Thought you all would be interested in this article from NewsDay. Printed today:
MEDIA / TiVo Puts Fan in Driver's Sofa
BY: Steve Zipay
EDITION: NASSAU AND SUFFOLK
SECTION: Sports
DATE: 08-13-1999
A81
While watching the first inning of the Padres-Mets game yesterday
afternoon, the doorbell rang. FedEx or UPS, I presumed. With my luck, I
figured to miss some crucial plays as I scampered downstairs to sign for
the package.
Not this time.
With the Mets leading 1-0, and Robin Ventura stepping in against
Woody Williams, I hit an orange pause button on my TiVo remote control
and stopped the action. That's right, halted the live telecast.
When I returned about three minutes later, I pressed "pause" again
and saw what I missed: Ventura's entire at-bat, which ended with a
sacrifice fly to center on a full count and Darryl Hamilton's solo homer
to right on a 3-and-1 pitch to up the Mets' lead to 3-0. Then I hit a
"jump" button to catch up to the real-time action.
In the fourth, with the bases loaded, one out and Padres catcher Ben
Davis up, the phone beckoned. I forgot to pause and the next thing I
knew, the inning was over. So I rewound and watched the nifty 5-4-3
double play - in super slow-motion.
So how in the name of Stephen Hawking did I freeze, slow down and
rewind live telecasts of baseball games?
Easy. I was testing TiVo, Philips Electronics' personal TV
receiver, which I had hooked up between my home satellite dish and TV a
few weeks ago. TiVo, which connects to cable as well, will be available
in stores in two weeks.
By recording on a hard drive, TiVo is a dramatic enhancement for
sports viewers - or for anyone who watches TV with any regularity. In
an expanding universe of choices, TiVo not only gives a viewer more
control while watching, it also allows the viewer to record and store
programs the viewer prefers through a "preference engine." Once the
software is programmed through a series of menus, TiVo searches through
dozens of channels and thousands of programs to do so.
And along with the normal recording, TiVo's "Season Pass" function
automatically records and stores these preferences whenever these
programs are broadcast, similar to video-on-demand. After a while, TiVo
also learns what you like and suggests shows that match your interests.
"Our motto is, `Life is too short for bad TV,' " said Morgan
Guenther, TiVo's vice president of business development. "Think of it
as a la carte sports. In our trials, when the audiences are watching
NFL games and they pause, rewind and pick up live again, they lose it,
they go crazy."
Unlike ACTV's Individualized TV, which I sampled last month in
Texas, you can call up stats or isolate on one player during a ballgame
with TiVo. ACTV does offer it but as part of a special production extras
with Fox Sports Net telecasts. Viewers need a digital set-top box for
ACTV from a local cable operator, and then pay $10 a month. Both offer
instant replay, but with ACTV, you can't do anything but change channels
if you prefer to avoid commercials.
It took me about 45 minutes to connect TiVo's VCR-sized box, and
TiVo took another hour or so to program itself through toll-free phone
calls via a phone line I placed in an existing wall jack.
Glitches? A few. Without a splitter, TiVo can record only one
program at a given time. You can only watch the program being recorded
or any one previously recorded. Baseball games are automatically
allotted three hours, so one Yankee game TiVo recorded cut off in the
seventh inning. That can be adjusted by specifying the time you want the
recording to end. For American League games, I've tried four hours. I'd
do the same for pro football.
Also, programs are generally stored for two days unless you
specifically ask to save them longer. My receiver had a 14-hour storage
capacity for videos of "basic" quality. However, TiVo recommends sports
and movies be recorded on "high" or "best" quality, which uses about
twice as much space. You can, however, download to a VCR.
Guenther envisions upgrades. "Going forward, you will have 100 hours
or more of disc space at reduced prices," he said. "In four or five
years, all television will be watched through a hard disc."
Now the rub. TiVo is expensive. A lifetime subscription to TiVo
service and a receiver with a 14-hour recording time is $698. A 30-hour
receiver with the lifetime subscription is $1,198. Each seems to be a
better deal than purchasing a 14-hour receiver for $499 or a 30-hour
receiver for $999 and then paying $9.95 per month for the service.
Hello, Santa? I'm making my list.
KEYWORDS: COLUMN. TELEVISION. BASEBALL. METS. |
