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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (4932)	11/9/1998 1:06:00 PM
From: Z Analyzer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

More info on VCRs with disk drives along with a vote of confidence from Marc Andresson. With WebTV and VCRs with disk drives, we may win either way. Netscape Pioneer to Invest in Smart VCR By JOHN MARKOFF SAN FRANCISCO -- A new technology intended to replace the traditional home videocassette recorder is expected to get an important vote of confidence on Monday with the announcement that a co-founder of Netscape Communications Corp. has invested in one of two companies developing digital television recording systems. Marc Andreessen, who founded Netscape along with Jim Clark in 1995, will announce that he is investing in Replay Networks Inc., a small Silicon Valley start-up company and will join its board. Replay Networks, based in Palo Alto, is one of two Silicon Valley companies developing television systems that enable viewers to watch, store and retrieve programs in novel ways, including pausing while the programs are in progress and returning to the point of the pause as much as 30 minutes later. In December, the company will begin shipping the system, known as ReplayTV, which will enable users to record a complete program that is already in progress, to automatically record programs that meet a predetermined criterion -- for example, movies featuring a particular actor -- and to intelligently skip commercials. But just as important as the bells and whistles, Replay executives say, is that unlike most traditional VCRs, ReplayTV is simple enough to program without resorting to a manual. The system includes an interactive programming guide that the viewer can use to instruct the system to record all programs related to a particular sports team, for example, or to capture a particular program whenever it is on. "The thing that most people can relate to is never missing their favorite show," said Anthony Wood, Replay's founder and chief executive. "People have busy lives, and it's not worth it to program their VCR." Both Replay and Tivo Inc., based in Sunnyvale, are trying to adapt a strategy of Internet Web portal companies like Yahoo and Excite to television by offering viewers the ability to create custom TV channels. Both companies' technologies are essentially powerful computers with large hard drives that can store seven to 40 hours of digitized video. And both intend to license their technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers that will produce the new VCRs at prices below $500. According to Carmel Group, a consumer electronics market research firm, the market for so-called personal TV systems will reach $380 million and 760,000 subscribers next year. The two companies are developing different business models, but both are built around subscription services that require a new generation of digital VCRs capable of delivering them. Both companies will transmit electronic program guides to their subscribers via telephone connections. However Tivo plans to charge viewers a $10 monthly fee, while Replay intends to support its service by advertising alone. Replay executives also said that the two services were different in their privacy policies. The Replay system will not collect information on users' viewing habits; Tivo plans to monitor that information and sell advertisers the ability to deliver their commercials to the specific audiences they want. Consumer versions of both systems are expected to be available sometime in mid-1999. However, Replay plans to begin shipping a high-end $1,000 version of its product before the end of the year in an effort to jump-start the market for the recorders. Indeed, it was Replay's advertisements in home theater magazines that attracted Andreessen's interest in the company. A high-end video buff, Andreessen said he contacted Replay in an effort to become a product tester of their system, which he described as something "I had to have." He said that the Replay system made more sense to him than the WebTV set-top box, a technology now owned by Microsoft Corp. that connects users to the Internet through their television sets. "ReplayTV will do for TV what the browser did for the Internet," said Andreessen, who was a part of the team at the University of Illinois that developed the technology on which Netscape was founded. "It's the browser for TV." While WebTV tries to integrate the Internet with television, Replay, he said, "is an effort to enhance the TV experience first and foremost." "You sit back 10 feet, and you're relaxed and you watch what you want to watch," he said, noting that watching television is a very different activity from surfing the World Wide Web on a personal computer. Andreessen declined to disclose the amount of his investment. Several people with knowledge of the company's history said that Replay had spent about $1 million -- an unusually low amount -- to develop its technology since the company was founded in September 1997. Related Sites Replay Networks Inc. TiVo, Inc. Monday, November 9, 1998 Copyright 1998 The New York Times