By way of TVPredictions we learn that TiVo recently passed a “Mavrik” trademark filing through the USPTO. Fortunately, a quick Google search turns up all sorts of goodies… including the photo above and the Mavrik configurator. Based on these supporting materials, including the smoking gun URL, it’s fairly clear that the unannounced, unreleased TiVo Mantis has gone through something of a rebrand. Perhaps they had an easier time picking up mavrik.tv (not yet live) or they just didn’t want us praying for a better solution. In any event, Sarah Palin’s sure-to-be favorite streamer looks to be something of a Tablo TV clone.
Like Tablo, I presume Mavrik both records and streams over-the-air (OTA) antenna television to a variety of clients. However, while Tablo may appeal to the DIYer, it is relatively mature and proven after several years on the market, featuring apps for a number of platforms including Roku, Fire TV, and Apple TV. Whereas TiVo’s lone set-top app, for Fire TV, app is pretty bad and hasn’t seen an update in over a year. On the flip side, TiVo has always been more of an appliance — despite that USB port above, I suspect TiVo would go ahead and integrate a hard drive unlike Tablo’s BYO approach. And speaking of appliance, could the TiVo Mini also act as a Mavrik end-point?
This being TiVo, of course the Mavrik will require a subscription. However, rather than a single offering as we see from their traditional DVR line, the Mavrik looks to offer varying tiers of service given the setup wizard imagery. As to what this entails, I’m not quite certain… more/less guide data or something really progressive like Aereo-style cloud storage?
Given TiVo’s generally leisurely development pace and the numerous moving pieces, likely exacerbated by the recent Rovi guide transition, I’m guessing the earliest we’ll hear anything official is from CES in January.
UPDATE: TiVo Mavrik is confirmed to offer cloud recording options!