dvrs

TiVo profits from EchoStar litigation

This post was updated at 3 p.m. PST with information from the earnings call.

EchoStar's loss was TiVo's gain during the third quarter of 2008.

Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo on Tuesday announced it recorded profits of $100.6 million for the quarter, or 98 cents per share, compared with a loss of $8 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The staggering change in fortunes for the DVR maker was due to the patent litigation judgment it won against EchoStar. EchoStar paid TiVo $105 million in damages during the quarter--if it hadn't, TiVo would have … Read more

TiVo summer update adds helpful search, management tweaks

TiVo had a very busy July. First, it teamed up with Comcast to make section editor Matt Elliott miss the Wimbledon final. Next, it announced the rollout of streaming YouTube videos through the boxes. Then, its partnership with Amazon.com evolved to include the eventual ability to buy products from advertisers using your remote.

The fun apparently didn't end with July though, as Friday morning at 2 a.m. EDT TiVo pushed out a sizable service update with six new features.

Play or delete an entire folder This'll let you, um, play or delete an entire folder. Particularly … Read more

YouTube on TiVo: It's about time

Digital video recorder TiVo is set to release a software upgrade that will let users access YouTube videos on their televisions, the company announced Thursday. The deal with the Google video-sharing site, originally announced in March, is scheduled to start rolling out in a few weeks.

TiVo owners will need a Series 3 or TiVo HD box to be eligible for the software upgrade, which will be further extended in the near future to allow them to log into their own YouTube accounts to access playlists and the like.

It's not terribly revolutionary. The Apple TV box has given owners access to YouTube … Read more

Dish/EchoStar sues TiVo over DVR patent

This blog was updated at 1:20 p.m. PDT with a statement from TiVo.

A month after an appeals court confirmed that Dish Network's DVR software had indeed violated a TiVo patent, Dish is retaliating with a lawsuit of its own.

The Colorado-based satellite TV provider filed suit in Delaware Friday, asking the court to declare that Dish's current DVR software does not violate TiVo's '389 patent.

Dish says in the filing that it updated its software nearly two years ago in response to TiVo's patent violation suit. It wants TiVo to stop making public … Read more

TiVo to offer Disney movies for download

TiVo is gearing up to dish out Disney movie rentals, as the digital video recorder company expands its lineup of movies from major studios.

Under an agreement with Disney-ABC and CinemaNow, TiVo subscribers can download the movies for 24-hour rental. TiVo expects to offer the Disney rentals later this year to its broadband-connected TiVo Series2 and Series3 subscribers. Price for the service was not disclosed.

The Disney movies will add to TiVo's more than 30,000 titles from Amazon Unbox, Music Choice, and other content providers.

TiVo's efforts come as Blockbuster is reportedly looking at set-top boxes for … Read more

TiVo patent win against EchoStar upheld

Updated at 11:45 a.m. PDT with Dish Network's statement.

Another court has upheld TiVo's patent suit against EchoStar Communications.

A U.S. Appeals Court on Friday denied EchoStar's appeal on an earlier court ruling that said the company's Dish Network digital video recorders violated a patent held by TiVo. The ruling was first reported by Thomas Hawk's Digital Connection blog.

Friday's appellate court decision comes two years after TiVo's initial victory, in which a court found that EchoStar's DVRs (digital video recorders) "willfully infringed" on TiVo's patented … Read more

Study: Women get more use out of their TiVos

A new report on the tech habits of women shows that the female of the species is edging out the male in the areas of DVR use and ownership of portable game devices.

The study, done independently by Solutions Research Group, and released Thursday, was undertaken to explore the "digital lifestyles" of American women. Data was collected from more than 2,000 respondents between October 2006 and February 2008.

What the final tally shows is that women are as comfortable with popular consumer technology as men (not really a surprise), and that they're making significant inroads into the gaming lifestyle, … Read more

Unsolved problem with TiVo file transfers frustrates users

A fall software update from TiVo damaged a popular feature on the company's DVR, and months later the change remains unfixed for a number of customers.

As part of the TiVoToGo feature, software from Roxio called Toast 8 allows users to transfer recorded shows from TiVo to mobile devices, like laptops and iPods, or put the shows on DVDs. The recording and transferring functions stopped working late last year for some customers using Toast.

Users began to complain starting in early October that they were unable to transfer, or burn, any TiVo'd shows at all.

"Right after … Read more

Appeals court agrees Dish DVR infringed on TiVo patent

A federal court upheld Thursday an earlier ruling that EchoStar Communications infringed on a digital video recording software patent owned by TiVo.

The Washington, D.C., court of appeals also agreed with the lower court's award of $89.6 million in damages to be paid to TiVo by EchoStar, which recently changed its name to Dish Network.

Dish plans to appeal the award for damages, the company said Thursday.

The court's decision "will have no effect on our current or future customers because EchoStar's engineers have developed and deployed next-generation DVR software to our customers' DVRs,&… Read more