In case you didn’t believe a new DirecTV TiVo is really under development, check out these purported beta invitation and rejection email messages:
Thank you for your interest in TiVo’s beta programs. We’d like to invite you to join the Field Trials Team in beta testing hardware provided to you by TiVo. To participate you should be:
- Available to test between now and January, 2011.
- Willing to endure potential bugs, even with existing functionality – and report them in a timely manner.
- Willing to complete weekly homework assignments.
- Willing to share your experiences with others in our beta forums.
Thank you for taking the time to sign-up for our DirecTV/TiVo beta program. The response to this beta invitation was much greater than what we had expected. We’ve now completed our recruitment for this trial and you have not been selected to participate at this time due to the limited amount of space available in this trial.
While we know Technicolor/Thompson hardware has been selected for DirecTV’s new TiVo offering, the image above is merely my artistic rendering. But what we we still don’t know is when the elusive new DVR will hit. And, for comparison purposes, it seems that the retail Premiere was in broad beta testing for maybe 6 months prior to release. The renewed DirecTV TiVo relationship, established in 2008, was intended to bare fruit in 2009… yet we’ve obviously eclipsed that target. Their current goal is late 2010, but I’d say we’re more likely looking at 2011. What’s your wager?