Ten things that Microsoft and TiVo must each do...

[electron]

Ten things that Microsoft and TiVo must each do to win the living room

Engadget.com posted a rather interesting interview with Thomas Hawk about the 10 things both Microsoft and Tivo should do in order to be the #1 player in the DVR/Media Center arena.

The digital video recorder revolution is on, with two players, Microsoft and Tivo, having emerged as the most likely candidates to dominate. Microsoft is betting on their Media Center Edition software package, while upstart TiVo has the name brand recognition and strong reputation among loyalists and was first to market. Either has a shot at becoming the gold-standard.

At present Tivo is winning in the quality game. This year Hughes released the HR10-250 Tivo PVR. If you have not seen time-shifted high def television yet, it is simply breathtaking. Microsoft is winning in the portability game. It is much easier to get content off of your MCE box than a TiVo.

Read the article

 

[Treetop]

The top 10 things Microsoft must do to win the living room:

7.  Improve stability.  Media Center should be as stable and error-free as TiVo’s Linux-based system.

HAHAHA...

as stable as a linux-based system...

 

[electron]

I run over 10 systems at home, 8 are windows based, and none have any stability problems, some have uptimes of months. 2 of these systems are MCE systems, which are more stable than any appliance style dvr I have owned (including the cable comany's). Don't knock it till you tried it

I personally think Microsoft has scored a home run here, and the future for TIVO doesn't look good right now. Now as for linux, I built 3 Linux based DVR's (mainly using MythTV), and stability is comparible with a windows Me machine. Feature wise, MythTV is great, but it has a lot of issues. Tivo is great, but is very 'restricted' when it comes to functionality.