TiVo Prepping 4 Tuner HD DVR?

The new TiVo Advisors survey is far more interesting than most, spelling out a number of “potential products and features.” On the hardware front, two very specific devices are described:

• A companion device for your DVR. It allows a second TV (in another room) to watch live TV (in HD) and also watch the recordings from your DVR.
• A 4-tuner high-definition DVR that allows you to record up to 4 shows at one time (and watch a 5th show that is previously recorded).

If asked to prioritize the two, I’d probably split the difference – as an extender, with live TV capabilities, obviously complements a large capacity 4-tuner TiVo. Of course, we already know a non-DVR TiVo set-top and whole home streaming are in beta testing. But this could be the first time we’ve seen explicit mention of a 4 tuner DVR.

While there was no mention of TiVo actually completing the Premiere’s high definition user interface (HDUI), they do bring up quite a few possible software enhancements (see pic, below right). Two in particular that I’d appreciate:

• From any one DVR in your home, view a single, integrated list of “all” the TV shows and movies that have been recorded on any DVR in the home.
• For channels you receive in HD, automatically hide the standard definition versions from the onscreen program guide.

Again, we know some of this is coming. In fact, the sluggish but visually rich Discovery Bar was originally pitched to me as a sort of browser history and customizeable menu (in addition to featuring advertising and content suggestions):

In fact, power users can adjust the type and frequency of content – including pinning your favorite apps like Netflix.

…which sounds a lot like “customize a list of shortcuts to your favorite tasks”

It’s good to see TiVo thinking about these things. But, it’d be even better if they released them. And to retail customers. The TiVo Premiere has been shipping over a year, yet Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin TiVo is the only one with a complete HDUI. Which kinda puts things in perspective.

(Thanks, tipsters B and S!)