Women in Technology

I sent a note to TiVo this morning asking them to confirm this, since it isn't in black and white in any of their documentation. Other sites, such as Eric Lund's comparison chart, say that "[a]ll functions will disable themselves without service" in both the ReplayTV and TiVo columns.

However, the TiVo service agreement defines the "TiVo service" as the aggregate of the Season Pass, WishList, Smart Recording, TiVo Suggestions, and Parental Control features. It doesn't refer to the basic VCR features, which would certainly imply they are part of the software license. (It should be noted, however, that they retain the right to manage the software on your device, so they do still have some control over your device.)

The TiVo agreement stands in sharp contrast with the ReplayTV agreement, which states that the DVR works "only by activating and receiving the ReplayTV Service," especially since it doesn't define what constitutes the service. The ReplayTV legal agreement implies that the "service" is the whole experience (including VCR-style functions), not just the additional program guide and intelligence features. For what it's worth, I've asked SONICblue to clarify the same point as well.

I'll summarize any response I get from either TiVo or ReplayTV.