Court Rules Against D.I.S.H; Comcast Makes Deal with Tivo at DVinfo.net

J. Stephen McDonald · August 19th, 2006, 07:33 PM

The latest development in the patent-infringement legal action of Tivo Vs. D.I.S.H., is that a court has ordered D.I.S.H. to turn off most of their customers' DVRs, a decision that will surely be appealed. Also, it has been announced that Comcast has made a DVR licensing aggreement with Tivo, that will begin this Fall. I wonder and am apprehensive about what that will mean for Comcast customers. Will they be forced to use and pay for Tivo service? Or will Comcast just be paying Tivo some tribute money and maintain DVR service as it is? I want nothing to do with Tivo and my opinion of those who enjoy having them manage their TV recordings, is that they are the same bunch of folks who were never able to turn off the blinking 12:00 on their VCRs.

Boyd Ostroff · August 19th, 2006, 08:32 PM

Actually it has already been blocked:

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060818/tivo_echostar.html?.v=12

Quote:

DALLAS (AP) -- EchoStar Communications Corp. rushed to a federal appeals court Friday in a successful bid to avoid shutting down more than 3 million digital video recorders used by customers of its Dish satellite-TV service.

They were discussing this on Bloomberg Friday, and the analyst felt it was highly unlikely anyones' DVR would be shut down.

I own some stock in Comcast, and that TiVo deal is not new, it was announced a long time ago (like a year? maybe) but there was a long lead time involved. Basically (IIRC) it allowed Comcast to use TiVo software in their cable boxes.

Quote:

A deal with Comcast Corp., which has more than 23 million cable-TV subscribers, is set to begin in the fourth quarter. TiVo is still chasing deals with the other leading cable providers.

Heath McKnight · August 19th, 2006, 08:55 PM

That's weird...my wife and I just switched to DirecTV.

heath

Greg Boston · August 19th, 2006, 10:44 PM

Geez... I must be living under a rock. I didn't know anything about this. As a long time DISH Network customer with one of those DVR's, I would not have been at all happy to find mine disabled.

I'll have to pay more attention.

-gb-

Jeff Phelps · August 19th, 2006, 11:59 PM

Me too Greg. I forgot what it's like to watch tv when the shows are actually on. Man what an adjustment it will be to go back to the old ways. I'll have to build my own setup if they do this to us. I won't pay Tivo for their crappy service. There's a reason why they've never turned a profit despite having a great technology idea. I won't go back to Directv either. Their customer service is not good where I live.

Chris Barcellos · August 20th, 2006, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff Phelps

Me too Greg. I forgot what it's like to watch tv when the shows are actually on. Man what an adjustment it will be to go back to the old ways. I'll have to build my own setup if they do this to us. I won't pay Tivo for their crappy service. There's a reason why they've never turned a profit despite having a great technology idea. I won't go back to Directv either. Their customer service is not good where I live.

I ve had DirecTV for 7 years or so, and the TIVO for about 4 now. Actually have two TIVO's. No problems, but it is all self installed, so I'd have no one to blame but myself.... My wife could not live with out it, and I, well it would would be a trial...

By the way, I am actually expecting to see some riots brake out in the streets....

Jeff Phelps · August 20th, 2006, 01:49 AM

I won't go into the problems I've had with Directv here but they are legion. It wasn't anything to do with the equipment. That was pretty straightforward. It's the way they change the rules on payments and expect you to think they're "giving" you things that you've been paying for. Specifically sports channels was something the claimed to be "giving" me despite the fact I paid them money for the service.

I think most of the problem was with the company they farmed out their service to because they didn't have enough capital at first. I had one of their systems from the trial period and they thought they could get away with murder pretty much the entire time I dealt with them.

I've been with Dish for years now. I'll never go back for any reason.

Boyd Ostroff · August 20th, 2006, 06:01 AM

Well I moved to a place out in the woods recently where I can't get cable. So getting a satellite TV system was on my list, but I let it slide for awhile since I was busy with all the other stuff related to moving. Funny thing, after a couple weeks without any TV I realized that I wasn't missing anything and I had a lot more time for other things.

So I've decided to wait until I really miss it enough to get Dish or DirecTV. Hasn't happened yet and over 3 months have passed. Now I do watch DVD's regularly, but it's always something that I really want to see and not just whatever happens to be on. It has been an interesting experiment for me; I'm sure I'll cave in and get something when Fall or Winter comes around and I don't spend as much time outside. But in the meantime I feel a little like a junkie who has realized that he doesn't really need a constant "fix" to be happy :-)

Greg Boston · August 20th, 2006, 09:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Boyd Ostroff

Well I moved to a place out in the woods recently where I can't get cable. So getting a satellite TV system was on my list, but I let it slide for awhile since I was busy with all the other stuff related to moving. Funny thing, after a couple weeks without any TV I realized that I wasn't missing anything and I had a lot more time for other things.

I have to admit that my DISH receiver gets very little view time. Living in a major metropolitan area allows me to pull in all the local channels OTA in HD. Since I don't have DISH in HD, it's kind of a letdown to watch the satellite stuff. I keep it mainly for major news events but the only reason I got it in the first place was that my local cable company didn't offer The Golf Channel which I wanted access to.

All in all, I could probably live without it as you are doing.

-gb-

August 19th, 2006, 07:33 PM	#1
J. Stephen McDonald Major Player Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Eugene, Oregon Posts: 909	Court Rules Against D.I.S.H; Comcast Makes Deal with Tivo The latest development in the patent-infringement legal action of Tivo Vs. D.I.S.H., is that a court has ordered D.I.S.H. to turn off most of their customers' DVRs, a decision that will surely be appealed. Also, it has been announced that Comcast has made a DVR licensing aggreement with Tivo, that will begin this Fall. I wonder and am apprehensive about what that will mean for Comcast customers. Will they be forced to use and pay for Tivo service? Or will Comcast just be paying Tivo some tribute money and maintain DVR service as it is? I want nothing to do with Tivo and my opinion of those who enjoy having them manage their TV recordings, is that they are the same bunch of folks who were never able to turn off the blinking 12:00 on their VCRs. __________________ Steve McDonald https://onedrive.com/?cid=229807ce52dd4fe0 http://www.flickr.com/photos/22121562@N00/ http://www.vimeo.com/user458315/videos

August 19th, 2006, 08:55 PM	#3
Heath McKnight MPS Digital Studios Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Palm Beach County, Florida Posts: 8,531	That's weird...my wife and I just switched to DirecTV. heath __________________ My Final Cut Pro X blog

August 19th, 2006, 10:44 PM	#4
Greg Boston Wrangler Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: DFW area, TX Posts: 6,117 Images: 1	Geez... I must be living under a rock. I didn't know anything about this. As a long time DISH Network customer with one of those DVR's, I would not have been at all happy to find mine disabled. I'll have to pay more attention. -gb-

August 19th, 2006, 11:59 PM	#5
Jeff Phelps Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Franklin Furnace, Ohio Posts: 74	Me too Greg. I forgot what it's like to watch tv when the shows are actually on. Man what an adjustment it will be to go back to the old ways. I'll have to build my own setup if they do this to us. I won't pay Tivo for their crappy service. There's a reason why they've never turned a profit despite having a great technology idea. I won't go back to Directv either. Their customer service is not good where I live.

August 20th, 2006, 01:49 AM	#7
Jeff Phelps Regular Crew Join Date: May 2006 Location: Franklin Furnace, Ohio Posts: 74	I won't go into the problems I've had with Directv here but they are legion. It wasn't anything to do with the equipment. That was pretty straightforward. It's the way they change the rules on payments and expect you to think they're "giving" you things that you've been paying for. Specifically sports channels was something the claimed to be "giving" me despite the fact I paid them money for the service. I think most of the problem was with the company they farmed out their service to because they didn't have enough capital at first. I had one of their systems from the trial period and they thought they could get away with murder pretty much the entire time I dealt with them. I've been with Dish for years now. I'll never go back for any reason.

August 20th, 2006, 06:01 AM	#8
Boyd Ostroff Wrangler Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Mays Landing, NJ Posts: 11,802	Well I moved to a place out in the woods recently where I can't get cable. So getting a satellite TV system was on my list, but I let it slide for awhile since I was busy with all the other stuff related to moving. Funny thing, after a couple weeks without any TV I realized that I wasn't missing anything and I had a lot more time for other things. So I've decided to wait until I really miss it enough to get Dish or DirecTV. Hasn't happened yet and over 3 months have passed. Now I do watch DVD's regularly, but it's always something that I really want to see and not just whatever happens to be on. It has been an interesting experiment for me; I'm sure I'll cave in and get something when Fall or Winter comes around and I don't spend as much time outside. But in the meantime I feel a little like a junkie who has realized that he doesn't really need a constant "fix" to be happy :-)