FiOS All-IP Network Within Three Years > TiVo users???

TiVo users???

Thats a good point... and it brings up something else.

Tivo's design was awesome but its based on the aging idea that every channel on the network is always being delivered. That way it can pick and choose how to manage all the content and deliver it in a nice presentation layer to you, the end user.

However this shot-gun approach to video delivery is already on its way out. Cable is deploying switched digital and TelcoTV will launching or migrating to IPTV (AT&T, Embarq, and soon FiOS). With the increasing number of available channels, bandwidth intensive VOD services, and amount of HD video the old process of pushing everything down the pipe at once is terribly inefficient.

Now CableLabs has already opened the system for switched digital (SDV) with the new M-Cards and OCAP platform. They've even demonstrated an upgrade path for Tivo on some of their newer recorders to be compatible with SDV.

What we don't see is Tivo, or anybody else, calling for any kind of open standardized access for these new IPTV networks. I think if Tivo really wants to remain viable as a third-party company then they really should be putting the pressure on the FCC to call for a way for 3rd party devices to interact on these IPTV networks like they can on cable's SDV.

The next-gen TiVo will work with whatever technology the cable companies are using.

The beauty of TiVo is the UI. There really isn't anything special about the hardware, especially if it is using a cablecard tuner.