Good Bye Tivo — Regards, ATT Uverse
After I wrote about a new cable TV service that can render TiVos useless, a reader questioned, supposing TiVo and AT&T U-verse, a much loved alternative to cable? Unfortunately, AT&T U-verse doesn’t either support TiVo. Like cable companies who are rolling out switched digital video, AT&T U-verse utilizes alike two-way communication technology.
But not AT&T.An AT&T spokesperson informed me that U-verse consumers acquire Total Home DVR charge-free so why would they want TiVo? Okay, the spokesperson didn’t rather speak it that way however she showed U-verse’s ingenious multi-room system, which includes a DVR that can be accessed by multiple TVs in other rooms which TiVo also has the same feature.
TiVo lovers can also use their TiVos with U-verse although as lame recorders. Place the TV channel to the movie you want to record and press record on the TiVo.”Consumers must make sure their receiver is placed to the program they want to record at anytime they want to record their show. Because our service is tunerless and utilizes switched video, the consumer requires go through this procedure manually to schedule recordings,” stated the speaker.I checked with TiVo and the company pointed me to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Section 629, which ensures that two-way communication is accessible for users.
Still, AT&T says that it isn’t a cable operator so it’s not subject to that requirement. The FCC currently is examining this issue, according to TiVo. Apparently, it is a critical topic for the AT&T, which in Connecticut was seen by a group as a cable company, but not by another.
For those wondering, TV provider Verizon FiOS provides CableCARDs like other cable TV companies. Although CableCARDs have limits and must have an adapter to access FiOS features for example on-demand video, Verizon offers a set-top box as an adapter. FiOS consumers who use TiVo’s must not wake up one day and find programs missing. FiOS has extra capability than any cable companies so it doesn’t suffer the need to squeeze in any programs into on-demand only.
