How many times has this happened to you? You're watching your favorite show, which you recorded on your DVR, and right before the final joke or the big reveal, the recording cuts off and you miss the ultimate payoff? Why can't television get it right?
Newly-released ratings data for the fall TV season shows that 3.4 million people watched Hawaii Five-0 on DVR within a week of its premiere. It's the most DVR-ed show ever, which means everyone wants to watch it, just not now.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a ruling against satellite TV company EchoStar, saying the company infringed on a DVR patent owned by TiVo. The ruling, which included an $94 million damage award and bans EchoStar from selling the product in question, says that EchoStar infringed on the…
Netflix has ditched plans to enter the hardware market in favor of partnering with LG Electronics — and every other set-top box manufacturer on the planet. So far, Netflix's streaming subscription will support LG's combo Blu-ray and HD-DVD player and a standalone box, but it plans to market the service to makers of…
One-time DVR pioneer ReplayTV has been sold to DirecTV. This follows competitor EchoStar's purchase of Sling Media back in September. The most interesting question is what happens to TiVo now.
Remember when TiVo ran ads where TV viewers defenestrated network executives? CEO Tom Rogers doesn't, either. Vultures have circled over the hardware maker ever since cable companies realized they, too, could make digital video recorders. Rogers has taken the hint. With an extreme business makeover, he's now selling…
TiVo, in its ongoing struggle with natural selection, plans to share fun facts about its subscribers, like age, income, and ethnicity, with advertisers. Can't it be content with telegraphing customer viewing habits? Who does it think it is, Facebook? [WSJ]
"Ok, some kind of crazy shit is up with Time Warner Cable. Last night my DVR completely wiped itself, causing me to lose the latest 'America's Next Top Model' AND 'Gossip Girl.' A cursory survey tells me that the same inexplicable DVR-wiping occurred to other friends at different points in the week. Other friends say…
Comcast is finally starting to introduce digital video recorders with TiVo software, two years after announcing plans to do so. Existing boxes will be upgraded to make TiVo available, first in New England — all the better to record those Red Sox playoff games — and soon around the country. Comcast will charge…
Vudu, the set-top box rumored to single-handedly topple both Netflix and digital video recorders, has, in reality, failed to impress. Katie Boehret, the Wall Street Journal's Walt-Mossberg-in-training, reviews the movie-downloading box which aspires to win over those too lazy to traipse over to the video store. The…
Everyone wants a piece of TiVo's living-room real estate. The maker of digital video recorders is going to have a tough time fending off Sony's PlayStation 3, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Netflix-in-a-box VuDu, Apple TV, and a host of other video-recording gadgets from its turf. No doubt this pending threat influenced TiVo…
Sony's recent announcement that its PlayStation 3 console will soon act as a digital video recorder in Europe is little surprise to anyone following the industry. It's long been believed that the PS3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 could act as DVRs. The real question is how this move will affect a soon-to-be crowded DVR…
DVD rental site Netflix is in the news for hiring human customer-service reps in a move away from automated support. But that's surely the least significant of Netflix's recruiting plans. A tipster whispers that Netflix is trying to hire away Apple engineers to work on a set-top box for movie downloads. Not…
