DirecTV’s new DVR service

November 29, 2004

Directv_7According to NDS group’s CEO Abe Peled the company will deliver new DVR software to DirecTV by April of 2005 for a new DVR product from DirecTV. The new software/product is said to be faster and simpler than TiVo according to company representatives. One noted TiVo feature however, the ability to fast forward through commercials is absent. For their part DirecTV has provided little additional detail about the NDS-powered DVR, saying only that DirecTV plans to introduce “an alternate DVR product and service in the first half of next year.”

This is an interesting move on DirecTV’s part, surely they can’t be unhappy with TiVo’s performance thus far, (DTV will continue to offer their products) but maybe they are looking to offer even more. The new product is said to handle PPV offerings in a different manner, allowing users to ‘cue’ up PPV’s before they have even purchased them. Time will tell but if I was a betting man, I wouldn’t rule out a last laugh from TiVo.



Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under DirecTV News


Comments

  • http://www.dmwebb.com Dennis Webb

    I am a DirecTivo customer, and I love the service. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I love the fact that DirecTV is innovating, and improving (we hope, at least) their offerings.

    I am not so sure about the fast forward option. From the way their worded this:

    “About the only TiVo function the new service will not have, they say, is the ability to jump over commercials. That’s an unadvertised TiVo feature users can activate with programming instructions widely available on the Internet”

    It sure sounds like they are talking about the undocumented 30 second skip feature (select,play ,select,3,0,select) NOT the fast forward functionality.

    If they removed the ability to fast forward through commercials, but allowed you to fast forward through your program, I can not imagine ANYONE signing up for that. Now, 30 second skip, I can live without that. In fact, I activated when I first found out about it, but I found myself using fast forward instead because not all commercials work out to 30 second intervals and I ended up rewinding or fast forwarding anyway to get back to my program.

    So I am almost a little excited, because one of the things I have been disappointed with is the speed of the menuing system on my DirecTivo.

    It will be interesting to see where this all goes, but I agree, I do not see Tivo going away, any time soon.

    On the other hand (DirecTV take notes, I have a feeling I am not alone), I have been looking for an excuse to jump to VOOM, and if unfavorable changes are made to the DirecTV DVR service, and VOOM delivers DVR as expected… Bye, Bye DirecTV.

    Dennis Webb

  • http://www.dmwebb.com Dennis Webb

    I am a DirecTivo customer, and I love the service. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand I love the fact that DirecTV is innovating, and improving (we hope, at least) their offerings.

    I am not so sure about the fast forward option. From the way their worded this:

    “About the only TiVo function the new service will not have, they say, is the ability to jump over commercials. That’s an unadvertised TiVo feature users can activate with programming instructions widely available on the Internet”

    It sure sounds like they are talking about the undocumented 30 second skip feature (select,play ,select,3,0,select) NOT the fast forward functionality.

    If they removed the ability to fast forward through commercials, but allowed you to fast forward through your program, I can not imagine ANYONE signing up for that. Now, 30 second skip, I can live without that. In fact, I activated when I first found out about it, but I found myself using fast forward instead because not all commercials work out to 30 second intervals and I ended up rewinding or fast forwarding anyway to get back to my program.

    So I am almost a little excited, because one of the things I have been disappointed with is the speed of the menuing system on my DirecTivo.

    It will be interesting to see where this all goes, but I agree, I do not see Tivo going away, any time soon.

    On the other hand (DirecTV take notes, I have a feeling I am not alone), I have been looking for an excuse to jump to VOOM, and if unfavorable changes are made to the DirecTV DVR service, and VOOM delivers DVR as expected… Bye, Bye DirecTV.

    Dennis Webb