TiVo news from CES

TiVo had a few new announcements at CES:
New TiVo® Powered Products in 2004 Include DVD Recorders, HD DVR, and Home Networked Enabled Products
New TiVo® Service Release Ushers in Era of “TiVo To Go” Portable, Mobile TiVo Experience
XM Satellite, Adobe, Picasa, Moodlogic Bring New Digital Music, Photo Services to TiVo® Via Home Media Option(TM)

I was at CES myself and I had several great conversations with the folks from TiVo, as well as DirecTV, Pioneer, etc, so if anyone has any questions I’ll try to answer them. :-)

Posted in CES, TiVo | 11 Comments

TiVo quarterly conference call

For the curious, TiVo had their quarterly conference call during CES and it is available for replay for anyone who wants to call in and listen:
Number: 719-457-0820
Conf: 180587

Or online: http://www.firstcallevents.com/service/ajwz395048701gf12.html

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Anyone else going to CES?

I’m flying out to Vegas on Wednesday and I’ll be there until next Monday, going to CES! 4 days of completely geeking out over new gadgets. And, of course, I’ll be hitting the TiVo booth to see what they have up their sleeve. :-) Anyone else going?

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DNNA/RTV gives a lesson in how not to make customers happy

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2003/12/replaytv_fraud_.html

What possessed DNNA to change the pricing on the RTV in the week before Xmas? The only explanation I can think of is that sales were miserable and they dropped the pricing in a desperate attempt to move more stock. Now, I think the decision to switch back to the split fee structure is the correct one – I never understood why they switched back to the higher ‘all-in-one’ pricing when it didn’t work the first time. But the timing couldn’t have been worse!

No matter what mistakes retailers made, DNNA created the confusion by making the change during the busiest shopping week of the year. (Contrary to popular belief Black Friday isn’t the biggest shopping day of the year. The weekend days just before Xmas are bigger.) It was asking for trouble – retailers are going crazy, it isn’t a time to try to get them to change pricing and put stupid red or green stickers on the boxes. Plus, stickers or not, the boxes state a 3-year activation is included, as do the docs inside the box. And people have reported that RTV’s customer service people were still telling callers activation was included, even after 12/23.

In the end this isn’t the consumers fault. DNNA and/or the retailer is to blame. Jerking the consumer around, especially when the units were given as gifts and the receiver probably doesn’t have a receipt to prove purchase price, etc, is just bad business. DNNA should admit they made a hideously bad decision and suck up the loss, honoring the 3-year activation for any units sold. And if they can’t manage to be that big, at least just give it to people who contest being asked to pay for what they already beleived they paid for. DNNA had a chance to earn consumer support, instead they’ve decided to poison themselves. What the hell are they thinking?

Posted in ReplayTV | Leave a comment

Extensive review of the Dish DVR-921

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=21399

Based on what has been made public about the HD DirecTiVo, it sounds like the Dish unit is good – but not as good as the TiVo.

(Originally spotted in PVRBlog)

Posted in Dish Network, DVR | 3 Comments