We first learned of the TiVo Edge back in June, via a number of FCC filings that identified a CableCARD DVR and two over-the-air antenna variants for cord cutters. Then, last month, ‘TiVo Edge for Cable’ box shots came my way that confirm new Dolby capabilities over Bolt and reaffirm streaming clients, such as Roku and Apple TV, are on the way. And, now, one formerly frustrated customer has been rewarded with a brand-spanking new unannounced 6-tuner, 2TB TiVo Edge.
I keep getting weird errors, V315 on the Vox Mini, no activation on the Bolt. After a month and a half they could not come to a fix and they had deactivated all the TiVos on my account. I spoke to several people up at TiVo corporate, gave them packet captures from Pfsense, and more. I finally told them that I’m just sending all my boxes back, and give me a refund. They ended up offering something cooler
Unfortunately for TiVo, no good deed goes unpunished and here we are. Edge certainly seems like the incremental upgrade we had assumed, knowing the more dramatic incoming changes are being rolled into the software experience. But we do have confirmation that the TiVo Series 7 Edge line provides an even snappier experience. What’s curious is that the Edge ships with the same traditional peanut remote… with those iconic thumbs up/down buttons, despite TiVo deprecating the functionality for content rating. Perhaps they have other uses in mind.
What’s sad is that after many years not upgrading, I was thinking this one might drive me to finally go for it… And then today I saw that they are putting ads in front of each recorded show. So now, instead, I’m thinking of finally just living with the Fios DVR and cancelling my TiVo.
Maybe it’s unrealistic, but I’m still holding out hope this launches without service fees given those pre-roll video ads. We shall see.
As to me, well it’s not even me at all. My wife will tell me if TiVo stays or goes. And I don’t have a good read on how she may react when they hit our Roamio. I assume the experience will be smoother on the more powerful hardware, which we don’t yet have. Could get interesting or contentious in here. :)
Ads on Tivo recordings are a total turnoff. No more tivo for me.
Dave, don’t you think that in order to offset the value of their DVR subscription fees, TiVo would have to serve up more than one pre-roll streaming ad with your recordings? And also force you to watch them, rather than allowing you to skip past? Seems to me that they wouldn’t get any revenue on ads unless at least a certain percentage of the ad is viewed.
If in fact TiVo is going to limit the use of streaming ads on their traditional DVRs to one single pre-roll ad (which can be skipped), it seems to me that this is just a way for them to pick up a little extra revenue. My guess is that their new ad insertion platform was mainly developed for other, bigger uses — such as serving up ads in the free content in TiVo+ — and the pre-roll ads are just an extension of that capability because, hey, why not, extra money!
That said, maybe we will see them offer free or discounted DVR service in exchange for watching a few/several forced ads per recording. What’s the ad load like in the typical free on-demand video on Tubi, The Roku Channel, Crackle, etc? That’s about the amount of forced ads I’d expect in the content in TiVo+ as well as in DVR recordings if their DVR service was offered for free.
It’s pretty obvious that they are going to shoot themselves in the foot.
!. The guy now running it is from Dish (check out their stock)
2. Its Tivo, what wise decisions have they made in the last what 7 years unrelated to their IP?
3. If there was some discount for the ad content (like free service which is not gonna happen,) they would have announced it when they fessed up to running ads.
4. If you have been part of the experience program, you know they pay no attention to their users so they will probably do whatever is stupidest. The UI is dumb since about the last 4 years and slow though getting faster. Uggh. Oh well, cable is about done in my house anyway and I doubt they will update series 3 with ads but maybe they are that stupid.
This is reminiscent of what happened to Slingbox web client right before the end… Also remember Ad supported mobile apps? Yeah… that didn’t add anyone new to the platform either.
To be honest I’ve been needing a good reason to cancel cable. My TiVo investment has held me back. This changes things.
Look, while I’ll thought out, the pre-roll ads are an annoyance that go away with a single press of the FF button. More bothersome is the failure prone Bolt, which was ill-conceived from a ventilation/cooling perspective, and use of the 2.5″, 9MM 3TB drives makes them very prone for failure. On my third Bolt 3TB in 2 years, I run it with the cablecard cover off, sitting on 2 – 120MM fans, and I hope for the best.
At the same time, I continue to be concerned about TiVo’s ability to execute. Heck, they haven’t updated their iOS app in nine months!
Completely agree with Jeremy P Kane, this thing and any new TiVo just became toxic once I heard about the pre-roll ads
And agree with Jonathan Ryan they continue to not focus on the user experience
This once was a time where TiVo owners raved about their TiVo
And we would be the ones to sell it to others
(Ps theres 3 months left in the year those apps seem destined for 2020 of ever, and oh yea what happen to streaming over cellular)
Any info on the edge itself as far as hardware, tuners, hd size, dvr cloud, hbonow instead of go and other streaming options? The app section for the current bolt leaves a lot to be desired. I’m still peaved that we have to use plex (needs to be paid to be functional imho) in that we can’t see our cpu as a device like before. Yet tivo desktop has no trouble copying to computer #$%$#%!
Cable Edge is 6 tuners and 2TB. OTA is 2- and 4-tuner. I think 500GB and 1TB. It’s in the FCC post.
Does it still use 2.5″ hard drives?
Yes.
Yep. This is do-or-die time in TiVo Land. This ad situation needs to work out or else we’ll be leaving the platform in droves. TiVo is still the best DVR platform out there (for cable users at least) (obviously IMHO) but the reasons for staying are becoming less compelling.
I’m rocking my 1TB Bolt for now. Waiting to see what happens with the ads as I consider splurging on the Edge
They give us a commercial-skipping feature; which turns out to be non-functional on 90% of the content. So, they apologize by adding their own advertisements on top of the ones already there?
I’ve been a TiVo user for many years. They’ve tried several ways to add advertisements, and people rebelled. Same will happen here. Me, I’m ready for a change – scrap the whole cable TV with TiVo scenario entirely. I can stream an awful lot of content on my Apple TV with the savings.
I just need a little push, and more ads will probably be it.
Financially there is NO way TiVO will ever give up their monthly or lifetime fees in place of an ad supported version. Tivo needs to make a profit on each unit sold. TiVO sells tops 8k retail units a month and low volume and ad supported is not a valid business model.
Amazon can afford to lose money on its hardware and make it up reminding you to shop on Amazon after selling a million units. TiVO doesn’t have that luxury.
NOTE: A simple [SKIP] press and the ore-roll commercial is gone. Curious if this will be the case for
So, I buy a Tivo so I can skip ads with the skip button….and now Tivo is adding their own ads????
Seriously???
If I had been smart back in the 90’s like most people, I would have said “TiVo, what is that” ? Kept walking and never looked back. I have wasted untold thousands on their equipment. I’ve battled with cable providers and of course lost my picture during the big play of the game. What upsets me the most is playing catch up with their products. You spend nearly $1k on equipment and yearly subscription and 6 to 12 month’s later out comes something new. I realize technology is changing faster and faster every day but give customers a break. I now have 5 different models boxed up in my garage. Of course I will want the next whatever, but this time, I think I will just keep walking.
@Dave Zatz: “Maybe it’s unrealistic, but I’m still holding out hope this launches without service fees given those pre-roll video ads. We shall see.” I love your dreaming attitude. :)
Meh, they still use Thumbs for various dialog confirmations, setting Favorites channels, etc.
Sorry Dave but according to Engadget just now there’s still a monthly service fee (or lifetime) and this includes the antenna model.
Yep, as I tweeted when the news went live, this is gonna be a tough sell given the landscape. I assume once. Bolt OTA hardware is depleted the smaller Edge Antenna (per FCC) will be released.
https://twitter.com/davezatz/status/1179009180700745728?s=21
Just remember as I have said for about 5 years now, whatever is the stupidest, that’s what TiVo does. They don’t listen to customers, they don’t fix 10 yo bugs, in 2019 the system still has ridiculous interface issues (though better than most cable boxes) and now they piss of their loyal customers in the worst way possible. one thing do they not realize when they try and sell their $50 dongle that everyone who knows me that knows I have a TiVo is going to ask me what I think and I’m going to tell them that TiVo is not a company I would want to do business with going forward based on their recent experiences. My Amazon fire TV box works way better then my TiVo for everything but DVR recording so the only thing I have ever used my DVR for is DVR. That’s mostly cuz most of the TiVo apps suck. And have sucked and will suck going forward compared to what’s in the market the only thing they had that was beneficial was multi-tuner DVR.