TiVo washes hands over DST change for its oldest customers
Last month I mentioned how the changes to Daylight Saving Time (DST) have impacted me on a professional level. I just found out this morning that this change will also impact me on a personal level: watching TV on my TiVo DVR.
TiVo has released a bulletin on their web site, How Will Daylight Saving Time Affect My TiVo DVR, which documents how the DST change will impact the various incarnations of the TiVo DVR. I am a long-time TiVo customer, and as such, have a first generation ("Series 1") DVR that I bought several years ago.
According to the TiVo bulletin, there will be a "cosmetic issue" (is that like a wardrobe malfunction?) where my trusty TiVo will display the wrong time for several weeks. In addition, any manual recordings will also be recorded at the wrong time.
The part the bulletin that I really have a problem with is the following:
While this statement implies that it is not possible to fix the DST issue on the older Series 1 units, I find that hard to believe considering that a DST fix for the Series 1 DirecTV with TiVo DVR's (which share a common hardware architecture with the standalone Series 1 units) has already been released. I believe that it boils down to this: TiVo was contractually required to provide DirecTV with an update, but isn't required to provide loyal customers with one.
To add insult to injury, former competitor ReplayTV has issued a DST patch for their platforms, even though they have not sold ReplayTV-branded hardware for several years now. Thanks TiVo!
TiVo has released a bulletin on their web site, How Will Daylight Saving Time Affect My TiVo DVR, which documents how the DST change will impact the various incarnations of the TiVo DVR. I am a long-time TiVo customer, and as such, have a first generation ("Series 1") DVR that I bought several years ago.
According to the TiVo bulletin, there will be a "cosmetic issue" (is that like a wardrobe malfunction?) where my trusty TiVo will display the wrong time for several weeks. In addition, any manual recordings will also be recorded at the wrong time.
The part the bulletin that I really have a problem with is the following:
Can this DST problem be avoided?
Our engineers have been working on alternate solutions for the Series1, but unfortunately none exist. While we know that it is not ideal to adjust manual recordings for these three weeks, unfortunately it is the only alternative for those customers who rely upon VCR-style program scheduling. We apologize for this inconvenience.
While this statement implies that it is not possible to fix the DST issue on the older Series 1 units, I find that hard to believe considering that a DST fix for the Series 1 DirecTV with TiVo DVR's (which share a common hardware architecture with the standalone Series 1 units) has already been released. I believe that it boils down to this: TiVo was contractually required to provide DirecTV with an update, but isn't required to provide loyal customers with one.
To add insult to injury, former competitor ReplayTV has issued a DST patch for their platforms, even though they have not sold ReplayTV-branded hardware for several years now. Thanks TiVo!
posted by Frugal Frugalson at
9:11 AM
1 Comments:
What really bothers me here is the fact that a bunch of fat cats in congress sit up there and decide to disrupt everyones live by screwing with changing the time on everyone. The tivo issue is just a drop in the bucket of headaches being cause by all of this. We all get ticked at tivo but I am personally ticked at the congressmen for not recognizing the problems they cause. Whats worse is they are saying if this change does not save enough energy they are going to change it back again!! Here we go again. And all of the companies in America using computer chips have the rath of god coming down on them with mad customers for something they were not responsible for in the first place. I would like to see this whole DST thing gone FOREVER!!! Congress.... leave us on one time all year and go find something more important to do!!!!
Mark
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Anonymous, at 3/10/07, 7:52 AM
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