Nearly a year after RCN and perhaps behind schedule, Atlantic Broadband has launched their iteration of the streaming TiVo web portal, proving once again that TiVo is something more than a DVR manufacturer – providing a variety of software and integration services to cable providers both here and abroad. Indeed, Atlantic Broadband is a subsidiary of relatively new TiVo licensee Cogeco and one would expect a similar online offering to hit Canada in 2015.
The first cut of Atlantic Broadband’s portal consists of 35,000 on demand titles and live video from up to 40 content providers. However, much more interesting is the direct linkage into ones own DVR. While it’s evident that Season Pass management is present and recordings are “available in your recommendations,” it’s not entirely clear that customers can stream all/some/none of their DVR-ed shows set-top-to-computer and if it’s limited to in-home access only. The “Watch Now” icon does provides hope that at least some content is available in certain locales … and perhaps this modern rendition of TiVo To Go might one day be made available to us retail customers.
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I have access to the RCN version, and it's disappointing. The program grid is buggy to the point of being unusable. The "search for a channel" function doesn't work at all and never has, so if you want to get from the default channel 1 to something in the 700s, it's gonna take a while. The "watch live TV" section is missing a whole bunch of channels. And the "watch now" functionality simply links you to a channel provider's website, if that particular program happens to be available on-line. It doesn't allow access to RCN's actual ON-Demand library whatsoever. I'd say it has potential, but its current implementation is buggy and feels like it was rushed to market.
While the feedback isn't good, it's good to have real feedback on at least one implementation. The rights thing would be on RCN, not TiVo, who's merely providing the interface. I'm most interested on how or if it engages with your personal DVR. And what you on RCN have now may or may not represent what Atlantic Broadband offers. Hm. Thanks for the info!
You can view and manage the recordings on your DVR and scheduling a recording with it works well, but I find myself doing these things with the mobile app before I'll bother with logging into the TiVo portal.