TiVo chief unworried about Microsoft rivalry

By TODD BISHOP

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

LAS VEGAS -- Sitting in the audience Wednesday night at the Consumer Electronics Show, TiVo Inc. Chief Executive Mike Ramsay watched Bill Gates unveil Microsoft Corp.`s new TiVo partnership -- and Microsoft`s new TiVo competitor.

In addition to announcing a deal to link Windows-based portable devices to video content from TiVo boxes, Gates showed a new stand-alone digital video recorder containing Microsoft technology, signaling the company`s decision to start offering software to makers of such devices.

Afterward, however, TiVo`s Ramsay said he wasn`t concerned about Microsoft`s move, even though it could create new competition for the popular TiVo service.

``We live in a competitive environment,`` Ramsay said in an impromptu interview as he walked toward the exit of the Las Vegas Hilton Theater. ``I don`t get paranoid about other devices. I just compete.``

Under the separate partnership between the two companies, TiVo users will be able to move recorded television over a home network from their TiVo boxes for viewing on mobile phones, Portable Media Centers and other Microsoft-related devices, using a personal computer as a hub for storing and routing the video.

``There`s definitely a meeting of the minds around that,`` Ramsay said, calling it the type of situation where TiVo believes bringing the PC into the process makes sense.

However, he said, the companies aren`t as aligned in their basic approaches to digital video recording. TiVo has built its business on stand-alone DVR boxes, and it announced plans yesterday to enhance those boxes by adding functions including new access to Internet content.

In contrast, Microsoft`s highest-profile product in the DVR market, the Windows XP Media Center Edition PC, takes a more integrated approach -- combining TV viewing and recording capabilities with the functions of a regular PC.

In that way, the new device Gates showed this week is a departure from the company`s regular strategy. The stand-alone digital video recorder and DVD player/recorder from LG Electronics will run on the Windows CE operating system, plus an extra layer of special software that Microsoft created for the device, to give it an electronic program guide and other DVR-related features.

Microsoft will be able to offer the same software to other hardware makers for similar stand-alone devices, said Kevin Unangst, Windows XP director of product marketing.

While the LG Electronics device doesn`t depend on a traditional PC to operate, it will be able to access media content from a PC over a network.

Gates` unveiling of the LG Electronics device wasn`t a surprise to Ramsay or others at TiVo. Microsoft briefed its new partner about plans for the competing device in advance of this week`s announcements, said Dave Fester, general manager of the Windows Consumer group.

Despite creating the new software for the stand-alone digital video recorder, Microsoft`s basic strategy in the market hasn`t changed, Fester said. It moved into the stand-alone DVR market to offer consumers more options, he said. But the company, he explained, still views the Media Center Edition PC as ``the premier experience.``

P-I reporter Todd Bishop can be reached at 206-448-8221 or toddbishop@seattlepi.com