I was just discussing yesterday that TiVo’s biggest challenge (in relation to One True Media movie sharing) is getting the word out and educating consumers on the features they offer above and beyond the typical CableCo DVR. Pogue’s large piece in the NY Times does a nice job explaining the basics of many of these services and offers up a grade:
I don’t necessarily agree with all the grades ($2/mo for cellphone scheduling on one carrier? D! Can’t pause podcasts? B. Manually delete TiVoCast downloads? B. Despite SD-only and limited aspect ratio, Amazon Unbox deserves an A.), but it’s nice to see these additional TiVo services documented together in one place.
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I made some comments focusing on the internet delivery theme.
One thing not mentioned is autotranscode; undertandably because I think its still in beta...
But its something that has potential to correct some of TiVo's ills...
http://hdtivo.wordpress.com/
Cellphone scheduling? D.
Sorry, its too expensive to bother with.
TivoCast? C
Very little content. Most of what there is isn't very good, and isn't updated very often. And yes, the manual delete thing. If they could just figure out some way of transcoding video podcasts to MPEG-2, or simply support the AVC formats on the Series 3...
Movie Downloads? B
Very cool, and too early to comment on content, but the movies available for rental part is VERY limited, and not updating very quickly/often. If the rentals were same day as DVD releases I would often use it instead...
Podcasts? C
No video podcast support...
Guru Guides? D
Pretty much useless, though the "new fall season" one did help out at the start of the season. But that's it. The others I've tried just recorded weird random crap that had nothing to do with the seeming topic...
Yeah, maybe I was too generous with TiVoCast... I think you're right, they should find a way to open up the platform. In addition to auto-delete, I also want things labeled better so I don't have to click all the way in to see what the topic is.