As The Cable Show kicks off today, TiVo is out with a few whole home-esque product updates.
First, the upcoming transcoding box and functionality that I had christened TiVoToGo 2.0, has received a possibly less compelling name in the “Stream.” This small square device (shown below) sits on one’s home network to access both live and recorded content via TiVo Premiere DVR hardware and beams it around the home to “second screen” devices such as the iPhone and iPad. Both streaming, for in-home viewing, and file downloads, for on-the-go access, are provided. Although, it’s probably safe to assume not all content will be cleared for offloading.
Next up, the TiVo IP set-top box, first announced in February, remains unnamed as their ungainly “IP STB.” This upcoming device, pictured above from the show floor, acts as an extender for TiVo Premiere hardware to other televisions – providing access to both live and recorded programming, in addition to web content, via the familiar TiVo interface. It’s quite similar to, and will coexist with, the TiVo Preview — but by dropping the integrated CableCARD tuner, it becomes a much more economical and compact solution.
Both the TiVo Stream and IP-STB will be available to TiVo’s cable partners and retail customers in the “coming months.” On the cable side, the Stream looks to be a highly compelling “TV Everywhere” offering that a smaller provider like RCN could implement without investing resources to roll their own (head-end solution and associated licensing). On the retail front, I’m looking forward to finally building out a true TiVo whole home environment and intend to acquire both devices… although TiVo’s availability forecast has shifted from summer to fall.
In other TiVo news from The Cable Show, Multichannel reports on the initial fruits of the TiVo Pace partnership, designed to offer both foreign and domestic cable operators more of a turn-key TiVo implementation:
TiVo and Pace are providing details of their first jointly developed product, the Pace XG1, a hybrid QAM/IP video gateway featuring TiVo’s user interface to be available to operators in the Americas later this year. The Pace XG1 includes six tuners, an integrated DOCSIS 3.0 modem, and at least 500 Gigabytes of on-board storage. It will use TiVo’s whole-home capabilities, such as multiroom streaming and support for both traditional set-top boxes and the potential for IP client devices, as well as support for TiVo’s mobile and tablet applications.
“Next up, the TiVo IP set-top box, first announced in February, remains unnamed as their ungainly “IP-STB.”
Obviously, the release name will be the TiVo Joey.
Yeah, I was going to work something in about how “whole home” is finally going mainstream as a concept, but DISH leads the way with Hopper/Joey branding.
Now fall. WTF
In the scheme of delays, Fall is minor (assuming they stay on track). And, honestly, if they were thinking “late summer” they should have communicated Fall anyway. Production is never completed early, but quite frequently items arrive late. Besides, Fall is better for a holiday sales push.
As someone who just upgraded from a Series 3 to a Premiere Elite, I’m really looking forward to the IP-STB. The “Streamer” doesn’t interest me as much, since I don’t typically watch shows on such second screen devices. Let’s hope they really stick to Fall of this year…
So the big question is, will there be service fees for the extenders, either the Preview or the IP-STB?
Grant, The Preview isn’t coming to retail. The IP STB, with Preview-like functionality minus the CableCARD tuner, will. I suspect the streamer will have no fees. However, I’m still undecided on the IP STB. As TiVo’s main thrust is cable partners these days, it’s probably simpler to just offer them both without fees and not sweat it. I’d guess the streamer would come in around $129 and the IP STB extender maybe $100 more.
@Grant – that is my biggest concern as well. I certainly don’t want to be paying more than the up-front cost of their multi-room streaming box. If they have a monthly, then offer a “lifetime” for $50 more.
@Dave – did something change on the blog site? This appears in Thunderbird RSS reader (on Mac) as a “mobile” site.
Any idea how the IP STB will work with multiple Elites in the home?
Dave, how does the live tv part of the ip box work? what happens if im streaming live tv from a premiere and someone changes the channel on the main box? or it changes channels to record? what happens on the ip box end?
Im happy to hear the pure IP box is coming to market. I didn’t like the idea of paying for a extra cable card and associated extra fees, plus what I’d expect to be fees from TiVo.
Finally the TiVo can go whole home. Though now I kinda want a 6 tuner STB.
aaronwt, I assume it’ll be able to pull from any. Although, interestingly, DISH’s Hopper/Joey didn’t launch like that and each Joey is mated to a specific Hopper. Supposedly, that’s about to change/improve.
Al, I assume live TV via the IP STB or Stream would co-opt a tuner. Not sure what that’d look like on the source Premiere UI though in your scenario. Hopefully Gabe (Tech Of The Hub) and Megazone (Gizmolovers) can dig deeper for that sort of info in Boston today or tomorrow.
Michael, I did recently change how RSS fees are handled due to constant theft. We’re only doing excerpts now. The feed should be served via Feedburner, but every now and then it reverts to my native feed. So that could have an impact too.
“I suspect the streamer will have no fees. However, I’m still undecided on the IP STB.”
I’d be astonished if the Joey has a fee. TiVo supposedly charges for “schedule data”, so since the Joey will have no need for that, it’s hard to imagine them charging a fee.
And “schedule data” semantics aside, I don’t think it makes sense for them to charge a fee. If you’ve got a Joey, it means you’ve already got a Hopper you’re paying fees on. TiVo could prove me wrong, of course, but I think they’d be heading down the wrong path if they charge a fee on it. One fee per household should be enough. Charge more upfront for the Joey if they need to.
(And I say this as someone who likes paying a regular fee to TiVo. I’m not on lifetime, and it gives me a warm and fuzzy feeling to know that I’m sending payments off to TiVo that make them want to keep serving me as a happy customer.)
FWIW, clicking on the RSS feed always carries me to the regular site, not the mobile site.
(And as someone who reads actual items in my browser, not my RSS reader, I tend to think all RSS feeds should be truncated. But I know my usage patterns may vary from the norm.)
If it’s going to have a fee I would rather it have a small monthly fee, something like $4 or $5 a month. That is small enough where the monthly cost is pocket change and would also give TiVo recurring monthly income. Especially since the IP STB would be used in lieu of a full fledged TiVo you would think they would still need to bring some money in. I know I plan on selling an Premiere XL and replacing it with an IP STB.
If the Ip STB would have been available two years ago I would have purchased that instead. So instead of me spending $700 on XL with lifetime I would have spent much. much less on an IP STB. And TIVo would have received much, much less money from me in the long run. But if they have a very low monthly fee, they can get this recurring money indefinitely.
They could even just charge as low $3 a month for each IP STB(plus the initial upfront cost), offer no lifetime option and get that monthly income forever from each IP STB.
“They could even just charge as low $3 a month for each IP STB(plus the initial upfront cost), offer no lifetime option and get that monthly income forever from each IP STB.”
i’m sure even tivo doesnt know what to do right now. tivo premiere hardware on the shelf for $99, with an IPSTB postview next to it for $229. yea good luck with explaining that tivo.
or
premiere for $99 and IPSTB for $99 with $3/mo fee or $49 with $5/mo fee, your choice, yay tivo and choices. um what is that fee for exactly? maybe the truth as to what the fee goes toward will come out this fall.
tivo, you cant charge more upfront than what the premiere costs as that will be hard for mr bestbuy employee to explain to customers and you have no reason to charge a monthly fee, good luck with this pickle.
/s3 owner
TiVo no longer sells a $99 Premiere. The starting price is now $149. I think this price change makes sense since the IP-STB and TiVo Stream will likely be released at price points below the base Premiere price. The key for TiVo is not subsidizing the hardware cost which would allow them to sell them at retail at break even and charge a nominal subscription fee or a nominal lifetime fee.
$4-5 a month for an EXTENDER. That is flat out insane. That would make it 1/3 the cost that Tivo currently has for the monthly cost of the Premier box you already need to be paying to even use the extender!
I’m excited about these, but trying really hard not to get my hopes up. I have a TiVo HD now, and I keep thinking about upgrading to a premier, but my decision is dependent on the cost structure for these ad on boxes.
TiVo cut the monthly fee recently, which is a huge step in the right dirrection, but I just don’t think I can justify paying even more per month to watch my shows on my iPad or on another TV.
On the plus side though, it seems like Simple.TV and Aereo might be finally pushing TiVo to innovate more and be a little bit more cost competitive.
The idea that the extender would require a fee is outrageous. If they want to do that in lieu of an upfront cost, fine, but only the 360 gets away with charging a fee for an IPTV STB, and that is only because it is bundled with gaming.
All that being said, if I can buy one for under $200 without a fee, I could see this as a real value to the TiVo ecosystem.
If Tivo Prices these extenders right and finally finishes the HD UI, i may have to finally jump back to Tivo, though Fios’s whole home system looks pretty good too, and with that you would get on demand. (Provided I actually get the promised fios rollout completion by this fall).
I don’t see why there should be a monthly fee for the IP-STB. As far as I can tell all of the data is access locally between the Premiere and the IP-STB. What TiVo offer in an ongoing basis to justify any type of monthly fee? I’ve been really excited for this product, but not if there’s a fee involved.
The idea that the extender would require a fee is outrageous.
Ben, I hope you are right. It certainly makes sense to not subsidize the hardware and not charge a fee since there shouldn’t be any recurring licensing fees that TiVo has to pay associated with the IP-STB.
Do we have any idea what kind of bandwidth the IP-STB will need for streaming? And is it going to do any lossy compression on the content, or will it be exactly the same quality on the IP-STB as on the main device?
I certainly wish that some people from Tivo’s marketing department read comments on blogs like this one. I got a bad feeling that they wanted to change monthly fees for the extender – hopefully seeing hostile feelings from Tivo’s more enthusiastic users will make it clear to them.
As far as bandwidth, articles in the past indicated that wired networking (either ethernet or MoCa (such as what is built-in to the Premier) will be required.
Sean, the MPEG2 video will be transcoded to H.264. As to resolution and quality, it’s hard to say at this time. I’d assume quality would be somewhat reduced and they wouldn’t relay video beyond 720p. Maybe Gabe and MZ can get us more detail.
Why would the IP-STB need an encoded stream? That would require the Stream box as well. It should be able to handle the native MPEG2 fine, especially if MoCA is built into the box.
Why would the IP-STB need an encoded stream?
The TiVo Stream is only required to send streams to mobile devices like iPad, iPhone, or Android. It isn’t required for IP-STP. The IP-STP will be able to handle MPEG2 and H.264 streams without an issue over wired ethernet or MoCA.
“Sean, the MPEG2 video will be transcoded to H.264.”
Sean’s question was about the IP-STB.
Unless I haven’t been following the plot, you’re talking about the Stream.
Is this any different in terms of functionality than a Slingbox? Sure, it might fit inside the TiVo apps. for iPhone and iPad in a nicer way, but the streaming functionality of content is the same, no?
Yeah, I’m talking about the IP-STB. I have one or two rooms in my new house where I’d like to use one, but I’m curious if the quality will be noticeably worse. And also how much it’s going to tax my network.
Sorry, my bad — the IP-STB should be the full MPEG2 as we currently see TiVo Premiere-to-Premiere. No loss of fidelity. The MPEG2 is not small, but going MoCA (with a Premiere Elite/XL4) would offload it from your LAN. Internal networks should be fine anyhow, assuming you’re hardwired, as the bottleneck is usually to the ouside world or WiFi interference/limitations.
Brian, the Stream box provides streaming only in the house and will allow offloading of recording (file copies) to mobile devices beyond the home. It won’t have the latency of a Slingbox since you’re directly controlling a TiVo, not messing with someone else’s interface and IR blasters. Also, the Slingbox doesn’t allow you to offload for offline viewing. However, a Slingbox can access all of this stuff from anywhere and wouldn’t have to worry about the copy once restriction of say HBO that will prevent downloads of that particular programming. With the exception of flying on a plane or riding a subway, I’d say the TiVo Stream beats the Slingbox inside the home but isn’t as versatile outside the home. (And that was a design decision to limit exposure of them and their cable partners.)
“Yeah, I’m talking about the IP-STB … I’m curious if the quality will be noticeably worse. And also how much it’s going to tax my network.”
If I’ve been correctly following the plot, PQ will be identical, and in most use-case scenarios, it won’t be really impairing a wired LAN.
Hopefully this would also allow you to watch live TV on a different tuner than the one the TV attached to the source TiVo is watching, right? With the slingbox you have to be watching the same thing that’s on the other TV…
I think Dave misunderstood.
The IP-STB’s streaming is likely identical to any other Tivo’s current streaming capability. The Premiere can’t transcode, so it will stream the video bit-for-bit. The result depends on your network’s quality.
A typical HD recording’s bitrate is between 11 and 18mbps. I don’t know if a wired connection is mandatory, but it’s at least recommended. A wired solution should cut through it like butter no problem.
Sean, yeah you’d get your own tuner. No sharing tuners like Slingbox. I’m definitely stoked about both of these new boxes.
Hopefully this would also allow you to watch live TV on a different tuner than the one the TV attached to the source TiVo is watching, right? With the slingbox you have to be watching the same thing that’s on the other TV…
Sean, that’s correct. If you were connected to a Q/Elite/XL4 you would essentially be able to grab a free tuner and that tuner would be locked to the IP-STB. The user on the source Premiere would be able to toggle between any of the 4-tuners without impacting the IP-STB user. I’m guessing that if a user using the source TiVo Premiere wants to change the channel that’s locked to the IP-STB they would be presented with a dialogue box that might allow them to override the tuner selection.
Thrilled that the IP box has moca. It would’ve sucked to dangle an ugly, expensive brick off of that little guy.
Regarding the IP-STB, which I would like, and fees…..It will fail miserably if they tack on fees. Ultimately, if one wants to extend their TiVo to another screen could they not wire from an ouput from the TiVo to an input of another screen/TV and use IR/RF remote extenders? That’s a one time cost versus the added monthly.
Also, I have an HD and I just can’t see upgrading to a premiere given the price increase I would end up with. I’m on a $6.95 rate with my HD and don’t want to lose that (yes, I should have gone LT a looooong time ago).
Perhaps I wait for that 2013 box, but I imagine that would have an increased price structure too. My only hope would be to upgrade if there was a way someone in retention could code my records to allow me to keep the $6.95 rate.
But in the looooong run, the second TV is in our bedroom and 9 times out of 10, 5 minutes after starting to watch something while lying down in bed I am out like a light.
So I guess I just stay as I am. As long as my HD itself doesn’t die (i.e., soldered parts), I can upgrade the hard drive as necessary to keep the box going…….
Also, I have an HD and I just can’t see upgrading to a premiere given the price increase I would end up with. I’m on a $6.95 rate with my HD and don’t want to lose that (yes, I should have gone LT a looooong time ago).
If you buy a Premiere and opt for the MSD Lifetime ($399) you essentially pay for your $6.95/mo in 57 months and you probably have a box that’s still worth a few buck at the end of the 57 months.
I got the $6.95 rate on one of my launch Premieres and got lifetime on the other seven or eight I purchased at launch. I’m down to two launch Premieres now, plus two Elites on lifetime.
I have no problem with a monthly fee for the IP STB as long as it is low enough. I don’t see how TiVo could make up for the loss in income if they provide an IP STB without a recurring fee. Right now you have to get another TiVo with lifetime or monthly service. And the IP STB would be replacing that. Which is a huge difference income. $5 or less is pocket change. I have no problem paying that for a couple of IP STB indefinitely. Especially since I would be able to dump a cable card or two because of that. And I pay $4 for each cable card from FiOS. So a $5 or less monthly fee is easy for me to swallow. Much , much cheaper than using another Premiere with monthly service or even lifetime service.
Would the inclusion of the DOCSIS modem in the PACE hardware mean that TiVo customers would finally get two-way communication and access to things like VoD?
MoCA of course defeats one of the purposes, which is not having to have a coax run at every TV…
aaronwt,
You make some valid points about the ROI from a TiVo perspective. In my case, I would replace my bedroom Premiere with an IP-STB. That would save me the cost of the CableCARD ($2.95/mo) and the power consumption associated with my free Tuning Adapter. I would gladly pay $3-5 per month to eliminate the CableCARD and Tuning Adapter.
I wonder what percentage of TiVo Retail customers actually have more than one Premiere box. I’m guessing it would be somewhere around 30 – 40%. They will need to figure out the ROI but you could be correct that they need to charge a minimal subscription fee or amortize a lifetime service fee over 66 months to make the ROI-equation palatable.
Tivo doesn’t charge for their app, and it has scheduling data. Theoretical revenue is not lost revenue. :) But certainly, we should expect them to sell it for a profit one way or another.
Has TiVo confirmed that the IP-STB will work with all Premieres, not just the newer boxes that use moca?
Don, I heard back from TiVo: “Designed to just work with XL4 at launch.” Because the IP STB co-opts a tuner for live TV they want to ensure a good user experience on the Premiere side.
““Designed to just work with XL4 at launch.” Because the IP STB co-opts a tuner for live TV they want to ensure a good user experience on the Premiere side.”
This is starting to bug me. That kind of limit for the IP STB but not for the Stream is one of those ideas-by-committee that would only result in Tivo looking bad in the community. Aside from the obvious limitation of the market size for the IP STB, Premiere owners want a streamer too, regardless.
Why does coopting a tuner matter – some of us have multiple Premieres (in my case 3 of them) – so I have 5 tuners leftover. Do I really have to turn in two of my Premieres for 1 XL4? I hope they supper the 2 tuner units.
I’m very interested in the IP STB (should we have a naming contest?) and not so much in the Stream box.
I’d replace at least one Tivo HD with an IP STB if it were available right now. Assuming there was no monthly fee or it was low at least. Right now I’m paying $12.95 a month to TiVo for that box, plus $8.00 (outlet fee) – $2.50 (own equipment) = $5.50 per month to Comcast for the Cable Card. So $18.45/mo potential savings and an IP STB would allow me to stream HBO and other premium content Comcast marks as Do Not Copy.
Personally I already have a Slingbox hooked up to that TiVo which I would retain. Between TTG and the Slingbox I can’t imagine any reason I’d pick up a Stream. Unless TiVo decommisioned the TTG functionality of course.
TTG allows me to archive shows, play them on any device (including say my Apple TV, not just an iPad), etc all DRM-free unlike the Stream. Sure the stream can handle HBO but as Dave says it probably won’t let me store a copy of an HBO Show on my iPad anyway. And hey, there’s HBO Go for that.
Megazone reveals many more details in this mornings post,
http://www.gizmolovers.com/2012/05/22/tivo-stream-and-ip-stb-coming-to-msos-and-retail-this-year/
Not much new on the Stream, that’s mostly been covered before but MZ does a good job clearly laying out. But, unfortunately, it’s not all good news with the IP STB. At least with the initial IP STB software build, as it sounds like the IP STB permanently affixes to an Elite/XL4 tuner. Which also seems to suggest each IP STB reduces your Elite/XL4’s functionality and the number of IP STBs one can host is limited. Hm.
“TiVo knows this is not optimal, but it is a matter of releasing something that is ‘good enough’ for market and then improving it.”
Given the incomplete HDUI, yeah I’d say yeah they’ve been taking a Google Beta approach. ;)
Regarding the EPIX and AOL HD signage he spotted. Meh. We need an updated Amazon client, EPSN3, and HBO GO. Also on the software side, I hope they’re cranking away on things like the leaked user profiles, completing the HDUI, fixing the Discovery Bar (again), shared suggestions, etc. Hopefully MZ has another post in him but not sure if he had time to cover these things or if TiVo would oblige him.
Maybe MZ can also swing by Cox today and get an official comment on TiVo development. I think it’s dead and TiVo refuses to comment other than to suggest I speak to Cox.
As for me, given the IP STB’s limitations and new TiVo DVR hardware coming in 2013, maybe I’ll skip the Elite/XL4 (and IP STB) — instead, get my current Premiere a 2TB drive and liberally use the TiVo Stream and iPad(s) around the house. Wonder what resolution it streams at. Hopefully, 720p. But it may not… the higher resolution, the more expensive the chip. Notice the Slingbox SOLO is still significantly cheaper than the Slingbox PRO-HD. Although that could be somewhat artificial and probably is. If I don’t end up on Cox, but Verizon or Comcast, once we complete phase two of our move I’d contemplate a second Premiere. If I end up on Cox, there’s no way I’m dealing with two tuning adapters – one is more than enough. Hmmm.
Wonder what resolution it streams at. Hopefully, 720p. But it may not… the higher resolution, the more expensive the chip.
Based on the MCN announcement, TiVo is using one of the zenverge media processors which support high quality H.264 (1080p?) streams. I’m not up-to-speed on my H.264 profiles but I think the quality is going to be exceptional on my new iPad.
http://www.zenverge.com/pro-media-processors_zn200.html
Some more info on the TiVo Stream technology here –>
http://placeshiftingenthusiasts.com/tivo-to-ship-place-shifting-transcoder-box-this-year/
http://www.gizmolovers.com/2012/02/23/tivo-to-ship-place-shifting-transcoder-box-this-year/
Hmm, I guess the need to dedicate a tuner pretty much makes the box useless for me. Isn’t the point of Tivo to NOT have to watch live TV? Hopefully Megazone’s question to Tivo about not ever dedicating a tuner is possible. My whole point of getting the Elite was to be able to record 4 shows at once – even if my typical case is 3 at most, I still don’t want to lose the option. Guess I’ll be waiting at least until the first software update rolls down the pipe.
Here is a release from Zenverge on the TiVo Stream technology.
https://news.google.com/news/story?hl=en&gl=us&q=zenverge&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ncl=d3KBzWhb4evPD8MxH1R2E-LMr3okM&ei=ErS7T7HkG62-2AWtpeWjCQ&sa=X&oi=news_result&ct=more-results&resnum=2&ved=0CDcQqgIwAQ
The IP-STB isn’t terribly interesting to me if it permanently steals a tuner from one of my other boxes. I’ve been a TiVo customer since 2000, and if I’ve learned anything, it’s that their product development is slower than I’d ever want to believe. So I no longer will buy any of their stuff based on expectations for features to be added in the future. By the time it’s done, the landscape may be totally different, and in the mean time I’d be stuck with a box that doesn’t do what I want it to.
On the other hand, I don’t really care about monthly fees. I’d happily pay a monthly fee to have an IP-STB with full functionality over having one with no fee and permanent tuner pairing….
The permanent tuner co-opting isn’t ideal for sure. But fortunately it’s temporary… So maybe next spring? MAYBE? Who knows.
But at least let those of us with Elites stream recorded stuff from other Premieres as well in the meantime. I hope they don’t lock out all other boxes entirely.
Hmm, people must be made of money here. I have no interest in paying a monthly fee. I pay for the Lifetime up front because I expect to have the box for a long time. I recently gave away my S2 w/Lifetime to a friend. That box is 9 years old going on 10. I replaced the power supply once and had multiple hard drive upgrades in it. It was hacked up until 2 years ago when I decided that I no longer needed the functionality. I still have two Tivo HD’s that work perfectly. I had been leaning towards Ceton’s upcoming offerings but now am giving Tivo another look. I could see selling one or both HD boxes and getting a Premier that does OTA (used if need be) and the streaming extender at the right price point.
Like everyone else who has chosen to comment I too am much less interested in a Tivo STB with the static pairing requirement. I do not want to go back to dealing with conflicts again, sorry.
I also would be perfectly happy to give up the option to EVER stream anything live rather than steal a tuner for the 1% of the time I might want to watch something from a hotel room.
Surprised MZ hasn’t come here to post a link to his new post that MANY people will find contains great news on IP STB — http://www.gizmolovers.com/2012/05/23/more-information-on-the-tivo-stream-and-ip-stb/
Basically, it turns out that even thought IP STB will only pair with XL4 — at least, initially — that’s for Live TV, setting recordings, and so forth. BUT, it’s going to act like a standard MRS device, so Prem and PremXL users will be able to stream recorded content.
I think, above should pacify most users. And it looks like on XL4 assigning 0,1, or 2 tuners to STB can be changed at will.
Finally, MZ confirmed that Stream box will use whatever resolution original content is in (480, 720, 1080) and, very roughly, sideloading is 2x (e.g. 30 minutes for an hour-long show).
I could give up 1 tuner on the Elite/XL4. BUT the problem is I wouldn’t give up two, which means I can’t have two IP STBs in our next place until they figure out a better scenario. And we still watch a large percentage of live TV. Go figure. Wonder if you could do pseudo-live as you do on the Stream by starting a remote recording. That could be a work around…
I sure do like the design of the box. The shape. It’s so iconic. Yet, I feel it reminds me of some other similar place-shifting device somehow. Just can’t quite place it.
Funny, given the more square base it registered as the unreleased Monsoon Vulkano rather than a Slingbox. But perhaps that’s why the IP STB is trapezoidal rather than thre Streamer. Then again, the hole-y top and small size are more (last generation) Roku-ish. Guess there’s only so many ways you can package a set-top. (Unless you’re Boxee.)
65 comments. Is that a record for a TiVo post?!? :)
PS) How do I get a picture like Jeremy on my comments?
http://www.gravatar.com is where a lot of sites, including ours, pull avatars from (and they’re owned by the WordPress.com people). It’s something of a mixed bag considering it’s not immediately apparent (as you’ve proven) and it requires additional resources to query and load (especially on posts with many comments like this one). But being able to personalize a bit I think is meaningful.
Excluding posts with giveaways, there are 5 TiVo-related articles with more comments. For now.
Dave,
Thanks for the gravatar info. Now to find a decent mug shot… :)
And now the search for the 5 TiVo-related articles with more than 67 comments begins…
~Sam
PS) Megazone posted some additional information from The Cable Show on gizmolovers that sheds additional light on the TiVo Stream and IP STB and Pace 6-Tuner Gateway.
PSS) I think I may need to attend next years Cable Show. It may go down this year as the best source of new TiVo information in quite some time. I’m very glad that Megazone decided to attend.
It’s three-fold… First, TiVo is way more forthcoming than they’ve ever been. Second, MZ is TiVo-tenacious and surely ended up with more intel than the typical 30 minute briefing would provide. Leading to point three, unlike their CES booth set-up, their area at The Cable Show is open and one could linger and learn things. As for me, I’m quite pleased The Cable Show is returning to DC next year.
I also turned on Gravatar hovercards. For the moment, anyway. Hover the mouse over your pic or click it and a little profile pops up.
Ah… very nice on the Gravatar hovercards…
I was curious as to the location of the 2013 Cable Show. I’m planning on being there. Flying into Reagan is an easy flight from Tampa and hopefully it will be close to a Metro stop so I wouldn’t need to rent a vehicle.
It would have been great if Megazone would have captured the TiVo Stream and IP-STB in action. I saw a brief video posted here –> http://www.itvt.com/blog/tivo-ip-stb-stream-video-demo-cable-show-2012 but it doesn’t show much.
“I also turned on Gravatar hovercards. For the moment, anyway. Hover the mouse over your pic or click it and a little profile pops up.”
That Gravitar hovercard seems to have my profile information completely wrong. I was not born in Alberta, Canada. I do not work for ExxonMobil. And I am not “intently interested” in reviving BeOS.
“65 comments. Is that a record for a TiVo post?!?”
Even if not a record, the reaction makes sense. The extender and streamer are the biggest TiVo news in eons.
For me the four tuner box was the biggest news from TiVo in many, many years.
For me the four tuner box was the biggest news from TiVo in many, many years.
Elite/XL4 was big news but I think the software update in January has had more of an impact on my user experience.
It seems like a second premiere without a cable card would do everything the ip set top box does, except allocate a tuner from the Elite for watching live TV remotely. You could still get some live TV on the second premiere without a cable card using analog/clear QAM cable or OTA and have the benefit of two extra tuners to record programs. It seems like the IP set top box is going to have to be significantly cheaper than a premiere or else why bother?
I want that streamer box for my shiny new iPad 3 like a crack whore wants her next rock.
Will TiVo Stream really “Move the Dial”?
http://community.nasdaq.com/News/2012-06/tivo-products-and-revenue-vp-says-tivo-stream-will-move-the-dial.aspx?storyid=147209
I’m not so sure. It will be somewhat unique in providing a consumer access to recorded programs and the ability to easily side-load unprotected content to the iPad. Perhaps with the right advertising and word-of-mouth and the right price-point it could “move the dial”.