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By Adam Turner for www.itwire.com.auTiVo's Australian distributor has confirmed Aussies will get high definition recorders but be barred from skipping ads when the iconic Personal Video Recorder arrives next year.
Australian TiVos, due for release in the second quarter of 2008, will be based on the TiVo HD recorder released in the United States in July. The TiVo HD features twin high definition tuners, allowing users to record two programs in once, along with an HDMI port and 1080i output.
Australians won't enjoy the ad-skipping features found in US TiVo, confirms Phil Dobbie - chief marketing officer of engin, an Australian consumer VoIP provider part owned by the Seven television network. Seven will sell TiVo in Australia next year through engin, to be available before the Beijing Olympics in August.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
Quote:
"Australians will be able to fast forward through ads, but not totally skip. It will be a fast scan - you should be able to get through an ad break in 30 seconds," Dobbie says.
If you can fast forward through 2 minutes of ads in 30 seconds, why not just allow skipping?
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
Quote:
Australian distributor has confirmed Aussies will get high definition recorders but be barred from skipping ads when the iconic Personal Video Recorder arrives next year.
Yea, I can see me queuing up for one of them. Not!
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
Planning on it would be my guess. Wouldn't even be surprised if they already have Tivo lined up with the "patch" that will magically and anonymously hit the net the day they are released... Just had to convince the stations they had their best interests at heart. 2 tuners is 2 too little though.... Still. It might wake up the rest of Australia in terms of HD, digital recording etc and we might benefit somewhere along the line.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
I don't know if it will be too little.
If it's released at the very least channel 7 will be required to stick to their advertised show times. Imagine the outcry if you bought a channel 7 branded device and then it didn't record the whole show because it ran over time.
The only real reason for me to have more than two tuners is for overlap, as it's not that often that I want to record more than one show at the same time.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
What I'd like to know is, is the FF on the oz Tivo slow for everything or just for ads ie. can you skip through 2 minutes of a movie but NOT 2 minutes of ads?
I really really really hope that its only for the ads, ...... why?
It means that there will have to be some kind of flag before, during or after the ads. As soon as that flag exist it won't be long before we can use the same flag to our own advantage!
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
I don't quite get the Aussie Tivo ad skipping issue. Assuming we are talking about the "30 second skip", it isn't enabled on US Tivos by default, and instructions aren't included in the manual (not in the Series 1 boxes, anyway). In fact the required remote keystroke sequence to enable it is often referred to as a "hack". So doesn't this already meet the requirement of not being able to skip ads out of the box? Do they need to change any of this functionality for Australia? It seems to me that the only issue is going to be how much of a hack is required...
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
lol what do they really think they are achieivng through this ?
Australia needs to realise that the world moves on, the old advertising model no longer applies, get with the times.
its as ridiculous as the EPG situation, terrified that given a choice people will not watch their channels they are trying to monopolise the entire market. More and more people are dropping pay TV and downloading to avoid hierocracy of these archaic companies.
Spme one needs to tell them
THERE IS NOTHIN THEY CAN DO TO STOP PEOPLE GETTING THEIR GUIDE, OR SKIPPING THE ADVERTS ON THEIR CHANNEL. There is software that will go and do it for you ffs
Its like watching an old fat performer trying to keep 30 plates spinning on sticks, the only way that the performer can win is to turn off his channel and stop transmitting before all the plates drop.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dgaust
TIVO in the States are running a trial where Static Ads pop up when people are using the 30 second skip function.
People are not happy at all, as TIVO just push the beta to random peoples boxes without their knowledge/consent.
Just give me my MCE box.
If that happens here or anywhere the thing you have to remeber is its their service, the only option the user has is to vote with their wallets and unsubscribe or not renew. The service providers owe us nothing above and beyond showing something jumping up and down on their service and have a right to change what and how they show content at their discretion as outlined in the signup contracts.
The ONLY thing that comes even remotely close to the "freedom" we want is via bittorrent and thats probably why more than anything its illegal.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
I think we're all in agreement that traditional advertising is obsolete and the networks approach so far protect revenue is like rearranging deck chairs on the titanic. But it is also obvious that they need to continue raising revenue to keep producing and buying shows to air.
The question is how.
Seems the only way that would be effective to me is for FTA to move to subscription based service like it is in the UK, where you are supposed to buy a license to watch TV. This cuts down on the need for ads (or hopefully would remove it entirely) and lets face it the quality of any BBC production you care to name is top notch.
Or subscription channels like HBO in the USA, they cost quite a lot to get them, but look at th sort of stuff they produce Sopranos, Entourage, Sex and the City (I hate SATC personally but the ladies seem to like it).
What do we have Neighbors and Home and Away ? Where every crap minute of show seems matched by a minute of advertising. Although ironically in this case I find the ads to be more entertaining than the shows.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
The BBC is the only non commercial station in the UKits also the only one that you pay a TV licence for.
digital TV when I left about 2 years ago had about 30 - 40 stations frely available to anyone with a set top box.
The advertising models changed so that shows were now allowed to have coke cans in shot or brand names and what not. Again this is great if a lot of your TV is made in Australia, but as a lot of the shows here are brought in form the US the products in shot are not really any good as they are not common over here. Ther eis heaps of ways of doing it, for years and years TV companies have known that adter breaks is a poor revenue stream.
For example I can remember in the early 80's hearing about and even experienecing p[power surges durign advert breaks as e eryoen in teh country popped into the kitchen to put the kettle on
Even the people buying the advertising space know that no one is goign to watch their advert. Its like door to door salesmen, shouldn't be allowed, its akin to begging.
If we want your crappy product, be assured we will go out and find it when we are ready. Ther eis even this thing called an internet that we can search and find adverts when we are ready to watch them ffs.
Re: TiVo Confirms HD - BUT NO AD-SKIPPING FOR YOU!!
Have to disagree with this, TV advertising in Australia works and works well. Chain stores like KMart, Target, Myers etc. have always had increased patronage whenever they have a TV advertising campaign going. Fast food outlets are getting hammered all the time because of the fat kid epidemic cause by advertising. The "My Little Pony" ads used to give me the screaming ****s but the product sold out every time the TV ad campaign ran.
I'm sorry to say this but TV advertising in its current form is the ONLY effective method that exists in the Oz demographic/population size and is the lifeblood of FTA TV. It needs to be in your face and in between the "good bits" of a program to be effective.
By Adam Turner for 
