Comments on: TiVo And Amazon Announce ‘Product Purchase’

By: Gryphon

Gryphon — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:55:33 +0000

The slipperiness of the slope embodied in this technology is… impressive.

But then, I say that as someone who’s looking forward to the hoverchair/auto-color-change jumpsuit lifestyle.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:44:36 +0000

Yes, yes… But I can dream, can’t I?

By: MegaZone

MegaZone — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:41:26 +0000

Brian & Bakk,

TiVo doesn’t control when those ‘TiVoMatic’ tags are used. That’s up to the networks to flag their promos. NBC often makes use of them, and it sounds like Fox does too (I don’t watch a lot of Fox). They’re available for any network or advertiser to make use of, but not all of them do.

The broadcast has to be flagged to trigger the pop-ups. That’s how the TiVo knows you’re watching a specific promo, and to display the pop-up for that program. Without the flagging in the broadcast the TiVo can’t know what it is and show any pop-ups.

So it is really up to the channels to make use of it, and TiVo does pitch it to them.

Mark, thanks.

By: CuriousMark

CuriousMark — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:21:49 +0000

It uses the same 5 digit PIN number that Unbox does to keep the baby sitter from spending your money while you aren’t looking.

Dave Zatz has pictures at his Blog now so you can see the process.

By: Bakk

Bakk — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:58:28 +0000

Brian, I agree 100%! That is how I found the Terminator Sara Conner show was from the thumbs up on fox to create a Season Pass. I wish TiVo would use that function WAYYYY more and on a lot more channels then just FOX. It does seem to be a terrible waste of a great idea.

By: brian

brian — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 12:36:57 +0000

What I would like to see, and what probably would have made a good “gateway drug” to Product Purchase would be if commercials for any television show (not just some on FOX) were keyed to allow you to add those shows to your To Do List or Season Pass Manager.

If I’m at work and see a banner ad for a tv show or upcoming special that sounds interesting, I’ll go online and add it via the internet. I’d love to be able to do the same at home via my remote.