Comments on: More TiVo & DirecTV Reconciliation Speculation

By: kog

kog — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:02:21 +0000

I checked with a friend who works at DirecTV and he told me that NDS does the middleware for all of their boxes EXCEPT the HR20/21. So it’s kind of an odd duck in their family of receivers. Given that, I have a hard time imagining them flushing all that stuff down the toilet in favor of Tivo.

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:41:34 +0000

Hmm, I did more digging and I’ve found conflicting reports now. I’d always read that DirecTV used NDS for the R15, HR20, and HR21. But since you commented I dug around and found some claims that the HR20 and HR21 hardware came from Pace or Thomson, and the software from DirecTV.

So it isn’t clear which is true.

By: kog

kog — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:31:09 +0000

Really? Everything I’ve read says the HR20 and HR21 are in-house and are not NDS boxes. I’ll have to check with my friend at DTV to see if he knows more. I know the R15 is a NDS box.

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 20:53:18 +0000

Actually, from everything I’ve heard, the HR20 & HR21 are based on the NDS HD platform. The same as BSkyB, which is also controlled by News Corp.

By: kog

kog — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 09:56:23 +0000

I wouldn’t hold my breath hoping for this. DirecTV has just put too much resources into building their own DVR. While the R15 is a NDS unit, the HR20 and HR21′s are not. I think the best that Tivo can hope for is if DirecTV opens up their platform for Tivo to try and sell into. This would be like the cablecard Tivo’s. Customer would buy the hardware and subscription for the Tivo service from Tivo and get the access card and programming subscription from the satellite provider. It could be interesting if they can get the same deal with Dish as part of their lawsuit settlement. Then Tivo would have their foot in just about all the service provider types.