DIRECTV’s new PVR Ditches TiVo
DIRECTV will no longer be selling TiVo-based PVR’s to their customers, but will be going it alone come this fall. So the question is: can DIRECTV do better than TiVo? Can it match TiVo? Can it even come close to TiVo?
Well, TVPredictions thinks it’ll give the old TiVo a run for the money with some cool new features. Like a 90 minute rewind buffer, 3 times the norm. Frame-by-frame advance, which is great to catch those little details. Bookmarks, to return to certain parts of shows again later. And the on-screen program guide will tell you if a show is broadcast in widescreen or not, which is great.
Now, from reading a manual it’s pretty hard to tell how easy a device is to use, and that’s one of TiVo’s main strengths. So hopefully DIRECTV’s future PVR customers get a nice machine.
The DIRECTV PVR subscription will be $5.99/month, not including the hardware.
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August 25th, 2005 at 11:35 am
Wish I could find the article, but I could have sworn I read recently that DirecTV would begin offering their DVR in addition to the TiVo, not instead of - they are still be under contract with TiVo until 2007, but may simply stop promoting the TiVo boxes heavily.
I have loved having a DirecTiVo unit the last few years, and pray they either continue to offer TiVo boxes or offer a great DVR themselves. 90 minutes of rewing, frame advance (TiVo already has this) and bookmarks are no substitute for ease of use!