By way of CordCuttersNews we learn that Locast has launched a TiVo app. Well, sort of. It turns out the Locast “app” is actually buried within another app (Vewd né Opera TV), entirely isolated from TiVo’s recommendation and recording capabilities. I can imagine the app eventually breaking out into the main interface, if and when it actually works well. But, right now, the Locast TiVo experience is either incomplete or just buggy, and I wasn’t impressed. It’s entirely too inefficient to navigate from the main TiVo interface into the the Locast content and then I ended up trapped within a NBC live stream. Not to mention a large portion of our TiVo hardware investment funds physical television tuners, versus something like a Roku. So, basically, Locast doesn’t currently make much sense on TiVo. However, should the companies collectively get serious about integrating Locast into TiVo+, it could become an interesting and possibly even compelling sales pitch for TiVo’s upcoming Android TV streaming stick.
Then again, Locast is currently under assault (as we had predicted) and may suffer the same fate as poor Aereo. They claim their non-profit status protects them and, hey, Locast local television streaming is entirely free to use (wink wink, nevermind the incessant solicitations for donations that supposedly go away when you pay up).
DIRECTV added the Locast app to receivers that could run it and even recommended its use during local channel negotiations when station owners forced DIRECTV to stop showing the channel when talks hit a snag. I can’t imagine TiVo had anything like that in mind, but from everything I’ve seen Locast has never been a stable or even medium-quality streaming solution.
Agreed; this may prove to be useful when my cable provider inevitably decides to stop carrying one of the major broadcast networks to “control costs.”
Haha, no it’s miserable. Go try for yourself. You’ll come up with a different solution if there’s ever a blackout.
I just now looked through Vewd very thoroughly and also did a search. I did not find the Locast app. I wonder if you only get it in certain locations.
I saw it under New Apps. They are region restricted, but I’d think you’d have to open the app first vs Opera pre-screening. Who knows.
I looked in New Apps first. If the app is region restricted, that may be why I can’t find it.
This makes all the sense in the world, combined with the upcoming TiVo Stick …
I’d absolutely LOVE to put one of those in my laptop bag for all my business trips …
It’s not showing up on my TiVo either, and I’m in the DC area which is served by Locast. Could be the aforementioned cable provider, from whom I rent the box, is blocking it.
Rick, do you have Vewd app? I’m also in the DC region. I’ll check again when I get home if I remember. Wonder if they pulled it until such time they can surface within the TiVo UI natively and/or until it’s more polished.
Dave, I do have the Vewd app. It’s an RCN 4K box.
Just got it running on a Roamio running TE3 in the LA area. Except for the guide being horribly slow, it runs OK. I’ll try it on my Bolt later.
I’m only a little over 7 miles from downtown Chicago but I haven’t found a single indoor antenna that can receive all channels, and many of the channels I do get have horrible pixelization and breakup. I’ll take a shot at this app to see if it can fill in the shows the Tivo itself can’t get.
Part 2. Just ran it on a Bolt running TE4 (21.9.2.V4.) Guide is faster than the Roamio, but still too slow for my taste.
Locast might be good for sports fans to pick up games that are blacked out in their area or to watch syndicated programming that is not available in their area. They could use a VPN to spoof their location.
@shwru980r …. exactly. I do this with a Firestick today; VPN into my home so it becomes an extension of my home LAN. Locast works great that way – I was watching local news halfway around the globe this way.
Urban locations pose big OTA challenges that suburbanites don’t realize. Bob S. in Chicago is not an isolated case.
Right, but we purchase TiVos for their tuners. Locast makes far more sense (and is far more efficient) on a straight-up streamer. Although it’s still not a great solution. Poor Aereo. Poor us.
Although on it’s face, it makes no sense, it could make sense for retrans disputes on cable, or a variety of situations on OTA like temporary transmitter power reductions/outages, weather events that reduce reception or that oddball station that is in a different location or uses lower power and doesn’t come in clearly. Of course, all thyose scenarios would assume that Locast actually worked well on TiVo.