As I posted previously, the ReplayTV program information service was schedule to end on July 31st. That would’ve effectively killed the ability of remaining ReplayTV boxes to record, except for those owners who hacked their units to use unofficial data sources. Well, it looks like the governor called at the last minute and the service got a reprieve. DNNA posted a new message on their site:
After the announced shutdown of the ReplayTV programming guide service, we have had many positive, enthusiastic comments about the ReplayTV DVR products and services. In light of this response, ReplayTV and its parent company Digital Networks North America, Inc. have decided to continue the electronic programming guide service pursuant to the terms of your service activation agreement. We thank you very much for all of your support and enthusiasm over the many years these products have been sold.
As we have said previously, the analog programming that the ReplayTV units are capable of recording is in fact likely to be converted to digital signals in the very near future at which point the ReplayTV units will no longer be able to record such programming. We encourage our users to consider digital video recorders that have this digital recording capability as well as additional technological advances which are not a part of the ReplayTV units (all of which were end of lifed by 2006). For monthly subscribers of the ReplayTV service, we are exploring options by which you may continue paying for and receiving such service going forward. We apologize in advance should there be any minor disruptions in the ReplayTV service while we implement the continuation of the programming guide. Thank you. ReplayTV
I noticed something interesting in their wording:For monthly subscribers of the ReplayTV service, we are exploring options by which you may continue paying for and receiving such service going forward. They specifically call out ‘monthly subscribers’ – but what about those with lifetime subs? I suspect they’re looking at doing something like transitioning ReplayTV boxes to Schedules Direct, the official data service for MythTV. As the community produced WiRNS software already uses Schedules Direct as a programming data source. Schedules Direct costs $20/year, so lifetime subscribers would have to pay the additional fee. And that’s only for 4k/5k units, as earlier units are dial-up only and there would need to be a dial-up infrastructure maintained. That could pay for itself via a monthly fee, but perhaps not for lifetime as there would be no revenue to cover the ongoing costs.
It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.
