The history of the design and manufacture of the TiVo remote control.
Like any remote, the designers were adamant about keeping the remote’s button layout as simple as possible. But with the DVR’s numerous features, the designers needed to create lots of extra buttons. To keep things straight, each button needed to have a distinctive feel, giving the ability to control the remote without even looking at it, which Newby described as a “key Braille-ability” surprisingly helped by the “blank finger parking spots between keys” that were equally important.
(via waxy)
Don’t know how I missed this, but there’s a TiVo that records in HD that doesn’t cost four bazillion dollars. TiVo HD records 20 hours of HD programming, you can view/record two shows at once, and differs very little from the more expensive Series 3 TiVo. Amazon’s got it for $262 (retail is $299). But whoa, the Series 3, which can record 32 hours of HD programming and retails for $599, is only $399 at Amazon after rebate (note: “usually ships within 3 to 5 weeks”).
Must see/TiVo TV: for the first time in years, PBS is airing Eyes on the Prize, a 14-hour series on the American civil rights movement. (via steve)
I didn’t see this one in the FAQ, so I’ll ask the question here: Can someone explain to me why the just-released Series3 TiVo (aka TiVo HD) costs $800? (!!) I’ve been waiting for this damn thing for months/years now, but I just can’t justify spending that much money when Time Warner’s (admittedly inferior in many ways) HD DVR is $7/mo. Hell, we only get ~12 HD channels in this backwater burg anyway, so downgrading to a regular cable box and hooking up the old TiVo is an option as well.
TiVo’s next priciest box is the 180-hour Series2 for $130.1 What’s in that box that’s worth the extra $670? Is it the dual HD tuners? The THX? (Maybe Lucas charges exorbitant sums of money for THX certification?) The extra hard drive space for the additional 170 hours of programming? The CableCard inputs? The backlit remote? What?
[1] Although the Series2’s service fee is $20/mo versus $13/mo for the Series3, based on a 1-year contract. On a three-year contract, the S2’s service drops to $17/mo while the S# would still be $13/mo. Over three years, that brings the total price of the S3 to
~$1270 compared to ~$740 for the S2, a difference of $530. ↩
Hello, TiVo. Hurry the hell up and release your HD-compatible Series 3 machine already. Are you trying to make me angry?
TiVo’s new OS adds content “protection”, which means if the copyright holder of Seinfeld wants your TiVo to delete the show after a week whether you’ve watched it or not, that’s what it’s going to do. I love my TiVo and I’m currently suffering from outrage fatigue, but if the company wants to side with the entertainment industry over its customers and cripple useful features, then it’s the last one I’m ever going to own. (via the wax)
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