Trial over TiVo patent begins in Texas courtroom

AP ^ | Mar 29 2006

[george wythe]

Lawyers for TiVo Inc. were expected to tell a federal court jury Wednesday that satellite-TV broadcaster Dish Network stole the technology used in TiVo's popular device for recording and replaying live television.

Lawyers for EchoStar Communications Corp., the parent of Dish Network, planned to argue that their client didn't infringe on TiVo's patent for a ``multimedia time warping system'' and instead invented their own digital video recorder.

[snip]

TiVo changed the way many Americans watch TV and made the company name a verb for recording programs. It has never translated its status in pop culture into profits, however. The company has lost money ever since it started in 1997.

The company faces competition from bigger companies that also make digital video recorders, or DVRs. They include Motorola Inc.; NDS, a unit of News Corp.; and Scientific-Atlanta Inc., which has been bought by Cisco Systems Inc.

Conversely, EchoStar, based in Englewood, Colo., earned $1.5 billion last year as Dish Network has grown to 12 million subscribers.

[george wythe]

TiVo started the revolution, but it has not made any profits.

[conservativehusker]

I heard they are changing the way they sell their services..I looked into Tivo last year but they wanted about $300 for the box then $20 or so a month..my cable company gave me the box free then charges me around $10 month..no brainer...

[Pukin Dog]

TiVo started the revolution, but it has not made any profits.

This is because they have the most greedy CEO who ever lived. The man thought he was going to be relaxing on a beach somewhere, rich and happy after making billions by selling TiVo to DirecTV. When they wouldn't pay his outrageous price, he severed the relationship, and probably destroyed TiVo at the same time. They will never be profitable, and someday they may be forced to come crawling back to DirecTV for even less money the second time around.

On its own, TiVo cannot survive, which is a shame because it is the best of the breed by far.

[rightazrain]

Well, I have the Dishnet version. If TIVO wins, what the heck will happen to my service??

[HitmanLV]

Tivo is awesome, and you are 100% right in your analysis.

[chesty_puller]

I would give up toilet paper before my TiVo. When the price of HDTiVo comes down I'm in fat city.

[BlueNgold]

Tivo should have licensed their technology instead of trying to fly solo annd compete.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

"TiVo started the revolution, but it has not made any profits."

As is often the case in new technologies. As the saying goes: "the second mouse gets the cheese".

[george wythe]

As the saying goes: "the second mouse gets the cheese".

LOL! It also helps to have a business-savvy person making business decisions. The techies sometimes are not capable of assessing market reserch and business development.

[Pukin Dog]

You will probably be shipped a new box that doesn't violate TiVo's patent, if they win.

[Pukin Dog]

I would give up toilet paper before my TiVo.

What? You planning a high-fiber diet, and using your TV-Guide pages as a replacement option?

[Pukin Dog]

TiVo is best as a DirecTiVo, which is why they should have sold themselves to DirecTV. In every other case, you have your signal converted to analog before written to the disk. On DirecTivos, the signal is recorded in its digital format, so there is no picture degradation at all.

[CarmichaelPatriot]

I built my own using non-propreitary technology. See www.mythtv.org. It handles HDTV and SDTV, as well as digital music, images, weather, news, etc.