Why Tivo will thrash HP, Microsoft

“ HP HAS been trying to launch an “entertainment center” platform since 2000. Someone call Carly and tell her it’s time to shoot the dog.

Its first attempt launched in 2001 was a Linux-based device dedicated to playing music, hooked into an HP-proprietary “walled garden” for content and listed out at $1000 for a Celeron-based boxed with a 40 GB drive. Compaq had a competing device around the same price, but nobody in their right minds was going to burn $1000 for a castrated PC stuffed into a stereo box.

Round two was launched in December 2004, with HP’s Digital Entertainment Center. The new version is now built around Windows Media Center, rolls in a digital video recorder and up to two TV tuners, 802.11g, a wireless keyboard, lots of slots for flash media, a Pentium 4 processor, and a DVD-burner. List price on the entry-level box is $1500 and includes a 160GB drive.

Now compare this to the humble $199 ($99 with rebate) TiVo. The $99 TiVo only has one onboard TV tuner, 40 GB drive, a nicely designed remote, and is built around Linux. As a dedicated appliance that can be expanded through software, the baseline TiVo can play music and display pictures off of other PCs through one’s TV, record video at all hours of the day, and just works. If you want a wireless connection, you have to shell out around $40 for a USB frob, but that’s no big deal because after the smoke clears, you still have a device is around $1300 less than the HP Digital Entertainment Center to record video.”