DVR Chatter

TiVo CEO: Comcast DVR 'Easier Said Than Done'

Multichannel News - TiVo president and CEO Tom Rogers said that the process of integrating the company’s digital video recorder software into Motorola boxes -- in its project with Comcast -- was more complicated than initially expected.

Rogers, speaking at the Future of TV conference here in lower Manhattan, said that in discussions with Comcast and other cable operators, the original concept was that TiVo software would be embedded into cable operators’ existing set-tops in order to simplify provisioning and ideally eliminate the need for a truck roll.

“The idea was… if you could somehow take a generic [set-top] box and download the TiVo software over the wire, if you could order it from your cable company like HBO… it would be an incredible product,” Rogers said.

However, according to Rogers, the development was “much easier said than done.”

“It was an enormous piece of rocket science to work with hardware, chips we don’t control,” he said.

I KNEW it was rocket science!!