[chrisjniles]

Using an application called TiVoDecoder you can download video from your series 2 TiVo (or Series 3 or TiVo HD in the near future according to some rumors) to your mac in mp4 or mpeg2 format. I then put it in iMovie '08, snip out the commercials, and export to iTunes in the Medium size (that being the largest size compatible with my iPod).

[waybackmac]

Actually, I think (NBC CEO) Jeff Zucker is trying to drive everyone back to the old traditional models of TV, radio, and DVDs/CDs. First destroy iTunes then pull the rug out from under Amazon and other legit music and video download sites. I think once Hulu starts attracting people the shine will wear off quickly. As more viewers tune in, more ads will be added, the stream quality will start to deteriorate, fewer new shows will be added, site won't be upgraded, and so on. Just what Zucker really wants who will then declare digital distribution a failure and raise the prices of DVDs/CDs.
As I also see services like Comcast and Verizon throttling back download capabilities and the FCC letting AT&T increase their charges to ISPs, I think legitimate downloading of content may yet go through hard times.

[cfromberg]

use ishowu to rip stuff like that. there's other good apps that can rip webbrowser only video content.
it's only a question of time until an app like tubesock will be released. tube sock downloads youtube flash videos to your harddrive. holosock is already in the making, that's my guess;-)

[davidwb]

Maybe ours is not the average American family but we have a satellite DVR as well as a Tivo connected bottom tier cable (for local programming not available thru satellite). This setup lets us record up to three shows at once so there's little we miss and with Tivo I can move content to my computer. What the iTunes store offers us is the chance to catch up on a new show that we somehow missed or that didn't immediately grab us in the beginning. Heroes and The Office are two good examples.
I downloaded 9 episodes of Heroes and 6 of The Office from the iTunes store. I watched them during my lunch hour, my wife watched them during her commute. Hulu offers us nothing! Obviously my wife cannot watch on her commute and my business blocks entertainment sites. NBC's incredible greed and need for control will get them nothing from my family.

[Walt_Basil]

Pretty much the same here. DVR gets the shows we can't watch while watching another. iTunes TV content is for watching entire seasons that we weren't able to catch the first time around. Steve got me to buy the first season of The Office, and after that I bought the next two seasons. Now I'm watching it every Thursday night. Also, I buy seasons that I want to keep. (Lost, Damages, etc)

[Terrin]

NBC is stupid. Nothing prevented it from offering its video both through iTunes and Hulu. They are two separate markets. Many people want to own the content and do not like commercials. Others do not like paying and will suffer through the commercials. Hulu may experience some limited success, but its supporters probably will not be the people who were willing to pay for the content on iTunes.
Also, NBC's numbers concerning only making fifteen million from iTunes do not add up when you look at the total amount of shows sold on iTunes. Also, I would buy a show from iTunes if it had only one ad in the front of the show, or as an intermission. That would have been a way to increase revenue.

[randombob]

Hulu appears to suck, at least to me (and apparently others!). I don't want to have to worry about the internet connection when I actually want to watch. iTunes let's me put it on my HD, or whatever to watch later. Cool.
However, I still refuse to buy from the iTunes store until they up the ante to HD programming. I'll d/l the few shows I want to watch at night while I sleep, and then I can watch them in all their HD, 5.1 glory on an AppleTV (that I have yet to buy because of lack of HD content, as well as lack of 1080p support).
They've got the groundwork laid, Apple does. Now they just need to finish the thing!

Oh, and uh, obligatory F-U to NBC, too. Yeah. Even though honestly, I think with few exceptions their offerings suck all by themselves. But jeezus, "Flexible" pricing? Sorry, I expect the shows to be NO MORE than $1.99 when they crest the HD horizon. Hell if I'm paying what the hell they want me to pay for a damn 22-minute spot. They need to get real and realize that indeed, most of their viewership is "average joes," people that make mere pennies on the dollar (probably fractions of pennies) of their own salaries. We're not going to pay $3.49 a show or $4.99 for a SEGMENT of a show... Because believe it or not that adds up, and I have food to buy and a new computer to lust after :-D
So uh, NBC: GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE. WORK ON IMPROVING THE DECENT/LEGITIMATE SYSTEM IN PLACE, instead of going the greedy we-want-it-all-and-we-want-it-right-now path.

[zenwave]

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NBC doesn't seem to realize that people want possession of their content, portability is the key. With iTunes, people are actually will to pay for what is freely available over the air in order to have that portability. All they're doing now is driving people to The Pirate Bay.

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I sure hope you are wrong. Imagine millions of Americans clogging their hard drives with stupid television shows.
Ninety percent of the crap is barely worth watching once, let alone twice. While there are exceptions to this, I agree with Steve Jobs' original assessment: music is something to enjoy over and over, but TV & movies are better rented than purchased. I can be doing my daily run, raking the leaves, or something active while listening to a song for the 10th time - but by the 10th time you've watched a sitcom episode, you've spent 5 hours with your @$$ glued to some couch.
Too bad Jobs caved in to the market pressure to sell the 'unwashed' more crap they don't need.
Jon

[Jaques]

Having the shows I want to watch on Hulu isn't a bad idea as I can watch them later, when I'm supposed to be studying, but iTMS is a much better proposition. I can buy, download and watch what I want, when I want, wherever I want. Simple...

[flowney]

I would not be too impressed with a modest number of commercial interruptions. The predictive model to consult is cable TV. Remember that initial cable promise? No commercials since you are paying for the service. What do we have now? Fifteen minutes or more of commercials per hour plus those increasingly intrusive overlay commercials DURING the show you're watching.

[VidPro]

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NBC doesn't seem to realize that portability is the key. With iTunes, people are actually willing to pay for what is freely available over the air in order to have that portability.

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I sure hope you are wrong. Imagine millions of Americans clogging their hard drives with stupid television shows.

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To each his own, but why shouldn't they be able to do that if they wish to do so? What harm to anyone, including you?

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Ninety percent of the crap is barely worth watching once, let alone twice.

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Absolutely true! But, if for whatever reason I don't watch a broadcast when it is on, why couldn't the one and only time I watch it not be while I'm on a two hour ferry ride I have to take occasionally? In that situation there is no internet to watch online.

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Too bad Jobs caved in to the market pressure to sell the 'unwashed' more crap they don't need.

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That could be said about whatever you buy. Even the essentials we buy is usually more than what we need, whether larger, more luxurious, whatever.
Just because people want something they don't absolutely need doesn't make them "unwashed", it just makes them normal.

[lwdesign]

Here's another classic example of a media company not getting it. Let's take a look at the money a network gets from a TV show:
1) They have advertisers that pay HUGE sums to advertise during the show's initital running on TV.
2) They sell the show on iTunes (or not in NBC's case) and make even more for the same content.
3) They make money from even more advertisers when the show goes into syndication on TV.
4) They make money when they release DVDs of the various seasons to video stores for purchase by consumers.
Now NBC wants to take itself out of iTunes, which has apparently made them ONLY 15 million dollars which they wouldn't have had, and created a FREE site where they get paid again HUGE sums for the content. Why does NBC feel that they have to eliminate the iTunes section of that income. If I were an NBC shareholder I'd be furious that the company was eliminating a profitable income source for no reason. Why couldn't NBC do both its own free site and keep its content in the iTunes store? This just doesn't make any sense, other than NBC wanting to idiotically "break" Apple's "hold" on content distribution.
Don't they realize that they're thumbing their collective executive noses at MILLIONS of iPod users who want video on their iPods? Will the new free site work with your iPod? Nope, but that's OK with NBC. Wow, I'd hate to be at the next NBC shareholder's meeting when questions of revenue streams are brought up.
Oh, and how about those commercials on the free site? I avoid watching TV for just that reason. This is why Tivo and iTunes has been such a hit. I pay the small amount of money per episode of the shows I like to avoid the continuity breaking, mind-numbing, freaking commercials!! I'm upset that now Battlestar Galactica's last season will now have to be VHS recorded and fast-forwarded through the commercials--and that I have to remember to record it. I don't have a Tivo.

[sEaMoNkeY]

NBC makes me sick. The whole reason people downlaod TV shows from itunes is that you can watch them on the go, not on a flash player that on only on the web!!! All they're doing is eventually losing money because no one used there horribly thought out service and driving customers to BitTorrent!!! Do these people actually do any research, or are they just so short-sighted that they're happy with billions of dollars for a short amount no time. I'm sticking with itunes, thank you very much NBC, you cheap money grubbing bastards!!!

[hillstones]

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Using an application called TiVoDecoder you can download video from your series 2 TiVo (or Series 3 or TiVo HD in the near future according to some rumors) to your mac in mp4 or mpeg2 format. I then put it in iMovie '08, snip out the commercials, and export to iTunes in the Medium size (that being the largest size compatible with my iPod).

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If your TiVo Series 3 or TiVo HD has software version 9.1 or later (9.2 is the current version), it supports TiVotoGo for both Mac and PC's. Mac users need Roxio's Toast 8 Titanium to transfer content to the Mac. So now you can transfer content to your Mac, or between two TiVo boxes. TiVo also released the 500 GB external SATA drive for TiVo Series 3/HD. Software 9.2 is needed for the external drive support.