First announced at the Premiere launch, Pandora’s music streaming service has (finally) launched on TiVo. Well, supposedly. The press release indicates it’s live, but I’ve yet to see hit my TiVo units this AM.
While Pandora is a nice-to-have app, and compares favorably to Rhapsody in terms of pricing, I’d rather not manage or pipe audio entertainment through a video device. Then again, I’ve been told the Roku Pandora app does good traffic. So your mileage and enjoyment may vary.
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A wonder if TiVo will ever focus on making the DVR part of its machines suck less… Seriously I just bought a Premiere (this is my 5th Tivo) and while the eye candy is nice (seriously it is only half implemented) and I love that I can transfer a show from it to my computer in less time then it takes to watch it (finally), their is seriously zero innovation.
I was reminded how much I hate to set up a TiVo last night I was I was trying to reset up my Season Passes for a new TV season… Ugh… Maybe they could have a contest for money about improving aspects of their service like NetFlix did, so if they can’t be bothered to make it better other smart people can…
Pandora? Gee thanks Tivo, I can stick it next to the YouTube that I don’t use… Seriously muddled in your own name is what I care about TV, please please please make this better, I have ideas that I can give you for free…
Rant done… So frustrating…
TiVo tells me the service should start rolling out in a few hours. Presumably when the west coast staff get into the office.
Wait…is this coming to Series 3 as well?
The release and info page only mention the Premiere… and it does look like they’re at least mimicking if not using the new HDUI. Maybe it’s the first app using Flash? While it looks like at least one beta tester has chimed in on the forums, I think we’re going to have to until until they throw the switch to dig up more details. Hm.
Update: Just heard back from TiVo. It’s Premiere-only at the moment, but they intend to provide Series 3/THD support at a later date. Not sure if additional development is needed or if this is a marketing strategy of some sort.
I’m guessing only mentioning Premiere is not by accident. Tivo is really disappointing me lately. Take the Netflix app. While it does work, the XBox Netflix app is SO much better (has suggestions, recently viewed, etc.).
I have been the biggest Tivo fanboy for a long time. Things are just not looking good for them now. Maybe I should just get a Roku.
I usually watch Netflix on the Roku and Amazon VOD on the TiVo. The Netflix UI speed/layout and unpredictable streaming quality (compared to Roku and Xbox) just hasn’t been very good for me.
I am back in the Tivo flock with a new Premiere, and it’s got promise, if they’ll work on the UI and responsiveness… but I agree with your comment about audio through a video device. The only thing that makes LESS sense than that is firing up a 55″ LCD panel to listen to Pandora, is firing up a 55″ LCD panel *and* a jet-engine-powered Xbox, to listen to Last.fm.
Tivo, et al: we’ve GOT our audio solutions – please get to work on improving our VIDEO solutions!
delaying the S3 support? bullsh.
TiVo is one of the companies that had a great idea, executed very well long long time ago and after that – nothing. I’m really trying to think what innovative product came from TiVo in the last few years and I can’t remember a single thing.
Just to be clear, I’m a TiVo customer for many years and their DVR functionality is very good, but only if you compare it to the cable DVR. It practically stayed almost the same from the day that I bought my first Sony TiVo. They never took advantage of the fact that they are already connected to the network and to the TV to do what Boxee is doing, what Apple TV is doing and what Google TV is doing. They never made themselves the indispensable box that is a DVR and a media streamer – a one stop for all media on the Internet and on my local network. Instead they came up with features that look like an afterthought and are practically useless.
And so we have a lackluster interface for streaming Netflix movies which is primitive and inconvenient, especially when you compare it to Roku or Xbox. And now, after such a long time they’re coming up with Pandora, but only for their premiere TiVos. Loyal customers who have a Series 3 or HD and are paying money every month are left out.
So always late and no more innovative. Are they going to have the fate of Palm?
Their continued lack of support for the Tivo HD customers and their focus on the Premire boxes has really soured me on Tivo lately.
I will not be buying another Tivo as long as this sort of thing continues.
I hope online-streaming via netflix/etc gets better before I have to replace my DVR, can’t see myself buying another tivo honestly.
“Their continued lack of support for the Tivo HD customers and their focus on the Premire boxes has really soured me on Tivo lately.”
I’m afraid I feel the same way. I own 3 HD’s and I am starting to feel that these will be my last TiVo purchases.
TiVo was uniquely situated to add tons of internet content to their already stellar dvr. Unfortunately, they have stagnated over the years and are going to get passed up by other vendors once the concept of recording live tv passes us by.
If recording television were not in the mix, their Netflix, Amazon, Youtube, Flickr etc apps would not warrant a purchase… as they are painful to use.
Dave any chance you can talk to someone at TiVo and ask the innovation questions? They seem to never get these questions and are always providing disappointments… By chance do you know anyone over there that can answer, even off the record, what happen to innovation????
I could probably arrange a convo with VP Jim Denney. However, TiVo has demonstrated time and time again that they will not reveal their hand until they’re ready with a press release – unlike say Verizon informally informing customers of upcoming FiOS TV DVR updates slated for later this year. And, of course, TiVo would claim they do innovate and currently offer the best DVR experience available. From a financial standpoint, they spend millions on R&D. So, yeah, I could arrange a conversation… but I don’t think they’d have the sort of frank dialog we’re interested in. And/or we may not like their answers as they are wagering heavily on (generally conservative) MSO partnerships.
The MoCA announcement and possible non-DVR TiVo experiences they’re working on do indicate some experimentation/changes are afoot. And the Slide remote is quite nice. But I worry their vision of what TiVo could be is limited and historically they move pretty slowly. Also and unfortunately the market is unfavorable at the moment – CableCARDs and SDV are a bitch technically and conceptually for many mainstream customers. I thought it might be interesting to go back to recording in analog (over component) and using IR – kinda kludgy, but it would work with just about EVERY box. (Yes, you can record HD in real time over component at reasonable prices. It’s not a bit for bit digital copy, but most wouldn’t detect a difference.)
You think HD support is lacking? Try owning a Series 2!
I’ve got 3 of them. No way to upgrade, as satellite is my only option. As Tivo rolls out new features, the Series 2 owners get ignored.
I realize that the hardware is limited, but with some clever development, surely some features can be added to the Series 2. They haven’t reduced my monthly fees….
I’ve been with Tivo since the beginning. It seems like they want me to go elsewhere.
Hi Dave, think you are completely correct about TiVo and I am excited about the possibilities associated with their experimentation with a MoCA platform. I think its a matter of time before we can stream content from our TiVo (media center) to non-DVR TiVo’s throughout the home. That will be a killer app for me and I will ditch my Series 3 in an instant. BTW, today’s Buzz Out Loud talked about the lack of innovation at TiVo today on their podcast. I think it would be awesome if you could arrange an interview with Jim Denney. I think it would be very interesting to hear their response to your reader’s concerns.
I have to say im pretty happy with this pandora interface…
if i let myself i could rant forever on this… i have been with tivo for about 7 years now… i still believe it is the best dvr service out there… however that is slowly changing… Moxi seems to be right behind them, the only feature moxi is lacking is “tivo to go”… i would be very tempted to switch my 4 box setup over to 2-3 moxi’s and a couple of mates… but honestly it’s google tv that has my eye… it’s too soon to tell what kind of monster that is going to be… but it already looks like it is ready to do battle… and of course HTPC is always what probably would suit best in many cases, but I don’t want to build/configure… i want more plug and play.
right now tivo needs to stop focusing on crap… why would I want to watch low quality web streaming video on my brand new hdtv? instead i would much rather my tv experience be enhanced… for example…
Instant Web Scheduling via phone browser or dedicated app… I don’t care which, but seriously… i can remote desktop my pc at home from my damn phone but I can’t last minute record something?
Better handling of show conflicts… why do I have to manually make sure network shows that only play once have higher season passes than cable shows that replay many times and can be missed for conflicts and grabbed later… this should be managed for me….
Better handling of shows not on the current schedule… I just get a new tivo or whatever and want to set up all my passes… but I can’t because it’s not on the schedule… so I need to use wishlist instead… than it just grabs crap that has the same word… god fobid I wanted to record castle in the offseason…. I’d get hundreds of documentary and movies instead of my show…
and speaking of upgrading to a new tivo… why can i not back up my season passes and retrieve them on another box?
HDUI? joke… 1/2 finished and slow as anything…
for $500 a premier XL couldn’t do 3/4 tuners which would eliminate ton’s of issues for me…
if we really wanted to go far out there… what about a way to detect when a live event ends… the padding option is nice… but must i really overshoot live sports by hours to ensure no disappointment… there must be a better way… this would probably go for starting of recording of shows following live sports as well…
*sigh*
i’ve gone on too long… dammit tivo I want you to be awesome again… now your just status quo… we need some innovation and aggression here or google and the cable/sat co’s are going to eat you alive!
Echoing others sentiments wrt Tivo. Still use my 3 Tivo’s (2 HDs and one DT) constantly, but not currently planning another purchase. If I did buy a Premiere I would just switch it to the non-HD interface most likely, and I too ignore all the stuff Tivo adds beyond the DVR (aside from Amazon VOD integration anyway) since its all so poorly done. Photos, Music, YouTube, Rhapsody, etc all just a waste of time as far as I’m concerned.
If they’re spending a lot of money on R&D they sure don’t have much to show for it. Seems like a complete lack of direction from the top, meaning the engineering and marketing directors should probably be fired. All the bullshit they waste their time with, redesigning the same interface for Flash, wasting endless cycles on Comcast STBs that never shipped. Honestly most of these were bad ideas on their face. Not sure why they ever invested in them. And yet simple things like streaming shows from one Tivo to another, MoCA support, showing a FREAKING RED DOT on the Guide for a show that will record, or backing up and restoring your setup from an old Tivo to a new one, don’t get done. Very sad.
As all the MSOs move to deploy lower-cost DVRs using the RS-DVR tech that Cablevision fought through the courts, Tivo is going to be under ever more pressure. The changes that are coming due to the 3D rollout involving h.264 support will break compatibility, and Tivo will likely take their sweet time getting support done based on past experience, let alone making their UI elements work in 3D or auto-switching your TV to 3D mode. None of these will be issues for the slow-moving cable companies for some reason. And Tivo will waddle along even more slowly.
So sad.
Hey Dave,
I think that you could put together some general questions about innovation:
1) What are examples of TiVo innovation? I mean I am with you that the new slider remote would be a good example (it seems like a stupid example, but it does actually work very well), though perhaps a bit over priced and little additional tweaks with the interface. But I would be curious of other examples that they think they have in the last couple of years. A half done HD interface does not seem to qualify. Swivel search? Uh.. ok… Amazon/NetFlix/YouTube/etc are me too’s.
2) Do they have an approximate time line on when the HD interface will be finished?
3) It has been mentioned that they have spent millions of dollars on R&D, can they break this down on what they spent it on?
4) Are they interested in having more than 2 tuners in TiVo?
5) Are they looking at putting together a TiVo iPhone app? Remote control (so just thinking that I have the bluetooth slider, is there a Tivo bluetooth remote app that I can use?)
6) Is there any work going to be done to improve the scheduling algorithm? There are plenty of things that can be done here such as: multi-TiVo scheduling (if I could link my Tivos together to record shows on one when another can’t, that would be great), utilize multiple showings (for example HBO shows each of their shows 1,000,000 times during the week where say something like Desperate Housewives is only once, I would like to watch both but if my TiVo say HBO is higher priority then I miss D.H. (by me saying I miss, I mean my wives misses)), App/Web scheduling (honestly I don’t know why I can look at my To-Do list on line or set up a recording as well).
7) Maybe I don’t get it, but will MoCA do to make TiVo a better experience? For example….
These are just a few non-innovation questions…
8) I would be curious where they are seeing growth in their market… Just in general, who is buying TiVo other then users like me who are buying new TiVo’s to replace old TiVos, though each time it is a little harder to justify the cost.
9) It seems like each quarter they have net subscriber loss how do they see the path forward to reverse this? (Reduce cost, must have innovation, raise prices, expand internationally, sell into established cable companies, etc)
I guess they seem like they are floundering… I hope that they are addressing some of these questions and they are just keeping it close to the chest. I hope they understand the sentiment that is expressed in this comment thread, i.e. “We love our TiVo, but it is getting harder and harder to justify it as they fall further and further behind…”
But I would be interested in what they have to say and hope that they have something new to say… Good Luck!
Dave,
Heck you could probably solicit questions from your readers and pick the best to forward on to TiVo…
Interesting thread.
Perhaps I’m unusual in this, but I would really like to have a single interface for all input (audio and video, etc.) feeding into my home theatre system.
Switching between Tivo, the DVD player, my iTunes library, my iPhoto library, etc, and all their different UIs is not easy for users of an entertainment system.
I certainly agree that TiVo has not kept up with innovation in the areas where I am most interested.
John
Hey Dave,
I bet you could actually have a pretty interesting story comparing BlackBerry and TiVo, about how they once were top notch standards that are now losing out to the likes of Apple/Google and other competitors as they are being out innovated. What is sad, for me at least, as both of these companies seem to cling to the idea that they know what is best and do not seem to really listen to their customers about what they want and innovations by other they would like to see implemented. At least TiVo can see a big pay day at the end of the Dish litigation while Blackberry can hold on to the low end of the smartphone market…
Brad,
Holy Shit…
6) Is there any work going to be done to improve the scheduling algorithm? There are plenty of things that can be done here such as: multi-TiVo scheduling (if I could link my Tivos together to record shows on one when another can’t, that would be great), utilize multiple showings (for example HBO shows each of their shows 1,000,000 times during the week where say something like Desperate Housewives is only once, I would like to watch both but if my TiVo say HBO is higher priority then I miss D.H. (by me saying I miss, I mean my wives misses)), App/Web scheduling (honestly I don’t know why I can look at my To-Do list on line or set up a recording as well).
says it all…