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TiVo Getting YouTube
Posted by Mark Wilson at 1:33 AM on March 13, 2008
Good news, kind of. TiVo has just announced that their networked Series 3 and TiVo HD subscribers will be getting YouTube access through their boxes sometime "later this year." While new media features are always a plus, TiVo's more recent advanced service offerings (like Rhapsody integration) have been a bit buggy. Here's hoping YouTube rolls out smoothly.
Here's the full announcement:
ALVISO, Calif., March 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced an agreement with YouTube(TM) that will offer access to YouTube videos directly from the TV via a TiVo DVR. The service will be available later this year to broadband-connected subscribers with TiVo Series3(TM) DVRs, including the new TiVo HD.Every day hundreds of millions of videos are viewed on YouTube and hundreds of thousands of videos are uploaded. Upon launch of the TiVo-YouTube service, TiVo users will be able to search, browse and watch these videos directly on their television sets through their broadband connected TiVo DVRs. The combination of having the YouTube experience with the convenience and familiarity of TiVo's intuitive user interface will provide TiVo subscribers with the ability to discover and enjoy the most shared and most discussed web videos in the world on their televisions. Importantly, users will be able to log into their YouTube accounts directly from their TiVo boxes and access their favorite YouTube channels and
playlists."We're delighted to be working with the world's leading online video community so that TiVo subscribers can access YouTube's popular content on the TV via the TiVo DVR," said Tara Maitra, Vice President and GM of Content Services at TiVo Inc. "Being able to make available YouTube videos
to the TiVo subscriber base using one device, one remote and one user interface is another major step in our commitment to combine all of your television and web video viewing options in one easy to use service."
Tags: entertainment | tivo | youtube
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
CapitalC
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
Gah. Tivo totally doesn't listen to their customers.
I don't want YouTube. I want them to add custom renaming of shows (which were incorrectly named by the listings), the ability to create my own storage folders (so I don't get my wife's Law & Orders and CSI episodes mingling with my son's cartoons) and the option to get rid of that advertising crap at the bottom of my main menu - NO, I don't want to "Get HBO's 'In Treatment' - FREE!".
Oh, and I'd love to be able to transfer my lifetime subscription to a new box. Work on THAT will ya, Tivo?
CapitalC
pilott
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
Isn't youtbe working on providing HD (or HigherD) content?
pilott
rgshredder
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
would've been somewhat interesting had XBMC not already done it about 2-3 years ago...
rgshredder
tamoko
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
@highfloydelity: I've seen it advertised here in the Philly market, but no one I know actually has one. We all have our own Tivos, or shake'n-bake DVRs.
tamoko
highfloydelity
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
@Y2KGTP: Does anyone *have* the Comcast Tivo?
I haven't seen it offered in my area yet.
highfloydelity
flyboy
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
@MrMaestr0:
many things suck when they start out. Remember the Apple Newton?
Google wouldn't spend those big bucks for rubbish...
flyboy
Y2KGTP
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
Does this also apply to the Comcast Tivo?
Y2KGTP
MrMaestr0
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
I agree. Why is adding Youtube to a video device seen as the holy grail. The video quality on youtube sucks and to be honest most of the content does too. So why would I care that my Tivo hooked up to my HDTV can play some pixelated crap?
MrMaestr0
Zaxxon Q Blaque
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
Point being...?
Zaxxon Q Blaque
HJTravels
Posted 3:40 AM 13/3/08
Who wants YouTube? We really want XTube instead.
HJTravels
RalphWiggum
Posted 6:37 AM 13/3/08
I love my TivoHD but this is a worthless advancement. Even if Youtube had content I consistently wanted to watch (which it absolutely does not), the video quality is barely suitable for my 19" monitor. It'll look terrible on a 42" or bigger HD set.
Wake me up when it has access to Netflix or the SDV dongle comes out.
RalphWiggum
ParJoe
Posted 6:37 AM 13/3/08
Yeah...youtube's still got some decent content on it even if it is poor quality a lot of the time.
What Tivo needs to focus on is either HD VOD or lighting a fire under Amazon's ass to get HD downloads.
ParJoe
MegaZone
Posted 6:37 AM 13/3/08
@CapitalC: That's what YOU want, that doesn't mean that's what a majority of TiVo owners want. Personally I'd rather have YouTube than custom renaming (in 6 years of using TiVo I don't remember ever needing/wanting that), or storage folders - I'm single, all the shows on my TiVo are mine. TiVo has added many features I don't use - like KidZone - but I accept that they're useful for other users. (I know people with kids who use it.) And TiVo is a business - what is going to sell more units and give them a higher ROI? Adding YouTube support, or allowing users to rename shows? Somehow I think YouTube support is going to be a lot more of a selling point and a better investment of engineering resources.
And TiVo has repeatedly offered lifetime transfer deals - to the Series3, the Series2DT, and the TiVo HD.
MegaZone
MegaZone
Posted 6:37 AM 13/3/08
@Y2KGTP: No, it is the Series3 and TiVo HD only.
MegaZone
matto
Posted 9:20 AM 13/3/08
I really wish that for once, those morons at Tivo would fix bugs in the the core functions of their DVR before adding yet more irrelevant crap like this. I didn't buy a Series 3 to watch Youtube videos. I have a computer for that. When my Series 3 misses recordings, crashes, and loses Cablecard pairing info, I could give a damn whether it talks to Youtube or Rhapsody or Yahoo.
I will never purchase another Tivo product ever again, and for the life of the company will continue to advise friends and coworkers to avoid them as well. They have gone from a market leader and innovator to sleazy shysters.
matto
Vagabum
Posted 9:20 AM 13/3/08
Cool. I wonder if this is an indicator of a future, wider deal with Google as a whole.
Vagabum
Schalliol
Posted 3:27 PM 13/3/08
Why not include Series 2 in this? It doesn't seem like there should be a problem with using this service on a Series 2. It's not as though we're seeing HD on YouTube.
Schalliol
USA2Mexico0
Posted 5:00 PM 16/3/08
@Schalliol: MegaZone has already answered that question:
[www.engadget.com]
"The Series3 platform (the 'Series3' and TiVo HD) have hardware that can decode H.264 - the codec YouTube is using now. The Series2, being older, does not. Simple as that - the S2 can't decode YouTube video as it only does MPEG-2."
"Al - not on the TiVo's CPU it can't. The first Series2 units have a 166MHz NEC MIPS CPU, later models went to a 242MHz Broadcom SoC, and the S2DT is a 266Mhz Broadcom SoC. And not all of the CPU power is available for video decoding, of course - just a fraction.
The TiVo has a weak CPU because it doesn't *need* a powerful, general purpose CPU - because it uses hardware for encoding and decoding. It is more cost effective to use dedicated hardware than a powerful CPU and software decoding."
"The TiVo HD *is* technically part of the Series3 family. The original box in the family didn't have a specific name and everyone just called it the 'Series3'. The TiVo HD is another box in that family, but it was branded 'TiVo HD'. BOTH are technically Series3 platform units.
You will need a broadband connected original S3 or TiVo HD to access YouTube. They have H.264 decoding hardware - older S2 units do not."
USA2Mexico0