 Morac
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
kudos:1
 ·Comcast
1 edit | reply to KrK
Re: Dish Network said by KrK:This is really what DirecTV has bought--- and one reason why they have a "Tivo can't sue us" clause... They have ReplayTV's patents and crosslicensing agreement with Tivo now. I'll mention the "won't sue" contract went into effect (in 2006) a year before DirecTV bought out ReplayTV's patents (2007). It occurred when DirecTV was going to drop the DirectTV manufactured TiVo box and go solely with it's own boxes. The agreement is that DirectTV will support the TiVo boxes until 2010 and that neither company will sue the other for patent violation. See the press release.
said by KrK:Tivo is after Dish now.... but honestly Dish has developed it's own DVR's in house. Still with patent law it may not matter.... It's kinda a crock....  There is a rather interesting history between TiVo and Dish. The story, according to TiVo, is that TiVo originally approached both Dish and DirecTV to license TiVo's DVR technology. TiVo allowed both Dish and DirecTV to examine TiVo's prototype DVR. DirecTV chose to license the technology while Dish chose not to. Shortly later Dish came out with their own DVR that basically did the same exact thing as TiVo's prototype.
TiVo's patent is very specific in that it is designed to allow a machine with very little processing power to perform DVR functionality. That's not very important these days because processing power is cheap, but back in 1999 it was a big deal. That Dish came out with a DVR very similar to TiVo's at that time right after TiVo showed them how the TiVo DVR works is why TiVo chose to sue Dish. Think of it as this century's Philo Farnsworth vs. David Sarnoff.
That said, most likely, Dish has worked around TiVo's patent at this point. That's why Dish is suing TiVo to show that their new software does not infringe. Unfortunately for Dish, it's most likely too late for that to prevent the injunction from taking effect.
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 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK
 ·AT&T DSL Service
| That's TIVO's side of the story anyway.
Once nice thing Dish did though was they setup their DVR's to record the actual raw digital stream before decompression, processing back to image for TV. The result of this was that the recorded show was of the exact same picture and sound quality as the show appears on the TV.... while still getting the benefits of compression.--- IE no quality loss.
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"Regulatory capitalism is when companies invest in lawyers, lobbyists, and politicians, instead of plant, people, and customer service." - former FCC Chairman William Kennard (A real FCC Chairman, unlike the current Corporate Spokesperson in the job!) |
