Last week, TiVo finally turned on TiVoCast for series 3 owners and so far I’ve been impressed, but it’s also left me wanting more. Over the last few years, I’ve read an awful lot about TiVoCast, but unfortunately have never been able to try it out, until now. It’s still a little too early for me to get a sense of how much I’ll actually end up using the TiVoCast programming, but already TiVo has made the service even better by announcing a new content deal with Break.com last weekend.
Break.com is a user generated video sharing site that will actually pay you $2,000, if one of your videos ends up on their homepage. Its look and feel are a lot like YouTube, but the quality of their content tends to appeal more to the male college demographic. This means that you won’t find critical documentaries on the site, but you will find plenty of videos featuring extreme skateboarding, practical jokes and of course people doing dangerous things after drinking too much beer.
Over the last 6 months, I’ve spent a fair amount of time surfing videos on Break, so having it available through TiVoCast is a big plus for me. The only drawback to the TiVo / Break.com partnership is that instead of being able to flag any video for playback later on my TiVo, Break is instead putting together a short highlight film of their best clips for their TiVoCast content.
This makes it much easier to get to the content because you don’t have to be surf the net, in order to get regular doses of Break.com delivered to your Now Playing list, but it also means that their isn’t as much content available through TiVo, as you can get online.
Of all the TiVoCast programs that I’ve watched, by far Break.com has been my favorite. The clips that they are using for the TiVoCast are like watching an uncensored version of America’s Funniest Home Videos minus the Bob Saget. It can be gritty at times and there are definetely clips that will make you hurt just watching them, but it’s undeniably entertaining and the stunts featured on Break.com are much better then anything they’ve ever shown on Jackass.
As TiVoCast continues to develop new content for their program, it will be interesting to see how much of my viewing time ends up being split between the independent vlogs and TiVoCast content vs. the mainstream content that currently makes up most of my season passes. Already, I’ve noticed that I’m spending an increasing amount of time watching videos online, but as TiVo makes it easier for me to move those clips to my TV set, it will be interesting to see how independent content fares when it’s forced to compete with better funded TV shows that already compete for my attention.
Davis Freeberg is a technology enthusiast living in the Bay Area. He enjoys writing about movies, music, and the impact that digital technology is having on traditional media. You can read more of his coverage on technology at www.davisfreeberg.com. Davis is a TiVo stockholder.
Davis actually published this just before Amazon Unbox on TiVo hit… So I forgive his comment: “so far IÂ’ve been impressed, but itÂ’s also left me wanting more.” ;) We just ordered Thank You For Smoking for our SDTV.
PS The last episode of Break was somewhat disturbing — it looked like the dude who jumped off the cliff was dead.
I had the same thought as Dave re: the last episode of Break. It’s more like America’s Funniest Home Videos without Bob Saget and without being funny. I quickly and happily ended my season pass.
I like the CNet stuff, though only somewhat. Its the only thing I haven’t unsubscribed from. I’ve just subscribed to Heavy, but we’ll see… so far its pretty stupid.
Unbox is very cool though. Three missed TV episodes so far downloaded, plus a movie…