NOT HOT: Sonicblue (ReplayTV) BANKRUPT

[BarneyFife]

Originally posted by: Raybies

Originally posted by: BarneyFife
I had a Tivo but now I have a replay. As someone mentioned, the tivo has better software but the Replay gives me more options. I put my replay on my network, do all live updates via my cable modem and am able to transfer the mpg files to my computer and convert to vcd. I also think the www.myreplaytv.com feature is pretty cool which allows you to record programs and delete programs from your unit via the www.

I can also do all this on my Tivo. Yes I needed to install a network card first but after that I have Tivoweb to control it from anywhere I have Internet access including my GPRS connected PDA, I can extract files with TyTool, I can get updates thru my broadband access.

I believe that you can only extract video from series 1?

 

[juiio]

I don't know how shareholders can be surprised. They had no recurring income coming in from the ReplayTVs.

 

[Rab]

I don't know how shareholders can be surprised. They had no recurring income coming in from the ReplayTVs.

Replay has a monthly fee, which would fit the description of "recurring income."

 

[rugby]

Originally posted by: JeffMD
sonic blue is dead. huge debts, no money, and shareholders are threatening lawsuits because some how sonic blue turned a company that was makeing money to one in huge debt in such a short amount of time.

personaly I say screw tivo and replay, I rent my PVR from time warner, I pay less monthly then tivo and replay users do, didnt have to buy a box, I get ONSITE repair service/replacement for however long I rent the box, setting up shows to record is twice as easy, I can watch another show while one is recording, or record 2 shows at the same time.

oh yea, digital cable channels are saved in their original form, no recompression. this offers significantly higher quality then tivo or replay.

Sure I cant save anything I record, but then what IS on tv worth saving?? If there is actually a movie that i want to save, i'll buy it on dvd where I can see it in wide screen.

You rent your PVR, but when I sell my lifetime subscription 5175(was 5040) I will break even or possibly make money. Check eBay for going prices on lifetime subscription replaytv's. THey're near retail price. I paid $400 after MIR for a lifetime 5040 and can sell it on eBay for more than that right now.

 

[MOONKEY]

Originally posted by: runnerb
How is this gonna affect the $100 in rebates?

If it is a plain bankrupt, no new owner: Creditors get their money first; if anything left, perferred stock share holders get some; rebate is pretty much gone. Remember the "cyber rebate dot com" "scam"? Someones bet their whole life saving, and got nothing bcak.

Then, again, if it is sold, the new owner may bear responsiblity for rebate. Wait and see their agreement.

 

[ReiAyanami]

bondholders get all the money first. stockholders get toilet paper.

although everybody saw this coming for the past two years, because they have't shown a profit in the past 4 years.

can you believe what they did to diamond multimedia, it used to be a good company

 

[bonk102]

i hope the service stays intact, i would hate to see it die

 

[DerProfi]

Originally posted by: MOONKEY

Originally posted by: runnerb
How is this gonna affect the $100 in rebates?

If it is a plain bankrupt, no new owner: Creditors get their money first; if anything left, perferred stock share holders get some; rebate is pretty much gone. Remember the "cyber rebate dot com" "scam"? Someones bet their whole life saving, and got nothing bcak.

Then, again, if it is sold, the new owner may bear responsiblity for rebate. Wait and see their agreement.

They haven't been sold yet. Everyone needs to hold their horses and just wait 'n see... SonicBlue is still operating, still taking new subscriptions, still providing support, and according to accounts over at www.avsforum.com, still paying out rebates.

BTW, I see this as _GREAT_ news for ReplayTV owners. Finally a solid consumer electronics company will be behind the product (although I guess my old Panasonic Showstopper is also in that category).

 

[jamesd1343]

anyone know what that means for the sonic govideo dvd player wit hteh hard drive and ethernet due out in spring??

 

[stultus]

My favorite part of the news article:
Shares of SonicBlue fell 17 cents, or 73.9 percent, to close Friday at 6 cents each on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

BTW, there is some confusion with Replay's "monthly fees". The old series 1 Replays have no monthly fees. Nada, zip, zilch. The newer ones have tivo-esque pricing schemes.

 

[jasonja]

.

personaly I say screw tivo and replay, I rent my PVR from time warner, I pay less monthly then tivo and replay users do, didnt have to buy a box, I get ONSITE repair service/replacement for however long I rent the box, setting up shows to record is twice as easy, I can watch another show while one is recording, or record 2 shows at the same time.

If it wasn't for ReplayTV and Tivo you wouldn't have a PVR now. In fact chances are that box of yours is based on technology from one of those two companies. BTW you box is nothing magically, DirecTV customers have been enjoying those same features with DirecTivo and UltimateTV units for 3 years now. My DirectTivo feature only costs me $4.95 a month too, I bet that's 1/2 or 1/3 the price that Time Warner charges for their DVR box. Also are you sure that all channels are recording a digital signal? I had TWC digital cable for 3 years and only about 40% of the channels were actually digital (most of the locals and other lower channels were still analog) so I don't see how your box wouldn't have to mpeg encode those.


I'm surprised so many people here think Tivo's menu's are more intuitive. I've had Replay for 3 years and just got a DirecTivo last month. I found the Replay instantly easy to use and knew exactly what to do. The Tivo is easy as well but I miss the control of Replay. The Replay is very specific and you can say only record recurring shows on this channel on these days at these times. While on my Tivo it's more like "yeah I like this show" and I just hope it records it. 90% of them is the same but I would have thought the more technical crowd on this board would have prefered the control that Replay offers over the more dumbed down approach of Tivo.

Don't get me wrong, I love my DirecTivo (dual tuners, no picture quality loss, easy to upgrade) and I even prefer some of the features of it over Replay's, but I still think Replay has a better product in the stand alone DVR market

 

[fornax]

If it wasn't for SonicBlue, we wouldn't have MP3 players or portable CD/MP3 disk players, or in-dash MP3 players, or .... either. Too bad the morons in the board of directors fired their CEO who had the vision for SonicBlue to be innovative, and replaced it with the dumb, narrow-minded slob whose motto was: we won't innovate because we'll get sued. A pretty good account of how a bold, innovating company was ruined can be found here on Salon.com.

And I wonder, did those directors refunded the loans they took?

 

[abc]

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
bondholders get all the money first. stockholders get toilet paper.

although everybody saw this coming for the past two years, because they have't shown a profit in the past 4 years.

can you believe what they did to diamond multimedia, it used to be a good company

heh heh yes, i do, i owned stock in Diamond MM, then it became S3 I think? and now Sonic Blue.

i dont hold alot, fortunately, but it was significant in the sense that I bought in when I was still in school so

it was alot of money. Sure now it is near worhtless.

To use as a tax write off, should I sell NOW or not and wait for bankruptcy to follow through ,delisting the stock and all?

 

[luv2chill]

Just want to say I'm also a long-time ReplayTV owner who loves those units to death. They've saved me a lot of time by finally making TV conform to my schedule! I don't think there's anything to worry about. As others have sagely pointed out, D-M (a great company, BTW) would not have agreed to purchase the ReplayTV SBU if they did not intend to utilitze the current hardware, software, and of course--the lucrative user base. The awesome thing is that because D-M actually have money to throw around, they will hopefully improve on Replay's few remaining "quirks" (where's that damn to-do list we've been asking for since the beginning!!) and basically making it an all around Tivo killer. It's possible they may deactivate show-sharing (to/from the Internet), but I personally I don't use that feature anyway. Plus, the wonderful DVArchive program could easily incorporate that functionality, off-loading the chore from the replay even if it does retain the show sharing feature.

Everybody wins in this scenario. ReplayTV is a very valuable business, and I'm sure D-M wasn't the only company interested in gaining a foothold into the PVR market---they were just the highest bidder.

D-M (or whoever the final owner is) would effectively kill the brand image of ReplayTV if they were to leave all of the current owners/subscribers out in the dust. It just makes zero business sense.

So ReplayTV fans everywhere should rejoice, as now that the software/hardware/service will be liberated from that cancer that was SonicBlue it will really have an opportunity to flourish.

l2c

 

[TheeeChosenOne]

Can you believe that SonicBlue had $1 million/month in lawyers fees due to their lawsuits with the studios? :Q Damn lawyers. I hate them with all my heart!! I remember a friend being charged $2.00 a page for lawyer photocopies. I guess lawyers never have heard of Kinkos, eh?

Despite this, the CEO said it wasn't the lawyers fees, BUT the huge debt due to acquisitions to get into the consumer market! They tried to get their creditors to do a debt-to-equity swap, but the banks just want their money and told/forced them to sell their assets.

D-M (Denon-Marantz) is a Japanese company noted for exceptional audio equipment. They're at the forefront in audio and are very innovative.

Thus, ReplayTV will be in good hands.

D-M already signed a "letter of intent" to purchase the unit for $40 million and change.

 

[JeffMD]

jasonja, your right, they did pioneer the interest in it. But that dosnt mean i'll need to be forced for their stupid price scheemes. and time warner is charging me $7, so thats about 2/3rds


as for the digital channels.. your refering to the digital cable itself not the pvr box and its abilitie to save digital channels directly. true the box is still useing about 50 channels of normal analog (of which, I only think fox and mtv SHOULD have been in digital by now) . this prolly wont ever change for years because #1 their probably isnt enough digital boxs for every single customer yet, and #2 they are still charging $10 extra for digital cable. as for percentage of content thats digital, the rest of the channels 60-170 are normal digital. 180-200 is more digital content on another price block. then 300+ is where the many multitudes of hbo, skinimax, showtime, tmc, ect are stored, as wel as the 80 bazillion pay per view and music channels. ^^ then theres the 6ish hdtv channels at the end.

 

[kdegarmo]

Who really gives a damn? How bout an off topic discussion on this topic?

 

[JeffMD]

kdegarmo, well it IS a warning to those who may find deals on sonic blue products, since the chance of future support is slim and the chance of getting any REBATES is slimmer.

 

[JHawk]

I've got an old Panasonic HS2000 that has no monthly fee. I've hacked it to 80 hours and think it is great. I'm wondering if I've got anything to worry about(ie,charging a fee) with a new owner??

 

[DerProfi]

Originally posted by: JeffMD
kdegarmo, well it IS a warning to those who may find deals on sonic blue products, since the chance of future support is slim and the chance of getting any REBATES is slimmer.

And you know this how? Until my 4 RTVs stop working, I'm going to assume that everything is A-OK.

 

[dpid]

Originally posted by: abc

Originally posted by: ReiAyanami
bondholders get all the money first. stockholders get toilet paper.

although everybody saw this coming for the past two years, because they have't shown a profit in the past 4 years.

can you believe what they did to diamond multimedia, it used to be a good company

heh heh yes, i do, i owned stock in Diamond MM, then it became S3 I think? and now Sonic Blue.

i dont hold alot, fortunately, but it was significant in the sense that I bought in when I was still in school so

it was alot of money. Sure now it is near worhtless.

To use as a tax write off, should I sell NOW or not and wait for bankruptcy to follow through ,delisting the stock and all?

if the stock becomes worthless, you would need to fill out paperwork... and from the limited knowledge I have, the paperwork is cumbersome (and the important rule for writeoffs is you can claim it only on the year it becomes worthless, this info is sometimes hard to figure out).

You can sell it now, while it's near worthless, and your broker probably will charge you commission on doing that (if they're nice, they'll only take how much you made on the sale (since it's less than their full price), thus you have a worthless stock without all the paperwork. (you should talk to you broker/institution on fees for selling near worthless stock). Then again, you can keep it in the hopes that sonicblue will emege out of this bankrupcy. <-which will be hard if they're selling their core assets :-(

 

[Mallow]

I won't miss it :/

 

[SharkyTM]

i'd wait and see.....

 

[herkulease]

Originally posted by: TheeeChosenOne
Can you believe that SonicBlue had $1 million/month in lawyers fees due to their lawsuits with the studios? :Q Damn lawyers. I hate them with all my heart!! I remember a friend being charged $2.00 a page for lawyer photocopies. I guess lawyers never have heard of Kinkos, eh?

Despite this, the CEO said it wasn't the lawyers fees, BUT the huge debt due to acquisitions to get into the consumer market! They tried to get their creditors to do a debt-to-equity swap, but the banks just want their money and told/forced them to sell their assets.

D-M (Denon-Marantz) is a Japanese company noted for exceptional audio equipment. They're at the forefront in audio and are very innovative.

Thus, ReplayTV will be in good hands.

D-M already signed a "letter of intent" to purchase the unit for $40 million and change.

that's not mean lawyers. Theres an article I just go through reading in last weeks sunday week. A school district that was having finance trouble hired lawyers to help them work out things with creditors and guess what the lawyers do? charge 2.8 million in lawyer fees. Its a freaking school district. Its not some business who's goal is the profit.

 

[DealLurker]

D&M Deal fell through !!!!!!!

http://msnbc-cnet.com.com/2100-1041-994972.html?tag=lh

Sonicblue, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, had hoped to sell the business units to Japanese electronics company D&M Holdings for $40 million. But the deadline expired before the deal could be completed.

ReplayTV and Rio will be auctioned off April 15, in two separate bankruptcy court transactions


I own a Replay3030 and love it. At least now (if no one buys it) the hacking community will release tons of info to let people do tons of cool things with them!