Way back in the day, in 2000, TiVo dipped a toe into generating content for their users, and the broader market, through TiVo Takes. It was aired using a time slot on the PAX channel, so anyone could watch it, though it was really aimed at TiVo users.

By the time I purchased my first TiVo in February of 2002, TiVo Takes was already defunct, just something users would talk about wistfully. But for its time it was an interesting foray into interactive television. I think the user base, which considering they’d only launched in 1999 was quite small, wasn’t large enough to sustain such efforts. Though TiVoShanan has done a few in-house long-form videos for TiVo promotions. I remember some from couple of years ago where she went behind the scenes on some shows, I don’t remember if that was given a unique title though.

Well, a lot has changed in the past eight years, not the least of which is the rise of online video. And now TiVo is taking another stab at generating content, launching The Badoop Badoop Show on YouTube. The channel blurb:

Since its inception, the Emmy® award-winning TiVo service has changed the way millions of people watch TV. And coming soon: the “The Badoop Badoop Show,” a quirky show to keep you in the entertainment know with TiVo recommendations every week on what to watch, hear, download and more. This is not your average entertainment news show. And yes! The show is named after one of TiVo’s unmistakable soundmarks: Badoop-Badoop! Subscribe now for the PREMIERE of Badoop coming next week!

Right now there is one video posted, which is the promo video for the launch of YouTube on the TiVo Series3/HD. Having this on YouTube is great, and clearly a way to stealth market. But while watching it via YouTube on TiVo would be very meta indeed, I hope they offer the content up as a TiVoCast channel as well. I’m busy and lazy, I love it when content comes to me – be it TiVoCast, RSS, or what have you. Speaking of RSS, here’s the feed for the YouTube channel.

Thanks to Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny for the heads-up.

There has certainly been a lot of coverage today for TiVo and Amazon’s new Product Purchase partnership. Here’s some of the highlights – Shelly Palmer covered it in today’s MediaBytes (also available via TiVoCast).

Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny posted a few screen shots of the interface, which confirm what I suspected – there is a PIN to control access to purchase power. It uses the same PIN required for Amazon Unbox purchases, which certainly makes sense. The product screen looks much like a program description screen, and there is Swivel Search-like functionality with ‘View related products’. Shipping and taxes are calculated (I’m presuming it takes into account things like Amazon Prime) and you have the ability to confirm the order with the total to be charged. Or you can change your shipping options, or even save the item to your Amazon web-based shopping cart.

EDIT: I’d requested images of the interface as well, and TiVo got back to me with them today:

Wired’s Epicenter blog’s coverage helps clarify a few things about the implementation. The current implementation will display the product purchase option on the delete screen at the end of a program, similar to the ads that can display there today. While programs can be flagged for specific products, TiVo can also use a Suggestions-style system where it presents products it feels are related, based on the program’s guide data. So the name of a talk show guest may cause books by that person to be offered, etc.

Product Purchase will also be available through Universal Swivel Search, where products related to the search results may be presented for purchase. So if you’re searching for David Hasselhoff you may be offered DVDs of Knight Rider, for example. And there’s more:

It’s not an exclusive arrangement, though, and it’s fair to expect both Amazon.com and TiVo will hop in bed with other players. “We’re always looking at ways to expand shopping options for customers,” says Heather Huntoon, a spokeswoman from Amazon.com.

TiVo’s [Evan Young, Director of Broadband Services] says the company may introduce other commerce partners, but at the moment the focus is on Amazon. “We’re looking to create some initial success with Amazon. They’re already a partner of ours, and they have excellent customer service.”

And although TiVo hasn’t tested the shopping service yet, Young is already hopeful that the initiative can be expanded to include in-program product placements and other ad arrangements.

“We’re interested in talking to programmers as well as advertisers to enable more impulse buys when it make sense,” says Young.

So TiVo could partner with QVC to offer remote-based ordering without the need to call in. Or perhaps partner with a national pizza chain to allow ordering from the TiVo, with prompts to do so in their ads. (Actually, thinking about it, there are websites out there that offer menus for local delivery joints, and sometimes online ordering. TiVo should link up with one (or more) of them and get an HME based ordering system up. It would make compiling an order for all your friends so much easier.) Channels that sell DVDs of their own programs, like Discovery and History, could sell them right at the end of the program, direct to viewers via TiVo. MTV could offer CD sales, or perhaps downloads, linked from videos (Well, whenever they deign to show videos these says.) I can think of many possible uses for this feature.

The hard part would be that, with the current system, you need to have a relationship with the vendor so that they have your payment information on file. If TiVo were to act as a payment broker, or partner with the likes of PayPal to be a broker, they could sign up just about any merchant without the user having to establish those payment relationships. That would really reduce the friction in the system.

TiVo’s Stephen Mack also posted some details on the new feature over at TiVoCommunity:

With that out of the way, here’s what you’ll see with the new feature launching today.

* For Burn Notice, Oprah’s Book Club, and a few other shows, at the conclusion of the show you’ll see a message in the delete dialog box allowing you to purchase related products. (These are similar to existing messages in the delete dialog box.) More shows will come in the future.
* In the future, we’ll create a showcase for upcoming talk shows allowing you to purchase related products.
* In the future, we’ll create a showcase about newly released books, DVDs and CDs.

The second and third items you’ll see next week, and if they’re well received we’ll evaluating continuing with them.

I’m very excited about this new feature — it’s long been high on my wishlist of things that I want when I watch TV, and I’m glad we’ve released this new feature for our customers.

Furthermore, he added:

One other point: Think of this an add-on to the existing advertising delivery methods that we’ve had for a while. Product purchase further enhances things like Showcases, program placement (that’s what we call the related menu items in the delete dialog box), and the Thumbs Up tags on advertisements.

This will be no more invasive than the existing advertising products that you’ve seen already. We don’t intend to put this new feature in any new locations.

In case it isn’t clear, that mean no ‘Buy Now’ pop-ups during actual program content. But they may appear over ads, just as the ‘Press Thumbs Up For More Information’ prompts can do so today. So those who have been worried about big pop-ups in the middle of their favorite show needed be concerned. (Though, personally, as I said in my early post, I think some kind of small, unobtrusive indicator to be able to order in-content items would be cool. But I know some would dislike that, so it should probably be something the user can disable.)

And, finally, TiVo did issue an official press release today announcing the feature.

When I reported on the release of the 9.4 software for the TiVo Series3 & TiVo HD on Tuesday, I speculated on whether the update also included the promised YouTube support. Well, that question has been answered – it is in there, and Dave Zatz got a look at it and to keep things circular, he posted a video of it to YouTube. Since this was only announced on March 12, 2008 it is nice to see it coming out so soon.

9.4 enables native H.264 decoding on the S3 & HD, required for YouTube support. What is not known is if there decoding support has been extended to other areas as well, such as video podcasts. If so, it could eliminate transcoding on a PC via TiVo Web Video, at least for video podcasts in H.264 – which is many, if not most, of them. I’m hoping the H.264 support does apply to other video sources, it would make life much easier. TiVo Web Video is OK, but not ideal.

Speaking of, allow me a small digression…

I realize I never did pull together a review of TiVo Desktop 2.6 as I’d said I would. I’ve been pretty busy and it got away from me. And, honestly, I’ve had so many problems with it that each time I think about writing it up I just get upset again. I recently had TiVo Web Video forget all of the podcasts I’d subscribed to, twice in two days! I noticed it wasn’t transferring anything after a couple of days, and when I checked the config file it was back to default – all the subscriptions gone. So I restored them and it started transferring again, so I went to bed. The next day it had stopped, and the file was wiped out, again! I wiped everything and started from scratch and it has been working for over a week now. And this isn’t the first time this happened, early on it lost all the subscriptions too. Of course, since TiVo Web Video, unlike TiVoCast, doesn’t just start with the most recent recording and move forward, but insists on downloading and transcoding back episodes as well (default is 5), it would re-download and re-transfer everything. It literally takes a few days for my PC to suck down all the backlog (I subscribe to a number of podcasts) and transfer it. So when this happens it is a major pain in the posterior.

And it doesn’t clean up after itself, I found over ten gigabytes of abandoned downloaded recordings sitting the the Downloads directory. Recordings it should’ve deleted after transferring to the TiVo. It just slowly uses up the drive. The leaking seems to vary – right now there are two files from back on 7/8 totally about 50MB. But all it takes is a few long-form HD podcasts to be missed and it adds up fast. Those are just a couple of the problems with it. Don’t get me wrong, having it is better than not having it at all, but it is far from a stable solution, let alone ideal. But I digress, I really should make myself write up all the issues and such.

Back to the topic at hand..,

So anyway, I would really love to see TiVo allow the S3/HD to download H.264 podcasts directly, bypassing the PC. Heck, as an interim even if they downloaded to the PC but skipped transcoding and just transferred to the TiVo as-is it would speed things up a great deal. Transcoding really slows things down.

Dave got a look at what is apparently a pre-release version of the software, so the final release could vary, but probably won’t. YouTube is added as another option under the TiVo Central -> Find Programs & Downloads -> Download TV, Movies, & Web Video menu item. It looks like the screen has been retitled from ‘Video Downloads’ to ‘Broadband Video’, which may be a reflection of the fact that TiVo is now streaming video and not just downloading it. The ‘Movies & TiVo from Amazon Unbox’ link has been changed to ‘Amazon Unbox TV & Movies’, which I think sounds better. And just below that, slotting in above ‘Brows Other Videos’ is a new link entitled, simply, ‘YouTube’.

The only sub-option at this time is ‘Watch YouTube Videos’, and once you select that you get into the YouTube HME application interface proper. The color scheme reminds me of the current Music Choice application. Within the application you can select Featured Videos, Most Recent, Search, Top Favorites, Most Viewed, or Top Rated. Each selection then has sub-selections. The interface looks pretty good, and you can even rate the videos 1-5 stars, just as you can online.

From Dave’s video I don’t see a way to link this application with your YouTube account, which would be nice. I’d like to be able to pull up the subscriptions I have on YouTube from my TiVo. And to have ratings from one location be reflected in the other. Being able to subscribe or favorite a video on the TiVo and having it show up online would be nice. But this is the first release, and from what I can see it looks good. This could always be a future enhancement.

UPDATE: Shortly after I posted this I was looking over some other blogs and over at Gizmodo I saw that TiVo will indeed be adding the ability to login to your YouTube account, in an update due eight weeks out.

Dave also tacked a quick look at the Tuning Adapter and Network Remote Control screens at the end of the video. He says we can expect the official press release later today, and the application may start showing up on TiVos with 9.4 as early as today (Thursday) as well. TiVo has a new page on their site as well: http://www.tivo.com/youtube

Now that TiVo has support for H.264 and streaming video, I’m hopeful we’ll see more features using them. Aside from the aforementioned video podcast support, TiVo could support Amazon’s upcoming video streaming service, HD video downloads (most HD downloads use H.264), perhaps even streaming video between TiVo units, or from a PC to a TiVo.

I’m still waiting to receive 9.4 myself, can’t wait to play with this.

(And no Dave, you’re not the only one still waiting for Tekzilla. )

If you’re reading this blog you’re probably not a person still using an antenna with an analog-only TV or receiver who will be in need of a converted box come February, 2009. But perhaps you know some poor benighted individual who is still living with NTSC-only antenna television, who will be out of luck without a converter box. In that case, Dave Zatz over at Zatz Not Funny is giving away his DVTPal review box. Good luck!

Ever since the Apple iPhone hit the market, people have been asking for a version of SlingPlayer Mobile for the platform. To date Sling has only expressed their desire to support the platform when it is possible to do so. But with the Apple WWDC kicking off this week, they’ve been showing off a bit of what they’ve been up to, and a number of blogs have coverage:
Engadget (video)
Gizmodo (video)
Zatz Not Funny (video)
PVR Wire @ TV Squad
Ars Technica
Macworld
NewTeeVee
Electronista
jkOnTheRun
The Mobile Gadgeteer
Crave
CrunchGear
AppleInsider
Mobility Today
Gizmos for Geeks
9 to 5 Mac
I4U News
Gear Diary
Download Squad
Unwired View
GottaBeMobile
Nerd Beach
Brighthand
Geek.com
SlingCommunity

And I’m sure there others that I haven’t spotted.

Dave Zatz posted this video to YouTube:

Note that this is a proof of concept, a technology demonstrator, and not the SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone that will eventually be released. This was an engineering project written for jail-broken iPhones to characterize the performance of the platform and ensure that Sling could deliver a high quality customer experience on the iPhone & iPod Touch platforms. This allowed Sling to gain experience with the platform while waiting for the SDK to be released. The official SlingPlayer Mobile for iPhone will be written using the SDK and sold through the iTunes App store like other official iPhone/iPod Touch applications. At least that is currently the intent.

If you’re attending the Apple WWDC this week you can get a look at the proof of concept application first hand. Sling Media Product Manager Vicky Shum will be at the Starbucks at 120 4th Street, San Francisco (across from the Metreon) between 10:00 and 16:00 (10am and 4pm) on Monday, June 9th running demos.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media.

Monsoon Multimedia continues to add to their client suite for their HAVA placeshifting boxes. They currently officially support Microsoft Windows on PCs, while clients for Windows Mobile (Pro & Smartphone) and Nokia’s Internet Tablet Maemo Linux-based OS are in beta. A client for the Symbian S60 platform has been announced with an availability in 3Q08, according to a press release posted at jkOnTheRun. By way of comparison, Sling Media has released SlingPlayer for Windows and Mac OS, and SlingPlayer Mobile for Palm OS, Windows Mobile (Pro & Smartphone), and Symbian S60, while SPM for Symbian UIQ is in beta now, Blackberry is in development for release later this year, and the iPhone SDK is being evaluated.

Picked up from Zatz Not Funny.

Disclaimer: I am currently employed by Sling Media, for whom HAVA is the leading competitor.

A few weeks ago I reported the news that Seven Network would ’slash’ the planned AUD$10-12 subscription fee for TiVo service, in the face of increasing competition from Freeview and push-back from retailers.

However, due to feedback from retailers such as Harvey Norman, they’ll be dropping the monthly subscription fee. Seven had planned to charge AUD$10-$12 per month, but now will be reportedly ’slashing’ that – though the new fee hasn’t been announced.

Well, now the new price has been announced – AUD$0. That’s right, TiVo will not carry a subscription fee down under. Basically the is the equivalent to selling the TiVo with a bundled product lifetime subscription. This according to the Sydney Morning Herald:

THE Seven Media Group will launch its TiVo digital video recorder in July after a strategic overhaul that includes a surprise move to scrap a planned monthly subscription fee for the broadband-enabled service.

Before you pack up and head to Australia to take advantage of the free TiVo service, note that the box is expected to sell for around AUD$500. And that’s about USD$482.21 right now. Though that is better than the US$699 (MSRP) for a TiVo HD with product lifetime, which is the rough equivalent, it isn’t a huge savings.

Seven Network would not confirm the July launch date, but they’ve been clear that they want it available in time for users to be up and running for the Olympics – which Seven is airing in Australia. Nine and Ten networks have also signed deals with Seven Network for their channels’ guide data to be included in the TiVo EPG. And deals are being finalized with up to six retailers to carry the box.

It sounds like Australians will get a solid product:

Mr Spence said TiVo’s initial focus on an electronic program guide and the ease of recording TV programs would expand considerably by the end of the year to include online TV content and broader interactive services.

“That’s when we will start to see more things obtained off the internet,” he said.

“The main thing is to get TiVo launched for the Olympics.”

In the US, TiVo offers music and movie downloads, sharing of digital photo libraries with personal computers and access to social networking sites and online video channels.

The head of Seven’s hybrid TV services, Mark Hughes, said TiVo Australia’s line-up would match that offered in the US.

Later this year TiVo is adding YouTube to the US TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD boxes (the Australian box is based on the TiVo HD), which means enabling MPEG-4/H.264 decoding. It sounds to me like that capability will be finding its way to Australia.

It will be interesting to see how the up-front pricing works for Seven and TiVo. In the US sales have favored lower up-front pricing with monthly fees, but Australia is a different market with potentially different trends.

(Dave Zatz twittered about his post just before my Google alert twigged me to the article.)

Sometimes the little things can make your day. About 14 minutes, 13 seconds into episode 726 of CNET’s Buzz Out Loud podcast (also in video, as below) is a segment on TiVo resurrecting product lifetime, in which Gizmo Lovers (and Dave Zatz and Zatz Not Funny) are mentioned. (The counter on the video player counts down, so it is around the 18 minute, 25 second remaining point.) So yeah, seeing Molly Wood say ‘Gizmo Lovers’ on camera made my day. I’m a simple man with simple pleasures.

It looks like TiVo’s product lifetime service is back, and not as a special promotion this time. I won’t say it is back for good, since it went away before, but there doesn’t seem to be a set date for it to cease either.

This video was posted to YouTube last night (don’t bother watching it, really) by user ‘TiVoLifetime’, with this description:

TiVo Product Lifetime is back by popular demand for folks who “Never Want to Give TiVo Up”.

TiVo Product Lifetime service means consumers pay once up-front for the life of your DVR and never again. Product Lifetime service is priced at $399 for new customers and we offer a multi-service discount price of $299 if you are already a TiVo customer with a qualifying subscription.

In short, customers asked, we listened.

Could be a joke, right? Well, Product Lifetime service is back on the TiVo Price Plans page for $399.00. And that’s without being logged in, it is available to everyone. The new pricing plans are $12.95/month, $129.00 annual, $299 three years, and $399.00 product lifetime.

And there’s more – if you’re an existing subscriber you qualify for Multi-Service Discount, and for the first time MSD also applies to Product Lifetime! Logged in the pricing options are $9.95/month, $99.00 annual, and $299.00 product lifetime. That’s both surprising and very welcome.

These changes are further confirmed by the “TiVo service payment plans document“, which is marked as updated in May 2008. The document states:

2. You may pay for the TiVo service on a monthly basis for one (1) year at $12.95 per month. Promotional Pricing may be available from time-to-time.

3. You may also pay annually for your TiVo service at $129 a year, prepay for three (3) years at $299 (renews annually after 3 years) or purchase a Product Lifetime Service (as described below) at $399. Promotional Pricing may be available from time-to-time.

The “TiVo Multi-service discount service agreement” has also been updated in May 2008, and now states:

1. Discounted TiVo service fee. The MULTI-SERVICE DISCOUNT reduces the 1-year Monthly TiVo service or TiVo Plus service subscription fee to $9.95 per month, $99 per year if paid annually, and $299 for Product Lifetime Service while in compliance with all applicable Initial Qualification and General Eligibility requirements on new eligible TiVo service subscription activations (not existing TiVo service subscriptions). 3-Year prepaid TiVo service plans are not eligible to receive the MULTI-SERVICE DISCOUNT. However, in accordance with the Initial Qualification and General Eligibility requirements set forth above, paid 3-year prepaid TiVo service plans may serve as the Qualifying Subscription. In the event two or more TiVo service plans are being purchased simultaneously, the Product Lifetime Service shall be considered the Qualifying Subscription and if no Product Lifetime Service is being purchased, then the highest priced prepaid service plan shall be the Qualifying Subscription.

There you have it – TiVo Product Lifetime is back!

Thanks to Dave Zatz for the heads up via IM – and he’s posted at Zatz Not Funny as well.

It isn’t just what you say, it is how you say it. And Comcast seems to be aiming for FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) with a recent statement to CableCARD users in Florida:

Our records indicate that you have a Motorola Cable Card(s) that will no longer be compatible with our upgraded cable network as of May 31, 2008. Exchange your Motorola Cable Card(s) into an office today and we’ll give you HBO free and a converter free for 3 months.

I would bet good money that this means they’re implementing Switched Digital Video (SDV). But instead of explaining that, they’re trying to scare CableCARD users into returning them and switching to a cable STB. Another, far less likely, possibility is that they’re switching the head end to Cisco/Scientific Atlanta, or something incompatible with Motorola CableCARDs, but even if that were the case they’d be able, and required, to issue cards compatible with the new head end.

Either way, I think this is a nasty trick on the part of Comcast. They’re required by FCC mandate to support CableCARD, but they’ve phrased things in a way that is designed to make CableCARD customers think they’re out of luck and must switch to a cable STB. That’s bullshit. If they are switching channels to SDV, then what it would mean is those channels would no longer be available to users of UDCPs, like TiVo – at least until the Tuning Resolver is available later this year. But it does not mean the device, and the cards, are ‘no longer compatible’. Dirty tricks like these are why people have such low opinions of the cable industry. If you’re a TiVo (or any other CableCARD device) user and you got this flier from Comcast, don’t be scared into giving up your CableCARDs. And if anyone can scan it and send me a copy, or even fax or snail me a copy, let me know. I’d love to post it.

Thanks to Zatz Not Funny for the heads up.

EDIT: Reader Joseph Moran left a comment at Zatz Not Funny stating that this is in fact the issue I felt was less likely – they’re switching head ends:

I’m a Comcast Customer in SWFL and got one of those notices. Evidently, it’s not related to SDV; they’re switching from Motorola hardware to Scientific Atlanta equipment. This is supposedly because the Comcast sub-region I’m in used to be operated by Time Warner, so it needs to sync up with the other Comcast regions in the area (what they call “Classic” Comcast).

Which really changes very little – it is still a dirty trick, making it sound like CableCARD customers must convert to a cable STB. If Joseph is correct, then it does mean existing Motorola CableCARDs will stop working, but users should not have to give up CableCARD completely, but rather swap the Motorola cards for SciAtl cards.