Infinite MonkeysI love my TiVos, I really do. But I am growing very impatient with TiVo, who seem to have taken a cue from Apple in the 80's: Develop a REALLY cool product, then sit back and let everyone else catch up rather than staying ahead of the curve.
About a month ago, TiVo FINALLY released their dual-tuner DVR. Joy! Rapture! I can finally TiVo "Law & Order" and "CSI: NY" at the same time.
Wait? What's that you say? It only has two CABLE tuners? It will only support one input from my satellite boxes?
Cue the Angriest Dog in the World.
Posted by RobbL at June 6, 2006 08:58 AMI somewhat agree with you, although Tivo's problem with satellite systems is not Tivo's fault. If you have DirecTV, you can still get a dual tuner Tivo (although with less functionality than stand-alone Tivos, again thanks to DirecTV). If you have Dish, then you can't, but that's Dish's fault. Tivo would love to work with them. And if the satellite systems used CableCard, then Tivo could also play with them.
I wish Apple would come out with better Tivo-like functionality (or better, make a deal with Tivo) on the Mac Mini, altough I don't think that's really Apple's best market.
I'm not disappointed that they don't have built-in satellite tuners, I'm disappointed that they won't support my using my existing tuners. I already have two satellite boxes sitting in my family room, one hooked up to my TiVo and the other so I can watch live programming (usually baseball games) on my TV while TiVo records something else. If the new TiVo simply had two line inputs and two IR transmitters, they could control my two boxes.
I agree on the Apple thing. I would like to see one or more of the following happen, in no particular order of preference:
1. Apple buys TiVo
2. Apple opens their Front Row API up a bit more so that 3rd Party manufacturers (such as ElGato or TiVo) could build software plug-ins for other media types
3. Better satellite tuner (and digital cable) automation from ElGato EyeTV
4. Auto-export shows from EyeTV to iTunes
5. TiVo releases updated TiVo Desktop for Mac with ability to drop shows into iTunes, preferably automatically