One reason no DVDRs with HDD yet...or ever?

In April 2006, TIVO won a lawsuit against Echostar for using TIVO's patented "Multimedia Time Warping System. The invention allows the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program."

Essentially, today's DVRs.

People in the know say this could affect all DVRs.

The suit was recently stayed, but only temporarily (Aug 06).

DirecTV recently signed up for 3 more years in a TIVO support deal, while it develops its own DVR. Should be interesting...TIVO lawyers are probably lurking. According to media, TIVO has many patents people haven't been paying much attention to.

Anyway, these legalities might explain the lack of new HDD units, since they might be considered "Multimedia Time Warping Systems"???

The patent TIVO won on was not their "Guide" but on the basic function of our HDD recorders, as I read this Abstract from the actual patent #6,233,389:

"A multimedia time warping system. The invention allows the user to store selected television broadcast programs while the user is simultaneously watching or reviewing another program. A preferred embodiment of the invention accepts television (TV) input streams in a multitude of forms, for example, National Television Standards Committee (NTSC) or PAL broadcast, and digital forms such as Digital Satellite System (DSS), Digital Broadcast Services (DBS), or Advanced Television Standards Committee (ATSC). The TV streams are converted to an Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) formatted stream for internal transfer and manipulation and are parsed and separated it into video and audio components. The components are stored in temporary buffers. Events are recorded that indicate the type of component that has been found, where it is located, and when it occurred. The program logic is notified that an event has occurred and the data is extracted from the buffers. The parser and event buffer decouple the CPU from having to parse the MPEG stream and from the real time nature of the data streams which allows for slower CPU and bus speeds and translate to lower system costs. The video and audio components are stored on a storage device and when the program is requested for display, the video and audio components are extracted from the storage device and reassembled into an MPEG stream which is sent to a decoder. The decoder converts the MPEG stream into TV output signals and delivers the TV output signals to a TV receiver. User control commands are accepted and sent through the system. These commands affect the flow of said MPEG stream and allow the user to view stored programs with at least the following functions: reverse, fast forward, play, pause, index, fast/slow reverse play, and fast/slow play."

When I read this and the 2nd quote below, their invention applies directly to CPU-driven hard drives as we know them today:

"The parser and event buffer decouple the CPU from having to parse the MPEG stream and from the real time nature of the data streams which allows for slower CPU and bus speeds and translate to lower system costs."

They could probably apply/extend their patent to a RAM disc with these words:

"The video and audio components are stored on a storage device..."

The future will be very interesting.

TIVO's "time warp" patent was issued on May 15, 2001. That may be a factor in how far they could carry their protection fight... similar systems that were developed after that date only, or ....???

I think they're set to win up to $90M from Echostar. If they actually get it, they have some playin' money to spend on more lawyers. Maybe they'll settle for $1 from everyone who bought one of those illegal HDD units?

Ooops! The TIVO patent specifically mentions "VCR" as a storage device but suggests that could easily be a DVD or DVD-RAM recording device. (This was in 2001.)

They also acknowledge a prior patent...U.S. Pat. No. 5,371,551 issued to Logan et al., on Dec. 6, 1994...that "teaches a method for concurrent video recording and playback using a hard drive," but difficult/expensive to implement 'cause of high rate of video processing required.

One TIVO innovation was adding "a parser and event buffer that decouple the CPU from having to parse the MPEG stream and from the real time nature of the data streams. This decoupling allows for slower CPU and bus speeds which translate to lower system costs."

One particularly pointed Claim is #5: "The process of claim 1, wherein the storing and extracting of said video and audio components from said storage device are performed simultaneously."

Thankfully, they probably don't have enough money to sue everybody!