Dave, TiVo CEO, TiVo Mascot
In honor of the new Rhapsody on TiVo service, TiVo hosted a gathering in NYC last night with RealNetworks. It featured the sort of presentations you’d expect from the CEOs, followed by a Jim Denney (VP, TiVo) product walk-thru. Then the band hit the stage.
A few interesting nuggets I dug up while quizzing Jim Denney and Robert Williams (VP, Real):
- Reconfirmed TiVoToGo and Multi-Room Viewing for Series3/TiVo HD are still on tap for November. (JD)
- Offical eSATA support coming very soon. No one would spill the beans on the possibility of TiVo-branded drives. (JD)
- No bundled Rhapsody/TiVo service discount at this time due to “economics of music.” (RW)
- Periodic updates of Rhapsody on TiVo application/service planned. (RW)
Hope Chris Harrison enjoyed his potentially short-lived gig as TiVo spokesperson. He delivered the funniest line of the evening… On stage… Twice: “TiVo is a whore.”
Some pics after the jump.
Two Real Rhapsody on TiVo stations were on display.
In honor of the Hook Up with TiVo promotion, emcee Chris Harrison (of “The Bachelor”) congratulated CEO Tom Rogers and his wife on their 24th wedding anniversary.
Fountains of Wayne played a 5 song set.
Rhapsody and TiVo drinks artistically arranged by PJ, of PC Mag.
TiVo goodie bag from my hotel room overlooking Times Square, which cost me 40,000 Marriott points. (I’ll run a ZNF giveaway in a few days.)
PS In speaking to a few PR and marketing people, I remain convinced that whole PayPerPost thing was an honest mistake. They thought it would be a good strategy to reach out virally and though they were being “transparent” by providing and requiring the sponsorship video bumper – which PayPerPost didn’t make immediately available and require of their people as expected. And TiVo just didn’t realize the largely negative perception folks have of PayPerPost.
That hotel is awesome. Looks like your trip was well worth it and you had lots of fun. Thanx for taking one for the team and attending Dave. :D
Do you think those external drives will be backwards compatable? For T2’s? I hope so.
Thanx again mate!
goodie bags rock.
Well, Mega says there is a 3 month service giveaway.
Don’t swallow the line from TiVo.If they wanted to, there’s money to give to offer discounts.
Updates? Its not perfect as is?
John S, Their lips were sealed on the eSATA support details other than it’s coming very soon.
HDTiVo, Not swallowing any lines (from Real in this case), but I did ask the question on your behalf and that was the answer. I’m sure they could do whatever they want in terms of pricing, incentives, or offering those free trials to get people hooked. This is a starting point. As far as the updates, they mentioned they have more ideas they want to tap into and when I asked about the screensaver, they said they actually have multiple options in the pipeline.
I forgot to mention that in chatting with Bob Pony last night I discovered an updated HME SDK has been released supporting true HD resolutions. Thanks for the reminder, Matt!
How about the SDV USB Dongle thing? Any news? My provider TWC in NC is now adding HD to SDV so I do not get TBSHD, AEHD and VERSUS and the HD SUite is being moved to SDV…Just lovely!
Hey any news on Switched Digital Technology? My provider just added new HD channels using SDV. Once again the consumer loses.