TiVo Pop-Up Ads?

[Chris Gohlke]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.hardocp.com/index.html#13314-2' target='_blank'>http://www.hardocp.com/index.html#13314-2</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Say it ain’t so. TiVo is testing the pop-up ad waters with a feature that will pop up an ad when you fast forward through commercials. Now there is a brilliant idea, pop up a window with an offer to watch another commercial, while I am fast forwarding through the first commercial. The company confirmed late Monday that it released the first in a series of advertising features to a random and limited number of subscribers to the digital-video recorder service. The first test feature--a tag--pops up on the screen when a viewer is fast-forwarding through an advertisement."</i><br /><br />So, take away one of the more loved abilities of your product and call it a feature! Shows they have a really good grip on the market for their product. I predict a lot of annoyed TiVo subscribers.

[Ed Hansberry]

Showed up on my Tivo last night. I don't see what the big deal is. Instead of a screen full of flashing images I see a screen full of flashing images with a static box in the middle.

If I really wanted to whack it, I'd re-enable the hack to do the 30 second skip.

[Chris Gohlke]

Does it block enough of the screen to make it harder to see when the show starts up again?

[Ed Hansberry]

No. it looks about the size if you were to divide your screen rougly in 9 squares (tic-tac-toe board) it would be the middle square.

[James Fee]

Doesn't look too bad at all...

http://www.pvrblog.com/pvr/2005/03/icon_ads_over_c.html

[bluemax]

Ummm. Let me get this straight. You Buy the Tivo, Pay the monthly subscription fees, Tie up a phone line, they track what you watch, make if difficult to skip commercials / relent and allow you to fast forward through commercials and now want to pump ads for something I've already paid for.

What about all if this is a good thing?

I'll take my home grown pvr, thank you very much.

Bill B.

[Ed Hansberry]

Ummm. Let me get this straight. You Buy the Tivo, Pay the monthly subscription fees, Tie up a phone line, they track what you watch, make if difficult to skip commercials / relent and allow you to fast forward through commercials and now want to pump ads for something I've already paid for.
Your phone line is "tied up" for about 3 mintues a day around 1am unless you put the TiVo on a home LAN, in which case no phone is needed. It isn't difficult to skip commercials. 3 FF speeds have always been availble. What the networks got upset over was a feature called a 30 second skip. Tivo removed it from the normal config but you can easily put it back with a 7-8 button sequence on the remote. It just goes away after a reboot - which unless there is a software update, is never necessary.

You are paying for the guide downloads monthly, and the ads are to help the device subsidy. You can buy a 40hr device - over 40GB of hard drive, with a TV tuner, 2 USB ports, processor and whatever RAM is on board for $99. Build a PVR for that. It is like the printer model. HP loses money on every printer it sells and makes it up in ink. TiVo loses money on every PVR they sell and makes it up on ad revenue and monthly subscriptions.

What about all if this is a good thing?
The most intuitive PVR UI I have used, and I've used several, including MCE. TiVo is head and shoulders above.

I'll take my home grown pvr, thank you very much.
Certainly your option. :D