TiVo's Canadian Debut: Good News/Bad News

Off topic, but I just realized it's been exactly a year since the last time I had anything to say about TiVo.

After years of hemming and hawing, TiVo has finally entered the Canadian marketplace, although there's a big "but" attached to the event.

Marketnews: TiVo Comes to Canada

Canadians have long-awaited TiVo’s arrival in Canada, and in early December, that wait will be over. TiVo will offer the Series2 DT DVR at retailers across Canada (excluding Quebec) like Future Shop, Best Buy, and London Drugs, for CDN$199. Subscriptions to the TiVo service will sell
for US$12.95/month, or as low as US$8.31/month by pre-paying for three years.
...
Although the Series2 DVR will not work with high-definition signals, customers will be able to record up to 80-hours of standard definition content; and even record two shows at the same time (one must be basic cable).

While at the same time that it's great that TiVo's cool interactive features and responsive GUI are finally available to Canadian TV watchers (the GUI on Star Choice's HD-PVR is like steering a cow), the lack of HD recording capability seems like an embarrassing misstep in what should have been a spectacular launch. One of the commenters at Marketnews was dead on for calling it "a day late and a dollar short."

Aside from being able to entertain me with interactive content, and make suggestions for programs that it thinks I might like, what is it honestly going to do for me to justify the $8/month I would have to pay for the service, on top of the bill I'm already paying to my broadcast provider, which is somewhere between $50 and $100 a month already?

Additionally, where is TiVo going to fit into the entertainment constellation a year or two from now? Don't kid yourself, IPTV and content-on-demand are just warming up in the batter's circle, prior to stepping up to the plate. When that happens, can TiVo manage all of my entertainment choices? Hard to say right now, but it doesn't look good.

I'm not sold just yet.

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