TiVo PVR finally arrives, but the wise may hold fire on buying one.

DigitalTV Jun 25, 2008

Well well. Nearly 10 years after the TiVo hit America we finally get it here. This hard drive Personal Video Recorder lets you record TV shows – these days two shows at once – and play them back later. Unlike VCRs you can start playing back a show as it’s still recording. Depending on the model other things are available too, including:

Playing back of an earlier show, whilst two others are being recorded
The ability to skip-ads on ‘live’ TV. Not really live; the machine automatically records the show at (say) 7:00pm and you start watching it at 7:10 and skip the ads that way. A button jumps forward 30 seconds to help here
Recording via a simple point and click on the show’s name in a schedule. The much-fought-over Electronic Program Guide. Even lawsuits!.
Smart recording: record a show – by name – regardless of when it’s on and if it runs over time. Trust me this over-run is very common. Up to 15 minutes! So you can ask it to record “Battlestar Galactica” and if it’s 10:30pm Tuesday one week, and 1am Friday the next, you still get it recorded.
The ability to copy the recording off to your PC or Mac, so you can keep it or create a DVD etc

Anyway the TiVo rumours suggest most of the above, with Ad-skipping being the one that is uncertain. Also the TiVo is High Defintion. But can also record normal (Standard) definition TV as well, so you won’t have to get a new High Def TV to use it.

It’s the price that’s the killer. $700 is the report. And that’s quite cheap, compared to its current competitors.

So therein lies the message. Wait and see what the market does. There’s no way the current PVR makers can still be hundreds of dollars dearer, even if they (in theory, at least) offer some more cool, geeky features. But the mass market is the target of the TiVo, not we ‘early adopters’. But it’s most probably going to force down the prices of the current competitors, like Topfield, Pioneer, Sony etc. And hence better value all around, you’d assume.

Of course the current PVR makers could go another way. For a bit more, say $799, have similar features to a TiVo but offer some sweet extras. Perhaps a DVD burner and player on-board. Or the ability to play most (any) common media formats, like DivX AVI movies, either from DVD,CD (RWs too) or via a wired/wireless home network.

You know something has made it big when it becomes a verb or is mentioned in pop culture shows. Back in 2001 (!) on Friends, in the episode The One with the Stripper this exchange took place: