In this day and age, watching television is a common leisure activity for people across various ethnicity, gender and age. With a wide array of channels now available, there are many programs for everyone from the most avid TV enthusiasts to more casual viewers. One can watch anything from talk shows and movies to documentaries and TV-serials. Regardless of the abundance of the TV programs, people don’t always have the time to catch their favorite shows. Around the cooler conversations usually consist of a small group of people bantering about the episode they enjoyed last night. However, there is always at least one unfortunate person who cannot contribute to the conversation because they happened to miss the topic of discussion. There are numerous common reasons for people to miss shows: conflicting schedules, forgetting about the program, or having to choose between several programs. Whatever the cause may be, missing out on a favorite show is a routine headache for TV enthusiasts these days. However upon innovation of previous technologies, user-friendly digital video recorders have been introduced. In particular, TiVo Inc. has made a name for itself in the DVR market. The TiVo DVR utilizes numerous groundbreaking features, enough for the president of the FCC to refer to it as ‘God’s machine’ (Evangelista 2003). Consumers should find it pleasing to experience the new level of convenience in TV viewing brought upon TiVo’s innovative product.
In the early days, when the VCR was initially brought to the communities, the television business reacted with panic. This was because the television industry would lose control over its consumers. VCR was a tool that permitted people to record programs and view them at their own convenience. This meant that they would be able to SKIP through devastating commercials.
In the end, the television industry continued to exist regardless of the vast use of VCRs. Now the most feared VCR is at its last stages of its life and a more modern innovation has been introduced that makes footage of television programs much simple and painless; the ‘Digital Video Recorder’ also known as ‘DVR’.
Michael Powel the FCC Chairman said “TiVo is God’s Machine” in one of his public appearance in early 2003 (Evangelista 2003). He included, “TiVo is God in my household. I can’t wait to walk in the house each day to see what it’s recorded for me” (Evangelista 2003). This is due its unusual extraordinary features that mankind had only dreamt of, and now the technology was at the palms of their hands.
In a nutshell, a DVR is a ‘supped-up’ VCR with a glorified hard drive inside a box that makes your entertainment center at home look pretty. The DVR tuner receives television signal through cable or satellite (Strickland 2007). It is then sent into an MPEG-2 encoder, which then translates the information from analog to digital. An MPEG-2 is the regular compression process used to input data onto a DVD. After the encoding of information from analog to digital, the information is then sent to two places; the hard drive to store the information, and then to a MPEG-2 decoder to encode the information from digital to analog so the television can display it (Strickland 2007). There are more advanced DVRs in the market that have dual tuners in them which allows recording of programs from different channels at the same time. Also, additional features include the capability of recording two programs and at the same time viewing a pre-recorded show.
Different DVRs have different customized operating systems installed on them. The TiVo DVR runs on extremely customized Linux software (Strickland 2007). Linux inhabits on the hard drive along with the recorded television shows and a buffer for live broadcasts. So far, the structure may appear pretty dull at first analysis, but the ability of the DVR to storage digital television signals unlocks a whole new concept and the possibilities are unique when it comes to playback and viewing (Strickland 2007).
A DVR does not require a video tape to store data on, unlike the VCR. When comparing a DVR and VCR, the VCR is a recording tool and the blank tape is the media, whereas in DVR the media and tool are both in one. This is one of DVR’s biggest advantages. One does not require running around trying to find a blank tape to record the television show on, but in a way it also is a drawback. Due to its limited recording space, one has to remove television programs once the hard drive is full in order to record new programs. Though in today’s time, there is a work-around to add an additional hard drive to expand the amount of space (hours of recording time) of your DVR (Strickland 2007).
One of the beauties of a DVR is that in today’s time one is able to set the DVR to record a specific program from halfway across the world with just a few clicks. Almost certainly, the most vital advantage of a DVR is the first-time control over playback. In comparison to a VCR, one has to wait until the show is finished recording before you can start watching it, but with a DVR one can watch the show while the terminal is performing the recording.
The features described above are just a few of the many things TiVo provides users with the capability of. In 2007 TiVo and Verizon Wireless made it possible for TiVo subscribers who own a Verizon cell phone to be able to schedule recordings on their terminals through their cell phones (Mariam, 2007). Cell phone users who have Web-enabled on their phones can look through the TV guide 9 days in advance and select episodes, movies or even an entire series they want to record (Mariam, 2007).
Though there are many advantages to what TiVo has introduced to its consumers, there is also a drawback to this technology towards the television industry just as the VCR was when it was introduced. The DVR causes the TV industry a brutal heartburn because users of the TiVo device use their terminals to skip through advertisements (commercials). This concern has shaken the advertisement industry to swing money from television commercial to Internet advertisements.
In 2005, TiVo rolled out “TiVo Togo” feature that enabled users to transfer their footage of shows from their DVR’s to laptops (Mariam, 2007). This had brought them a lot more subscribers in a matter of months. In 2006 TiVo also opened an opportunity for other partners such as the NBA, CBC Corp., and Amazon.com to have them put their contents such as basketball games, movies, documentaries for the subscribers on their terminal so they can purchase and view it on their DVR’s in High Definition with just a few clicks (Mariam, 2007). In 2009, total DVR-equipped homes, with a stand-alone service, are 33.6 million (Olgeirson, 2009).
The DVR’s have also played a major impact on marriages at home. Jim Roche who resides in Richmond, Va. and works as an insurance dealer explains, “My girlfriend and I have different TV tastes. She can record something and go later watch it in the bedroom, while I’m watching something else downstairs. So we’re not fighting over the DVR at the same time” (Evangelista 2003). This clearly confirms the benefits DVR’s have brought to society.
All features and attributes apart, the innovation of VCR was a tough development to magnetize users to. Everett Rogers has described the diffusion of innovations as “the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system” (Rogers 1995). The communication through certain channels over time comes by the awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and then lastly which leads to adoption of the innovation (Rogers 1995). The DVR’s where exposed to the general public before it was launched to have the ‘innovators’ curious of what this technology really was (Rogers 1995). Innovators are the “first individuals to adopt an innovation” (Rogers 1995). These innovators are usually youngest in age and are not afraid to try out new technologies. They are well preserved financially and have a high social class status. Due to the curiosity of innovators, they were then ‘interested’ in the idea and they looked for additional information on the development. Once the product was out the innovators ‘evaluated’ regarding whether to buy it or not. Since more information was available upon the product’s release, the innovator buy’s the product for “trial” purposes. Throughout their testing in the ‘trial’ stage, the innovator decides to ‘adopt’ the technology and keep it for future use. Once this step has been established, the innovators do the rest of the work to promote the innovation.
Following the adoption of the innovators, the early adopters tried the innovation (DVR). Throughout time the early/late majority, the average persons in society, starts making use of the innovation as well. This is due to a few reasons. Firstly, because by the time they decide upon using the technology, the product has decreased in price so much that it becomes affordable for the average family person to buy. Lastly the ‘laggards’, individuals who do not care much about technology decide to adapt to the advancement. This is because, so much time has passed that the original product becomes discontinued by manufacturers since majority of the society has advanced to the adaption of the innovation.
In conclusion, if the prices of a DVR device keep decreasing, it would eventually have a lot more users. The features and attributes of the DVR is what makes the society adapt to it faster. Once the innovators and early adaptors have approved the product, the rest of the society follows along eventually. The easy use of DVRs is what makes it a valuable product in today’s society. The diffusion of innovations theory by Rogers has shown the appropriate use in this scenario. TiVo would eventually attract a lot more consumers once they’re developed features that make their DVR unique in comparison to their competitors. All in all, the future of time resides in the palms of society.