Jeff Sandquist Has Turned Off His TiVo

By | November 16th, 2004 comments icon (1)Comments


Microsoft Evangelist, Jeff Sandquist crystallizes the point as to what is wrong with both MCE and the HDTV TiVo. When you can get an HDTV PVR from Comcast/Microsoft, that I have not seen but is bound to be better than the current crop of other cable HDTV PVR offerings, for $5 a month or something, why in the heck would you pay $1,000 for an HDTV TiVo? Even more significant, why would you pay $1,500 for an MCE machine that you can’t even use the Microsoft/Comcast box with?

When Microsoft gets this new Comcast box integrated with MCE, now THEN we will have something worth cheering about! Until then, what a pain in the ass. You mean I pay extra each month to get this Microsoft Comcast box that only records, I’m guessing, like 10 hours of HDTV, but I can record 100 hours of non HDTV just by hooking up an external drive to my MCE machine.

My guess is that this box will not even work with an MCE machine, but somebody correct me if I am wrong. And now I have to switch back and forth between two inputs between my MCE PC and my Comcast HDTV box… Ay Caramba… so much for ease of use.

How about integrating the Comcast tuner into an MCE box? I’m sure this will be here at some point.





Filed in: Digital Media Servers

  • http://www.atmasphere.net/wp Jonathan Greene

    I’ve had the exact same thoughts regarding this stuff… it’s just way too expensive and limiting once HD gets enabled. There’s simply no reason to pay any real money for DVR services given the limitations and difficulties (thanks to the broadcast flag) with archival and storage.

    I’d much rather keep paying Time Warner (or some other cable or sat co) a few bucks a month and record and watch what I want. There’s just no way I can see any reason for a $1000 box like an HD Tivo or an MCE which currently run more than $1000 for an HD capable system.

    I might be on my 3rd HD DVR, but there was no upfront cost, a low monthly cost and only a small pain any time I have to deal with customer service (to replace the busted box). If I had shelled out some hard cash on this stuff I’d be really pissed when it stopped working or was suddenly limited as will soon happen with Tivo via a download.