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Dig on TiVo
The first DVR, TiVo was released in March of 1999, curiously named “Project Blue Moon” since there was a second full moon that month. TiVo allowed users to CONTOL TV ‘channels’ giving a degree of freedom to pause, record, rewind and skip ads. It’s fundamental purpose? Basically an ad-blocker for TV created by Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay. Did not bode well with Major TV Corps as you may imagine. Found some mixed info on who was first to create the DVR. Anthony wood, founder of Roku, is also touted as the first inventor though Ramsay states his company was first on his linked in page.
https://www.notablebiographies.com/news/Ow-Sh/Ramsay-Michael-and-Barton-James.html
“Michael Ramsay was born in Scotland, in the early 1950s. He grew up in Sighthill, a poor section of Edinburgh.”
“Jim Barton also studied electrical engineering during his under-graduate days. His degree was from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he earned an advanced degree in computer science. His first jobs were with Bell Laboratories and Hewlett-Packard.”
*Jim is a bit difficult to dig on.
https://www.inventionandtech.com/content/pausing-live-tv-6
“Ramsey cajoled his staff to meet the deadline, dubbing the effort Project Blue Moon since there was a second full, or blue, moon that month. “
https://onezero.medium.com/they-thought-it-was-black-magic-an-oral-history-of-tivo-7503d0ada8e0
“Then, in 1999, two former employees of Hewlett-Packard and Silicon Graphics (SGI), Jim Barton and Mike Ramsay, introduced a revolutionary new product: a digital video recorder, or DVR. The product, named TiVo, seamlessly recorded shows, paused live television, and allowed users to fast-forward through the commercials.”
“After the Orlando project folded, Barton left SGI. In 1997, he and Ramsay recognized an opportunity: letting users easily record and watch their favorite shows on their own time. “
Bonus Qs:
https://www.soundandvision.com/content/qplay-streaming-app-and-adapter-co-founders-tivo
“Seventeen years later Ramsay and Barton have developed Qplay, a device and app they say will revolutionize streaming videos. The Qplay adapter was released earlier this month for “early adopters” who have been asked to give their feedback.”
https://gizmodo.com/qplay-its-like-flipboard-meets-spotify-but-for-vide-1528161974
“Conceived by TiVo founders Mike Ramsay and Jim Barton, the Qplay allows users to create and share personalized streams of Internet video, called Qs, across TV and mobile device platforms. It pulls video content from Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook (with more sources rolling out in the coming weeks and months) from producers like PBS, the BBC, and National Geographic, and it allows users to curate that content into personalized feeds that can be shared with other users.”