Oooh!

Of course, all of us DirecTiVo users will still be left out in the cold.

Why do you say that? There isn't any mention of DirecTV in the article...

We still don't get the Home Media Option which means no ethernet... unless we hack a v4 Tivo software onto our boxes. =\

Yeah. We're running ancient software versions. I've heard that DirecTV refuses to release newer software because they don't want to train their customer support on the new features. And after having spoken with several of them, I can almost understand that.

Yup, if you've got a DirecTiVo, what you really have is a DirecTV box with licensed TiVo software on it. TiVo, of course, would be happy to license additional software to DirecTV, but it's up to them if they want to expose their users to it. Given that the NetFlix deal directly conflicts with DirecTV's pay-per-view services, I strongly doubt you'll see any support for this on DirecTiVo gear. This further sucks because the new HD-TiVo would be the ultimate platform upon which to build this. They could use spare satellite bandwidth to transmit the DVD bits, getting you much faster downloads than you can get over DSL or cable modems.

Of course, just like TiVo could make an alliance with Netflix, they could just as easily offer a similar feature with DirecTV, without Netflix directly involved. Hmm.

I don't see how this is related to the Home Media option, though. Where does it say that they will incorporate this service through that feature?

Oh, and there's a story on this in Newsweek.

FYI: http://www.fool.com/News/mft/2004/mft04090713.htm

It has nothing to do with HMO. It has totally to do with the fact that DirecTiVo users have been running the same outdated software for years, and there's no reason to suspect that we'll ever see any new features.

I meant to imply that the service will supposedly work via networking... which means we'd need the USB ports on the back to work for an ethernet adaptor... which aren't activated in the current DirecTV Tivo software. If we did get HMO... then the possibility for it to work would be there.