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Strategies & Market Trends : Gorilla and King Portfolio Candidates -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (4345)	7/28/1999 12:58:00 PM
From: Apollo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

LindyBill: NY Stew's response on the Gemstar Yahoo thread re: TiVo.. TiVo by: NY_Stew 2858 of 2868 Andrew, TiVo is a niche product IMO. $1000 (27 GB model) and it lacks Dolby Digital/AC3, IEEE 1394, 5C compliance and has neither the capability nor the capacity to record HDTV. Forget all the quality levels. It would be better stated as quality degradation level. The HD-VCR (High Definition) can record 2.5 hours of HDTV and the VHS & S-VHS backwards compatible cassettes (44 GB) cost $14.95. The subscription business model hasn't worked in the past and I can't see why it would work now especially at $9.95/month. Henry said that Gemstars proprietary RF guide service is 1/100th to 1/1000th as expensive in terms of cost as phone line services. In addition, it updates the service at a far greater frequency. Both of great significance. You need to think this equation through as far as the real-time pause. First, its an oximoron. You cannot pause real-time. If I were watching ABC at 8 PM and paused 10 minutes for a phone call the 30 minute show now ends at 8:40 but what about the 8:30 show I had planned to watch on NBC? Henry has been in talks with RePlay concerning patent infringement and/or licensing but not with TiVo as of yet. One thing I found in researching TiVo is that they attempt to get around some of Gemstars IP by recording based on time and not title. TiVo updates once a day so this will present a problem. From the June review by E-Town: >>My biggest problem was that TiVo refused to record both Politically Incorrect, which airs in New York from 12:05 to 12:35 a.m., and Late Night With Conan O'Brien, which airs from 12:35 to 1:35 a.m. Why? The listings claimed that PI ended at 12:40, thereby creating a 5-minute overlap even though PI, in fact, ends at 12:35.<< IMO, too expensive in terms of product and service. It complicates the viewing experience rather than making it more user-friendly. Two thumbs down. Regards Stew