Dave Zatz points to a letter received by someone at the TiVo Community Forums that confirms there is no target release date on the horizon for TiVoToGo. Forum member pdxkevin wrote a self-described angry letter last week and emailed it off to TiVo. Much to his surprise, the letter found its way to Tom Rogers (TiVo Pres.) and then got passed along for the VP of Marketing to respond.Here's the reply from Jim Denney, VP of Retail Marketing (bold added for emphasis):
My name is Jim Denney, I am in Vice President of Product Marketing for TiVo's retail products. Tom Rogers forwarded your message to me. I wanted to thank you for your email and apologize for the delay in TiVoToGo for the Mac. I am sorry that you feel we have not paid attention to the Mac community. That is certainly not our intention. We are aware of our subscriber's desire to get TiVoToGo on the Mac. Believe it or not, we are actively working on the project and have been for the past year in various forms. Unfortunately, developing on the Mac platform has been a little more difficult because of its closed nature. We are working through the issues we have encountered. They are not simple to solve given the needs that we balance in TiVoToGo. We don't have a release date for the feature yet.As a long-time TiVo owner and one who has been longing for TiVoToGo for Mac for quite some time, I appreciate TiVo's frank response, although it's admittedly almost too little, too late. Their communication on this issue has been pretty poor and only served to set us all up for a fall time after time. I know most people want companies to commit to release dates early and often, but I'm of the camp that believes "We really don't know" is better than "Maybe next year." Until recently I've been using TiVoToGo on a spare Dell laptop that doesn't get used for much else. That being said, since I now own a Series 3 HD TiVo along with my Series 2 w/ DVD Burner, a retired Series 1 and a Sony LocationFree TV system (with Mac Pak), I have limited use for TiVoToGo now - until it's available for the Series 3 at least, when I will, of course, jump on it like a rabid dog.
We have gotten ourselves in trouble in the past when we estimated it would be out by mid year this year, we obviously missed that date. In the interest of setting the right expectations this time we want to wait until the feature is actually ready. We are not ready to make that announcement yet. That is why our customer care representatives have been instructed to give the answer they gave you.
We can let you know when the feature is ready for launch. We are listening to you. Until it is ready, we appreciate your patience.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-25-2006 @ 2:18PM
joe said...
"My name is Jim Denney, I am in Vice President of Product Marketing for TiVo's retail products. Tom Rogers forwarded your message to me. ..."
Does that sound like the beginning of an email from a corporate VP? "I am in Vice President ..."?
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10-25-2006 @ 2:31PM
garrick said...
We can let you know when the feature is ready for launch. We are listening to you. Until it is ready, we appreciate your patience.
For me, this is a chicken/egg deal. I won't buy a TIVO box until TivoToGo for Mac is available.
I expect that by the time it IS available, technology will have leapfrogged over them. Pity.
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10-25-2006 @ 2:37PM
ryan said...
"Unfortunately, developing on the Mac platform has been a little more difficult because of its closed nature."
WTF?!? Because of that statement, i doubt we will ever see it because obviously they have never turned on a mac or been to the ADC site.
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10-25-2006 @ 2:53PM
Steven said...
#3, I agree.
Who is TiVo to call someone else "closed"? I can get on my TiVo from my Mac and download the shows, I just can't watch a .tivo file. Why can't they just make a player for .tivo files? Sheesh!
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10-25-2006 @ 2:57PM
Rob Jones said...
I was expecting TTG when they released the PC Beta back in January 2005. They said then it was under developement.
They refuse to admit the Mac version is a low priority.
If they are really having that much of a problem maybe they have the wrong people working on it.
Tom Rogers uses a Mac, I bet he has TTG running on his Mac. Without DRM.
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10-25-2006 @ 3:05PM
kc! said...
Unfortunately, if we read between the lines on this, it is saying "we don't care enough about Apple's small market share to actually hire a Mac developer who knows what they are doing so instead, our PC team is not going to spend the time it takes to develop this because they have better things to do."
I can't imagine (closed system or not) that there isn't SOMEONE out there who can do what TiVo needs.
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10-25-2006 @ 3:05PM
The Jeremy said...
At this point, I'm close to believing that Duke Nukem Forever will finally debut on the Xbox360 long before TiVo-2-Go is released for the Mac platform.
Granted, considering the double whammy of no TiVo-2-Go on the Series3 regardless of computer platform currently, I'm having serious qualms about upgrading to it since a Mac owner can always make backups of content from the Comcast Motorola DVR via the Firewire port; a port that is of course missing from the Series3.
At this point, Apple needs to purchase TiVo - if for only the intellectual property - and switch the hardware over to a CableCard (1.0/2.0) compatible Mac Mini. With Apple's economies of scale (as opposed to TiVo's lack thereof), they could make this cheaper than the Series3 and still turn a profit. Heck, they could tie the "subscription" for the program guides to the .Mac service and tie the TiVo software to iLife.
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10-25-2006 @ 3:13PM
Steve said...
It is possible to get to your .tivo file from a mac, but you have to do it from the PC side of Bootcamp. YES, it does suck, NO.. mac users should not be forced to use a platform we choose against having in the first place. But until some manager gets his head out of a dark spot and HIRES some real mac programmers, they will never ship TTG for Mac!!
I still don't get how a company so innovative at Tivo, would not expect users as innovative as us Mac users to not warrant having TTG a long time ago?? Mac users are usually on the "cutting edge" of tech toys. And don't get me started on TTG not working with the video ipod!!
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10-25-2006 @ 3:17PM
Greg said...
TiVo's got a track record of ignoring Mac users. The TiVo Desktop and the Home Media Edition features all lagged behind the PC versions, and were not as feature-rich.
It's been obvious to me for a while now, as an owner of a Series 2 TiVo and a Mac, that the TiVo people do not "get" the Mac community. They don't even TRY.
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10-25-2006 @ 3:17PM
The Jeremy said...
The lack of TTG is shortsighted on TiVo's part considering how many of the TiVo faithful are Mac owners. Not to mention the fact that Apple's marketshare - at least in the U.S. - is jumping.
Now, with all of that said, can anyone answer me if they know whether or not the wifi chipset in the new MacBook Pros are pre-N like the ones now found in the iMacs?
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10-25-2006 @ 3:25PM
Colin said...
Funny, I thought it was Tivo's use of Windows Media DRM (a closed platform) that prevented Tivo-to-Go on Macs!
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10-25-2006 @ 3:47PM
Antonio said...
Tivo to go isn't all that's its hyped to be. It's slow in the transfers and there are just too many other strings attached with restrictions and whatnot.
I'm using a Humax Tivo with built-in DVD burner and it's so much easier to just burn a DVD and watch it on my Mac. Takes between 5-20 minutes to burn a disc with up to 4 hours of shows on it (I record in Medium Quality) and I can watch that disc on my Mac, or use Handbrake to rip the shows into Mpeg-4 files. That's better than tying up my home network with 4 hours of transferring between Tivo and Mac.
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10-25-2006 @ 4:18PM
PaperQueen said...
#4--There's a way to get on a TiVo with a Mac? I've got two Series 2 decks and a MacBook Pro. Would you mind sharing your tips?
Please, please, please...?
Grazzi.
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10-25-2006 @ 4:23PM
Dennis said...
Greg - prior to TiVoToGo, the Mac TiVo Desktop was always day-and-date with the Windows version, and in many ways worked *better* than the Windows version.
Colin - TiVoToGo doesn't use Windows DRM. The DRM is their own (it's applied on the TiVo itself, which doesn't do Windows.) It is only implemented on Windows as a DirectShow filter, because that's how you implement those kinds of things on Windows (just as you'd most likely implement it as a QuickTime component on the Mac.)
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10-25-2006 @ 4:29PM
Travis L. said...
I gave up my TiVo service because they don't have TiVo To Go for Mac's. Yes, I could use Bootcamp/Parallels and get into windows, but I don't own windows... So I'd have to either buy a copy or steal a copy... I'd rather do neither and not have Windows touch my MacBook Pro. I'm looking at a ReplayTV as I type this because of the ability to grab recorded content off it using my Mac.
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10-25-2006 @ 4:36PM
G said...
TiVo has been painfully slow at everything for the past couple of years. It sounds like simple bad leadership to me.
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10-25-2006 @ 4:44PM
Steve said...
#13 - If your running an Intel box and can install a version of Windows on bootcamp/parallels, you can strip the .tivo from the files with Directshow Dump (http://prish.com/etivo/tbr.htm). I also use a nice little widget to see/get my .tivo files from my S2. (http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/movie_tv/nowplayingtivowidget.html). I have all my now converted shows stored on a 1TB Xserver. Yes, I am a Mac tech. So it's my job to play with these toys and I love it! if you need some more help, you can find contact me from the links in here.
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10-25-2006 @ 4:55PM
GadgetGav said...
Didn't Tivo first demo TTG on a Mac years and years ago..? You've got to think that if they wanted to, they would have done the Mac version by now, so the assumption has to be that it isn't coming. Like TTG on the Series 3 - that's never going to happen either. These two reasons are part of my decision (along with the $1000 price tag) to abandon my two expanded S2s and go with the Comcast box. It's a shame because I've had Tivos since 2000 but I think they're becoming less and less relavent.
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10-25-2006 @ 5:03PM
Simpson said...
Got an Elgato EyeTV Hybrid. Wonderful on my 24" Intel imac.
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10-25-2006 @ 5:35PM
Scott Stevenson said...
How does an OS which provides source to the kernel and source to key data structures (in CoreFoundation) end up being more closed than Windows?
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