After a month delay, the TiVo Stream 4K update arrived last week with a variety of fixes.
However, beyond failing to roll in HDR improvements, TiVo introduced a pair of issues. Notably: breaking some audio/video decoding and locking up developer options behind a PIN. Of course, being able to successfully playback audio and video is a critical feature of any streaming device. So it’s a pretty significant development when an A/V company can’t get such fundamental capabilities right.
I had been prepared to recommend the TiVo Stream 4K as the ultimate Channels DVR end-point, given its occasional solid performance (hey, flickering is supposedly corrected) and mappable, numeric remote. But given the current situation (filmed above) and TiVo’s ongoing quality control issues, folks are better served by the Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K – it’s far more reliable, stable. Bonus: Amazon’s hardware often on sale for $10-15 less than TiVo.
In any event, TiVo is tracking these matters according to the Redditor tivopm:
Hi All, we’ve confirmed that the PIN lock on Developer Options was added and should not have been. To be clear, we will be removing the PIN code access to developer options and returning the device to how it worked previously. We’re working hard right now on providing a fix as quickly as we can but to set expectations I don’t know when that will be yet. As soon as I have more details I will report back.