Comments on: Time Warner Launches Virtual Drive, Calls It PVR

By: DVR Bulletin » Blog Archive » Ad Skipping or Fast Forwarding?

DVR Bulletin » Blog Archive » Ad Skipping or Fast Forwarding? — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:46:16 +0000

[...] [Via TV Squad. Business 2.0 and NewTeeVee.] [...]

By: K Kumar

K Kumar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 19:30:16 +0000

Om,

You're quite right. Start-over isn't PVR, whatever the marketing guys call it.

What it is, is popular!

Look-back is even more interesting, since now you don't even have to make it to your TV within the show's scheduled hour! You just have to make it to the TV SOMETIME during the day! Cool!

By: A PVR for dodos « The World According To Carp

A PVR for dodos « The World According To Carp — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:44:53 +0000

[...] Malik compares TWC with a dodo. [...]

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 06:42:28 +0000

Kumar,

just wondering does Start Over qualify as a PVR. To me it doesn't/ Regardless, your point is well taken.

On the issue of virtual drive, well what I mean is what kind of a PVR is it if you can skip or forward video. It is just virtual storage of video with playback functionality.

I was going with sarcasm with the "Virtual Drive"

By: tvjunkie

tvjunkie — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 03:37:26 +0000

Cable’s actually been doing some pretty cool stuff for a long time – they’re probably slower than I’d like to do some of the things they’re doing, but hey, have the satellite guys been any better? And I don’t see the phone guys doing anything major with that service yet!

Vyyo, TellyTopia, TVGuide – they’re some of the cooler startups in the Cable space that’re helping the cable guy get into the internet age.

Hey, when Mark Cuban starts saying that the Internet is dead and Cable has the ability to be the saviour – we gotta think!

http://hd.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=165851

The Mark Cuban episode shows cable’s got potential. Will they realise it? Donno. I sure hope they do. Check out this open letter from the previous poster:

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6467903.html

By: K Kumar

K Kumar — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 01:26:53 +0000

Om,

The Cable TV industry is watching TWC's "Start-over" and "Look-back" initiatives closely. The early consensus seems to be that the viewers like it.

Start-over is for people who get home at 6:10PM and want to watch the 6:00PM news from the start - one click and you can watch it from the beginning. The viewer doesn't know that it's VOD behind the scenes, of course - it doesn't need a VOD menu to access.

Look-back is more ambitious and lets you see more things that aired that same day, I believe.

I believe Start-over is free, not sure about Look-back. Where did you see the "virtual drive" feature? Could you please share more about that?

Time Warner is doing things incrementally, and their consumers like it. From talking to several TWC people, a very large percentage of people in South Carolina were using start-over - much higher than were using VOD...

By: Om Malik

Om Malik — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:56:26 +0000

hey andre,

you sure that is the case. isn't that more like a VoD - video on demand service that lets you forward and rewind stuff. I have not lived in new york for about 5 years so might not know.

By: Andre

Andre — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:17:38 +0000

Here in NYC I pay $9/month for Time Warner Cable's "DVR" service. It does not have the cripples you reference here. I was under the impression that this new "PVR" functionality was going to be added for free to the standard cable box.

I think it's a step up from the current cable box that doesn't have any DVR-type functionality, even with the limitations on commercial fast forwarding...