On Tue, 14 Dec 2004, Clark W. Griswold, Jr. <spamtrap100@comcast.net>
wrote:
> Dishplayer or one of the newer DVRs? What was the feature?
7100 w/ HD upgrade. IIRC, Search now has two new tick boxes; title
only, or title and description. Like it.
Topic drift alert.
>>> In article <telecom23.595.5@telecom-digest.org>, Monty Solomon
>>> <monty@roscom.com> wrote:
>>>> A middle-level executive at Time Warner has approached several cable
>>>> companies and broached the idea of restricting the ability of
>>>> customers who use those company's Digital Video Recorders to record
>>>> several popular Time Warner TV programs.
>> On Mon, 13 Dec 2004, in comp.dcom.telecom Barry Margolin
>> <barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>>> Sounds like another good reason to support standalone DVRs, like
>>> ReplayTV and TiVo, rather than cableco-supplied DVR services.
> In article <telecom23.597.12@telecom-digest.org>, I wrote:
>> Sadly, this is not an adequate solution. Unless you record a program
>> off to tape, disc or PC media, programs can be deleted through the
>> capabilities of existing, standalone equipment.
>> TiVo and ReplayTV have already demonstrated their ability to change
>> the programming on DVRs without the consent of the user, as has DISH
>> Network. Unless the user hacks the hardware and its current code to
>> prevent it, the DVR manufacturer can slipstream the ability to do
>> exactly what Time Warner wants into a user's DVR.
On Wed, 15 Dec 2004, in comp.dcom.telecom Barry Margolin
<barmar@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Sure, they *can* reprogram our systems. But I think these vendors
> that are independent of the content providers and distributors are
> less likely to do so. Yes, I know they've made some concessions to
> content providers (ReplayTV removed Internet Video Sharing and
> Commercial Advance from their newest DVR models, although they didn't
> reprogram the older models that already had these features, and
> hackers discovered how to add them back to the new models). But I
> think they would be shooting themselves in the feet if they disabled
> some of the basic functionality of the devices.
Let's not forget, Tivo has also pledged to add their own commercials
over the top of playback when a user fast forwards. If that isn't
targeting the pedal extremities, I will invite a Californian to move
next door to me.
The downgrades from Tivo and ReplayTV and the no-consent upgrade of my
Dish Player's software demonstrate the capability. The control over
that is in the hands of the providers, not the consumer.
Historically, that only means to compete, the provider has to distract
the consumer, when the new and uninformed consumer makes a buying
decision, or simply be the least worst provider, carefully avoiding
making the thing so bad as to overcome consumer inertia.
Solution? Consumer advocacy: Be smart, share info here and in other
forums, document what's going on in web logs and link to them,
explain the case we ll to others, and don't fergit to let Charlie
Ergen (big banana at Echostar /DISH Network) and other industry suits
know this is a deal-breaker for you
After all, if it turns to trash, we can all go read a good e-book
(e.g., < http://www.baen.com/library > ).
John Bartley (johnbartley@email.com)