TiVo CFO says Mac integration unlikely
TiVo chief financial officer David Courtney recently told theDaily Pennsylvanian that although TiVo and Mac enthusiasts have a lot in common, the overlap of users of Apple and TiVo has not been enough to strike any chemistry between the two companies. He admitted to being "obsessed with TiVo because it's one of the cult atmospheres like Mac, that once you use it there's nothing like it." But Courtney said the reasons behind a lack of Mac integration are financial. "We haven't committed to any plans to because of the cost" he said; adding that being able to watch media on Macs using TiVo seems unlikely "unless we find a way to record it under the current platform, and I don't think that will happen in the next few years." In February, shares of TiVo rose sharply amid speculation that Apple was considering a takeover bid for the company.
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Plus when you consider that CableCARDS will obviate the need for Cable Boxes unless you require On-Demand or PPV I don't see Apple having too many issues with.
A. Creating a DVR
B. Making it far more useful in a multimedia environment.
C. Integrating nicely with your local Cable operators network thank to CableCARD.
I want more than just a DVR that has advertisements popping up at every turn. I want a multimedia device that plays my iTunes tracks, video files and photos. I trust Apple to do this right when the time comes. I don't trust Tivo to offer the same with the level of polish I like.
My Spider-Sense tells me that Apple might happen to release such a DVR after HDTV commands a respectable part of the market. Why bother developing a DVR for both HD and pre-HD systems? They should leapfrog to the bleeding-edge standard that will be the standard in the next few years.
The only thing that's really missing is the ability to utilize TiVo To Go. That's not *such* a big deal as it kinda sucks on PCs anyway. On my Mac I'd just record the stream in real-time off the TiVo. It's really only a slight disadvantage that is more than made up for by the way TiVo integrates with iTunes and iPhoto on the Mac.
Originally posted by Squirrel_Monkey
Apple would be best to leave TiVo to whither on the vine on its own. I'll hold onto my TiVo until either TiVo shuts its doors or Apple offers something better, whichever is earlier. An Apple-branded DVR or integrated application seem to be the next logical step in Apple's plan to turn the home computer into the ultimate flexible entertainment appliance.
My Spider-Sense tells me that Apple might happen to release such a DVR after HDTV commands a respectable part of the market. Why bother developing a DVR for both HD and pre-HD systems? They should leapfrog to the bleeding-edge standard that will be the standard in the next few years.
apple would possibly also need to integrate a h.264 encoder-decoder chip to leverage HDTV and such bleeding-edge standards while still delivering a G4 or single G5 - based DVR-home-entertainment system to crunch that HDTV input/output**... definitely in skunkworks at cupertino, using some of that RandD money set aside... hard to make any predictions till maybe much later in the year
**because even if you could cleanly pull the Mpeg-2 hDTV off the cable straight into your DVR, it would take up heaps of space. re-encoding in *realtime* into h.264 would save space (and be ready to burn to blu-ray straight away) ...even better when cable/satellite operators in US and around the world switch over to h.264 encoded HDTV broadcasts.
edit: so yeah i am agreeing with your spider-sense that apple would/should jump straight to h.264 720 or 1080 hdtv and forget about the rest. that way it could still play in the cutting edge/ trendy/ upmarket arena without worrying about the commodity standard-definition DVR game. if it pulls of another iPod runaway success in this area, then they could breach the standard-definition DVR market with trendiness and ease-of-use and affordability ala iPod Shuffle...
quicktime 7+ and h.264 is the key. all elements are in place, just a bit of a waiting game for them to see if it is worth it.
Perhaps Apple will release their solution through a partnership with DirecTV?
I was considering the following setup for the bedroom:
Mac Mini
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse
250GB LaCie Drive
EyeTV 200
23" LCD TV
For one MS wants to play in the DVR market, for two Tivo is Linux open source which is against MS interests.
Apple is much more likely to extend an olive branch of cooperation.
Originally posted by TenoBell
Tivo is sticking closer to Window's,
Yes rather silly because MS is spending $$$$ promoting Media Center 2005.
Originally posted by tchwojko
I have a Tivo, and have been looking for a second PVR. Since Tivo does not seem to be committing resources to the Mac, I was looking at Elgato's EyeTV 200 and Plextor's ConvertX products. Does anyone have any experience comparing Elgato vs. Tivo?
I was considering the following setup for the bedroom:
Mac Mini
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse
250GB LaCie Drive
EyeTV 200
23" LCD TV
i've been hearing good things about Elgato. i think you could start a new thread somewhere to discuss and collect opinions on Elgato. there are some Elgato fans on these boards
MediaCenter does everything TIVO does and more. They simply won't be able to compete once MediaCenter PC's really get rolling.
Originally posted by tchwojko
Does anyone have any experience comparing Elgato vs. Tivo?
My #1 objection with EyeTV 200 is the ritual of manually scheduling programming with TitanTV (in the US). I've never used TiVo or ReplayTV but know they're easier to program and have some automatic recording features.