Time Warner Says If We Can't Do A Networked DVR, No One Can

from the sue-sue-sue! dept

Wed, May 31st 2006 2:44pm — Mike Masnick

Back in March when Cablevision first announced plans to create a centralized DVR, we mentioned that Time Warner had tried to do something quite similar three years ago... only to have the concept neutered after a bunch of television executives threatened Time Warner with lawsuits. So, it wasn't surprising at all for those same execs to get pissed off and then sue Cablevision over the plan -- even though it seems to only make their content more valuable. However, a new player has jumped into the fray and sued Cablevision: Time Warner. It's obviously the TV side of Time Warner, but it certainly is interesting to see how the company's opinion seems to depend on whether or not they're the ones offering the network-based DVR.

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12 Comments

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Demig0d, 31 May 2006 @ 3:47pm

Doh!
Hypocrites.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2006 @ 3:47pm

Tooools!!
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Colorado Computer Guy, 31 May 2006 @ 3:52pm

Geeez
Unbelievable! ...Well, maybe not. ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2006 @ 3:56pm

Just another case of the right hand not knowing who the left hand is jacking off.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2006 @ 3:59pm

Some IT Bastard
Time Warner, they're so gooooood....they hire me to fix their stuff.
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mike, 31 May 2006 @ 5:59pm

networked dvr
by the time those losers stop suing each other the market will be saturated with a third party product thats better and has no connection to big media. as usual, doom on them.
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- Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2006 @ 7:23pm
  
  Re: networked dvr
  The funny part is that Motorola already manufacturers a DVR digital set top box and remote boxes that do just this. It is up to you to purchase it and tell your cable company to shove their box up their collective arses.
  
  No, I don't know about your provider, but Mediacom doesn't want people having BYO CPE on their network. They filed an injunction against my having my own, legally, purchased gear. After I provided a signed affidavit from my sales person at Motorola, they backed down and registered my equipment on their network. All of it is working great. Oh, and I told one of their execs in court that I have been long using Myth TV as my network DVR and a bunch of hacked X boxes to playback on. Man you should have seen how red he got. I love it!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2006 @ 7:21pm

boycott Time Warner and AOL
Scumbags
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Andrew Pollack, 31 May 2006 @ 7:50pm

Its all temporary.
The market is moving quickly toward the time when the idea of a personal dvr isn't really that necessary. It may be useful, but when I can watch what I want, when I'm ready to watch it, free with commercials or a buck and hour without -- at that point I won't care where the content lives.
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Anonymous Coward, 31 May 2006 @ 7:58pm

Look at it this way, Time Warner had their lawyers all prepped to go to court to battle for DVR's, and it never happened. Now, they are just getting value out of all that prep work.

Gotta like the productivity of that one.
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tucson, 31 May 2006 @ 10:07pm

Time Warner's DVR
LOL......all of those big schmucks can take a leap.
I've built MythTV PVR's and they rock compaired to
what these guys are offering!
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Jan 2009 @ 5:57pm

Too Slow
Just make a standard networking DVR like Tivo and you can focus on the centralized server wit hubs later. I like the centralized idea so that I can have all my tv on digital and DVR capable but I do not want to wait for legal battles.
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