Perhaps I missed it launch week. Or perhaps it’s an even newer arrival. Regardless, I discovered and unboxed the new TiVo Glo Remote, Premiere Edition, at the Best Buy Friday night… as they conducted some light iPad remodeling.
It appears that the jump in physical quality from standard “peanut” to Glo is much less dramatic in the Series 4 line than what we saw with the Series2 and TiVo HD. Partially due to what I suspect is a cost cutting, profit boosting measure of sharing (lesser) parts. The Glo does provide learning capabilities and backlit keys (get it, Glo?) over the stock Premiere remote, along with a slightly different paint job (along the bezel). But it doesn’t feel quite as solid as the original Glo, one of my all time favorite remotes. Several of which we have sprinkled about our home. Perhaps adding to the slightly different feeling is a reduction in weight. Whereas the original Glo housed 4 AAA batteries, the Premiere Glo is powered by just a pair of AAs.
The new Glo remote comes bundled with the Premiere XL or can be purchased separately for $50 at Best Buy or TiVo.com. But I’ll be hanging onto my originals for the time being.
Click to enlarge:
According to the forum chatter, not all Best Buys will have Premiere XL inventory. Their Sterling, VA location does (bonus pic above). But that store also houses a Magnolia section, which I also read was a prerequisite.
On the TC forum, several people have weighed them to find them less than .1 oz less than the series 3/TiVo HD remote. I think it is the material and placement of the batteries that makes it feel lighter. Also the placement of the batteries for me throws the balance off some.
I bet the difference in weight is because it uses 2 AA batteries instead of four AAA batteries. It will be interesting to see how this affects the battery light since my S3 remote was a power hog.
brennok, after reading your comment I started juggling them again. It could be the weight is very similar, it’s the battery placement that effects the balance and feeling. Hm.
Also, I just noticed the new remotes have the registered trademark (r) logo silk screened on the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down button. Silly!
I must admit that I LOVE TiVo remotes (regular and Glo). A long time ago I got an excellent deal on Harmony’s 360 remote, programmed it and everything, but just couldn’t use it.
TiVo remote, to me, is the best because of the location of trickplay controls (Pause, Play, FF, RW, 30 sec skip) as my thumb reaches all of them easily when I hold the remote and I don’t need to hunt for buttons to skip commercials :)
I can only hope that when I re-do living room set-up in the summer, I’ll be able to find a universal remote similar to TiVo’s.
I love this remote I have had it a few weeks now and its just great.