TiVo's Home Media Engine Launched

[James Fee]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/01/tivos_home_medi.html' target='_blank'>http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/01/tivos_home_medi.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"As reported at CES earlier this month, TiVo's new developer-friendly package, dubbed Home Media Engine (HME), launches today. I got to chat with Howard Look, VP of TiVo Application Software and User Experience a couple days ago about it, and here are the main points about today's rollout. The Developer Toolkit is available at <a href="http://tivohme.sourceforge.net/">Sourceforge</a>. The Toolkit includes a sandbox TiVo emulator app you can run on your desktop to test applications against. A developer backdoor password that enables HME (will require that you have the new TiVo 7.1 OS) You can now code simple games, audio applications, video applications, and utilities in Java that will run on your computer and communicate with any TiVo with the backdoor enabled on your network (you can share your code with others if they want to run the apps too). A developer contest has been announced, to award the best apps developed in the next few months. Included sample apps include a simple game, a RSS reader, and a weather app."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com/images/tivohme_1.jpg" /><br /><br />This should open up some great possibilities for TiVo, but I'm afraid that time has passed them by. Unless they can get some really imperssive programs, people are still going to gravitate to either cheaper DVRs or MCE.

[treo007]

"...time has passed them by."???? I'm not so sure. We might all be frustrated at how slow Tivo's moved in introducing new features and cowtowing to Hollywood, but how many people in the US and Canada (let alone worldwide) are even using a PVR right now? Out of that, how many are actually using the home media functions?

I agree, the cable companies are a threat, but their implementation has been less than stellar thus far. Looking from the outside in, it seems the entire market is up for grabs at the moment, but Tivo's still definately got a jump on the competition.

[James Fee]

I don't know, until TiVo signs at least one Cable company to offset the loss of DirecTV, you have to look at them as a losing proposition. You'll have to pry my dead hands off of my TiVo's, but most cable co DVRs support dual tuners, which SA TiVos do no. TiVo is fighting with two hands tied behind their back against cable.

[treo007]

I don't know, until TiVo signs at least one Cable company to offset the loss of DirecTV, you have to look at them as a losing proposition. You'll have to pry my dead hands off of my TiVo's, but most cable co DVRs support dual tuners, which SA TiVos do no. TiVo is fighting with two hands tied behind their back against cable.

I'd agree that they need to add dual tuners, but I doubt that it's too far off into the horizon. I wouldn't be surprised if, the cable companies or Verizon, SBC, whomever start having the same kinds of growing pains with PVR products they've already run into, one of them takes the plunge and buys Tivo.

[the_rapture]

I think the market is still open and we are looking at the begining of the PVR/DVR war.

Most people I know are just now thinking about the plunge into this area.

I think TiVo needs to get "in bed" with someone since their relationship with DirecTV wasn't that good and is now ending in divorce(?). I have one but it's an older device that I got in the summer 2003. Out of the box I can't connect a Wireless card to it, USB ports have no power and from what I can tell there's no upgrade to the newer versions, but that's probably DirecTV's doing, but looks bad for TiVo since it's their name on the box/screen.