Getting Personal

The Age

Thursday July 24, 2008

Adam Turner

Australia's TV networks are cautiously embracing the TiVo video recorder, but only after stripping its controversial ad-skipping feature. Adam Turner reports.

THIS is the year television finally gets personal in Australia. Just in time for the Beijing Olympics, a range of new personal video recorders is competing for pride of place in your lounge room - including the soon to be released TiVo recorder.

Such devices let you record two shows at once, watch the beginning of a show while you're still recording the end and even pause and rewind live TV. The notion of a TV schedule is set to go out the door as Australians begin to watch what they like, when they like.

While Americans have enjoyed the benefits of TiVo for a decade, Australian television networks have fought tooth and nail against personal video recorders (PVRs) because they allow users to avoid advertisements - not just by fast forwarding but by jumping forward - because PVRs store recordings on a computer hard drive rather than video tape.

One advantage of recording to hard drive is that you never need to scramble for a blank tape when you want to record a show. Another is that PVRs can play and record at the same time. For example the idea of watching the start of a movie while still recording the end is impossible using an old VCR, but it's straightforward for a PVR.

So is instantly jumping between points in a recording, which is why many PVRs let you skip 30 seconds into the future when you hit an ad break. But predictably, the networks aren't too keen on viewers skipping the ads. The commercial stations have already introduced tricks to ensure you can't escape advertising, such as scrolling ads across the bottom of the screen during the show. Product placement within shows is also on the rise and sports commentators are even forced to read out advertisements during live telecasts.

In the US, TiVo isn't controlled by the television networks but in Australia it will be released next week by the Seven Network.

Foxtel, which is part owned by the Packer family, which also owns a slice of the Nine Network, is also releasing the iQ2 PVR, which can record free-to-air and pay TV channels. Seven and Foxtel have taken the approach "if you can't beat them, join them and then cripple the features you don't like". Seven has disabled the ad-skipping on Australian TiVos and even entering the secret ad-skip code that works on US TiVos doesn't change that. Foxtel's iQ2 also lacks ad-skipping. Both PVRs still let you fast forward the ads as you would with an old VCR.

While a lot of emphasis is placed on ad-skipping, it's not a PVR's most important feature. The fact that it can check the program guide to automatically record your favourite shows is what puts the "personal" in personal video recorder.

Access to the program guide means a PVR knows when your favourite show moves to a new timeslot. A few PVRs, such as TiVo, can scan the TV guide and look for shows starring your favourite actors. The TiVo can even monitor your viewing habits and record other shows it thinks you might like.

Once again the Australian networks are controlling viewers by limiting the technology, this time by restricting access to the program guide.

PVRs have been available in Australia for many years, either as customised lounge room computers or as specialist off-the-shelf products from manufacturers such as Topfield and Beyonwiz. In the past few years big names such as Sony, Philips and LG have also released PVRs in Australia. All of these devices have been hobbled by not being able to access the program guide.

Almost all PVRs can extract an electronic program guide from the broadcast signal so they know what's on each channel in the coming week, but until this year the Australian networks refused to broadcast this information. A few third-party EPG providers sprang up, such as icetv.com.au, offering online EPGs that can be downloaded to your PVR. IceTV works with computer-based PVRs and a few specialist brands such as Topfield and Beyonwiz, but not with PVRs from big name brands.

The television networks fear that access to an EPG will encourage people to use PVRs and thus skip ads, so rather than attack the large foreign PVR makers they attacked the tiny local EPG providers. The Nine Network has been dragging IceTV through the courts for several years, claiming the IceTV EPG breaches Nine's copyright over the program guide. IceTV defeated Nine, but Nine appealed and the case is still before the courts.

Late last year Australia's free-to-air networks struck a deal to include a full EPG in their broadcast signal. For the first few months the broadcast EPG was very hit and miss. It now offers a full week's data for the standard and high-definition channels, although PVR owners claim the networks are manipulating the data in order to disrupt their recorders. TiVo doesn't rely on this broadcast EPG data, instead it downloads its own custom EPG from the internet while Foxtel sends an EPG directly to the iQ2.

Of course, an EPG only tells you when a program is scheduled to start but the commercial networks have scant regard for their schedules during prime time. A PVR can't tell when a program actually begins unless the network embeds a signal in the broadcast, which Australia's networks refuse to do. As such, a good PVR needs to be very flexible when it comes to allowing a margin for error, starting recordings early and running over time. Of course, once recordings start to run over, the PVR needs an intelligent way to handle overlapping recordings as well as the ability to manage hard drive space to ensure there's always room for new shows.

It all sounds a bit complicated, but a good PVR does most of this behind the scenes.

A PVR without all these features will often miss the last few minutes of your favourite shows and sometimes fail to record them at all.

When the TiVo goes on sale next Tuesday it will be the most flexible PVR available in Australia with Foxtel's iQ2 running a close second.

Both PVRs let you record digital free-to-air television - standard and high definition - and the iQ2 is also compatible with Foxtel's new high-definition subscription channels (see reviews). Both let you program your PVR via the internet and next year TiVo will expand its internet features, working towards a movie download service to rival pay TV.

Traditional PVR makers such as Topfield and Beyonwiz have also risen to the challenge and both are releasing new high-definition PVRs in the next few months.

They offer improved features to closer match the advanced functions of TiVo, but also allow ad-skipping. They also offer wider media player features, such as playing files from your PC, which TiVo intends to charge extra for next year.

When combined with an IceTV subscription, the Beyonwiz and Topfield PVRs will have access to a full EPG, remote scheduling via the internet and eventually a movie download service.

The competition between PVRs is certainly hotting up as Australia's athletes prepare to go for gold in Beijing. The battle for your lounge room is about to get personal.

© 2008 The Age

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