In a strange and incestuous twist of the space-web-time continuum, a fascinating comment about the mechanism by which The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (previOusly.) records every bit of daily news appeared inside a post on PVRBlog, the red-headed stepchild blog of our selfless benefactor, user 1.
posted by jckll on Aug 19, 2008 - 26 comments

The 25 most popular television broadcasts, actors and directors based on anonymous, aggregated data from DVR owners, updated weekly.
posted by crunchland on Feb 23, 2006 - 27 comments

TiVo saved? After a grim 4Q04 conference call, focusing on bells and whistles for which there's little evidence of customer demand, it's now reported that TiVo is on the verge of striking a deal with Comcast to integrate TiVo software and services into Comcast's integrated tuner-DVRs. TiVo needs this deal very, very badly...
posted by MattD on Mar 15, 2005 - 29 comments

Free TiVo. If you are an American consumer and live in the Bay Area, the TiVo company on Friday will give away 40GB Series 2 recorders to Comcast customers who bring their cable bill and a gift for The Family Giving Tree charity to TiVo headquarters in Alviso, Calif. The giveaway will last from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., or until they run out of units, and will be limited to one recorder per household.
posted by Mean Mr. Bucket on Dec 16, 2004 - 22 comments

Build your own PVR. Why TiVo when you can freevo? A cool little forum for couch potatoes warriors.
posted by WolfDaddy on Jul 6, 2004 - 27 comments

"Wow! I have a lot of shows to watch... Will I ever catch up?” Reuters reports on TiVo addiction, and it's tonight's #1 story on Keith Olbermann's Countdown, a news show with less viewers than TiVo has owners. When they put up a transcript, it'll be in here. Still, Keith asked one very good question: "Is it just part of the inevitable pattern of technology that everything starts as a luxury, becomes a necessity and finally becomes something for which we need therapy?" (I was able to do my own transcription because... I got it on my TiVo!)
posted by wendell on Nov 12, 2003 - 34 comments

A Lifestyle Phenomenon An interview with TiVo's Michael Ramsay where he talks about free celebrity promotion, drop in price, competition, and viewing habits (previously discussed). An interesting read on an American phenomenon.
posted by evening on Jul 3, 2003 - 16 comments

TiVo to Sell User Viewing Data TiVo executives said they will be gathering information only in aggregate, such as by ZIP code and that the habits of individual users will remain anonymous. However, not everyone agrees that TiVo can't/isn't tracking individual viewing habits. And now advertisers will be able to see exactly how many commercials we're all zipping past.
posted by stevis on Jun 2, 2003 - 17 comments

Is Tivo a Cult? - The New York Times discusses Tivo owners and their propensity to evangelize. What is it about Tivo that turns us into volunteer salesmen? I feel the devotion myself, you'll take away my Tivo when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers...
posted by Argyle on Apr 20, 2003 - 35 comments

SonicBlue, the folks who bought out ReplayTV (previously discussed here) announced that they are going bankrupt. What does this mean for the DVR "revolution?" What happens with your $250 box and your $250 lifetime subscription fee when you can't get their content any more? SonicBlue tries to allay fears by saying that they are innovating and will continue to work on the project, but I don't see how that can be guaranteed with a buyout or bankruptcy. Does this mean that TiVo is it? Would you still purchase a ReplayTV today? (Apologies for the popup on the last link.)
posted by ajpresto on Mar 24, 2003 - 12 comments

My Tivo thinks I'm a gay pregnant man! This article documents the struggles that some people have gone to in order to gear Tivo's programming to their interests. As one man said of himself: " [I] often [order] cooking shows, which softens TiVo's view of [me]. "I don't want it thinking I'm an ax murderer,".
posted by Raichle on Nov 26, 2002 - 33 comments

TiVo, we hardly knew ye. After burning through $200 million in capital since 1997, TiVo has yet to turn a profit. Despite a cult following and 500,000 subscribers, Brendan Koerner concludes that TiVo is destine for the ash heap of history. So what do you think? Will TiVo be the next Apple Newton or Commodore Amiga?
posted by ncurley on Oct 10, 2002 - 79 comments

Calling all techie designers: TiVo is throwing a wallpaper design contest, the winners to get a new second series tivo.
posted by mathowie on Jul 9, 2002 - 15 comments

VHS on its last legs? According to source, Circuit City is already phasing out sales of VHS tapes and players in favor of DVDs. Sure, it's an ancient format, but again, not everyone has a TiVo (yet)...
posted by betobeto on Jun 21, 2002 - 16 comments

TiVo and the BBC force programming on consumers. The BBC apparently paid TiVo to command all its boxes -- without consumers' permission -- to record an episode of a drama the BBC marketing department deemed a must-see. Users can't even delete the recording -- it'll be there until TiVo decides to remove it. Can TiVo users expect to be bombarded with paid advertising after all? (ZDNet article here.)
posted by mattpfeff on May 26, 2002 - 29 comments

TiVo fanatics will know the name of TiVolutionary (Richard Bulwinkle), the official TiVo evangelist who helped create one of the most enthusiastic (independent) user communities ever at AVS Forums. Well, he's either quit or been fired.
posted by luser on May 13, 2002 - 2 comments

The Patriots didn't win; Britney did. TiVo analyzed their viewers behavior during the Superbowl and they came up with some pretty interesting results. How soon till TV programming adapts to viewer behavior?
posted by costas on Feb 5, 2002 - 36 comments

Next gen TiVo announced. Apparently "by holiday season 2002" we can look forward to broadband, photos, CD storage/playback, streaming audio, VOD, and something called "video party games" on our TiVos. But will my Wishlist ever learn to refresh in under 15 minutes?
posted by luser on Jan 8, 2002 - 16 comments

TiVo users really hate ads. I mean REALLY hate them, in any incarnation! What to do when their beloved PVR turns on them, for the sake of an advertising partnership? Why, consider a boycott of course! Thankfully, it looks like TiVo's doing the right thing.
posted by Fofer on Nov 15, 2001 - 20 comments

ReplayTV, the once-bankrupted main competitor of TiVo got bought by SonicBlue (they made the Rio mp3 player) and they've relaunched, poised to blow the fucking roof off digital tv recording. Ethernet port? Sharing recorded episodes with other units in your house? Trading entire episodes with anyone else over the net? Merging internet content with TV content? Commercial-free taping? It's all here baby. Now will TiVo evolve, or will ReplayTV take the market?
posted by mathowie on Sep 6, 2001 - 28 comments

Pity The Poor TV Broadcaster It was obvious that Personal Video Recorders (like Tivo) were going to make it way easy to skip advertising. What I also realized, though, when talking to Lane about how Buffy is moving from the WB to UPN, is that folks who watch Buffy via a PVR could care less what channel it is on--they just tell the machine to "get me Buffy" and it does the rest. This study seems to affirm that, for a significant portion of the audience, this is true.
posted by peterme on Jul 31, 2001 - 24 comments

Tivo hackers today released the hack that enables you to get MPEG-2 video out of the box and put it on CDs, share it over the net, etc. No details because the AVS Tivo site (registration required) is being slashdotted...but will this precipitate a TiVo crackdown on the hackers?
posted by luser on Jun 7, 2001 - 21 comments

ShadowTV is tomorrow's technology today -- its "TiVo on steroids," according to Joachim Kim, a creator of a new technology that enables users (which may at sometime include the public on a subscription model) to pull up video-quality or better streaming footage of any television show that aired or is currently airing, including (or not including) the commercials, all in a handy web application.

The limitations are endless.

Such a technology could prove deadly for the big TV networks (down the road sometime), although ShadowTV seems optimistic to work with content providers. [Thanks to Professor Michael Rosenblum at NYU for introducing our Televison and the Information Explosion class to tomorrow' technology.]

Now, let me begin planning that 7-season Star Trek: Voyager marathon...
posted by nyukid on Apr 20, 2001 - 45 comments

Ok, maybe TiVo isn't sticking it to people (over privacy), even though they can. Their competition, however, is. (Link courtesy this week's RISKS Digest, which also has a piece of mine on Internet voting and it's potential pitfalls :-)
posted by baylink on Apr 2, 2001 - 11 comments

Well, congratulations; you won your TiVo. So, now, are you wondering what they're doing to you with it?
posted by baylink on Mar 26, 2001 - 44 comments

Microsoft unleashes their TiVo killer and it looks like it has everything you could ever want in a personal video recorder. Two tuners so you can tape one thing and watch another, DSS, 35 hours of recording time, and webtv/email functionality. Is it too much or will TiVo owners want these increased features?
posted by mathowie on Jan 8, 2001 - 15 comments

DirectTV with built-in TiVO rocks. (Note to self: buy flowers for wife on day that credit card bill for this set-up and $199 lifetime TiVo service arrives.)
posted by MattD on Dec 13, 2000 - 18 comments

TiVo schadenfreude!
ReplayTV drops 40% of its staff (including a former TV Network Bigwig) and drops out of the retail "box" business. Gee, they're giving up without even asking for a recount of the sales figures from the Palm Beach Best Buy…
Now, if TiVo can just keep Microshaft from squishing it like a bug.
posted by wendell on Nov 28, 2000 - 2 comments

Tivo is at it again! If you were one of the unfortunate ones who did not win last time, here is your chance to save face. I just wish I could find a link to the new Joe Montana and Ronnie Lott "Stop Itch" commercial.
posted by Brilliantcrank on Nov 16, 2000 - 18 comments

Feel like a zombie? - Suck.com's take on Tivo giveaway Okay, so the link's not all that recent, and Dack already made mention of it, but this is just for those who didn't see it before (Plus it's slow today.)

I was a winner, I got my Tivo last week, and love it. It was a 30-hour model, not the 14-hour one advertised. How do all you other winners feel about yours (now that you no longer have to kiss up to Tivo to get them)?
posted by kokogiak on Oct 6, 2000 - 9 comments

TiVos are raining from the sky! Jason Kottke won, so I entered. I won, and while my piece was obviously a piece of literary genius, it wasn't *that* good. I think we need to do a scientific study -- who can write the stupidest "Why I Want a TiVo" essay and still win?
posted by benbrown on Sep 25, 2000 - 169 comments

Three good pieces from the Sunday Times: New York as viewed through foreign tourist guidebooks (big surprise, the French books are the ones that spend the most time pointing out American inferiority). Jerry Nachman on journalists' overwhelmingly one-sided ideology and their rapidly-decreasing ability to hide it. And Michael Lewis on how TiVo and Replay are going to destroy television as we know it, eek! (And don't miss the videos showing how they blew up the TVs and Kellogg's boxes to get the photographs that accompany the article.)

I don't think the Nachman link will live beyond 11 pm Eastern on Sunday; I couldn't find a longer-lasting link to it. I guess opinion pieces aren't important to the Times.
posted by aaron on Aug 12, 2000 - 11 comments