TiVo

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The TiVo Personal video recorder is a consumer video component allowing users to capture television programming to internal hard drive storage. TiVo systems function similarly to VCRs, but use non-removable hard-disk storage, and contain much more sophisticated software to record programming - not only programs the user specifically requests, but also other material the user is likely to be interested in. The device was created by TiVo Inc., a company started by veterans of Silicon Graphics and Time Warner's Full Service Network digital video system.

TiVo can also refer to TiVo Incorporated, the company that manufactures the device, as well as the TiVo service, which is the network that the recorder itself communicates with.

In the United States, TiVo has also become somewhat of a genericized trademark, and is commonly used as a verb to describe the digital recording of a television program with any PVR hardware or software.

The TiVo service is only available to the United States and the United Kingdom at present, but has also been modified by end users to work in Australia, New Zealand and Canada.

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PVR functions

TiVos allow a user to specify programming to record by time, program name, genre, or other more complex parameters. Utilizing an internal programming guide (updated nightly via phone or network connection to TiVo headquarters), the TiVo selects and records the desired programming. Programming may be stored until the large internal hard disk is filled to capacity, at which time the unit will dispose of older or less desired programs in favor of space to record new ones. This practice of automatically recording programs for later viewing is often referred to as time shifting. The name TiVo is formed from a combination of the well known abbreviations TV and io: Television Input/Output. This is essentially the concept of the product.

Besides recording programs specified by the users, the units also can automatically record programs that are based on interests of the users; each time the users are watching a program, they can tell TiVo whether they favor that show or not. That is used as a profile and TiVo can start to record programs that might fit to preference of the users without explicitly specifying such programs. This helps the users to discover programs they never heard of but would find interesting. This innovative feature was intended to change the way people watch TV.

In addition to recording specific programs, the TiVo unit constantly records the incoming television signal, allowing users to pause or rewind "live" TV within a short (generally 30 minute) buffer. This allows the users to watch shows that are still being recorded. The classic way to watch "live" TV with a TiVo is to start watching 10-15 minutes after the program you're interested in has started. Thus the TiVo has a 10-15 minute buffer built up that you can use to fast-forward through commercials as the program progresses. This is one of the most obvious advantages of TiVo over traditional VCRs. Seasoned TiVo users hardly ever watch live TV.

Another advantage over traditional tape based recorders is that users can watch a recording from TiVo as it records another program. Some users exchange TV programs via the Internet using file-sharing programs. This has created some legal issues, mainly in the United States.

Market share

Despite its innovative functionalities and ease of use, TiVo has had a difficult time penetrating consumer markets as well as traditional Personal video recorders. Many TiVo adopters testify that they love TiVo so much that they cannot imagine watching TV without it. In contrast to other PVR companies, TiVo is well-known for the Apple Macintosh-like loyalty of their users. Still, TiVo has remained a niche product -- to the disappointment of the creators. Some argue that this is because consumers are unfamiliar with the benefits of a system like TiVo. It may take a few weeks of use to fully understand the magnitude of the change TiVo brings to television viewing. Consumers that are not techno-savvy thus tend to prefer cheaper, more familiar systems like traditional tape recorders. Another factor is perhaps the cost of the monthly or lifetime subscription fees.

The TiVo PVR, manufactured by Thomson, was launched in the United Kingdom in the autumn of 2000. As in the US it acquired a niche market position, selling about 35,000 units over the next year and a half. Although user forums have reflected the US experience of not being able to imagine watching TV without it, they have also criticised the company for failing to run an effective advertising campaign to promote the TiVo system, with the result that the PVR went out of production in the UK in early 2002. The TiVo service continues to be provided to existing customers, and the price of second-hand machines with lifetime subscriptions has soared on online auction sites above the original market price of £400.

While its main competitor, ReplayTV, has adopted a commercial-skip feature, TiVo has decided to avoid automatic implementation of that feature, fearing such a move might provoke Hollywood movie companies. There is however, a 30 second skip feature activated via the remote control that many find nearly as useful.

Hardware anatomy

The TiVo unit was designed by TiVo Inc., which currently provides the hardware design, Linux-based TiVo software, and operates the subscription dial-up service (without which a late-model TiVo will not operate.) TiVo units are manufactured by various OEMs, including Philips and Sony, which license the software from TiVo Inc.

TiVo systems are based on PowerPC or MIPS processors, connected to MPEG-2 encoder/decoder chips and high-capacity IDE/ATA hard drives. A typical TiVo unit has one drive of between 20 and 80 gigabytes in size. The TiVo hardware can support two drives of up to 137 gigabytes each without software alteration. Larger drives can be used with the addition of a kernel upgrade.

Two new models manufactured by Toshiba and Pioneer, under license from TiVo, contain DVD drives. The Toshiba model merely adds DVD playback capability whereas Pioneer units are capable of recording to DVD-R or DVD-RW disks. The Pioneer system can transfer any recording from the built in hard drive to an industry standard DVD playable in most modern DVD drives.

Some TiVo systems are integrated with DirecTV receivers. These DirecTiVo recorders are interesting because they record the incoming satellite MPEG-2 digital stream directly to hard disk without conversion. Because of this and the fact that they have two tuners, DirecTiVos are able to record two programs at once. In addition, the lack of digital conversion allows recorded video to be of the same quality as live video. It also provides TiVo hackers access to pristine digital copies of television programming. DirecTiVos have no MPEG encoder chip. They can only record DirectTV streams.

The latest DirecTiVo units (HR10-250) can also record High-Definition Television to a 250 gigabyte hard drive, both from the DirecTV stream and over-the-air via a standard UHF- or VHF-capable antenna. They have four tuners (two DirecTV and two over-the-air) and, like the original DirecTiVo, can record two programs at once.

Tivo hacking

Various groups exist to "hack" the TiVo box - some organized to improve the service and others in order to provide service in countries where the TiVo is not currently being sold.(Hack Wiki). TiVo has generally remained on good terms with these projects, although it has lately begun to clamp down on many of the "back doors" in the software.

Many users have had success in installing extra and/or larger hard drives in their TiVos to increase its recording capacity. Others have designed and built Ethernet cards, a web interface, and figured out how to extract / insert or transfer video among their TiVos.

Recently, some have complained about TiVo's aggressive remote software-update system, which has the capability to add and remove features without customer's specific authorization. Early TiVo units were marketed as being capable of functioning without a subscription to the TiVo service (although functionality would be markedly reduced). Newer units are designed to be eventually non-functional without a connection, and customers who have had their older units remotely updated complain that TiVo is retroactively violating their promise.

Privacy concerns

Some users are concerned about TiVo's ability to collect usage data from units via the telephone line; TiVo stipulates that (currently) all usage data is aggregated by zip code.