Wanted: TiVo-like Service for XM Radio
Matt Haughey’s wonderful PVRBlog pointed to an interesting piece today: “Ten things that Microsoft and TiVo must each do to win the living room” by Thomas Hawk.
One thing that is discussed: the ability to record radio shows. I think this would be very perilous for most of radio, but something that seems primed for such a service is XM Radio. As I noted in the comments on PVRBlog, XM routinely promotes shows well in advance of the actual air date, indicating that at least some of the shows are programmed far in advance. A nearly-always-on PARR would have to be used for request-oriented stations.
It’s something that would, I think, really have potential.
Posted August 11th, 2004 in Geekery, TV and TiVo.
For talk radio and sports, a PARR would be ideal for my needs. People would enjoy recording shows for work, road trips, etc. Just as TiVo has recreated how I watch TV, a PARR would do the same for how people listen to the radio.
August 12th, 2004 at 6:46 amThe technological issues of getting an auto unit are many; any home-based PARR would have to have the ability to burn to CD-R to make any headway in the marketplace.
August 12th, 2004 at 8:28 amActually, think about it. The PARR would most likely record in MP3 or similar format. If it recorded in that format, all you would have to do is copy it to an MP3 player and there are all sorts of ways to hook up your MP3 player in the car now a days, you would be able to listen to whatever you wanted. This is even more advantageous if you had one of the MP3 players with a hard drive in it.
August 12th, 2004 at 9:43 amClearly, you have to have some transfer capability. If that’s a front-of-unit USB port or an ability to transfer the data via Ethernet, it has to be there. I mean, I could see myself listening to radio at home—I like to do that—but more people will want it packaged.
You’re certainly right that you’d have some on-the-fly WAV->MP3 compression going on. I imagine that a TiVo-like product would have a variety of compression options available; I will want primarily voice compressed more than a music show.
August 12th, 2004 at 11:21 amMore on XM and PARRs
August 25th, 2004 at 9:18 pmNews on the XM/PARR front b2blog: The RIAA and XM are upset with the maker of TimeTrax, software that seeks to timeshift XM Radio broadcasts. They’re apparently trying to see if…
Great Minds Think Alike
John wants a PARR, too.
I told you that boy was smart.
October 6th, 2004 at 12:23 pmI use my TIVO/DVD recorder to record my XM radio specials, then burn to DVD.
Only thing I haven’t tried is to convert them to an audio format that can be played through a CD player.
August 22nd, 2005 at 5:27 pm