What is Digg?37 Comments
- HappyScrappy, on 11/30/2007, -0/+15Great. Does this mean they'll stop ***** around starting their shows 1 minute late or running 1 minute over in order to ***** PVR users?
I saw this having just watched My Name is Earl that ended 3 minutes early so they could shove a bit of 30 Rock in there. - davidrools, on 11/30/2007, -2/+11yeah I always thought it was bullsh*t how TiVo charges you for their service, then uses your data to sell to other companies. I left my DirecTV w/ tivo dvr unplugged from the phone line for more than a year and everything worked fine.
- Legolover64, on 11/30/2007, -1/+10I find your fake comments disturbing, seriously...
- JLecker, on 11/30/2007, -3/+11Great comment! Awesome! Cool stuff!
Seriously, it seems like every submission on Digg is littered with these zombie comments. - bimtott, on 11/30/2007, -1/+7Honestly, I knew what I was getting into when I plugged my Tivo into the wall. If it is ever something I really don't want to participate in, I'll build a Myth box and slip off the grid.
But I am fine with TiVo telling NBC that I find Matthew Lesko boring, that Bowflex is not right for me, and that most of the musical acts during Saturday Night Live are excruciatingly hard to listen to/watch. - armyturtle, on 11/30/2007, -0/+5What are you talking about? You should be used to this type of treatment by now - tv, cable, & satellite companies have been doing it to you for years! They charge you up the wazoo for their service & then turn around & collect ad revenue from marketers (double-dipping bastards). No one gives a ***** about what the consumer wants unless they stand to make another buck from it.
- Xadrian79, on 11/30/2007, -1/+6Hence the "regular TiVo" comment, aka the cable version. DirecTiVo gets the guide data from the satellite feed, I believe. The cable TiVo gets some data from a specific channel at night, but that only covers the national broadcasts. Anything local needs to be downloaded over the phone or internet.
- Alphi1, on 11/30/2007, -1/+6IMHO, I don't see this as being that bad... I mean, if the powers-that-be can use this to tell which shows I watch (so that they won't cancel a show that I happen to like - which happens a lot), what's the problem?
Even when it comes to advertisements - if they know which commercials I find annoying (and therefore fast forward thru or skip), maybe they'll stop broadcasting those. And if they know which commercials catch my attention enough for me to rewind and actually watch them (yes, this has actually happened, I admit it), then they know which ones are most popular, and to continue using those to pay for the shows themselves.
Of course, I'm not sure what their reaction will be when they realize that I fast-forward and/or skip 95% of the advertisements anyways... ;)
What I don't understand, is the article mentions that the software they use polls a random selection of 20,000 TiVo subscribers for this. If it's software (and anonymous, of course), why not just poll every TiVo they can connect to (i.e. the ones connected via a home network), instead of a "random sample", and get even more reliable results? I mean, being software, it's not like a live human has to sit though and tally it all up. That's what computers are best at. - drlha, on 11/30/2007, -1/+4That doesn't work with a regular TiVo because it needs the net connection to get guide data, and if you leave it unplugged it stops working after about a week.
- schumacc, on 11/30/2007, -0/+3I see this comment a lot and I am surprised that TIVO is not handling this. I have Brighthouse Cable and use their HD DVR, not TIVO. I find that the program guide automatically adjusts itself for these slight alterations in the schedule. For example, the duration of a program may show 31 minutes or 65 minutes, or the start time may adjust to 8:59 instead of 9:00PM. The result is, that as NBC screws around with these start and stop times I am still getting the whole show because the Brighthouse guide is updated to reflect these adjustments. Maybe TIVO needs to improve their guide system?
- Jrr6415sun, on 11/30/2007, -2/+5Why does this bother you so much? Tivo is just trying to make a profit, and lots of other businesses do this as well (Cable, satellite, credit cards etc.).. Tivo has had negative earning for years, anything to help them and help lower my monthly fee is fine with me. As long as it doesn't hurt my experience I see no reason why tivo can't sell to networks what I watch and when i'm watching it.. does this really hurt me? no.. in fact it helps shows that I actually watch that may get bad ratings otherwise... you can even opt out if you want to.. seriously stop making big deals out of stupid things.
- TrevorBelmont, on 11/30/2007, -0/+3My mage can summon Quizno's oven toasted subs!
- bimtott, on 11/30/2007, -2/+4Yes! Reuters. What a find!. I couldn't agree more!
Oh...wait sorry, forgot to speak your language:
braaaaainns!!! raaaaaaaaaaaaaauhrrrrrr!!!! ::tongue sticks out, eyes roll back:: - FreydNot, on 12/01/2007, -0/+2As long as they publish accurate data in the guide, I don't mind. Dual tuners FTW!
- davidrools, on 11/30/2007, -0/+2Yeah the Tivo's at my dad's house. I built a Windows MCE HTPC too w/ OTA HD capture cards and SD from the cable box. I would love to get true HD input into an HTPC with this: http://www.blackmagic-design.com/products/intensit ... but can't confirm it'll work in Myth or MCE for HD cable/satellite.
- inactive, on 02/10/2008, -0/+1Right now the way they handle it is to let you record an extra couple minutes before and after your show, just in case. This doesn't work well in practice because you are then left choosing between programs, etc. ... which is of course the point of networks doing this to us. I guess it is also really just a problem with the whole TV paradigm being in trouble and so they fight to control how and what you watch. Which pushes us toward more portable and convenient media... which costs them profits... round and round we go.
I love that my reasoned and rational comment about TiVo got buried. I can only assume that it was due to a negative comment about TiVo, when in reality it is a commentary about the entire network TV system in general. Oh well. I never said I expected reason and thought to win out on Digg. - brbeaird, on 11/30/2007, -1/+2I've got a homebrew pvr setup using BeyondTV. Typically, the guide is very good, but every once in awhile, it will be a little off. I find it difficult to believe networks purposefully try to delay/cut short shows in order to screw over people who tape/tivo. It does give an option to pad recorded shows with an extra minute, which is nice. Don't want to do that too much, though, or you'll run into problems when recording shows back-to-back on different channels.
- ScottoGato, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1After about a year of not having my phone line plugged in with DirecTV TiVo, it basically stopped functioning. I then had to call up DirecTV to get my TiVo service activated again. They outsourced their calling service to India apparently, and had a difficult time trying to tell them my situation. It was resolved after about 30 minutes of phone time.
Not to mention, that I constantly am getting reminders every day to plug my TiVo into a phone line. Kind of irritating, but I refuse to do so. - Dustin00, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1Dropped cable 3 years ago when the networks began "time shifting" by a couple of minutes to screw up my show recording.
Discovered World of Warcraft never suffers from time shifting and has fewer commercials... buh-bye TV! - HappyScrappy, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1Those stop after two weeks or something. Your story is just plain wrong on many accounts, this being one of them.
- jeremycobert, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1if its random, then they can get the results they want. if they poll every machine and see that their ratings suck, they have no recourse. but if a random sampling sucks, they can try a more narrow focus until they find the results they like and use that to sell their advertising.
- jeremycobert, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1NBC has been doing this over 1 minute ***** for a few years now. it sucks for them as i no longer record any of their shows that start after the 7pm (CST) time slot. hell nbc once shifted some shows 10 minutes and called it a bonus. lame. ABC does this as well, but not as much as the assclowns at NBC. i dont know if CBS does it as i dont record any thing from them.
- davidrools, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1I just don't like how they try to hide the fact that they're doing this, rather than fully disclosing what information they're gathering and what they're doing with it. They can say it's to "improve the quality of [their] services" or whatever, but that's no excuse. It should at least be an opt-in kind of thing.
- Chronomagnus, on 11/30/2007, -0/+1I don't see the point in Tvio now with cable comapny DVRs. My HD DVR from Time Warner compensates for the 1 minute over shows if it says it on the schedule (it usually does). Is Tivo really worth the cost of the unit plus the monthly feel?
- FreydNot, on 12/01/2007, -0/+1Yes. Go try one and you will find the interface is much better. I couldn't stand my comcast DVR and switched to a HD Tivo. How many times has your cable co DVR ignored you pressing play while you were fast forwarding through commercials and whizzed several minutes into your show? My comcast DVR did that all the time. I swapped for new hardware several times but they all did it.
- Athfar, on 11/30/2007, -2/+2So let me get this straight, they are putting effort into making advertisements clickable but I am going to fast forward through them anyway because it's a TiVo? Am I the only one seeing a flaw here?
- TheADOGuy, on 12/03/2007, -1/+1This is why I HATE Tivo...
- clari0n, on 11/30/2007, -0/+0Shhhhh!! You want them to hear you! Now they're going to start working on a plan to insert ads into WoW!
- inactive, on 11/30/2007, -2/+2I loved my TiVo for a long time, but it will soon reach the end of it's useful lifespan. Media companies are starting and ending programs at 5 after or 2 after more and more often. This causes TiVo to miss the beginning or end of the show. TiVo itself also advertises on your screen... which to me defeats the 50% of the purpose of having a DVR. With the other 50% (watching shows when I want) already having been defeated by them having shifted the time of the shows, I really don't see myself paying for TiVo service for much longer. I will need to start considering MythTV and other alternatives soon. They always seemed overly complicated, but the benefits will soon outweigh the drawbacks.
- gonemad16, on 12/01/2007, -1/+0uh nbc didnt shift shows by 10 minutes.. they had 40 minute episodes (if you are referring to the office, 30 rock and scrubs.. last season).. my mythtv box picked those changes up and recorded them fine.. anyway i find maybe once every 20-30 recordings will one show "shift" into another and its only for less than 20 seconds... get decent recording software and u wont have this problem
- gernblansted, on 11/30/2007, -1/+0I've had mine unplugged for months on end. It bugs me about it, but it still works. Of course, the second you plug it in, all that data about your habits gets sent to TiVO.
- TrevorBelmont, on 11/30/2007, -3/+1That sounds paranoid to me.
- haydesigner, on 11/30/2007, -4/+2Not true, I had my DirecTV TiVo unplugged for over two years in Chicago, then in San Diego, and never had a problem getting the current guide. The only reason I no longer use it is because we got DirecTV's HD PVR.
- Rickler, on 11/30/2007, -5/+2Same here, except I built my own HD-PVR with a 750GB HDD.
- 7717, on 11/30/2007, -5/+0Well aren't you a treat?
- maxsis, on 11/30/2007, -30/+2Interesting
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