Rent My DVR

The concept behind the new site Rent My DVR is something that television networks will be extremely interested in. Users of the site can pay 20 Euro Cents to request an episode of a TV show. Other users on the site are informed that the episode has been requested and if they send a video file of the episode to the requester, they get paid.

OK, but is it legal?

Dave Zatz talked to founder Micke Langberg, who said I can’t see that there should be any legal concerns related to our service, since it is exactly the same thing as asking your neighbor to record a TV show for you. The FAQ on the site expands on this:

According to fox networks it is OK to ask a friend or co-worker to tape video shows for you. We at www.rentmydvr.com are all friends. See "ask fox question 8."

8. Can I get tapes of FOX Network Primetime Shows sent to me?

ANSWER:
The FOX Network does not provide nor sell videos of any of shows, specials or movies that air on the Network.

Our recommendation is to ask co-workers, friends, family and neighbors for anyone who may have taped off-the-air the show you are looking for.

OK, but is it legal? Well, that's for the lawyers to answer, but given recent supreme court decisions you might want to play it safe and check for spare change in your couch instead.

September 27, 2005 by George Hotelling in News, Products | permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

TiVo adds 1-year contracts

Dave Zatz pointed us to this new part in TiVo's service agreement:

WITH RESPECT TO ANY NEW TIVO SERVICE SUBSCRIPTION ACTIVATED ON OR AFTER SEPTEMBER 6, 2005, YOU AGREE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE TIVO SERVICE FOR NO LESS THAN 12 MONTHS (THE "SERVICE COMMITMENT"). IF YOU FAIL TO MEET THE SERVICE COMMITMENT BY CANCELLING YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TO THE TIVO SERVICE (OR IF TIVO TERMINATES YOUR SUBSCRIPTION TO THE TIVO SERVICE DUE TO A BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT), YOU AGREE THAT TIVO MAY CHARGE YOU A $150 EARLY TERMINATION FEE, AND YOU AGREE TO PAY ANY SUCH EARLY TERMINATION FEE.

This fits with their August 2005 investor call where they announced they would be moving to a mobile phone-like retailing strategy.

On the one hand, I kind of like this. I would rather see TiVo's retailing for $50 with no rebate instead of $200 with a $150 rebate. By adding a service commitment they can get rid of rebates, although I should emphasize that I have not seen anything that says TiVo is ending rebates.

Still, I'm hopeful that they're replacing one customer hassle with another, less annoying one. I'm constantly surprised that friends with $300 mobile phones think a $50 TiVo is too expensive, I think the rebates have encouraged people to think of them as $200 boxes.

On the other hand, this is much less customer friendly. People hate mobile phone contacts but everyone goes with them because they're going to be paying for the service anyways so they might as well save $100-$200 on their phone. The mobile phone companies are some of the least-liked business around, I know TiVo will lose a few evangelists over this.

Also, like I said, I'm simply speculating that this will end annoying rebates. They could simply add this on top of the rebate system (which TiVo employees have defended). That seems like a net-loss for consumers since someone who didn't like their TiVo would be out $50 before, now they're out the full $200.

September 25, 2005 by George Hotelling in TiVo | permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack (0)

Elite entertainment PC roundup and review

c|net has a pretty good roundup and review of what they're calling "Elite entertainment PCs". They range from $2,500-$6,000, and are basically souped up Windows Media Center PCs with all the bells and whistles. They're designed to sit in home theater racks so they're all quiet and come in pretty cool looking cases, but after reading the review it sounds like the entire bunch is fairly overpriced.

It still seems like you could get a copy of BeyondTV or SageTV, a new HD tuner card, and a thousand dollar pentium PC to get the same performance as these monsters.

September 22, 2005 by Matt Haughey in News | permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Tivo stops seling units directly, but O Canada is finally supported

On Saturday, a former employee of a company that handled all the TiVo.com sales let slip that TiVo is no longer selling units directly from their site, instead linking to Best Buy as the primary place to buy one. This seems like a good move to me, as it lets TiVo concentrate on its core business of software and support and lets retailers concentrate on sales of units.

In other TiVo news, it looks like they are officially supporting Canada, though it seems they aren't allowed to ship anything into the country so you kind of have to get one mailed to you from an American friend. It's been a long time coming for our Canadian friends and most of mine simply moved to a cable company-provided DVR as they waited for the past five years. I wonder what held TiVo back from Canada all this time? Are there stiff trade restrictions or tariffs that couldn't be settled or are the cable systems difficult to integrate into the software? [thanks Dave and Megazone for the links]

September 18, 2005 by Matt Haughey in TiVo | permalink | Comments (15) | TrackBack (0)

TiVo/Macrovision DRM seen on IFC shows

After a few days of reading near and far about the TiVo/Macrovision DRM flap, I fully believe the response that TiVo has given is true. TiVo says some noisy broadcast video has tripped the flag accidentally, and that it shouldn't occur under normal conditions with cable and satellite connections. However, Aaron Hurley has reported seeing it on a IFC show recorded over cable, and he's posted photos of it on his box:

It's not just local stations. There is a red flag on IFC right this minute. Check it out if you can.

My Tivo is currently recording a conversation with Lauren Bacall and it has the red flag showing up saying that the program will be deleted by 9/23.

You can see evidence here and here
--Aaron Hurley

It could be another bug tripping the flag, but it looks like this might not just be limited to syndicated shows on a Fox station recorded from an antenna connection. I'm curious what caused the bug in this case.

September 16, 2005 by Matt Haughey in TiVo | permalink | Comments (26) | TrackBack (2)

More on TiVo's Red Flagged Recordings

If you haven't already, please read our recent post about restricted shows on TiVo. As you may have noticed, a lot of people are upset about the ability for the TV industry and TiVo to control a box people thought they owned.

Many were quick to point out that restricting two year old reruns of King of the Hill wasn't the intended use for the DRM. Jim Denney, TiVo's Director of Product Marketing, told TechBlog that these were probably just "false positives."

Denney said the copy protection is trigged by a flag in the video signal. The reports appearing on the Web appear to be cases where TiVo misinterprets noise in the signal as a copy protection flag, and imposes the restrictions.

Cory Doctorow over at Boing Boing happened to be at an DRM standards meeting and asked the experts what they thought about random noise triggering the restrictions:

When I asked them if they believed that noise could be "misinterpreted" as a DRM flag, they burst into positive howls of disbelief. One present talked about Macrovision's checksums and said that that must have been "incredible noise if it completed the checksum." A semiconductor expert laughed out loud.

Charitably, an operating system vendor's rep suggested that TiVo might not be lying: rather, he said that perhaps they've just done an "incredibly bad" implementation of Macrovision.

OK, it probably wasn't bad reception that caused it, so the next link in the chain is the local TV station. Is it possible that someone at the station accidentally turned content protection on? Marc Hedlund over at O'Reilly Radar (while mistakenly assuming that the content protection comes from guide data instead of the video signal) argues that it doesn't matter: If the broadcaster … can turn the flag on whenever they want, the power of this feature is in the wrong hands altogether.

It was likely a local broadcaster that made the mistake, but what's to prevent this from happening in the future? How can I protect my TiVo from the mistakes my local TV station makes? The next time someone freaks out on live TV, will the broadcaster flip the "Copy Never" bit to control the damage?

This was probably a mistake, but that doesn't negate the fact that this bug feature is built into every TiVo (and other PVRs).

September 15, 2005 by George Hotelling in TiVo | permalink | Comments (38) | TrackBack (1)

TiVo Coming to Canada?

Word has it that TiVo is starting to support Canadian guide data in preparation for a launch in the Great White North (or South, for those of us in Detroit). We haven't tested this ourselves yet, but the latest Tivo software allows entering a Canadian postal code, selecting a Canadian provider, and getting Canadian guide data.

Thanks to Erik Pettersen for the tip! (Previous Canadian TiVo howto post)

September 14, 2005 by George Hotelling in TiVo | permalink | Comments (14) | TrackBack (3)

DirecTV's own HD DVR rollout to start in early 2006

DirecTV users with combo TiVo units (in either standard def or high def) have been kind of hung out to dry for the past year or so. There haven't been any major software features added to the standard def units and the HD units only get a handful of channels (see DirecTV's HD Problem for more).

A reader recently wrote in with this story about attempting to get local current HD programming from DirecTV on his HD TiVo:

...statement(s) showing the LA/NYC HD network feeds from Direct TV are outdated (3 years old). According to Direct TV, they dropped that programming option in December of 2004. Getting network programming in HD requires waivers from the networks and according to Direct TV's HD technical support group, only 20% of waivers for HD network programming are approved [...] you may expect a 30-45 day wait to find out that only 20% of us will ever get approved!

Ever since DirecTV made it known their next DVR would be from their own subsidiary NDS instead of TiVo, everyone's been wondering when the new units would see the light of day. DirecTV sent up a few new satellites for their expanded MPEG-4 HD lineup (they say they will support 100s of channels of HD content by 2007), but current HD and SD DirecTiVo owners would have to wait for new hardware to take advantage of the new channels.

Over on the TiVo Community, it looks like official word from DirecTV is that early 2006 we should start seeing HD DVRs from DirecTV, with coverage in 12 major cities. It also sounds like there will be some sort of trade-in program for HD DirecTiVo units. As always, I'm curious what the user experience will be like compared to the TiVo devices. I've heard good and bad things about the NDS units over in the UK.

September 13, 2005 by Matt Haughey in DirecTV | permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

TiVo 7.2 OS adds content protection, blocks transfers, and auto-deletes some shows

We got a bit of a disturbing report over the weekend from a reader:

I recently got a sample of Tivo DRM, accidentally I suspect.  Recently a Simpson's rerun recorded with a red-flag next to it (an icon I've never seen before).  When I selected the episode, I got a message to the effect that "the copyright holder prohibited saving the episode past date mm/dd".  I also noted that this episode could not be copied using Tivo Togo (but ironically it could be "saved to tape" – I guess that is the analog hole).

I have two comments for Tivo, and one for any publisher who is foolish enough to activate this flag.

Tivo 1: Just because someone asks for a feature, there is no reason to give it to them.

Tivo 2: Better treat your subscribers well, or you won’t have a business.  Even your lifetime subscriptions won’t protect you when I (and many others) decide to switch over to an HDTV DVR.

To the Publisher: Go ahead and prevent me from saving your show past a certain date, I dare you.  I can’t think of a single show that I would still watch!  I can't think of a quicker way for you to loose my viewership!

Given that this was an episode from the early 90’s, I suspect the copy protection flag got turned on by accident.  None of my likely reactions will be accidental though...
--Michael McKay

Unfortunately, he didn't have any photos of what he saw, so I started looking around for similar reports. It didn't sound like an isolated or accidental incident. The TiVo support area carries an article about generic Macrovision support in TiVo but nothing on the new flag icon.

Several similar reports are found on forums. this post over on LiveJournal and this one on TiVo's forum both sound like network transfer errors, but people acknowledge in the answers that the behavior is part of the new TiVo 7.2 OS for certain programs.

This post at the TiVo Community Forums has the lowdown. It is related to last fall's macrovision policy change (covered here). The user posted screenshots of what he saw, and how he was blocked from telling his TiVo to "save until I delete"

Here is the now showing list with new red flags

Here is the Show Info screen

Here's the more info screen with scary warning about the copyright holder forcing this

And here's the last screen, explaining that you can't do anything with the show and it will self-destruct in 7 days

This sucks in the following ways (and many more I'm sure others can think of):

1. It treats all TiVo customers like they are criminals with big scary warnings about what you can and can't do. The TiVo interface normally is a friendly thing, not something throwing red flags everywhere. Surfacing the red flag to the top, then blaming everything on the copyright holder, and then having the TiVo website blame macrovision and even go so far as to say "Please do not contact TiVo Customer Support regarding copy protection related issues" is a total cop-out.
2. It removes control from your TiVo. For the last 7 years, you've been able to record and playback TiVo'd shows and save them as long as you wanted or had space. Now, outsiders are telling your TiVo when to delete themselves whether you like it or not. In some cases we're talking about programs you could have transfered last week with the 7.1 OS that are now being blocked. If you look closely at the ToDo list screenshot, you can see the previous night's King of The Hill doesn't have protection.
3. Previous mentions of this Macrovision "feature" discussed it only in terms of premium and pay-per-view content -- in other words, stuff readily available on DVD that movie studios might prefer you went out and bought or rented instead of just watched on HBO. Now I could understand that sort of restriction since a PPV movie is expected to be watched once and not saved or burned to DVD, but these examples are happening on regular TV shows, not premium movies.

Now, many people are saying this is probably a mistake on the part of a Fox affiliate station. They added macrovision "do not copy" tags to the show streams when they shouldn't have, but there was no workaround for the TiVo owner and it demonstrates what could very well happen in the near future with TiVos and other sorts of PVR devices. TiVo and other PVR companies have always had a rocky relationship with TV studios and with the loss of TV ad revenue and splintering of "prime time", TV studios have long been looking for a way to get control back. This could be their tool if used unwisely.

update: I just wanted to reiterate that yes, this was the result of a mistake on the part of the station providing syndicated shows. Still, my issue is with the TiVo software itself, for allowing red flags on content that was neither PPV or VOD. TiVo's head of legal assured Wired Magazine last fall that it would only apply to Pay Per View and Video on Demand, and yet, it appears it can happen to any show if the station adds the flag. This hole should be fixed so that mistakes in the future on the part of networks doesn't end up blocking normal TiVo activities.

another update: Dwight Silverman at the Houston Chronicle posted a quick interview with Jim Denney (director of product marketing for TiVo) about this issue. Sounds like the bug might be traced back to TiVo software misinterpretting noise in the signal as a flag.

September 13, 2005 by Matt Haughey in TiVo | permalink | Comments (71) | TrackBack (39)

Become the TiVo Ambassador

TiVo made it clear in their recent stockholder call that next year was all about driving up their subscriptions and userbase. Expect to see loads of deals and marketing pitches to meet that goal. One marketing push is their new TiVo Ambassador contest.

It looks like TiVo is officially looking for innovative, outside help in their marketing efforts by throwing a contest to find someone that can convince people to sign up for TiVo. The rules are pretty simple: you refer five people by November 27th, complete an application, and make a short video explaining why TiVo is so great. TiVo will pick five finalists and the winner gets $25k, a mini convertible, starts posting to a TiVo company blog (!!!) and attends events as a TiVo representitive.

I've referred dozens of people to TiVo now and I have some ideas about the perfect TiVo commercial, so I just might take a crack at it. The deadline for submissions is December 31st, 2005.

September 6, 2005 by Matt Haughey in TiVo | permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)

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