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October 27, 2004

HDTV-enabled TiVo?

I know that the current Series 2 TiVos don't current support HDTV (although DirectTV has an HDTV-enabled version for its subscribers). Have there been any hints about if and when TiVo would launch standalone TiVo units that support over-the-air HDTV, or HDTV over cable? I'm trying to decide to upgrade from Series 1 to Series 2 to get TivoToGo features, or hold off. I'm hoping for an HDTV TiVo that would work well as the tuner for an HDTV plasma display. From my limited understanding of HDTV, it seems like such a box should not be terribly difficult from a technical perspective -- since the HDTV feed is already digital, it should be easier to save than an analog signal that has to be converted to MPEG. The only big limitation is extra hard drive space. It also seems rather obvious that TiVo will have one eventually.
-- Robert Jacobson

October 27, 2004 in series 2, TiVo, TV & HDTV

Answers

No one's quite sure when TiVo will release a standalone HDTV recording unit. There are several problems with it, mostly that cable companies all have different encryption standards and until they all adopt the standard for cable. Right now, TiVo could only offer a recorder that worked with Over The Air free signals.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Nov 2, 2004 12:11:31 PM

That's out of date info. Since July all cable companies have been required to support CableCARD, with a unified encoding and standard receiver design. You can buy TVs with CableCARD recievers today, you could since late last year actually, and you rent the card (usually for less than $2/month) from the cable company and you plug the card into the receiver. The card contains the decryption keys for that cable network and the identifying information normally provided by the cable box. With this you can tune any analog or digital channel, including HDTV.

There are not CableCARD DVRs on the market right now, but Sony has announced that they will have one out by the end of the year. It will use the free Gemstar/TV Guide EPG for programming. TiVo has talked a few times about the future and CableCARD but they've been coy about annoucing anything. I suspect they may unveil their plans at CES2005 in January, which I plan to attend - CES2004 was a blast.

So TiVo could build a CableCARD unit today that recorded cable HDTV, but the market is still in its infancy so they're not really late to market or anything. Last year I was hoping we might see something by this Xmas, now I think it is more likely mid-2005 before we see one.

Back at CES2003 TiVo showed of a working reference box which recorded OTA ATSC HDTV, but there ws not interest from licensees in the box, and TiVo didn't see the market for an OTA only HDTV recorder. I think there were right - there are a couple on the market and they've never been good sellers. A box that can do both cable and OTA would be the 'killer app' for the market. And I fully expect TiVo to have a unit since they will need one to compete.

Posted by: MegaZone at Nov 2, 2004 5:15:14 PM

Thats actually changed now. Cablevision of New York / New Jersey now offers an HD DVR for their digital cable system. The SA 8300HD which i have is great. Not as good as the tivo interface mind you but for recording HDTV it suffices.

Posted by: Xenobyte at Dec 4, 2004 1:50:45 PM

yep, we just got the SA 8300HD, and it rocks. however, the gui is the worst part. my wife has whined since we got it last week that all the shows she wants to record have to be reprogrammed every week. plus, finding anything is a Pita. i bought an hdmi cable to connect the unit to my sharp aquos, and the quality is very impressive. however, i'll probably try another pvr, like replay tv which has at least component outputs. tivo only has composite, or s-video, but nothing better.

Posted by: Steve at Jan 9, 2005 8:40:59 PM

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