What are they thinking over there at ReplayTV??? - Page 8  

I have a DCT 5100 with HD signals from Comcast, and a Replay 5040. It controls the 5100 just fine, and records all channels (even HD channels, though only the downconverted version the 5100 puts out on svideo - but that's WAY better than normal comcast quality).

The right code is 0476. See the DCT-5100 FAQ linked to from the 5100 topic in HDTV Hardware.

Hmmm... the latest clue suggests... maybe we can access the AVS Forums through the RTV. Instead of upgrading their customer support, they will just give us direct access to people who actually KNOW what is going on with the units :D

Sounds like to me this is DVArchive-like functionality to be bundled in - not the server side of DVArchive, but MPEG extraction to a PC. Something WE can do now and that Tivo can't do (officially anyway).

Unless they've changed the codes, a WebTV wireless keyboard works great.
You can pick them up for a song at garage sales.

RTV-sanctioned DVArchive doesn't sound Mom-friendly to me. I keep scratching my head thinking about what Moms would like and I keep coming back to these main points:

1) It must be easy to use
2) It must be something Mom would want to use

Also, according to RB's post, it should be something TiVo doesn't have (or why else would it make someone choose RTV over TiVo). This rules out buffer capture. It also rules out the infamous status bar.

Assuming Mom had a techie son that could set her RTV up on a network properly for her, what might she be able to do with it that is easy and she might make use of?

I am thinking this:

Web browsing--of a sort (WE are able to do it now). I am thinking some kind of dumbed-down portal (like AOL) might fly. You could surf to local weather and movie listings and such. The machine already knows where you live (Zip code), so the "RTV portal" could serve you up information that is specific to your area.

Mom has a VCR.
If I could dump a mini-series or group of shows to tape, she'd like that.
Did he say that "Mom" had to be the owner of the Replay, necessarily?
And it would be an enhancement of an existing feature and attempt to replace one that has been lost. (IVS)

This hint makes me think it is some alternate form of commercial advance / 30 second skip. WE could use commercial advance before, but THEY (5500 owners) won't be able to, so they need some alternative.

Maybe it is some kind of skip-to-next-scene-change, which would have a lot of uses aside from commercials, and if it works right could be pretty amazing. MOM could use it to skip over the subplots of the soap operas that don't interest her!

But I am disappointed that the idea of accelerated playback with audio is considered barking up the wrong tree. I think that would be a great feature.

I think someone may have mentioned this in an earlier post.

Live video communication via Webcam using the USB port. Of course this would mean that you would need a high speed internet connection (DSL/Cablemodem).

Right now we can only send prerecorded videos, and this would allow us to send a live video feed.

I've kept quiet about this one until now - Are y'all just nuts?

That's just..... unnatural!

This is kinda a repost of my comments from another thread, but it probably belongs here also:

Here's my prediction: Mom loves Friends and records everything that comes on. She can't find four episodes that she REALLY wants. Right now, she goes to a board somewhere and posts her request, hoping that someone, somewhere will IVS it to her.

Enter the lawyers, who tell ReplayTV that IVS is bad, bad, bad. ReplayTV says to itself "Self, what if we let the studios offer content via IVS (for a small fee, of course)?" So they do just that -- they team up with the TV studios to offer thousands of episodes from hundreds of shows, all for a mere $0.50 to $1.00 apiece. Mom picks the shows, downloads them, and her credit card gets dinged for the $$. Mom's happy, because she can get the shows she wants today. The studios are happy because they get some extra income that they would not have received if they made Mom wait until it came on TV.

This could also work for a PPV model, where Mom could download LOTR: Two Towers next week. Not sure the studios would go for that though.

Maybe it's a remote control rigged up with a barcode reader and a optional subscription to a paper TV guide so Mom can just flip through a book like she's used to and scan the shows she wants.

Maybe the scanning areas of the guide will be printed with special metal, chemical, or biological based ink so remote will read chemical/ect signatures in the ink. That way mom doesn't have to look at the ugly vertical black bars of a standard bar code.

Yes, that must be it. Why didn't we think of that before.


or maybe it lets mom type in the code listed by the shows in the LA times directly into the remote so she doesn't have to manuver through the massive time/channel matrix of the channel guide.

maybe the new units make perfectly planned and anynimous 'denial of service' attacks on Tivo servers so mom buys the one that still works.

Maybe it lets mom's kids unload their videocam movies into her replay.

Maybe the new units make two partitions: a public partition for home videos, and a private blackbox partition where shows go. That way TV content could not be shared but video cammera content could be brought in via USB, Local Net, or INTERnet.

quote:
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But I am disappointed that the idea of accelerated playback with audio is considered barking up the wrong tree.
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They said that about toasters and credit cards once... .to name a few.

I see your point though, but now I want it even more

Yes. THAT would be a great feature and one which would be really user friendly to operate. NOTHING would need to be changed from the way ReplayTV works now, but there'd be audio for the slower FF speeds. I'd buy it!

I've nailed it:
Streaming video.
Want to send Mom a video of Sally Ann's first baby tooth and its bloody hole? Upload it to Replay and you can stream it over the internet or your in-home LAN. No ReplayTV box needed to view the stream; Only a computer. These are the slave units we've been salivating for!

So, maybe the "Advance Quickskip" listed on the 5500 product web page is something different after all. Hmm...

When considering the accelerated playback, think about how much "buzz" it would have in the media. They would take the idea and sensationalize it like they do everything else. They beg for things they can sensationalize when looking for a story. This feature is a near-perfect iconic buzzword.

"Los Angeles, Calif. ReplayTV keeps innovation alive. .....

heck, you could have this whole board brainstorming over a catching name for it

OK, this is a long shot, but could this new feature be a DNNA licensed version of DV ARchive?

I mean, to many people, that would be a stunning "feature" - being able to stream your programs to your computer and perhaps burn to DVD.

If I was going to make something called 'advanced quickskip' I think I'd have it use the tables created similar to the ones made for commercial skip to advance one commercial per a button push. That might shut up the tv industry because each commercial gets a chance to be judged. The Judge would probably go for it. The customer might like it so they could actually stop for ones they like, or so they could see promos for shows at a different day and time. If not, that would be a good one

with that said, I'm wondering if it could be just that


fiction: business model rant
Interestingly, if that becaome the norm as an acceptible solution between tv broadcasters and PVR manufaturers, and especially if PRVs became 'unbranded'--meaning every cable box had one in there already and there was no room for replay and tivo--there might be a growing number of commercials between show segments. This would force the tv watcher to take an active role to commercial watching. if there was 10 commercials to be skipped though every break, the viewer would take on the roll of actively screening the commercials much like we screen our answering machine messages. New features like 'save commercial' might be added to the feature list. Perhaps a commercial watched from beginning to end would be worth 3 points and skipping/previewing the first 7 seconds of a commercial would be worht 1 point. Maybe it takes 15 points to get to the next segment of your show. Later, the commercials sent to you could be ones based on your interests. You could keep the shows on your harddrive as long as you wanted, but if you watched it again, you would have to still screen commercials. The commercials could be different every time even though you were watching the same show a second time. I know noone here wants to watch commercials, but it's an interesting business model. I'll cut off the idea stream here for now

Two things that would help me buy ReplayTV over Tivo

Burn DVD ability (but not too expensive).
Change the name - maybe t-Play with the blue light between the t and the play.

We have a ReplayTV and my wife tells everyone we have Tivo. This is because of the name recognition. I'm afraid her enthusiasm for our "Tivo" will have others getting a Tivo too!

Oh -

How about the ability to play Tivo and vice versa over the home net? So, if you already had a Tivo, you would not lose out buying a ReplayTV.

And what about that $100 sonicblue device that would allow you to play from your ReplayTV without having to buy another ReplayTV?

Oh - and a quieter fan. We returned our 2nd ReplayTV because it was too noisy for the bedroom

I definitely identify with that - If I'm talking HT with people, the question always comes up, "Do you have TiVo?" - "Uhh.. something like that."

Wow, all 12 pages in one sitting. I've seen some good ideas, and some just plain silly ideas.


Richard,
MP3 playback is something you can stamp on the box as a selling point. MP3 is still a buzz word and with the success of iTunes & the coming return of Napster legitimizing the industry, you'd be way out in front of Tivo. Honestly, I assumed that when SonicBlue put together the Rio/Go/Replay lineup of products that the goal was to combine the functionaliy of all the products into one home entertainment appliance. There is no reason that DNNA should back away from that goal.

A couple of things I'd like to see added are:

*Sleep Timer. Turn my TV off (or at least send black & no audio) after x minutes.
*MP3 playback (as stated above)
*Pick a wireless USB NIC, and write drivers for it already! I don't care which one, just pick one and write drivers for it. Hopefully, it would be an 802.11g NIC for maximum speed and compatibility.
*Some better conflict resolution would be great. The slaim with the 5.0 software was that you tell it to record your show, and it gets recorded. That would explain all the daily/weekly shows I have programed that have never recorded a single show.....
*A software switch to shut off that stupid blue night light. The box looks so attractive to my wife with the big hunk of black electrical tape over it.
*I like the idea of picture sharing as long as it doesn't invlude the modem users. I'd hate to have someone send me a ton of pictures that take forever to download over a modem.

*****Thank you for finally giving us the ability to rename shows. Nothing worse than the generic "manually recorded program from input B" title. Yuck!

Future:
*The 6000 model has to be HDTV compatible. I work in TV, and I can tell you that the FCC & Congress are gunning hard for the conversion to happen as close to the 2006 deadline as possible. Assuming a 2004 release of a 6000 model, who would buy a Replay with a life expecancy of 2 years (never mind the lifetime activation fees). Any future hardware has to be HD compatible (which I'm guessing would meen that you'd have to switch to MPEG4 unless the terrabyte hard drives are out by then).

*Web surfing would be a cool addition to future hardware. The internet appliance market is a dead market, so I'm not suggesting a WebTV type service when DNNA becomes an ISP. Just the ability to surf the web & send web based e-mail with an optional keyboard accessory. Obviously this would be limited to those with a broadband connection already. However it would be a cool feature to add that falls into the non-geek area of appeal, and would show well on the Best Buy sales floor too.

Overall, I'm happy with my Replays. I've purchased 3 of them so far (Showstopper, 4000 & 5000). Not happy to see the lack of interoperability between the 4000 & 5000 series totally abandoned. I'm hoping this latest software fixes some of the issues that you already know about. Stability has to come first.

Well, although I lurk frequently, I've finally thought of what I would consider a stunning feature that would cause me to purchase the new units.

Along the lines of PIP, however much better...a multiview (PoP/side by side) feature would be awesome. Football sundays would never be the same!

Hey ReplayRichard
How About two Tuners giving the user the convince of being able to record a station and watch another is a HUGE !

And most of all, THE PICTURE QUALITY
the only replay that had good Picture Quality was below the 3000 Series
after the 3000 series it was Noticeably WORSE.

So bad I sent 3, 4000 Units Back and purchased a 4500 series because it was a little better but still no where near the 2000 or 3000 series.
So during you Brain storming meetings about the product
Suggest better tuners with better quality then you will have a product worth pitching to new users.
Sorry to sound annoyed but as an owner of 4, 4500 units it was always a bone of contention for me.
Steve

I love the hype RB brings with a thread like this. :)

Bring it, RB! :D

Is this a feature that would give current TiVo owners a reason to switch? IYHO, of course....

Cool, checking in, it seems Richard has just confirmed FlipFlop's Advanced QuickSkip guess?? Skip through commercials one at a time, and ditto for program content scenes (for people used to DVD movie chapters)?

Question, how hard is the algorithm to do this (if they can't just rely on flags), and will the technology be provided by the same company who created CommercialAdvance and MovieAdvance?

Damn, I read flipflop's post and now I feel like a fool.

I wrote my post directly after rereading the same "...better way to do somwthing YOU could do before..." post too.

cow

Ok, Here is something that would impress my wife who is a non-tech, easily done and would chap the people to sued Replay plus let Replay
get some payback. My wife would think this is stunning for sure.

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