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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Friday, September 10, 2004

TiVo, ReplayTV agree to limits

SiliconValley.com: "The makers of TiVo and ReplayTV digital video recorders have agreed to limit how long consumers can keep pay-for-view movies stored on future versions of the VCR-like devices. The new technology also will allow Hollywood movie studios and broadcasters to regulate how often movies purchased through pay-for-view services can be watched. Digital video recorders that recognize these new copy restrictions will begin appearing in the spring of 2005. But it could be years before entertainment companies begin to take advantage of the technology, according to ReplayTV President Bernie Sepaniak ... television screen will display warnings that a pay-per-view movie a viewer is about to rent comes with certain restrictions. The limitations are the trade-off for advanced services, such as video-on-demand, he said ... The copy protection technology also will begin appearing next year on other consumer electronics products capable of recording television shows and movies, such as personal computer 'media centers' (i.e. Windows XP Media Center Edition-based PCs --Paul)."

It's a bit sad to me that, as personal video recording (PVR) technology finally takes off, consumers won't ever know how cool it once was. I was an early TiVo customer, though I returned the box because of lousy picture quality, and my family has been using a Media Center PC for TV and PVR since the first usable beta in mid-2002 (indeed, my kids don't even understand the concept of live TV or, thankfully, what commercials are all about). But the PVR functionality on a Media Center PC (or TiVo, or whatever) is clearly being limited over time as more and more people sign up. That's too bad: Instead of making it worse in order to support aging payment methods, TV studios should be concentrating on new ways to make money. For example, I'd rather see unlimited pay-per-view of every show ever made than be able to record and store TV shows forever, and I suspect many others would as well (how many times can you watch the pilot episode of your favorite TV show, hoenestly?). Perhaps --- ahem --- a subscription offering is needed. Anyway, in the same manner that iTunes and its ilk will kill the dated album format for good, I suspect that PVR will kill the way we watch TV today (i.e. having to be in front of the boob tube at a certain time and having to sit through commercials). It's only a matter of time.

[ Posted at 4:59 PM | Permalink ]