The typical TiVo user is a person who just wants their TV recordings to work, regardless of the monthly fee. They may or may not be tech savvy, but chances are TiVo was their first DVR—since we've found, anecdotally, people gravitate back to the first DVR interface they use. So why is their marketshare down to 2004 levels? The answer is simple: cheap DVRs from providers are eating TiVo from the low end, and everyone else can now use Windows 7 and a tuner to act as a DVR just fine.

Cheap DVRs from Comcast, or Time Warner or your satellite provider have gotten good—or rather, less shitty—enough to make them actually viable options for home recording. Even I couldn't turn down only paying an extra $5 per month to have a recorder that works well enough to watch stuff with, even if you don't have show recommendations, and fast forwarding barely functions well enough to stop where you want. But it's $5. $5. Five. Dollars. And that's without having to pay upfront for the box. You can rent three of these for the price of one TiVo subscription.

As for the big reason why you don't need a TiVo anymore, in the future, you can thank Microsoft and Windows 7. Just take a look at that Windows 7 PC you have. Yeah, the one in your office. That can be your DVR. CableLabs finally took off their ridiculous OEM restriction on who can install CableCARD tuners—the device that actually takes a digital cable signal and turns it into something your computer can understand and record—so you can go and get one of these yourself for about $200. So for $200, with no future fees except for your normal cable bill, you can have yourself a home DVR that's arguably as good as TiVo. And, much easier to expand and augment, both storage and functionality-wise, than a set top box.

And if you don't want a computer in your living room (you need that thing in your office anyway), all you have to do is get an Xbox 360 and extend it. Multiple Xboxes mean streaming to multiple rooms, something that's not even possible on a TiVo.

Of course there's going to be a core group of TiVo users who really enjoy TiVo functionality, really appreciate their interface and can't imagine using something else. But is that enough to sustain a business when so many other options are cheaper and just as good? The numbers say no.

What it means to you, theoretically, is that you should be able to go out and buy CableCARD tuners and add them to your Windows 7 machines to turn any old machine you have lying around into an HTPC. Also, they've raised the limit to four tuners per "tuner type", so you can have four digital cable channels simultaneously without any kind of special setup.

There is also a new Firmware update for ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuners to mark copy-freely content—the content you can move around your network and portable devices. [Microsoft]

Previously, you could only get a HTPC hooked up to watch digital cable using a CableCARD that was authorized by CableLABS, which only authorized them on systems you buy pre-built from OEMs. Now, if these DIYers can figure out how to enable the hack on many systems beside just ASUS P5Q motherboards, we'd have something going. You still need to buy a standard CableCARD tuner, however, so don't get your hopes up that you're saving money on that. [Green Button via Engadget]

If you recall, the SDV switch jacked Time Warner, Cablevision and Cox customers out of channels if they had CableCard sets or boxes that couldn't be updated. A dongle was promised, but it's taken it's sweet time making its way to the market, in part because it needs to pass CableLabs testing.

Well, the argument that CableLabs kept making didn't seem to work with the FCC, who said this specifically in the Cox fine:

Taken to its logical conclusion, Cox’s reasoning would permit an MVPD [cable operator] to move all of its programming to an SDV platform without regard for the impact its actions would have on customers using or wishing to use CableCARD-equipped UDCPs [one-way devices]. Such an outcome would be fundamentally at odds with the Commission's goal of protecting cable subscribers' ability to view signals through the use of commercially available navigation devices offered in a competitive market.

The fines, levied against Time Warner and Cox (no mention of Cablevision), were mere slaps on the wrist—$60,000 a piece, pertaining to just three markets where formal complaints were brought up. But it's good to know that the FCC isn't the lapdog of the cable biz, especially when we hardware junkies want more out of our TVs than what the cable co's box alone can deliver. [Ars Technica]

Update: According to the unofficial TiVo Blog, Time Warner sent a note that 34 "lesser viewed" channels—including BBC America and Universal HD, among other nerd favorites—would no longer be viewable without the TiVo dongle, which would be available "later this year." So they are firm on when they will cut off their poor subscribers, but not so firm on when a return to service will come, and at what cost. Real cool, TWC—you deserve more than a $60K fine for this chicanery. [TiVoBlog]

• "Content available on cable networks is changing all the time. New services are added, some are redesigned and others are removed."

• "SDV technology is designed to expand the range of services offered by cable operators, not reduce them."

• "Many CE companies chose to implement receivers that lack the necessary circuitry to provide a full two-way cable experience with the CableCard."

• "No product was ever originally designed to work with this new Tuning Adaptor including the existing Tivo UDPC products...Since consumer products don't use Microsoft Windows, they don't have plug-in drivers. Instead a new firmware update is needed to include the necessary driver controls to interact with this new external device. Makers of any existing UDCPs that already have a USB port (there are many) are just as able to provide new firmware as Tivo, if they chose to do so."

• "Consumers should look for products identified as tru2way to ensure they will be able to get all the new and advanced services their digital cable systems can deliver."

Last we checked, Panasonic was the only one with a tru2way TV pegged to an actual shipdate, and Comcast was the only cable company even talking about implementing it this year, but again, hopefully we'll hear a lot more about this come the NCTA's Cable Show on May 18-20. We certainly look forward to hearing good news from CableLabs (and we're sure they look forward to sharing some). [CableLabs; Original HD Guru Story]

Cablevision and Time Warner Cable say that there is a CableLabs fix, a USB-based dongle that will enable the upstream communication required for SDV. But Merson says makers of CableCard TV sets (fewer and farther between these days) can't make use of any USB dongles. TiVo, on the other hand, said in December it would release the SDV-compatible dongle at an unspecified time this year, though they're not talking any more about it at the current time.

It's a lot of cable-tech mumbo jumbo, but if it means losing channels (and not getting any kind of payback for the loss, says Merson), well, it's a crisis. Fortunately, the big industry Cable Show will be happening soon, so let's make sure they have something to talk about. Check with your provider, and let us know if you're experiencing any SDV-related shafting on your end. [HD Guru]

Two-way CableCards basically mean that the cable box, with all its features including VOD and PPV, is built into the TV. Right now, the CableCard in a TiVo or Media Center PC will only get you video. Panasonic will integrate OCAP into its mid-level PZ80 line, in 50" and 42" models this summer. Though the list prices for the TVs without OCAP are $2499 and $1599 respectively, the price of OCAP itself will be quite noticeable. Though there are some shared-chip advantages to integrating the set-top box, Panasonic still says "it'll be the cost of a cable box built into a TV," so like, not cheap.

Panasonic is currently testing with Comcast in five markets, and are building this to spec with CableLabs and all of the cable companies, but that's no guarantee that any carrier will be ready to deploy when the TVs are, so get ready for cranky customer service operators and a lot of educational consumership. That is to say, you might have to teach your cable carrier about this new technology. [Panasonic 2008 Viera Lineup; CableLabs OpenCable]

Big Brother, Meet Little Brother
Although the TiVo HD is built on the Series3 platform, it's not exactly an update. Here's the breakdown:

• The original Series3 can record 300 hours of standard-def video and 32 hours of HD on a 250GB internal; the TiVo HD can record 180 hours of SD and just 20 hours of HD on a 160GB drive.

• It's not THX certified, but it's got the coaxial cable and antenna inputs, plus all the requisite outputs: HDMI, component, S-Video and composite. It also has an optical audio out.

• As you can see in the gallery, it has a dual CableCARD slot so you can record two shows at once (and watch a third, too). One of the slots even supports M-Card, for multistreaming, so you wouldn't need two separate cards. I am not entirely sure if you can use it to go hog wild and record three shows at once—it may not surprise you that Cablevision never mentioned it as an option when I ordered the CableCARDs.

• Instead of the original Series3's glowing OLED display, TiVo HD has an array of multicolored status-indicator LEDs. That's the extent of the glowing, too—unlike the pricier Series3, this one has a standard TiVo remote, happily unchanged these 10 long years.

• TiVo HD has an eSATA port on the back, same as its big brother, so expansion will be easy. It also has hardware support for AVC (H.264) and VC-1, though there still isn't any software implementation of this talent. We're waiting!

• As I just sort of alluded, nothing is different on the software side of things. Any rumors suggesting that TiVoToGo is available in the TiVo HD are incorrect at this point, though we'd love to see someone wave a magic wand and make that happen. The few screenshots I included in the gallery are intended to show you the similarities: it's all there, even though you're paying less than half the price.

Hands On
Though I had been suffereing at the hands of the loathed Explorer 8300HD for some time, I dreaded calling Cablevision and asking for CableCARDs. Fortunately, they knew what I was up to, and—after a couple of visits—were able to make it work. The trouble was not technical. The cards worked just fine. The trouble was that Cablevision installers are not allowed to be in your house when you go through the 20-minute setup, which they claim takes between 4 and 24 hours. In truth, the most time-consuming part of the process is waiting for the CableCARDs to take hold once they are installed. That took hours, but required the cable guy. Can I just say that I hate when people who don't know squat make up dumb rules? Well, I just said it.

The rest of the setup was super easy. TiVo provided the $60 Wi-Fi USB dongle, though you can use others, or just connect via Ethernet. I always love setting TiVo remotes to control the TV; it's a simple thing that any remote in the world can do, but I rarely do it with my cable remotes. Having that reassuring wizard is just a better incentive.

Once all of that was working, I was back in TiVo Country. I could search for shows without growing a beard in the process, jumping to Swivel Search to do stream-of-consciousness browsing. I ended up jumping from The Daily Show to a TiVoCast channel of content from The Onion. Everything we've discussed in the recent past is there: Amazon Unbox downloads, One True Media video and photo sharing, Yahoo! and Fandango. But most of all, it's a $300 way to unlock the HD cable subscription I pay a ridiculous amount of money for but can't navigate using standard cable boxes.

OK, it's not all perfect. My guess is that, since I had an early unit, there was some bugginess that will be fixed in the near term, including:

• Messed-up video decoding; I often got that that weird psychedelic MPEG frame lag, and some entire scenes of standard-def video had a bad iridescent quality, though that could have been due to a crappy analog source.

• At least one HD channel remains scrambled, and not a premium one. OK, I admit, it's CBS. I just got caught off guard by how funny The New Adventures of Old Christine is.

• Worst—though perhaps most fixable—of all: when I fast forward through lengthy stretches of content, the cursor jumps and skips, so that I end up way far away from where I want to be. Again, though I'm a bit traumatized, my guess is that it'll be fixed in the next firmware update.

• Also, as you know, decommissioning your cable box means no one-touch VOD. I like VOD, I will admit. But I am trying to figure out if I like it most because it's a way of getting around the frustrating user interface of cable DVRs.

How to get one
As you know, TiVo still has a monthly fee, one that can be as high as $17 per month if you don't commit to anything over a year, or as low as $9 per month, if you pay, up front, $299 for three full years of service. (That's a special offer. It's been around a while, but it might disappear at any time.) I figure if you're already saving $500 in not buying the deluxe Series3, might as well pay $300 of it back for the better service plan.

TiVo is taking pre-orders starting right this second. (According to one tipster, they actually started taking orders earlier, but quickly stopped.) The units themselves will start showing up in early August. If you are one of those sorry sons o' guns who recently bought a full-priced Series3, I really hope you can dig up the receipt.

TiVo Unveils New Attractively Priced TiVo® HD DVR—the Ultimate Companion to HDTVs

The new TiVo® HD DVR seamlessly combines ease of use, new content and affordability.

ALVISO, Calif.– July 24, 2007 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today the launch of a new TiVo high definition DVR, delivering a premium HD experience at an affordable price. Starting today, consumers can pre-order TiVo HD at www.tivo.com for just $299.99, with product expected to arrive on retail shelves in early August. The new TiVo HD DVR is the ultimate HDTV companion, maximizing the HD cable experience by combining a new popular price with the clarity of HD programming and our Emmy® award-winning TiVo™ service. The new TiVo HD is also a Digital Cable Ready set-top-box that works seamlessly with any cable provider in the U.S. Moreover, the new product also enables the latest and greatest exclusive TiVo service features such as Movie & TV Downloads from Amazon.com, Home Movie Sharing and universal Swivel™ search, delivering the best of broadband video directly to the television set.

"TiVo HD extends the TiVo experience to an even wider audience than ever, giving sports and entertainment enthusiasts the ultimate companion to their HDTV set," said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. "It is the ultimate media centerpiece for the living room with the broadest selection of broadband content, right alongside your favorite broadcast and cable programs, giving HDTV viewers more choice and control than they've ever had before. And it can be used in place of the customer's existing cable box."

The TiVo HD is designed to fit seamlessly with home entertainment centers, replacing cable boxes while complimenting other entertainment devices. It is compatible with digital cable, analog cable and digital antenna (ATSC). TiVo HD offers 20 hours of HD or up to 180 hours of standard definition content. The new TiVo HD DVR allows users to record two HD channels at the same time, while watching a third previously recorded show. With a built-in Ethernet jack, two CableCARD™ slots and USB ports, TiVo HD also provides advanced connectivity and easy networking, making it simple to access an additional suite of exclusive TiVo features.

"TiVo HD is a perfect complement to the HDTV sets that are quickly becoming the standard for home entertainment," said Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo. "With an affordable price and uncompromised quality, TiVo HD is an obvious choice for anyone with a passion for home entertainment and HD programming."
TiVo HD includes access to a number of renowned TiVo features, furthering the difference between the TiVo service and generic DVR competitors, such as:

• Movie & TV Downloads - In partnership with Amazon.com, TiVo brings you Amazon Unbox™ on TiVo®, allowing you to download thousands of movies and TV shows straight to your TiVo DVR. Amazon Unbox on TiVo allows you to rent or buy movies from Amazon Unbox using your remote, download them to your TiVo box over your home network, and enjoy them right on your television set whenever you want. The movies you want are always in stock and new releases are available for purchase the same day they arrive on DVD. Best of all, order with your TiVo remote from the comfort of your living room and your rentals and purchases end up in your Now Playing list, right where you'd expect them to be. It's like having an entire video store connected to your TV.

• Universal Swivel™ Search - Exclusive to the TiVo service, universal Swivel search lets you quickly find everything you want in the world of broadcast and broadband television with a single, powerful search. It's the first truly TV centric onscreen search tool that allows subscribers to explore and discover broadcast, cable, and broadband content in an easy-to-use experience. TiVo subscribers can search using the way they intuitively think about television; that is, by starting with a program they currently enjoy and using elements of that program to find more of what they like. Universal Swivel search allows viewers to seamlessly link from descriptions of one program to all others that have common elements, including program name, actors, or suggestions based on other viewers' feedback.

• TiVoCast - TiVoCast delivers original video programming directly to your TiVo box over your broadband Internet connection from a variety of media brands and producers, including the New York Times, CNET, iVillage, The Onion, and many others. The content appears in your Now Playing List, alongside regular broadcast programming as well as your Amazon Unbox rentals and purchases and even Home Movies. It's all seamlessly integrated into the entire TiVo experience.

• Home Movie Sharing - Instead of burning your home movies to DVD and mailing them to friends and family, now you can share them through a private TiVo channel of your own. Simply upload your video footage or photographs to One True Media (www.OneTrueMedia.com), get a channel code, and send the code out to your audience. Your home videos will show up right in the Now Playing list on their TiVo boxes, so they can enjoy them on their own TV. No need to huddle around a computer screen anymore, home movie sharing delivers those precious moments directly to the TV.

• Online Services -With your TiVo box connected to your broadband home network, you can access a variety of online services right on your TV, including Yahoo! Traffic and Weather, Fandango movie tickets, live radio, podcasts, games and more.

• TiVo KidZone - Only TiVo-branded DVRs give you total control over what your kids see on TV. With TiVo KidZone, you get to choose which shows your children can watch and record. It also helps you discover great new shows for them through recommendations from leading national children's organizations. TiVo KidZone provides a customized Now Playing List for your children that displays only the shows you pre-approve, keeping their shows separate from your own shows. TiVo KidZone relies on your own personal settings and password to ensure your kids only see what you want them to see, keeping TV as safe as possible.

Pre-orders begin today with the first boxes being shipped in early August. See www.tivo.com for details on ship dates. A subscription to the TiVo service is required and sold separately. TiVo HD will be available starting early August at Best Buy, Circuit City and other retailers for $299.99.

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Sold through leading consumer electronic retailers, TiVo has developed a brand which resonates boldly with consumers as providing a superior television experience. Through agreements with leading satellite and cable providers, TiVo also integrates its full set of DVR service features into the set-top boxes of mass distributors. TiVo's DVR functionality and ease of use, with such features as Season Pass™ recordings and WishList® searches and KidZone have elevated its popularity among consumers and have created a whole new way for viewers to watch television. With a continued investment in its patented technologies, TiVo is revolutionizing the way consumers watch and access home entertainment. Rapidly becoming the focal point of the digital living room, TiVo's DVR is at the center of experiencing new forms of content on the TV, such as broadband delivered video, music and photos. With innovative features, such as TiVoToGo™ and online scheduling, TiVo is expanding the notion of consumers experiencing "TiVo, TV your way.®" The TiVo® service is also at the forefront of providing innovative marketing solutions for the television industry, including a unique platform for advertisers and audience measurement research. The Company is based in Alviso, California.

TiVo, Season Pass, Swivel, TiVoToGo, WishList, the slogan 'TiVo, TV your way.', Series2, Series3, and the TiVo logo are trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2007 All rights reserved.

CableCARD™ is a trademark of the Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

The question is, are we turning a corner? The AP story below addresses how badly the cable companies are taking this new mandate. One industry spokesman called it a "set-top box tax" with "no benefit to consumers." A cable-co watchdog countered that cable companies have no problem raising rates anyway, so having a reason shouldn't make them mad. But what about those third-party products? The sad truth is, a set-top box issued by the cable overlords will still have more functionality than any third-party product, at least until CableCard 2.0 gets here.

Cable firms to raise set-top box rates [AP]

Come July 1, when the government mandate that says all set-top-boxes need to have CableCARD support goes into effect, cable companies will be rolling out M-Card bi-directional cards that can activate dual-tuner DVRs from just one slot. But still, the problem is on the software side, which means TiVo Series 3s and Vista CableCARD machines won't be doing bi-directional support until a standard is there.

So the actual headline should probably be "There is no CableCARD 2.0...yet." – Jason Chen

There is no CableCARD 2.0 [Engadget HD]

If you're curious to see how Vista handles CableCARD recording and playback, check out our first hands on with Niveus's units early this month. – Jason Chen

Product Site [S1Digital via Press Release]

Before the bug was found and the whole shipment processs stopped, a small amount of tuners were already given to Velocity Micro, which allowed them to be first out the gate with a handful of CableCARD tuner PCs. So some people are already in HD heaven.

However, the bug on ATI's side has been fixed already (it was a very minor one), and the only reason you can't get a HTPC with CableCARD tuner support right now is because CableLabs—the guys who made the tech—has a five-week certification process. So it looks like late April/early May still. – Jason Chen

ATI stops shipping CableCARD tuners due to bugs, will resume soon [Engadget]

CableCARD on Windows Vista Will Require "Certified" Hardware [eHomeUpgrade]

A recent pact between Microsoft and CableLabs is a good thing for those of you hankering to watch TV on your Media PC. Looks like you'll now be able to display digital cable—both standard and high definition—without the help of a set-top box. Though Microsoft has offered HDTV support since last year, the deal will now allow PC makers to include a slot for a CableCard, like many digital TV sets. Unfortunately, the communication is only one-way, so don't expect extras like pay-per-view or on-demand.

Microsoft to add digital cable support to MCE [Firing Squad]