AfterDawn: News

TiVo gets a victory in Dish Network appeal

On Thursday TiVo won a major appeals court battle that may give them more leverage in licensing their software to cable and satellite providers. The ruling, upholding a lower court decision that Dish Network DVRs violate their software patents, may mean that other DVR providers have to either pay up for licensing or work TiVo's product into the DVRs they provide customers.

TiVo is certainly the best known DVR brand among consumers, who often refer to the very act of DVR Capture as 'TiVo-ing' a program. But the company's financial fortunes currently seem tied to their capability to sell cable and satellite television providers their product. They've recently started widescale testing of a port of the TiVo interface to existing Comcast DVRs.




With Thursday's decision, the company appears to be in a strong position to secure partnerships with other DVR providers. Meanwhile Dish DVR customers shouldn't have to worry about the fallout. According to a company spokesman they've already been migrated to software that doesn't violate any TiVo patents.


Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 2 Feb 2008 3:13

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• 7 comments

• duke8888

  I glad Tivo set them straight as they advertise their product much better then Tivio when it was Tivos software they were using. Dish is crap and thats what they try to see to the consumers. These cable companies are getting out of hand they want to keep raising fees at any expense to the consumer.

  2.2.2008 03:34 #1

• hm577

  Tivo is by far the most intuitive, easiest to use and just all out best DVR software. Go TIVO.................MUCH LOVE FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  4.2.2008 18:39 #2

• Hardwyre

  I had TiVO. I dropped it because Windows Vista's Media Center can do everything TiVO can and then some.
  
  I use my PC to record anything I need, which immediately syncs to two other PCs, my Xbox360, and my Zune when finished. It can even auto-detect if the TV schedule changes, or the show starts before/ends later than the specified time.
  
  (P.S. Vista is an incredibly powerful OS put on a two-cent UI. Whomever wrote the GUI on Vista was on some major drugs. and please don't start a Vista/XP/Linux/Mac debate from this post.)

  5.2.2008 16:47 #3

• wetsparks

  I don't know which is better, Dish DVR or TiVo as I only have Dish. But I am hoping that the spokesman for dish is right in that my DVR won't get turned off if the supreme court sides with tivo. I have grown addicted to the damned thing and I don't know what I would do without it.

  9.2.2008 00:07 #4

• kbbbb

  Tivo is childs' play compared to the other PVR's out there. You can't take the content off it once you've recorded something. And the copyright flag thing they have hidden in there and the thing that limits the amount of times a person can watch something?! I have a DVD recorder with 160gb HDD and a DVICO 4130. I can get content off both of these boxes, you can't do that with a Tivo. And together they cost me less a computer setup with a capture card stuck in there. They can stay out of Australia as far as I'm concerned.

  9.2.2008 05:00 #5

• borhan9

  Tivo is well known and well the courts are thinking if we change anything it has the most effect on consumers viewing and this may disrup their tv experience where they mostly know how to use the product how it is now and if it changes then people will be be out of place.

  22.2.2008 19:04 #6

• SupsGuy

  Getting content on your PC with Windows Vista is cool if you like to watch junk on your PC all the time. Me? I like to lay in my unreasonably comfortable bed, have a beer and watch what I want on a real screen. TiVo is absolutely the best way to do that.
  
  We had a DirecTV TiVo for years. Went to upgrade the box only to find that DirecTV, in their greediness, thought it was a good idea to stop partnering with TiVo. They were delusional thought that they could make more money offering their own DVR. Well, their DVR SUCKS!
  
  Then we made the fatal mistake of switching to Dish Network because they offered what, on paper, looked like a better DVR with more recording time for less money. HUGE MISTAKE. Unbelievably, the Dish DVR SUCKED EVEN WORSE THAN THE DirecTV DVR! So completely unusable and difficult that after a week, I went back and bought a new TiVo!
  
  The Dish experience was absolutely horrible. It never worked right and when it did, everything about it was difficult and counter-intuitive! Most of my programs didn't record because Dish kept throwing up an error screen on top of my shows. After 23 days, I wanted Dish OUT. I called to complain and they acknowledged that I was having these problems, but they would now need a $240 cancellation fee out of me to take back their horrible, lousy gear! They didn't care at all that I nothing worked the way they promised, they wanted to pinch me for more cash. That, my friends, is poor business.
  
  Long story short, I'm very glad that TiVo has won this decision against the unethical, lousy Dish Network. TiVo is infinitely easier and more intuitive than any other DVR I've tried. With the awesome new high speed internet connectivity, you can push your shows to other boxes, buy movies and more. Anybody dissin TiVo doesn't know what they're talking about.

  4.4.2008 16:32 #7