What To Expect From TiVo At CES

by

tivo-opera-apps

With CES mere days away, it’s time to flex our predictive musculature. Mari’s gone broad with the TV trends, but I’m dialing it down to a single set-top manufacturer we know so well. Unlike years past where TiVo hid themselves at the end of an obscure, dusty hallway for invite-only meetings, TiVo’s invested in a real booth for 2014. Go big, or go home! And their prime Central Hall location will provide a much larger stage to tell the compelling Roamio story. Reinforcing TiVo’s more visible approach, beyond the booth, I’ve counted at least five events TiVo management will be speaking at. While I expect TiVo to make some noise around their analytics group and viewer behavior, a partner announcement or two isn’t out the question, and we’re still awaiting TiVo Roamio upgrade offers, I remain most interested in retail TiVo functionality.

Apps
Over the last few weeks, the Opera TV Store has started trickling out to TIVo Roamio, Premiere, and Mini hardware. Likewise new  AOL apps TechCrunch and MovieFone join a refreshed AOL On. I’ve yet to find much value in any of them, but they’re part of a broader theme – how TiVo has nicely expanded their platform, and Opera in particular, enables TiVo to state their hybrid cable and Internet streamer now provides access to dozens or hundreds of apps. Related, the new Netflix UI has made its way to TiVo Premiere units (which remains a work in progress) and I have solid intel that indicates an updated Amazon Instant experience is on the way. We’ve yet to see an app-related press release this winter, and with their ducks now in a row, CES might be the right venue to trumpet these additions.

Mobile
Due to pre-show outreach from TiVo’s PR firm, we know they will be “Announcing the new, long-awaited, second platform for Roamio mobile streaming.” Which, of course, means Android. The questions that remain are, when will customers actually have access along with what phones and tablets will be supported? Further, until now, mobile access has been limited to WiFi connections. But TiVo will also be “unveiling of new Out-of-Home-Streaming capabilities” which suggests that TiVo has expanded their adaptive stream to encompass low enough bitrates for cellular (3G, 4G) access. It’s also conceivable that TiVo’s new web portal could land stream capabilities.

What sorts of TiVo CES announcements are you hoping for?

30 thoughts on “What To Expect From TiVo At CES”

  1. I should add that TiVo already has one CES stunt planned, an attempt by three individuals to break the 86 hour 37 minute Guinness World record of TV watching. Hope they have a good insurance policy (see: Indonesia).

    “During the TiVo TV Binge-Viewing World Record Attempt, each participant will get a five-minute break (for sleep, trips to bathroom, etc.) for every one hour of the attempt. The four participants are allowed to eat and drink while watching TV and can also change channels while looking at the screen, although talking on the telephone or reading is prohibited.”

  2. Wide Android support is about all I could ask for as long as it supports the Stream along with the Premier line since I don’t think I’ll be upgrading to Roamios any time soon.

  3. I would love to see TiVo to remote TiVo streaming support. It would be nice to share shows with friends and family who missed a recording.

    I am still holding out that one day we might see a new TiVo Desktop based around the iPad app.

  4. I’m hoping they undo something they introduced last year, and let users choose whether they want the What To Watch screen to be the first thing they see in the mobile app. I find it useless, and I’d rather have it again default to the Info screen for the currently playing show.

  5. All I want at this point is the ability to watch Amazon Prime Instant on the TiVo. I think they have just about everything else in place. January should finally be the month I upgrade to the new Roamio!

  6. I hope they will have streaming to web browsers instead of phone and tablets. Luckily, for now, I’m IOS user but it would be great if I could stream it to the laptop.
    Also HBO GO app would be nice, since I’m unlucky comcast subscriber with Samsung TV :/. Not sure if you are aware but comcast doesn’t allow HBO GO on samsung smart TVs or Rokus.
    BTW I’ve got Roamio Pro for a month and I love it.

  12. At this point I expect Android support to get pushed back again. I’ll believe it when I see it. I still can’t believe it’s been this long.

  16. UltraViolet

    I’d trade all of the Opera apps for just one app that can stream UltraViolet content, such as VUDU or M-Go. Unti they add UltraViolet streaming, the app selection will be half-baked and behind the times.

  22. why can’t we stream from a roamio to an iPad/iphone “WITHOUT” initiating a recording session. This is really annoying since sometime I like to bounce through channels to just watch TV and not chew up storage space on my roamio.

  25. I’d go for the ability to initialize TiVo to TiVo transfers using the iOS app (or using any TiVo on the home network to initiate transfers from any TiVo to any other TiVo).

  26. I get the reasons why Plex would be unlikely, so how about DLNA streaming with good codec support (or at least just MP4)? Coming from Moxi a few months ago, this seems like an easy hole to plug.

  27. Amazon Prime Instant of course. The new Netflix UI on the Premiere is certainly a nice step up. Something like that for Amazon, including access to the free Prime content would certainly be nice.

    My wishlist beyond that is probably long but not expecting much…
    – I’d love to stop using pyTivo for all my computer to TiVo transfers, given that TiVo Desktop doesn’t support any codecs, bitrates, or containers from the last decade
    – I’d love to be able to initiate a transfer from TiVo Desktop/pyTiVo from a Mini, which by the way is a big problem as far as I’m concerned
    – I’d love to see HGO Go, but of course Comcast would probably block it so whatever… Ditto Showtime Anywhere.
    – Better conflict management

  29. Curious and a bit disappointed that the only thing I’ve seen/heard out of TiVo so far is the network DVR service… Any consumer TiVo customer news to report?

  30. All in all, a pretty boring CES for (new) TiVo info. The cloud/network stuff is being pitched only to cable partners and Control4 integration potentially represents only a small subset of customers. I thought TiVo had some good app stuff to build noise around (New Opera, New Netflix, Upcoming Amazon) and obviously Android support. They did hold closed door Android demos (which I abstained from) – so either they’re not as far along as they’d like or they’re concerned the announcement would get lost at CES. But, hey, the TV watching world record attempt is still going strong?

Comments are closed.