But consider: ReplayTV (for example) developed the technology one time, then spread it out amongst all the machines sold. They had to do some math and some predictions, but still. One time cost. And it became a one-time cost to the end user as well. Once acquired, the technology demanded no ongoing licensing fees. The end user could use it as much, or as little, as he wanted.
Now ponder the Tablo situation: if indeed Nuvyyo is ongoing renting space and time in the Amazon cloud, and gets charged dynamically based on the amount of Amazon cloud computing used, how does Nuvyyo pass that along reasonably to the end user?
You can’t charge everyone the same monthly amount. I guess you could try, but the guy recording 10 shows a week uses FAR less of the ongoing cloud services than does the guy recording 100 shows a week. Or hours. Or whatever.
This now becomes a utility that gets charged based on how much the users uses–that is, if Nuvyyo is simply “passing on” the costs as so many here are excusing them for.
But if they charge a flat monthly fee, that’s not “passing on the costs”. That’s a business model for profit.
For me, the automated commercial skip becomes a nice to have feature rather than a necessity, if there’s an additional charge for the service. Too many free alternatives such as using the thumbnails to FF through commercials, or downloading my recordings and using software such as MCEbuddy to remove the commercials. Some percentage of the time, thumbnails fail to get generated, usually when I’m recording 4 shows simultaneously, so commercial skip won’t work on those shows. Anyway, just wanted to weigh in with my $.02 that automated commercial skip probably isn’t an important enough feature for me that I’d be willing to pay for it, unless the cost was really low, and even then…
For me, whenever you are providing a service, you are always looking to add features or functionality and there are always going to be the cost associated so, recouping some of the cost is understandable to a point. However, by adding features or functionality that your customer base want, will only aid in acquiring more customers so, you can look at it as being just the cost of doing business as well…
Just out of curiosity, does Tivo charge extra for their commercial skip feature, or is it included in their subscription cost? I don’t recall seeing that they charged extra. Anyway, it’s up to Nuvyyo whether they want to charge for the feature, but again, it’s probably not something that worth paying extra for in my case.
They don’t. But have you SEEN their subscription costs?
Tivo’s “press D to skip” only works on shows that have completed recording. And some shows are excluded from the feature. There’s also 30-second skip (ahead) and that’s available all the time. So if I’m watching a hockey game on delay (let it record for an hour before starting watching) I can use the 30 second skip for commercials and intermission. You learn how long the breaks are. Usually 5 presses gets through the standard commercial breaks and 30 blasts through in intermission
The TiVo “all in” lifetime subscription cost is high…and lives and dies per individual TiVo. But…if you shop, you can also get it for a very fair price. They were selling refurb lifetime bolts for $280 a few weeks ago. Tablo generally wins with guide subscription pricing as you don’t need any additional service to use as many clients/TVs as your Tablo hardware can support.
Let’s see, Tivo Roamio OTA with 1TB drive and lifetime sub is $350. By comparison, Tablo Quad with 1TB drive and lifetime sub is…$240 for the device plus $150 for the service, total $390.
Tablo (which is OTA only) is $40 more than Roamio OTA, apples to apples.
Each has its pros and cons; pick one. But you won’t pick one based on price, that’s for sure. If you do, you choose the Tivo. And you get quite a bit for that–including their level of commercial skip, no extra charge.
If Nuvyyo charges for commercial skip, they’ll have to do it at a granular level. It’s not fair at all to light users to charge them the same as heavy users, if their story continues to be “but…but…but…Amazon Web Servers! Cost money!”
And how is Tablo’s commercial skip described, hmmmm? First, the show must finish recording. Then, the Tablo uses up a tuner just to generate the thumbnails (weird). Then it uploads those thumbnails to the cloud, and 20 or so minutes later they deliver the playlist.
Tivo has apps on their boxes to access streaming services, e.g., Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. While they work, I’ve always found them not quite as nice as the same apps on other streaming devices like Roku, ATV4, etc.
Tivo did build a strong product, integrating both DVR and popular streaming services into one box–a single remote (even an optional one with keyboard), a single TV input, AND–the cherry on top–a single integrated guide, so that you can search for something and Tivo will show you wherever it is in your services–DVR, TV guide, Netflix, Hulu, etc.
Last I heard, they were going to build an app for Roku et al. to answer the demand for that–and really, to replace the need for their additional cost Mini hardware.
Is Roamio still in production? I’m only seeing Bolts on TiVo’s site. And a 1TB Bolt with lifetime sub is $500 ($249 for the Bolt and $249 for their “All-In”… which is lifetime)
Even before Rivo bought Tivo, I thought Tivo wanted out of the hardware business. Hardware is a commodity business. You have to sell a ton of units to recover R&D costs.
But did the new Tivo recently announce they had exited the iron business? Could that affect the availability of products in the supply chain. Or is this just another bit of fake news.
I don’t know how ReplayTV did it. I have a little insight as to how Tablo is. No matter what the situation someone is paying for the processing. That may mean higher initial hardware costs and paying for the extra electricity to do the processing. Probably how ReplayTV did it. Alternately in the case of Tablo we are uploading data that must be processed.
I can’t really debate the actual cost or price model since Tablo doesn’t even know what that will be.
It’s totally unimportant how ReplayTV did it. The obsession with ReplayTV defies logic.
Sonicblue went bankrupt. The companies assets, including intellectual properties, were sold off. If said commercial skip was so great it would have survived and be the industry leader in commercial skip. Most people have never heard of ReplayTV or Sonicblue.
