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- UltimateTV History -
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UltimateTV at a Glance
Stock quote: MSFT $25.44 (-0.99)
Headquarters: Mountain View, California
Unit Founded: 2000
Product lines: Ultimatetv, Microsoft
Monthly subscription cost:$9.95
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Introduction
UltimateTV is a personal video recorder service from
Microsoft for the Directv digital satellite service. Similar to
DirecTivo units, UltimateTV give Directv customers the ability to
record their Directv programming service. UltimateTV offers a
detailed and interactive program guide, including that of most
major cable and satellite providers, live TV pause/recording that
allows you to pause and resume live television broadcasts,
including slow motion and instant replay, record 2 shows at the
same time, program searching by keywords, interest or genre and
more.
Early History
Microsoft entered the personal video recorder market in June 2000,
nearly a year and a half after Tivo and ReplayTV had launched their services.
The UltimateTV platform was an extention of the Microsoft WebTV unit. The WebTV unit
was not as successful as Microsoft had hoped and the idea was to try and tap into the
millions of Directv satellite customers and offer them a personal recorder system that would utilize the WebTV software.
The UltimateTV system was to compete head to head with the already popular Directv with Tivo system.
Tivo was already a well established market leader with a strong brand recognition from their stand alone Tivo models.
The UltimateTV monthly service fee was also more costly at $9.95 per month, compared to the
$5.95 per month that Directv charged their Tivo customers. The UltimateTV system offered users up to 30 hours of digital recording from the favorite Directv stations.
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Microsoft once hoped that the Ultimatetv would energize their struggling Webtv division. They exited the personal video recorder market in 2002, before re-entering using Windows XP Media Center Edition in 2004.
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Recent History
Microsoft has hoped that their dominance in the computer industry would had aided them to establish a strong following. However, it was not to be. The cost differences between Tivo and UltimateTV in addition to Tivo better marketing and following caused Microsoft to exit the PVR market in 2002. Microsoft would re-enter the market in 2004 utilizing their flagship Windows XP operating system with Windows XP Media Center Edition. More recently in June of 2007, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Mediaroom, an Internet Protocol Television service (IPTV) intended to help cablevision companies deliver recordable streaming television technology.
While production of new UltimateTV receivers has discontinued, existing boxes continue to be supported by Microsoft and Directv. Consumers are still able to purchase used UltimateTV receivers and have them activated. A good place to find used UltimateTV receivers would be EBAY. The 3 models of Directv
receivers with UltimateTV capability are the RCA DWD490RE, RCA DWD495RE and the Sony SAT-W60.
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09/19/2007 12:08 AM
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