TiVo is seemingly taking it to the very edge of the retail CableCARD viability with new hardware discovered by Variety. Of course, there was always going to be a new”Series 7″ DVR (faster, cheaper) for the cable industry and Arris is an obvious partner given TiVo’s desire to delegate hardware manufacturing and prior initiatives with the company. And, as TiVo has stated before, it’s a relatively light lift to retrofit and package those solutions for retail, which remains a lucrative market despite limited uptake.
Enter: The TiVo Edge for Cable, aka the Arris Media Gateway 3-R. The Arris MG3 is presumably the successor to the MG2, sporting Dolby Vision, and at least one Edge iteration will ship with a 2TB 2.5″ drive. Increased communication speeds also seem likely.
Beyond Arris, I can also confirm Technicolor is developing Series 7 hardware for TiVo’s cable partners. However, neither of these are the Android TV solution TiVo is concurrently working. Those smaller footprint (IPTV) solutions are being led by Evolution Digital.
But hardware isn’t the real story here. As mentioned above, it’s the continued presence in the retail market (yes!) … along with a spiffy new product name and lettering. But what I’m wondering is: Will there be an equivalent cord cutting solution or will the Bolt OTA linger on? What’s up with those streaming set-top apps? Also we know a substantial new interface is being evaluated, one that even more closely merges linear and OTT streaming content… alongside new advertising initiatives.
UPDATE: The TiVo Edge for Antenna (MG3-OTA) has now also been confirmed by FCC for cord cutters. As pictured below, TiVo will offer both a 2-tuner, 500GB model and a beefier 4-tuner, 2TB model.
