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TV Show Recorder

Submitted by: rcourtna
Created: Apr 23, 2007, 3:44 pm

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The Elevator Pitch

For people wanting to record TV shows who do not have a VCR or PVR, the TVShowRecorder is a personal, virtual PVR that offers simple, on demand TV recording features. Unlike video sharing networks our product is legal, easy to use, and requires no software..

The Idea

You don't have a VCR or a PVR, and you want to record a TV show. What do you do?

Enter TVShowRecorder.com. A simple website where you select the shows you want to record, and the recording schedule (once, daily, weekly). After the show is recorded, you are emailed a link to download the video file.

TV Show Recorder is your personal VCR/PVR. Not a physical device, but a virtual recorder on tvshowrecorder.com.

Technology

The general idea is to use MythTV on the backend to do the show recordings. A community of MythTV users can use their free tuner cycles to satisfy user recording requests.

Legal

This is not a video sharing site. You are simply purchasing a virtual PVR. Recorded shows are stored in your temporary online storage area for you to download and watch at your leisure. The original network advertisements are not removed from the recording.

I thought of this idea when I was...

Not having a PVR and wanting to record a show.

Having a MythTV PVR, and wanting to make use of my free tuner cycles.

Comments Posted

jade9348 Posted: April 23, 2007, 3:59 pm

Yeh, great idea.

If only it wasnt illegal, you would need permission to record it, permission to sell it and probably pay a rather large fee to do so.

Bluewookie Posted: April 23, 2007, 4:18 pm

I agree with jade9348.

ByondByond Posted: April 23, 2007, 5:09 pm

or just use itunes to download the show u want for a small fee.

anathema Posted: April 24, 2007, 2:25 am

There's no money in this. The sort of people who source video on the internet this way are averse to paying for anything.

Brenden Posted: April 24, 2007, 12:41 pm

LOVE IT... but money?

Jasmine Posted: April 26, 2007, 12:16 pm

I bet you could work to have advertisers to embed ads either in the email - or at the beginning of the recording...

JuPolimeno Posted: April 26, 2007, 2:21 pm

Yes, i agree with jade9348 also. There's a lot of legal problems and - as anathema said - "The sort of people who source video on the internet this way are averse to paying for anything".
Maybe the people from TiVo will find a way to do that just to "private" use.

ardece Posted: April 27, 2007, 9:50 pm

Maybe the easiest way to work this is to set up a site were you could input the name of the show you want to view and the site would monitor the internet and send you a link where it could be viewed or down loaded. Advertizing would pay for the site operation and some target ads could be sent with the notification.

rcourtna Posted: April 27, 2007, 10:34 pm

great idea ardece!

Doymarn Posted: April 28, 2007, 6:35 am

Nice idea ... pity about the legal position... agree with ardece's idea as a work around.

Maybe the community of the PVR site monitors view requests via RSS feeds... they do the recordings and offer the recorded show to the requester. It's totally arms length!

As the site won't be doing any recording it would be legal... but obviously the PVR site doesn't condone any illegal recordings by the community! ;)

Rizal Posted: April 28, 2007, 7:07 am

like they all say ... money money money

Allan Posted: April 28, 2007, 4:46 pm

Like the idea.

DRM / encrypting so only the requester could view may help with some of the legals.

However the BBC and ITV here in the UK are both launching service that will let you watch live shows and already aired content online. (ITV the last 30 days, BBC last 7 days apparently.)

The idea in comments of acting as a broker might be interesting if you could make it legitimate, but I don't see it as being much different functionally to the 100's of torrent sites that list files.

swestrup Posted: May 11, 2007, 10:19 pm

Its a great idea, but the legality or illegality of the business is immaterial you WILL get sued, multiple times. That's not necessarily a deal-breaker, but its something that you need to incorporate into your business plan. It also means you need a hefty investment to be able to survive the lawsuits (some frivolous, some not-so) from the media companies.

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