is like spray cheese on saltines. Give us a name with some flavor and we'll give up TiVoMatic in a flash, promise! :)

Posted by: Otto

Olddog: One thing at a time, man. :D

Posted by: HerronScott

For those of us geeks, I keep thinking of some kind of network scanner (IP review). :)

Scott

Posted by: DJRobX

Wow, that's terrific bass!

-- Rob

Posted by: TiVoPony

Everytime I see this thread, I think something has happened to Matt C. at TiVo...and then I realize that we don't have a Matt C. at TiVo...and then I remember what this thread is really about.

Weird, eh? :D

Pony

Posted by: jmoak

IPREVIEW, actually a very common term with many meanings.......

IPReview- INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY REVIEW/INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT RESOURCES
http://www.patentcafe.com/smallbiz_...management.html

IPReview- "The IP review screen can be reached from two places: from the "Edit" menu option in the Proposal List window, and on a separate tab..."
from http://coeus.mit.edu/negotiations.doc

IPReview- individual planning review
http://www.communitycare.act.gov.au/news/news.html
"The review of the current individual planning (IP) system in the Disability Program was based on...."

IPReview- Introductory Physics Review Session
http://pillars.ehshouston.org/IP/Review.html

...not to mention IT terms!
:D :rolleyes: ;)

Heay! Isn't the marketing department suppose to check these things!!?!!?!

Posted by: esperantisto

Ipreview is a bad, BAD, *BAD* name. I much prefer TiVoMatic.

Posted by: cotto

Wait, I thought we don't watch commercials with Tivo, why would I see the "Ipreview" thingy anyway

Posted by: marrone

Ipreview is a bad name. I like TivoMatic better.

Here's a very simple low (if any) cost way for Tivo to listen to their customers. Not that it's much of a big deal at all, but here's a good place to start.

Doesn't seem like anyone likes the name, so why change it?

Why do I have a feeling SOMEONE is going to make a poll on this?

-Mike

Posted by: TiVoPony

quote:
Originally posted by marrone
Ipreview is a bad name. I like TivoMatic better.

Here's a very simple low (if any) cost way for Tivo to listen to their customers. Not that it's much of a big deal at all, but here's a good place to start.

Doesn't seem like anyone likes the name, so why change it?

Why do I have a feeling SOMEONE is going to make a poll on this?

-Mike

Some of you really like "TiVomatic"? Seriously? We'll have to agree to disagree on that one. TiVomatic has a high-cheese factor for me personally, I'm glad it's been replaced.

Actually, Ipreview has been used from the start, but primarily for internal discussions or working with partners.

It seems that you're under the impression that we don't listen to our customers. sigh.

Pony

Posted by: esperantisto

pony: as for cheese and TiVoMatic: consider the current retro trend - it sort of fits in.

Posted by: Hunter Green

I think most of us don't really like TiVoMatic, we just don't like Ipreview twice as much. I, for one, am holding out for a good name, not just a less awful one. How about something built around the idea of a "link" or "pointer"? How about something playing on "hitchhike" (since you use a Thumb Up to quickly and easily go somewhere else)?

Posted by: TheSimpsons

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony
Actually, Ipreview has been used from the start, but primarily for internal discussions or working with partners.

But why then does TiVo themselves refer to it as "TiVomatic"? :confused:

PS- "iPreview"... sux. :D

-The Simpsons :) :D :cool: :eek: :p

Posted by: marrone

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony

It seems that you're under the impression that we don't listen to our customers. sigh.

Pony

For all that's worth it, this is really not that important! A name of an icon that I see about once every 2 months...I can think of better things.

Such as all the other real suggestions that have been made on these forums that I needn't go into since they've already been hashed around mega times!

-Mike

Posted by: hiker

How about TiVoIt - making TiVo a verb which I hear a lot these days. Kinda like xerox it, maybe TiVo will make Websters!

Posted by: Joey303

PromoThumb? (with the emphasis on Thumb, not Pro)

Sounds a bit like Promotion, but incorporates the Thumb part, which I believe is distinctly TiVo.

Posted by: MighTiVo

IPreview? What am I previewing?

I think an excellent use of the TiVoSelect/SelecTiVo/EZRecord/RecordSelect/ISelect Icon would be for the morning news shows. They almost always have segments touting some program.

Lets have a naming contest for this thing AND get it to be used more often, it is a great tool!!!

I would also like to bring up another similar comment I have made before.
We are getting the ads for shows that are to debut in the fall but there is now way to set up a recording for them. How about working with the networks and get Tribune to put some sort of place holder for these shows in the distant future. We get easy set up of the program and you can give data back to the networks about how many people are interested in the show months before they get a neilson rating from who watched it....

Posted by: Mars Rocket

I've got to agree with the others - "IPreview" is much too smarmy and faddish - kind of the way everything was e-this and e-that a few years back. What's it supposed to mean, anyway? "Interactive Preview"? What's so interactive about it? And where does the Preview part come in?

"TiVomatic", on the other hand, both conveys the simple aspects of TiVo and says exactly what it is - TiVo Automatically.

TiVoPony - if you guys have been using IPreview for so long, maybe you can't see the forrest for the trees. I think IPreview is a bad choice that sounds like it was driven by a marketing department that was too wrapped up in it's own idea to move on.

Posted by: steelcurtain

I gotta agree...I don't like IPreview, and I honestly didn't much care for TiVomatic either. How about "Record THIS"? I think that would work better.

Posted by: grecorj

My vote is for "TiVoPreVo" :D

Posted by: esperantisto

Contest! Contest! Contest! Contest!

Posted by: majortom

quote:
Originally posted by arkham999
I wish all channels would use them. I bet I'd watch a lot more of their shows.

I have added many shows to my ToDo list because I saw an II and did not have to do anything to add the program.

/carmi

Posted by: TheSimpsons

quote:
Originally posted by esperantisto
Contest! Contest! Contest! Contest!

It has a nice ring to it, but I think it would be too long for a name. ;) :D

-The Simpsons :) :D :cool: :eek: :p

Posted by: GatorDeb

Don't you have to be watching Live TV for that? Who watches live TV anymore? :D

BTW since the title is what happened to TiVoMattc (instead of TiVoMatic) I thought TiVo Matt C was a past employee who wasn't here anymore :)

Posted by: Joey303

No, you don't have to be watching LiveTV. I find that the little icon catches my eye as I'm zippping through the commercial breaks with my FastForward. Likewise, I sometimes back-up and play a network promo so that I'm clued-into the new shows.

Posted by: TheSimpsons

quote:
Originally posted by GatorDeb
BTW since the title is what happened to TiVoMattc (instead of TiVoMatic) I thought TiVo Matt C was a past employee who wasn't here anymore :)

Read TiVoPony's post at the top of page 2. ;)

-The Simpsons :) :D :cool: :eek: :p

Posted by: GatorDeb

quote:
Originally posted by TheSimpsons

Read TiVoPony's post at the top of page 2. ;)

-The Simpsons :) :D :cool: :eek: :p

I did after I posted... does that mean TiVoPony and I are meant for each other? :D

New way to rate men: How many TiVos they own :) :)

Posted by: dslunceford

quote:
Originally posted by hiker
How about TiVoIt - making TiVo a verb which I hear a lot these days. Kinda like xerox it, maybe TiVo will make Websters!

Sweet, simple, descriptive, brand-building, nah...would never fly.

TiVo marketing folks would rather come up with something a bit more obtuse, like comparing a PVR to riding around in a car with a Tiger...:D

Seriously, not a bad name. Extremely descriptive in terms of function and incorporates the brand without the cheezy "o'matic" moniker.

Posted by: mschwab

Paused the Emmys last night during the Boomtown commercial (because I wanted to see when it started so I could schedule an SP), and I was very surprised to see the TiVoMatic icon in the upper right-hand corner! I told my wife "I haven't seen one of those in a long time! This may be the first time I can actually use the icon, as opposed to testing it way back when." But, of course, the TiVo I recorded the Emmys on wasn't the TiVo I wanted to schedule Boomtown on. Oh well!

Posted by: TiVoPony

quote:
Originally posted by dslunceford

Sweet, simple, descriptive, brand-building, nah...would never fly.

TiVo marketing folks would rather come up with something a bit more obtuse, like comparing a PVR to riding around in a car with a Tiger...:D

Seriously, not a bad name. Extremely descriptive in terms of function and incorporates the brand without the cheezy "o'matic" moniker.

While personally I agree with you, we don't have the liberty of using the name "TiVo" as a verb. Companies that do that tend to lose their trademark. Oh, you may choose to do it. Or Jay Leno might. But we can't.

Pony

Posted by: esperantisto

Pony: is there anything we (as viewers) can do to encourage channels to use more TiVoMatics? Maybe we could start a letter-writing campaign!

Posted by: Joe Siegler

From further up in the thread...

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony
Yes. Please don't use that term, "TiVomatic"...it's like nails on a chalkboard!

The much more acceptable term for this feature is "Ipreview". As in "Ipreview Icon" or "Ipreview Technology"

Feh. For those of us who have been around for ages, calling it IPreview is like nails on a chalkboard! And acceptable to whom? Your predecessor on these forums called 'em TiVomatics, I believe.

Of course, DirecTiVo isn't the real name either, but everyone calls that unit that, too. :)

What's more disturbing to me is that they were never widely adopted. Why is that? I mean - really WHY do more networks not use this? NBC & uh.. uh.. one pay cable network are the only ones to ever use it, and quite frankly, it's used so infrequently there that they might as well not be using it anyway.

Is it one of those things that someone has to pay to be able to use? If so, what's the thinking there? Wouldn't it lead to more widespread usage of TiVomatics if everyone could use it? For ages, the only place most of us ever saw them was on TiVo Takes, which hasn't been around now for what, close to a year and a half? (I miss Daphne anyway) I actually used the TiVoMatics in there to record things.

Also, can a moderator rename this thread to correctly spell TiVomatic? :D

Posted by: Lori

quote:
Originally posted by Joe Siegler

Also, can a moderator rename this thread to correctly spell TiVomatic? :D

Yup. :)

Posted by: dslunceford

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony

While personally I agree with you, we don't have the liberty of using the name "TiVo" as a verb. Companies that do that tend to lose their trademark. Oh, you may choose to do it. Or Jay Leno might. But we can't.

Pony

Doh, I should know that! As a PR guy for Sprint, the brand police and legal would kill us if we ever tried to use the name as a verb!

quote:

Trademarks are adjectives. Please follow these guidelines in using them:

All trademarks are adjectives. Do not use them as nouns or verbs;

Do not alter the trademarks in any way, including abbreviating to acronyms;

Do not combine the trademarks with any other trademarks or trade names;

Do not hyphenate the trademarks;

Do not pluralize or use the trademarks as possessives;

Do not translate the trademarks from English into another language;

Do provide the proper trademark notice attribution.

Posted by: foo monkey

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony
Yes. Please don't use that term, "TiVomatic"...it's like nails on a chalkboard!

The much more acceptable term for this feature is "Ipreview". As in "Ipreview Icon" or "Ipreview Technology".

I've been telling them this for nearly two years, but they won't listen.

Posted by: Joe Siegler

quote:
While personally I agree with you, we don't have the liberty of using the name "TiVo" as a verb. Companies that do that tend to lose their trademark. Oh, you may choose to do it. Or Jay Leno might. But we can't.

Missed this before. I am *NOT* attacking this stance - the question I'm asking comes from the standpoint of wanting to understand.

Why? Why is this the case? I'm the online guy for 3D Realms, and in my 10 years of doing this job, I've never run into this issue (that I can recall). Although I don't know how our big visible title (Duke Nukem) would apply - I can't see us saying "We'll Duke something". :)

Posted by: stevel

In trademark law, you always want to use the trademark as an adjective, not a noun or a verb. As an adjective, it modifies something - so the proper use would be "TiVo digital video recorder". A company whih allows its trademark to become generically used as a verb or a noun is in danger of losing the trademark status.

Consider Xerox. Most of us use this as a synonym for "photocopy", even if we're not using a Xerox brand copier. But Xerox itself fights such use if it sees it in print with letters from its lawyers. Thermos lost the US trademark rights to its brand name because it allowed the name to become generic.

"TiVoIt", which Pony rightly objected to, invites you to use "TiVo" as a verb, which dilutes its trademark status. I don't see anything wrong with "TiVomatic" in this context - many companies successfully incorporate their brand name in a longer word, as long as the brand name is used as an adjective and not a noun or a verb.

TiVo's desire to replace TiVomatic with iPreview may be for "image" issues, and it's their choice to make.

Posted by: Gregd33

quote:
Originally posted by Joe Siegler

Missed this before. I am *NOT* attacking this stance - the question I'm asking comes from the standpoint of wanting to understand.

Why? Why is this the case? I'm the online guy for 3D Realms, and in my 10 years of doing this job, I've never run into this issue (that I can recall). Although I don't know how our big visible title (Duke Nukem) would apply - I can't see us saying "We'll Duke something". :)

Tell those bums over there to get back to work on Duke Nukem Forever... It's only been YEARS since it was supposed to be released... Hopefully we won't have another Daikatana if/when it is ever released. :)

Posted by: Gregd33

quote:
Originally posted by stevel
TiVo's desire to replace TiVomatic with iPreview may be for "image" issues, and it's their choice to make.

I don't like it.. Reminds me far to much of Apple Computers...

Posted by: stevel

I used to work for Compaq, and a couple of years ago I attended a "branding" presentation. Two of the rules we were asked to follow when coming up with new sub-brand names was to:

1) Not start names with "i" or "e" (since this was so overused)
2) Not end the name with "PAQ" (I disagreed with this one, as it reminds everyone who sells the product. As one who came from the former Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), the use of "DEC" as a prefix in subbrand names was nearly universal and very much reinforced the brand identity.)

So what did the company come out with a month or so later? That's right, the "iPaq"!

Posted by: mschwab

quote:
Originally posted by Joe Siegler
Although I don't know how our big visible title (Duke Nukem) would apply - I can't see us saying "We'll Duke something". :)

Ah, but we say "Let's Nuke'm" all the time! :D

Posted by: markp99

Yes, "e" prefix on anything smacks of "eCommerce", and where know where that went in a hurry (from very personal and painful experience ;()

"i" prefix rings the same bells with me. Yuck!

Posted by: esperantisto

Hey! What happened to TiVoMattC? ;-)

Posted by: kazymyr

Argh! Just when I was preparing to ask if anyone sorted out what had happened to TiVo's Matt C., someone changed the title of the thread! :)

Posted by: esperantisto

I agree with markp: Ipreview sounds too much like eCommerce which reads dot.bomb in my mind.