The Future of Television

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by Don Meyer

As you can tell from the "News" section of this page (latest news is dated November 2000), I'm not really maintaining this website at this point...

I'm leaving it in place for two reasons: 1) Historical interest and 2) I might have the time to update it someday :-).

If you want some actual current information, I can suggest Eric Lund's site at http://egotron.com/ptv

Another site to take a look at is http://pvrcompare.com

News

Nov-2000 ... ReplayTV has announced that they are exiting the hardware side of the market.

They will remain in the technology side of the business. This essentially means that they will continue to license and support the technology, just that there won't be any hardware built by them directly. It appears that their licensees such as Panasonic will continue to produce hardware, and support for the existing customer base is promised to continue.
This action isn't a huge surprise, as it's pretty hard to build the hardware yourself and compete with giants such as Sony. ReplayTV's software has come a long way (better than TiVo in some areas) and I look forward to seeing the healthy competition between the TiVo technlogy and the ReplayTV technology continue.

Nov-2000 ... Snapstream is developing PC-based PTV software.

This isn't really *news*, since they've been releasing beta versions since July, but it's certainly worth mentioning anyway! This looks like a very neat idea, and with the price of hard-drives dropping and video capturing video cards for the PC becoming quite reasonable (and good quality) it's time is coming.
I don't expect the PC-based products to eliminate TiVo's or ReplayTV's markets, but if I was them, I'd be looking long and hard at a PC-based offering in addition to the dedicated hardware.
While I don't have any personal experience with this product, the concept is very interesting.
Take a look at www.snapstream.com.

More News...

Contents of this page:

1. Overview
2. Fanatical Praise
3. The Major Things they BOTH Need To Add
4. The Minor things they could both add
5. Why ReplayTV?
6. Why TiVo?
7. Which One I Would Buy Today
8. Experiences with setting up for the Fall season
9. Fun with Technology
10. Cool Ideas
11. Additional Sites

Overview

Both ReplayTV and TiVo are the first wave of a new type of "VCR" that gives the television viewer new abilities to capture and manipulate the stream of television shows which flows from their cable and satellite systems (and antennas).

Both allow "live" television to be paused and rewound at will. Both allow using some type of on-screen program guide to select shows to be recorded.

There are several advantages over a conventional VCR:

• Pause of "live" TV
• Capacities in the 15-hour range or better allows unattended recording of more shows
• No shuffling of tapes, searching for an empty tape or spot on a tape
• Faster fast-forward and rewind

The ability to pause live TV is very cool. As prices come down and features go up, this breed of device is going to make someone a ton of money!

I think one important thing to keep in mind here is that we aren't talking about choosing some essential item. TiVo, ReplayTV, DVD, and VCR's in general are *toys* (in consumer applications anyway).
They let us manage and enhance our veg-out-on-the-couch time!

I decided that the ReplayTV system looked better to me, and placed one on order. I've been using it for for a couple weeks now, and have generated a list of things I like, don't like, and would like to see changed. In some ways, the TiVo system now looks better to me, but that may be a "grass is greener" sort of thing. I'll be taking a look at a TiVo system in the near future as well, so hopefully then I can find out which one really fits my desires better.

This overview has been pretty brief because most of the information about what these products are is readily available on their respective web sites Most of my reaction is contained in the tables below where I list features that I think should exist or be implemented better or differently. I'd like to think that these are some of the real-world issues that customers might be interested in knowing about. My FAQ also has more detailed information on several topics.

Fanatical Praise

Now that I've had a chance to use these units for a fair amount of time, I can't imagine going back to a plain old VCR.

We've watched sports, sitcoms, movies and about anything else that people watch. The freedom from having to feed the VCR tapes is fantastic. TiVo has "suggested" a few shows that I've really enjoyed and would never have bothered to hunt down myself.

My wife has asked if I could PLAY tapes from the VCR and RECORD them into TiVo or ReplayTV because the fast-forward over commercials is really fast! I've gone back and watched things we taped before we had a PTV device and the VCR seems very clunky in comparison (Oh, that's right, I need to rewind this tape before we watch it. Uh, to back up and catch a line of dialogue we missed takes forever compared to the smooth digital action of the PTV boxes)

These devices are not perfect yet, but they are nonetheless amazing and I don't know how I got along without them. Actually, I do know - I hated keeping track of the row of tapes, and what was o which tape and which one needs to be in there to record tonight's shows...et cetera...ad naseum.

Buy one. You'll thank me. And no, I don't have any financial stake in either company nor in the industry in general. Darn it.

The Major Things they BOTH Need (or needed) To Add

Minor Things They Could Both Add

1. Let a "default" channel be defined. This channel would be switched to whenever the system was "idle". This way, you could have your default channel be, say, The Weather Channel, and unless a show was being recorded, you could turn on your TV and find the last thirty minutes or so of this information ready to be viewed.

Why I Went With ReplayTV

As I recall, TiVo looked much less "techno-geek" friendly when I first became aware of both products in late 1998. TiVo was not planning to support "stand-alone" operation (i.e. you needed their program guide service to make things work) which was a big factor to me. I've seen way to many cool technologies and companies come and go (I've owned Amiga ® computers, VideoGuide ® on-screen program guides, and Syquest ® removable hard-drives...) to be happy about that. If the parent company goes away, I at least wanted a fancy VCR as opposed to a high-tech paperweight!

TiVo also seemed to be more interested in gathering data about what was being watched, and a concept of "targeting" ads to consumers based on this data.

I've also created a wish-list for what I think ReplayTV needs.

Why Does TiVo Look Better Now Than It Did Then?

TiVo now says that VCR-like timed recordings are possible. As a matter of fact, they can do that now where ReplayTV cannot. Quite the opposite of what I was expecting.

Also, if their ads are going to be targeted and inserted during the show (and can be FF over!) this may be better than wasting precious space on the program grid, which is what I expect ReplayTV to is going to do, although their plans aren't clear yet.

Some of the ReplayTV features that are missing are quite disappointing to me. They seem to be trying too hard to make it easy to use (I know it sounds odd to complain about a mom-and-apple pie concept like that). I want more control over how things are recorded, not less.

And lastly, the targeted ad concept actually sounds attractive to me. Why should a bachelor (for example) waste time watching ads for minivans? I love techno-toys and our kids are all past the diaper stage. Take that ad for diapers and replace it with an ad for a GPS or a DVD player.
As long as the specific information is kept private, I don't think I have a problem with this kind of targeted advertisements.

Yes, there is a wish-list for what I think TiVo needs also.

Which One I Would Buy Today

First, let's make it clear that this decision is based on their software and hardware as it is today. In six months or a year, the decision might be different. Both companies seem very interested in listening to their customers and improving the products. Also, this is my opinion based on how I use the products and what I need. Your criteria might be different. There are some slight hardware differences. For example, if you need two baseband inputs as well as RF (for a total of three possible input feeds), then ReplayTV might better suit your needs. This is a non-issue for me (Cable and a dish is plenty), but not for everyone.

My favorite is TiVo.

The reason is simple. Software, software, software. With TiVo I feel like I know what it will record and what it will delete. I find these features to be essential.
Other reasons include liking the TiVo remote better (Note: in early November 1999 ReplayTV has announced an updated remote) and the lower cost (Due to changes in the pricing and capacity of ReplayTV the costs are closer now. You can still get a unit from TiVo cheaper than from ReplayTV, but an apples-to-apples compariosn is not very clear). Check the FAQ for more details about pricing.

Honestly, it's pretty close. ReplayTV has some features I like better than TiVo's decisions and vice-versa. Either is vastly superior to a VCR in several important ways.

Great about TiVo		Great about ReplayTV
Remote is well designed, and the way it controls both a TV and a Stereo Receiver is seamless.		Two baseband inputs.
Thumbs up and down is actually pretty cool.		Themes. The ability to set up a "trap" for shows that are not in the schedule yet is very powerful.
Slow Motion, Frame forward, backward		Potential for very long "pause" times.
The Software!		30-Second "skip" button.
		Ability to "pad" the recording time for a show.

Experiences with PTV and the Fall 1999 TV Season

Well, the Fall 1999 prime time season has arrived, and after some experience with setting up both devices to deal with it, I thought I'd relate some of what I encountered along the way. As always, this represents my experience with how these devices fit the way I watch TV, so "your mileage may vary".

First off, my appreciation for the way ReplayTV does some things has grown. By setting up one guaranteed time slot for each show I want, I know that I then have 7 days (until next week's episode begins) to watch the show. Nothing will come along and delete it. By then setting up some shows that are not new (Simon & Simon for example) as non-guaranteed, I'll get those if there is room, but they won't interfere with the new prime time shows I'm more interested in.

For "Season Passes", TiVo does not let you specify that the show should be saved for a week, they default to three days. Now, even after the three day "protection" period expires, they won't be erased unless some other show you have set up to be recorded comes along. This works well if you don't set up any shows in syndication that are on 5 days a week. If you do that, your new prime-time shows can be at risk. The work around is to try to get TiVo to record these shows (let's say Simon & Simon again) as "suggestions" based on giving them three thumbs up. This can work in some cases, but it's not very elegant.

The final result? I've got some shows being recorded on each device. I've tried to let ReplayTV carry the burden of most of the shows (that 7-day hold time) that are on weekly, and used TiVo to record things that I may want to use a special effect (like slow-motion) on. I also wanted to make sure that there was room for TiVo to record some of it's "suggestions". On occasion, that capability has caught shows I never would have, but that I really enjoyed.

It all comes down to recording time in the end. With infinite (or even practically infinite - for me about 30 hours of better-than-the-lowest-quality) recording time the different ways each device's software works would be much less of an issue. Until I have this situation, and probably even then, I really wish that both companies would make some enhancements to their software. Both companies have unique advantages, but IMHO neither has it exactly right yet (it's still much better than a VCR though!).
Although these suggestions are listed elsewhere, I'll hit them again here.

TiVo:

1. Multiple priority levels (at least three).
2. Ability to set the "keep until" point before the recording takes place.
3. Display of how much recording space is currently available.

ReplayTV:

1. Multiple priority levels (at least three).
2. Better feedback on what will be recorded when (like TiVo's "To-Do" list).
3. Search-by-title.

Discovery: Neither device was perfect for setting up all these shows on. TiVo's lack of a conventional grid made things difficult as I tried to scan though each day and pick shows to record. TiVo's search feature was great though for finding shows when I knew the name, but had no clue as to day or time.
ReplayTV's grid was great for skimming though each day, but I found myself going back to TiVo to search for some shows. If ReplayTV adds a search feature, they'd be the clear winner for this kind of wholesale picking of shows to record. I should note that this specific need does occur rarely, so it's not a big deal most of the time.

Discovery: I don't miss the stack of video tapes, the scribbled list of what's on which tape, and the seemingly endless time spent rewinding and/or fast-forwarding to the show we were in the mood to see at any given time.

One final note: As the new season started, we went on vacation for a week. Using a PTV made it trivial to be sure everything got recorded, with a capacity that would have been impossible with one or two VCRs in SP mode (I really dislike EP mode).

Random Thoughts

• Even "live" TV is slightly behind actual live TV. We had some friends over and were watching the hockey game the other night with a "normal" TV in the kitchen and ReplayTV in the livingroom. A goal was scored and the kitchen group cheered a second or two before the livingroom group did! Very funny. Sort of like The Wave.
  Apparently, TiVo will exhibit the same phenomenon, due to the time to compress and decompress the video. Not a problem really, just interesting (at least to me).
  

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Fun with Technology

1) Invite friends over to watch the big game.
2) Before they arrive, pause the channel so it's delayed by a useful but subtle amount, say five minutes.
3) Listen to the game via a tiny radio, or have an accomplice do the same with a TV or radio.
4) Make predictions as to the the success or failure of certain plays, the score at the period break etc.
5) Bask in the amazed admiration at your uncanny ability.
Note: Letting your friends know that you have a ReplayTV or TiVo unit before or after this event may be unwise.

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Cool Ideas

These are ideas that may differentiate devices of this type when all of the "easy" and "normal" features have been incorporated...

Can you add a web server into TiVo (with an ethernet port)? Since I have a dedicated Internet connection at home and a home LAN, I would like to be able to "log into" the TiVo unit from work or other locations using a web browser and set the recorder, view configurations etc... --- Paul Guzyk

Since there is already a telephone hookup and the ability to generate on-screen text overlays, add Caller-ID capability! --- Dave R. This should require minimal hardware to be added (I suspect it's not possible on the existing boxes). Something for the next turn of the hardware...

Although I know this would not be easy to implement (and might iritate some of their partners as well), how about some video magic to eliminate or obscure the stupid logos that networks put on the bottom right side of the screen? These things drive me crazy, and until the networks realize that we really don't want this clutter in our picture, I'd pay good money to see these bugs-on-the-vide-windshield eliminated or obscured (I know that you can't put back image data that isn't there, but reasonable interpolation could sure help).

 

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Other places to get information:

Eric Lund	Eric Lund has a very nice web site that gives a complete look at how the features compare between the two devices.
ReplayTV Notes	Some detailed hints and tips about ReplayTV
Tele-Portal	This web site is covering all new devices that fit the PTV (Personal TV) mold.
Rec.Video	A lot of discusion takes place on the rec.video news group. There is talk of setting up a specific PTV group, but it does not exist yet.
Snapstream	PTV software for your PC!
ReplayTV Revealed	Details and good explanations about some of the more complex factes of how replayTV works (from a user perspective, not chips and circuits)
Stephen Tu	Stephen also has both units and gives his review.
TiVo Ethernet	An interesting (and unofficial) project to add an ethernet card to the TiVo box.
iTVreport	This site covers TiVo, ReplayTV and other related develpments in Personal Television.
QUICKSCAN ®	A patented methodology that content providers may want to look at in light of the new PTV platforms.

 

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Please address any comments or questions to donm@sgsw.com Copyright © 1999, 2000 by Don Meyer