This is disappointing news from PVRBlog if accurate. In the current release of the OS, Tivo will “redflag” certain shows from being transfered via Tivo2Go and will automatically delete after seven days. From the email of one Tivo subscriber, Tivo was “redflagging” reruns of the Simpsons.

If a rerun of the Simpsons is being “redflagged”, I’m not sure what content won’t be “redflagged”. In my area, the Simpsons is shown at least three times a day on a couple different channels. If a show is in syndication, the copyright holders want to make sure it retains it’s shelf life. If it’s an original broadcast, copyright holders will want to protect its asset so it can make money in syndication. Besides the weather channel, I’m not sure who won’t make use of this feature.

Given the amount of time I devote to TV, I watch the majority of my shows at least 7 days after they were broadcast. While likely not the average viewer, I tend to go on a television bender for a certain series that has been built up on my Tivo, and watch several episodes at a time. If this “redflagging” becomes ubiquitous, there’s not much reason for me to have a Tivo.

I’ll see how this feature plays out, but just in case, it’s time to bone up on the latest news of Do-It-Yourself DVR at Build Your Own PVR.com

UPDATE: It looks like this was a problem with the broadcaster accidently sending a red flag for the show so it’s still unclear how often this functionality will be used in the future. From the sound of it, it’s up to the broadcaster rather than Tivo now that they’ve add this functionality to their product.

UPDATE 2: As Megazone points out in his comment below, Tivo may not be the only vendor implementing this technology.

Via PVRBlog, Christmas may come early this year.

This is something that if implemented well, will make my Tivo much more useful.

According to CBS News, Tivo has inked a deal with the Independent Film Channel to allow users to upload video content from the Internet to their Tivo. For some beta testers, the trial will begin next week:

TiVo has struck a deal with the Independent Film Channel to transmit several of the cable channel’s shows through a broadband connection as part of a The deal would allow TiVo customers to download Independent Film Channel shows, even before they’re shown on IFC. It’s the latest attempt to wed television and the Internet, despite some technological hurdles. A group of customers were asked to take part in the test and those who chose to participate will begin receiving the IFC shows next week, said TiVo spokesman Elliot Sloane.

It’s wishful thinking but I hope Tivo opens this functionality up and puts the functionality in their Tivo Desktop application to allow users to upload their own home movies and Tivo files they previously downloaded using the Tivo Desktop application.

Regardless, it should be handy feature if they can ink more deals with more content providers. If Tivo is serous, it certainly turns up the heat for Akimbo.

Tivo announced that they’ve hired Tom Rogers as its new CEO. With Tom Rogers track record at NBC and Primedia, it’s a good indication that Tivo will stay focused on building partnerships.

Ed Bott isn’t too thrilled about it.

Via PVRBlog, PCWorld has a great list of tricks you can do with your Tivo, some of which I hadn’t seen before.

There is good financial news for Tivo investors as reported by CNet. Tivo beat analysts estimates and narrowed it’s expected losses for the quarter. It also increased its subscriber base by 339,000 users (72,000 of which are non-DirecTv subscribers).

Good news for Tivo.

Via PVRBlog, Tivo Desktop 2.1 is out and it is either good news or bad news depending on your viewpoint. The good news is that it support Microsoft Portable Media Center devices so you can transfer shows to those devices. The bad news is that it blacklists certain apps that made it easy for people to strip off the DRM encryption.

More at Engadget

One of TivoBlog.com’s bloggers laments the need to delete his favorite shows because he’s running out of space and asks for a way out? From the comments to the post, most suggest hacking the Tivo in one fashion or another since there is no standard way of backing up shows unless you have a model with DVD Recording capablity (or purchase Sonic’s MyDVD which can burn DVD’s of Tivo2Go files). There should be an easier way.

One of my many frustrations with Tivo2go is that it is uni-directional. Uploading files back to the Tivo isn’t exactly rocket science as Tivo hackers can attest, and by having the Tivo verify the Tivo2go encryption before uploading, Tivo can ensure that people aren’t uploading pirated files. That certainly would help TivoBlog solve his problem.

If that doesn’t float Tivo’s boat, why not offer an external USB hard drive as an upgrade while coincidentally, create an additional revenue opportunity for Tivo? Those USB ports are just sitting there waiting for something to be plugged into them (besides a network card), and with a few hardware tweaks, they could create a proprietary standard preventing users from using a standard external USB drive.

If you use Tivo2Go to download your shows on to a PC and want them burned on to a DVD, Sonic’s MyDVD is the only solution that has been licensed to do so. Sonic has a 15 day trial that can be freely downloaded. That’s a smart move by Sonic to get people hooked on the functionality.

TivoBlog has some early impressions and a minor misstep during install, but plans to do a full review in the upcoming days. We’ll be doing a review as soon as we’ve cleared our plate of of other “in progress” reviews that have been building up at our TVHarmony underground testing facilities.

Thomas Hawk has an excellent post discussing what the value of Tivo could mean to Comcast’s bottom line. It all comes down to retaining customers or reducing “churn”, as the post puts it:

According to Macke the churn rate for DirecTV/TiVo users is .2% per month. “That’s one full percentage point lower than the levels of churn for Comcast DVR
customers (to take one example and please note that this rate isn’t stated
openly by Comcast or any other cable cos… but it can be worked out from the
information they do give).”

Macke does some back of the envelope math and concludes that by reducing churn 1% that Comcast would save about $60 million per month – that’s a lot of dough.

I think there were probably many reasons why this deal made sense for Comcast, but if it is accurate that customer acquistion costs are $800 for Comcast, keeping those customers without dropping rates is a key concern. It’s no wonder that Comcast gives away free its OnDemand VOD service, something that gives cable operators an advantage over satellite. As long as you keep writing those digital cable checks each month and don’t switch services, Comcast is happy. If it takes Tivo-lite to reduce that chance of switching, it’s a small overall price to pay.