I managed to corner some more TiVo folks here at DigitalLife and take some interesting photos.
What I conveniently called system software 7.3 yesterday turns out to be 7.2.1, for those of you keeping score. I looked closer at the “Overlap Protection” feature and while it may be overdue, it’s a very welcome enhancement. Basically if the network schedules a show to end at 9:01, your 9:00 show isn’t recorded. With “Overlap Protection,” on by default, both shows will be recorded with the higher priority show gaining the extra time. As seen in the picture below, you can manually change which show gets priority.
Originally, we were under the impression the dual-tuner HD TiVo box with CableCARD support might be ready Q1 2006. Based on what I was told (and what I wasn’t) I’m thinking we’ll see something mid 2006… if we’re lucky. One possible reason for a delay could be the slow acceptance and release of the multistream CableCARD specification. While it’s very early, I get the sense TiVo is looking at much friendlier pricing than the HD DirecTiVo model which premiered at a $1000.
In Comcast news, I couldn’t get any information other than things are being worked on. I also wasn’t able to confirm they’re actually engineering for the current Motorola 6412 hardware.
When questioned about Netflix, I was told that their current content download feature is a “proof of concept” and that’s about it.
Yeah, for a while now my understanding is that the CableCARD TiVo will be mid-2006, not Q1. Maybe late Q2. And the recent news on CableCARD makes it seem even more likely. They’ll probably have a production representative unit at CES in January, since I’d expect it to be in beta by then, or perhaps close to beta, for a mid-year release. I’m sure we’ll get more about their plans then. I’m looking forward to it.
As far as the Comcast rollout goes; I heard more than once a rep pointing to a late 2006 release. I know a bunch of people have been under the impression that it would be earlier than that.
I’m ust wondering how the Tivo knows that two shows will overlap? I mean, are the networks really all that forthcoming with the data, or do they just surprise us by padding the show with two extra commercials? I usually add the extra couple of minutes in myself once I know that the show typically runs late…I suppose we’ll just need to keep doing that?
I’ve seen several of the shows I used to record showing up in the program guide with scheduled finish times of 7:04, 8:02, etc. and I’d assume this is what “overlap protection” is designed to counter. There is no way a TiVo box can know (without some sort of indication from the video signal itself) when a show is simply running over due to the President speaking or the afternoon game running late. I wish it would though, I hate it when I miss half of the “next week on” segment at the end of a show.
Some shows always run about a minute late and then carry directly into the next show. I think Alias might be one of them but I’m not quite sure. Anyways, my Tivo always records it down to the second when the next week preview ends so ABC and Tivo have their times down perfect.
I just got the update for 7.2.1 now, so we’ll see how well it works!