January 22, 2008

Comcast's TiVo-Powered DVR Finally Ready, But Only In Boston

Comcast is finally ready to release the TiVo interface as a software upgrade for its DVR subscribers two years after initially promised...but only in Boston. Back in 2005, DirecTV stopped marketing TiVo after developing their own DVR, a big hit for TiVo. However that same year Comcast announced in a press release that they expected TiVo service to be available to the the majority of their customers by mid-to-late 2006. Definitely a lifesaver for TiVo. But it never happened and TiVo has lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers since.

Finally ready in 2008, Comcast says they drastically underestimated the difficulty of integrating TiVo into their DVR's and operating system, but the struggle finally ended thanks to the development of Tru2way software, a big focus of this year's CES conference in Las Vegas. Tru2way allows "TVs, DVRs and other consumer electronics to handle its interactive services, including video on demand", currently only provided by Comcast gear.

The partnership will run until at least 2014 and TiVo CEO Tom Rogers is excited about the possibilities of a "total integration of cable services into TiVo", even beyond Comcast. There are a few remaining issues however. Number one being the service will only initially be offered in Boston, a far cry from the promise of availability in the majority of Comcast markets two years ago. The software also has some remaining bugs though Comcast has updates planned in the coming weeks to fix the problems. And finally, the complexity of the system means subscribers have to schedule an hour long telephone call with Comcast for consumer education purposes, making us wonder: if the software upgrade is so difficult to use, will anyone use it?

Via USA Today