Is TIVO dying?

October 31, 2005 5:30 AM

Is TIVO dying? I was about to buy a Tivo Box (I have DVR from Time Warner and it sucks) when a friend of mine mentioned that he heard that Direct TV was dropping Tivo and hinted that the company (tivo) was hemorrhaging money. I am a little concerned that I may buy a box and service that won't exist in 6 months... Has anyone else heard anything on this?
posted by keep it tight to Technology (23 answers total)

It's not so much dying as a company as becoming irrelavent.

The Series II Tivo has been out for what, 3 years? You can't buy a 2 tuner, HD-ready Tivo (aside from the DirectTV version, which is now also irrelavent). Most cable companies offer their DVRs for less per month than the Tivo service fee.

I've been using a series II Tivo for the past three years and still find it easy to use and reliable with a great interface. But I've demoted it to a secondary TV. I use the Time Warner box because I want to record in HD and record more than one thing at a time. Yes, the interface isn't as good, but I'll put up with it because Tivo won't offer an alternative.
posted by cptnrandy at 5:47 AM on October 31, 2005

TiVo is hemorrhaging money and it did lose DirecTV. TiVo also has an issue where it doesn't have a HDTV version yet. TiVo does have a lot going for it -- like the ability schedule shows online and TiVo to go. And TiVo has a deal with Comcast for its DVR - at least the software.

I have a TiVo and love it but also wonder about its future. Some guy named Matt Haughey runs a site called PVRBlog.com that keeps current with all things TiVo.
posted by birdherder at 5:48 AM on October 31, 2005

TiVo and DirecTV went their separate ways several months ago, and DirecTV is coming out with their own PVR. Luckily, TiVo and Comcast seem to have something going. They don't seem to be doing especially well for them (the Netflix deal is floundering, but if you asked me, I'd say they're not in any danger of going out of business in the forseeable future. Buyouts, massive shakeups, yeah I could see that.

(Damnit, too slow!)
posted by Plutor at 5:48 AM on October 31, 2005

I've owned two and still love my DirecTV w/tivo unit. But yes I think they are dying. The movie delivery deal with Netflix is basically dead. They have started letting content producers decide when to delete shows. But they will definitely be around for a few more years. They are not bleeding cash at the moment and just got profitable. Good candidate for a takeover I'd say.

If you care about video quality, you should research which (if any) Time Warner options let you record without any compression. Does the TW unit record the digital signal directly, like my DirecTivo unit? I would not give up on that feature. That and having 2 tuners are key to me.

Do you have HDTV? That is an important factor. Tivo only has an HD Directv unit.
posted by phildog at 5:54 AM on October 31, 2005

I've heard that TiVo was going to die for the entirety of their operation. It's true that DirecTV is going to launch their own recorder, but TiVo seems unlikely to go fully away for a long time.

As far as them hemorrhaging money, they broke into the blank in Q2 2005, so that's not particularly accurate.
posted by I Love Tacos at 5:56 AM on October 31, 2005

They have started letting content producers decide when to delete shows.

Have you ever seen this happen outside of the online tech-panic blogs?
posted by I Love Tacos at 5:58 AM on October 31, 2005

phildog: "They have started letting content producers decide when to delete shows."

I Love Tacos: "Have you ever seen this happen outside of the online tech-panic blogs?"

Here is the full story. Essentially, it's a real TiVo OS 7.2 feature. It's never been used, yet, except for in a limited number of "accidental" cases (or, if you can believe it, bugs). My presumption is that the flag will only be used for premium features like the Netflix videos (if and when that ever happens).
posted by Plutor at 6:07 AM on October 31, 2005

Like others have said, their death has been imminent for the last 3 years. It's not like the hardware is expensive nowadays, so if you go on a monthly plan, how much are you really risking? Also, I figure that if they do go under, some hackers will figure out a way to get the service data for free. (Maybe they already do. I don't know.)
posted by smackfu at 6:15 AM on October 31, 2005

Of course, PVR Blog.

And many other TIVO fan sites .. I'm sure you'll find lots of chatter about this at those.

Perfectly happy with my non-TIVO DVR PVR ...
posted by intermod at 6:18 AM on October 31, 2005

They have instituted the Macrovision content deletion requirements, they have started requiring 1 year contracts with cancellation fees (even for used units), there are no affordable HDTV/dual-tuner solutions, and they don't respond to problems with nearly the urgency they used to. My Series2 unit, a 140-xxx model, also had severe stuttering problems and IR reception issues that were only introduced by 7.x - verified by many many people - and never addressed.

Those are just a few of the reasons I cancelled service and sold mine after having one TiVo or another since the original HDR112 4? years ago.
posted by kcm at 7:19 AM on October 31, 2005

This is not to mention the banner ads during fast-forward, the terrible implementation of TiVo2Go (never got it to work, but boy did I try), utterly useless "HME" features (i.e. what they sold to us early-adopter schmucks to beta test for $100, then gave away for free), lack of Apple/Mac support despite a "partnership", etc. et al. I could go on and on, but suffice to say, TiVo is by no means a customer-oriented company any longer.
posted by kcm at 7:23 AM on October 31, 2005

I guess this Haughey guy was one of the first people to join metafilter?
posted by ejoey at 7:23 AM on October 31, 2005

According to the amazingly accurate icerocket.com Tivo and Apple are in a dead heat for being rumored to be dying lately. Thanks Mark Cuban!
posted by ejoey at 7:26 AM on October 31, 2005

Look, TiVo is one of those 'imminent-death' companies - true. But I believe it lately, even when I was the staunchest of supporters two-three years ago. I no longer recommend TiVo with the veracity I did then, I disrecommend it in favor of cable DVRs.
posted by kcm at 7:28 AM on October 31, 2005

If TiVo (the company) dies, will we still be able to use TiVo (the DVR)?
posted by kirkaracha at 7:33 AM on October 31, 2005

That's pretty funny. Some guy.

Does this thread have a broken sarcasm detector, or is it just me?
posted by dagnyscott at 7:38 AM on October 31, 2005

TiVo stopped selling recorders in the UK about five years ago (not long after starting). However, they are still supplying full services to the boxes that were sold. Unless TiVo goes totally bankrupt very soon (almost impossible for any company that's still trading), expect the same in North America.
posted by cillit bang at 8:20 AM on October 31, 2005

kirkaracha: "If TiVo (the company) dies, will we still be able to use TiVo (the DVR)?"

As long as television as-we-know-it-today is still around, your TiVo will still work. The guide data, on the other hand, that says what time and station shows are on, and descriptions, etc., would probably not be available if TiVo went out of business entirely. That is to say, the most useful features of the TiVo (set it and forget it) would be lost. You'd have to manually configure it to record at certain dates and times, like a VCR.

But it would still work.
posted by Plutor at 8:52 AM on October 31, 2005

Everyone I know that has TiVo loooves it.

If it's dying, it's not for lack of love.

Get one. Then you won't have to do any xmas shopping, because everyone who finds out you have one will immediately want one, even though they may feign casual indifference or initial technophobia.
posted by ewkpates at 9:01 AM on October 31, 2005

I'd stick with TiVo if you got one. However if you don't yet have one and are thinking of getting one. Pick up an old ReplayTV "showstopper" off of eBay. Those came with never-ending subscriptions for free. Yeah it wont have all the bells and whistles, yeah you'll need to replace the HD for another $100 or so, but trust me it'll be worth it.
posted by pwb503 at 9:40 AM on October 31, 2005

TiVo the product/service offering is a sure bet. It's a matter of when, not if, they get out a CableCard integrated HD DVR and cable-company-co-branded integrated HD DVRs. While they move slowly, the persistent crappiness of the Scientific Atlanta and Motorola generic integrated DVRs is keeping the door to TiVo propped open.

TiVo the stock is not a sure bet. The company could easily run out of money before hitting important goals, and while there's a line around the block to buy them, buyers would just as soon buy them for $1.25 a share when the money's run out than pay $6.00 a share now.
posted by MattD at 10:05 AM on October 31, 2005

Ya know, this reminds me alot of the "Don't buy a Mac -- Apple is going out of business any day now" thing that I've been hearing for, oh, a decade or so. Sure, Tivo could go under, but they are in business right now, and they seem to have the best and most well-liked product of it's kind. What would keep Tivo in business longer? If more people bought the best and most well-liked product of it's kind.

But even if Tivo does go under, they have a large and loyal fanbase of geeks, whom i bet would have an opensource program guide available to keep the machines running in about, oh, 10 minutes.

That said, I think the total disappearance of Tivo is highly unlikely... if anything I imagine they'll end up getting bought or doing a merger or something like that. Such a well-known and well-liked brand won't just disappear entirely. Tivo is just like Converse.... somewhere out there is their Nike-in-shining-armor, just waiting for the right moment to swoop in and take over.
posted by spilon at 8:02 PM on October 31, 2005

TiVo just announced a Series 3 unit that addresses many of the FUD-slingers' issues (i.e. HD support, dual tuners.)
posted by howling fantods at 7:19 AM on January 7, 2006