TiVo cancels press preso for informal product demos

We headed over to a scheduled TiVo press presentation here at the LVCC to discover they'd cancelled the bulk of the scheduled presentation in favor of a very brief four-point spiel and one-on-one tours around TiVo product stations. When asked about the cancellation they indicated they felt they'd made a lot of announcements in the weeks and months leading up to CES and wanted to avoid over-saturation, ending up in favor of showing off some of their newer products in a more informal hands-on demo setting.

The talking points from the uber-brief presentation included a statement about the magic of TiVo's cable approach being due to its hardware independence and the partnership with Comcast involving some interesting upcoming software development. They also professed a committment to not leaving analog subscribers behind, with some interesting arrangements on the horizon for those analog subs not planning to make the leap to digital anytime soon. Future directions include working on developing the viewing experience in order to target content ever more precisely towards individual viewers' tastes, such that the kinds of programs you prefer to watch tend to find you more easily. The last blurb was a bit about how TiVo functionality is apparently ranked incredibly high for people considering adopting a new cable subscription or changing cable providers -- higher than TiVo themselves had apparently expected. After the brief shpiel they let us loose on the floor to snag hands-on demos from TiVo staff.

They had stations set up to show off the TiVo and Yahoo integration, the PSP and iPod integration, and the Wireless G USB network adapter. The TiVo/Yahoo partnership includes support for content downloads on top of the integration with traffic, weather and photos, including support for podcast and videoblog downloads (Rocketboom, anyone?). PSP and iPod integration services for TiVoToGo are expected to be fully launched by mid-2006. When asked about Mac support for TiVo Desktop software, the stock answer appeared to be "mid-2006," so Mac users sit tight on your TiVoToGo compatibility. Overall, nothing we haven't seen before and no big announcements.

[AJ @ Jan 5th 2006 5:43PM]

Nothing about the HD cable card 2.0 box??? Whats up with that!

[Tulula @ Jan 5th 2006 5:58PM]

Does anyone find it the slightest bit ironic, that the image on the TV set at the Tivo booth has a commercial running?



Isn't that the draw of Tivo to skip commercials?



( I believe that is Jeremy Irons in the commmercial for 'Casanova', staring Heath Ledger, and Sienna Miller ).



-Alanis Morissette



p.s. ironic, dontcha think!

[Brad @ Jan 5th 2006 5:59PM]

Translation: Comcast box and CC box are way behind schedule. Sigh. Another year of putting up with my crappy Comcast DVR.

[TB @ Jan 5th 2006 6:01PM]

Well, you would think they could at least address the HD issues somewhat. When do they plan on providing a stand alone HD Tivo with CableCard support????

[Dan (thoughtfix) @ Jan 5th 2006 6:03PM]

Editors can't keep up with the coverage? It's spelled "spiel."



;) LOVE the CES coverage this year. Much awesomeness.

[DJ @ Jan 5th 2006 6:29PM]

I think something is up. There should be no reason not to be showing off anything. I think we will now definately hear something about Google/Tivo on friday now.



They should at least of shown something Comcast related or HD related. I think a big announcement is coming tommorrow. wrong show not to show signs of anything. I think you will find Tivo part of the Google Pack.

[Mike @ Jan 5th 2006 6:42PM]

Very disappointing. I have a Tivo series 2 and love it. I was recently forced to move my beloved Tivo to the bedroom so that I could use a SA8300hd as my main DVR b/c the Tivo doesn't have HD. The 8300's software is terrible, but it has HD and dual Tuner 2 features that are necessary today. Tivo has been promising us a cablecard HD unit since last CES. With no product demo this year I am doubtfull we will ever see one.

[Forrest @ Jan 5th 2006 7:01PM]

I hope DJ's right. I really want some info on the Series3(what I'm calling it) DVR. It had better have dual tuners with at least one of them being an HD tuner and a cable card slot. The Series2 was introduced in the first half of 2003 if I remember correctly. 2 1/2 plus years is an awful long time to wait for a new model of a consumer electronics product!

[MegaZone @ Jan 5th 2006 7:14PM]

I'm not sure how the Engadget guys missed it, or if TiVo was hiding it at the time, but the Series2 HDTV CableCARD 2.0 unit is on display in their booth and it is *SWEET*. I've posted info here: http://www.tivolovers.com/

[Davis Freeberg @ Jan 5th 2006 8:15PM]

Seems kind of funny that they are cancelling a detailed presentation that they took the time to schedule despite knowing weeks and months ago that they had already released this info. Let me get this straight, the big story at CES this year is TV and TiVo doesn't want to "over-saturate" their product? Sounds like funny business to me too. I will be shocked if we don't see Tom Rogers at Google's keynote tommorrow.

[JD @ Jan 6th 2006 11:16AM]

My divorce from Tivo was hard. It felt bad. But eventually, I realized that Tivo had in fact abandoned me by not keeping up with the rest of the tech world and allowing me to have a unit for HD recording and Cox cable.



Cox cable is happy to accept my money for HD DVR service and I have adapted. My Tivo is retired to the garage with my VCR. You missed the boat and the entire port, Tivo. I couldn't wait forever.

[mike @ Jan 6th 2006 1:49PM]

Did they have a prototype of the PSP/iPod integration? If so, would love to hear your initial thoughts on that.