I’ve got some very good news for owners of legacy TiVo hardware… and a smattering of bad news.
While I had assumed the TiVo Premiere was end-of-life, over 250,000 of you still on the platform recently received the Roamio and Bolt’s highly desirable SkipMode – which enables somewhat automated commercial skipping of most prime time television recordings. Additionally, these 8-year old DVRs have been treated to the recently released Alexa integration for voice control. It’s quite refreshing to see TiVo invest their finite resources in backporting a subset of folks on this older hardware (and I’m guessing those of you on monthly or annual service plans are to be thanked).
On the flip side, the less than 1% of TiVo owners still using dial-up for guide data are about to be cut off due to exorbitant fees:
We are making this decision primarily because the cost of dial-up access has risen dramatically (3x price increase) and our usage has fallen to the point where the minimum costs and overhead are no longer sustainable. […]
For Series 2 customers who would like help in finding a compatible USB network adapter, I would recommend that you start here: https://support.tivo.com/articles/FAQ/TiVo-Compatible-Network-Adapters-FAQ
Customers with Series 3 or Series 4 devices that have built-in Ethernet, there are a ton of cost-effective network bridges available via Amazon, Best Buy, etc. that will likely perform much better than a USB adapter.
Those utilizing dialup will be, or have been, contacted by TiVo to review the situation – including an option for owners to purchase the older USB TiVo wireless adapter for $25 (which TiVo should probably consider providing customers on monthly or annual plans at no charge – why encourage active subscribers to potentially seek out other solutions).