PVR QUIRKS IRKING U.K. SUBSCRIBERS

Introduced last fall to compete with TiVo’s PVR (CED Nov. 13 p1), $450 Thomson-made Sky+ combo receiver/recorder has 20 hours’ capacity and on-screen listings guide to schedule recordings up to week in advance. Recently, bugs affecting schedule planner have caused some recordings to disappear from planner, and system sometimes freezes, preventing scheduled recordings. In some cases, recordings are deleted arbitrarily.

Sky conceded problems and said it was working to find cause that possibly was related to upgrade work on system earlier this month. Recordings most often affected are long programs and sporting events, programs that start late or run overtime -- frequent occurrence in U.K., where station’s timetables aren’t as rigid as in U.S. Sky has been giving customers credit for $15 monthly subscription. Technical problems come at inconvenient time for service, which has been promoting Sky+ box for time- shifting World Cup soccer matches from Asia.

Meanwhile, as promised, TiVo upgraded its PVR’s control software to remedy most common complaint from British TV viewers: Inability to catch beginning of shows that start early or keep recording until end of those that are delayed or run late. New TiVo software will let user force recording to start up to 10 min. early and run up to 3 hours overtime.

New software also lets viewers create Wishlist of shows for TiVo to record automatically. Viewer can enter keyword, such as John Wayne, and get list of all movies featuring that actor scheduled for broadcast in next 2 weeks. Adding title of Wayne movie programs TiVo PVR to record it at any time it’s broadcast by any channel. Setting priority for chosen movie ensures that TiVo records it even if it clashes with some other instruction, and deletes older recordings to clear amount of disc space needed. Wishlist also works for recording any program that matches a combination of keywords, such as cooking and curry.

One event not on TiVo subscribers’ wish-list was forced recording of “sponsored” show last week, done without their knowledge or permission and that they can’t delete for 7 days. Show was BBC sitcom Dossa and Joe which received favorable reviews but drew scant 5% audience in first 2 episodes. To promote show, BBC paid undisclosed sponsorship to TiVo. That alone drew critical comments, because U.K. viewers pay annual license fee of about $200 to support broadcaster.

TiVo U.K. defended what it called Advanced Content feature. Company said automatic recording didn’t impair subscribers’ use of system because sponsored programs were recorded on reserved section of hard disc and only if viewer wasn’t watching or recording another program. TiVo also said subscribers who didn’t want to watch sponsored programs could simply ignore them. As in U.S., TiVo said it intended to work with broadcasters and advertisers on sponsored programming, including exclusive content and targeted material. In U.S. last week, TiVo automatically sent and recorded video promoting new Sheryl Crow album, with ads from sponsor Best Buy.

TiVo U.K. now is prototyping Series 2 hardware and software announced at CES and scheduled for 4th quarter. Future set-top boxes will record music from CDs and Internet, still pictures from digital cameras and download games to become home entertainment servers. If box is connected to broadband modem, its Linux operating system can be programmed to download pay movie for later viewing. Recording takes place in background while box is playing previous recording or pausing live TV.