TIVO wins E* Lawsuit - Potential Impact on ALL DVRs

Brewer4 said:
Things just got more interesting. And I was thinking Tivo was dead on the ropes. They are back baby. Not necesarily with innovation and marketing, but legal patents. The monetary amount is only afraction of what this means. Its huge for Tivo. D* knew what itwas doing when it extended the 3 year deal. Wow.

E* could always litigate them to death.... :)
 
vurbano said:
The stupidity of our legal system never ceases to amaze me. To think that someone could actually have a patent on a pause or rewind button or etc is absurd IMO.

Who invented the remote? Shouldn't they sue Tivo for patent infringement as well?
 
jayn_j said:
Actually, Kodak marketed one for a couple of years in the late '70s. Polaroid immediately filed suit and won 10 years later. Kodak was forced to buy back every single unit, as Polaroid refused to grant a license.

http://www.ozcamera.com/k-instant.html

And Polaroid stayed in business until they had milked their patents for all they were worth. The company filed chapter 11 in 2001 (the company was looted by the executives which led to some bankruptcy and accounting reforms) and was sold essentially for the "worth" of their logo. The "Polaroid" name is now rented like a prostitute, open to anyone with the (now very low) price of "admission." :devil:


(For references, google Polaroid and bankruptcy, they are a classic case of one-trick-ponies, which Tivo and Echostar BOTH are.)
 
ChetK said:
The E* DVR's have a 30 second skip button. That's an improvement on Tivo's technology. :D

No, Tivo has had 30 second skip for 6 years or longer.

It is just hidden.

If you open a tivo 'backdoor', you can enable all sorts of goodies, NOT pirating, just cool things the gui can do. You can turn on 30-second skip, change the bandwidth it records for good, beter, best, change rewindf and fast forward timings, and about 50 other things!
 
philhu said:
No, Tivo has had 30 second skip for 6 years or longer.

It is just hidden.

If you open a tivo 'backdoor', you can enable all sorts of goodies, NOT pirating, just cool things the gui can do. ...

And after each power loss or reboot you need to "reprogram" it for at least some of the features. While likely most if not all forum folks are aware of many of these features, the other millions and millions of Tivo users likely are not.

And you hold this up as a "design feature?" :rolleyes:
 
For those of you clamoring for E* to buy Tivo, keep in mind that Tivo has NEVER turned a profit at the end of any fiscal year. That could be argued to be a positive or a negative for a company thinking of acquiring Tivo.

Unless E* loses in the rounds of coming appeals and countersuits, I don't see them making a move to buy the capital sinkhole that is Tivo.
 
SaltiDawg said:
And after each power loss or reboot you need to "reprogram" it for at least some of the features. While likely most if not all forum folks are aware of many of these features, the other millions and millions of Tivo users likely are not.

And you hold this up as a "design feature?" :rolleyes:

It will be very funny if "30-sec." feature is patented by Dish:devil:
 
philhu said:
No, Tivo has had 30 second skip for 6 years or longer.

It is just hidden.

If you open a tivo 'backdoor', you can enable all sorts of goodies, NOT pirating, just cool things the gui can do. You can turn on 30-second skip, change the bandwidth it records for good, beter, best, change rewindf and fast forward timings, and about 50 other things!
I know all of this. I put the smiley behind it because E*'s is not hidden, but Tivo's is for someone who doesn't know. :D
 
dfergie said:
With the 5xxx models of Replay you don't even have to 30 second skip, the box skips the Commercial automatically...(CA)
What's the technology behind this? It looks for fading up and down of black?
 
I guess so , some commercial breaks it won't skip and you must hit the >> button, but when you do that it will stop at the end of the commercial break..They chickened out on the 55xx models and disabled the feature. I archive stuff from my 622 and 921 as well as record downrezzed from my D* HD boxes all the time...
 
ChetK said:
What's the technology behind this? It looks for fading up and down of black?

Actually engineer at replay study the show and prefect it it seems. If it a very new or unpopular show then it will use fade in fade out, or logo etc. I noticed that when I used to use it, first time showings it will mess up but after nightly download it seems to skip them perfectly. :)
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bytre
EchoStar witnesses said the company's box differed from TiVo's in several ways. "For one, we have initiatives to provide clunky software on our DVRs, and minimize the training for our technical support" said a representative of EchoStar legal firm, Dewey, Chetham, and Howe. "We want to appear to our customers as being like their friendly neighborhood cable company, only with a geeky dish to show off to their neighbors. We couldn't offer Tivo's feature set and polish and still seem like a cable co, could we?"

ravensong said:

ME too
 
I do not know if this was posted yet but here it is:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=68854&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=842925&highlight=#EchoStar Statement Regarding Verdict in TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp. LawsuitEnglewood, CO - April 13, 2006 - EchoStar has issued the following statement regarding the verdict in the TiVo Inc. v. EchoStar Communications Corp. Lawsuit: "This is the first step in a very long process and we are confident we will ultimately prevail. Among other things, we believe the patent - as interpreted in this case - is overly broad given the technology in existence when TiVo filed its patent. We believe the decision will be reversed either through post-trial motions or on appeal. Additionally, the Patent Office is in the process of re-examining TiVo's patent, having determined there is a substantial question concerning the validity of the patent.
DISH Network subscribers can continue to use the receivers in their homes, including their DVRs. Furthermore, TiVo dropped their claim that EchoStar's Dishplayer 7200 DVR infringes their patent.
 
SaltiDawg said:
And after each power loss or reboot you need to "reprogram" it for at least some of the features. While likely most if not all forum folks are aware of many of these features, the other millions and millions of Tivo users likely are not.

And you hold this up as a "design feature?" :rolleyes:

Whether it is easily accessible or usable doesn't invalidate it as prior art.
 

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