As we gear up for 2014, TiVo’s plans have begun to crystalize. First, based on pre-show outreach from Olson, it appears Android streaming is a lock for a January CES announcement – although supported devices and a specific release date remain foggy. Further, and as you can see from these exclusive pics, TiVo remains on track to deliver the Opera TV App Store in the next month or three.
However, whereas I’d assumed Opera would become Roamio’s core app engine, as currently implemented, it’s a tacked on meta app of HTML5 apps (akin to Flingo’s TiVo Launchpad that now goes by “Hotlist”). While the Opera platform doesn’t currently possess much of interest, with Vimeo being perhaps the most compelling video offering, the companies are hopeful that synergies from their combined audience (and 100 Opera TV engineers) will motivate developers to take action. Although we assume tent pole services like WatchESPN and HBO GO would require independent dealios (and feature more prominent placement in the TiVo interface).
Speaking of apps, also in TiVo’s pipeline are updated Netflix and Pandora experiences for Roamio, Premiere, and Mini hardware. And, yes, we’re talking the brand-spanking-new Netflix UI… which partially accounts for Netflix being pulled from the fall Premiere update and Roamio rollback. It’s quite possible both of these will hit before the end of the year. Nice!
The new Netflix UI is on my Roamio Plus already. Looks nice. It doesn’t work much differently; it still uses horizontal scrolling, but its much improved visually and has a couple new categories of interest to me.
Its all well and good updating Netflix and Pandora … but the one everyone has being waiting for is Amazon with prime support.
Yeah, Amazon is so overdue for a refresh and it seems as if the ball’s been in Amazon’s court. Unfortunately, they haven’t been motivated to do anything and we know they’re working on their own Roku-competitor. But I’m hopeful they’ll still find time to see this app refreshed (given that icon we saw on the TiVo Mini a few months back). Of course, an updated app would probably be the end of movie downloads and it’d be a streaming-only solution… perhaps of lesser quality. Hm. But, yeah, as a long time Prime member I’d like to take advantage of my video without flipping to another input.
Actually there is a way to launch into Amazon Prime direct. I have no way of testing it as I do not have an account. But obtain KMTTG once it’s configured for your TiVo choose the tab that says “Web” change the dropbox to read HTML and input this in the field.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/prime
The only navigation that I had respond is with the Tivo App for ios or android.. and click on the keyboard followed by Touch/Gesture hand icon. If you have a Tivo Slider remote see if your can browse.
Currently right now browsing is extremely limited as our Opera SDK has not gone live. Therefore many limitations are in place,
http://demo.tvstore.opera.com
IF you push the tvstore to TiVo, it will warn you that your SDK has not been activated
After discovering Jeff Bezos’ not so secret email address, I asked him about Amazon Prime and Tivo. Here’s the response.
Hello Michael,
I’m Sarah Crowner of Amazon.com’s Executive Customer Relations. Jeff Bezos received your e-mail and asked me to respond on his behalf.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Prime Instant Videos not being available on your TiVo. You can purchase and download, but not stream, Amazon Instant Video titles to your TiVo. Because streaming is not supported at this time, you can’t stream Prime Instant Video titles on your TiVo.
Michael, feedback like yours is very important in helping us continue to improve the experience of using our digital video service. I’ve forwarded your message to our Amazon Instant Video development team for consideration as we make future improvements.
We hope to see you again soon!
Regards,
Sarah Crowner
Executive Customer Relations
Amazon.com
Yeah, the new netflix UI for premier and other hardware is faster, it will be a blessing to see it working on premier boxes in the future.
My theory was always that tivo has exclusivity agreements with it’s apps, and amazon prime is not there because it would compete with netflix. And UV support isn’t there since it would compete with amazon vod purchases.
Instead we are going to get a Opera TV store, so the tivo can be like the roku and have a billion useless apps.
No need to theorize related to Amazon, as TiVo had previously conveyed to me that it was on Amazon to take the initiative in updating the app. Amazon obviously hasn’t seen the need to this point and we know they’re working on their own Roku-esque box after flirting with a Roku acquisition led nowhere. But TiVo’s got renewed energy and publicity, which hopefully has Amazon looking at it and hopefully TiVo could sweeten the deal by putting some of their team on it. For comparison, at the Cable Show, HBO suggested TiVo’s customer base is too small for them to mess with in regards to a HBO GO app. But that was before Roamio buzz… we’ll see.
Did Tivo say this specifically about prime or just generally about the outdated amazon app, because I don’t think they are mutually exclusive.
Don’t recall and the impression I was left with didn’t distinguish, but I’d say they are indeed one and the same these days. And, yes, there is decent overlap in streaming functionality between Netflix and Amazon. But I’m not aware of Netflix requiring an exclusivity agreement, tho they do now require a certain guaranteed hardware sales/penetration number which has flummoxed some companies I speak with.
In my crazy theory for which I have absolutely no proof, Tivo may have offered exclusivity to get them to develop apps in the first place. And if an agreement is keeping prime off the tivo, it would make amazon even less like to refresh the app since it would need to be customized to block streaming.
I was very hopeful back when the premiere came out and the marketing called it the “Everything Box.” I thought that meant they were going to try to acquire all the popular apps, but it was really just they have one app in every category: Streaming, VOD, Sports, etc.
Though if they do get prime, i’ll just say the exclusivity agreement ran out. So I can just keep my tinfoil hat on forever.
“In my crazy theory for which I have absolutely no proof, Tivo may have offered exclusivity to get them to develop apps in the first place.”
Crazy, indeed, as Prime streaming didn’t exist when Netflix appeared on TiVo.
And crazy for quite a few other reasons too.
Occam’s razor provides far better explanations.
“HBO suggested TiVo’s customer base is too small for them to mess with in regards to a HBO GO app.”
Now, if one wants to run wild with conspiracy theories, HBO Go is the obvious target.
Given that TiVo is an MSO tied CableCARD device, and given that HBO Go is an MSO-only service, which should make TiVo attractive for HBO, is HBO’s current allergy to TiVo really just about development platforms and audience size, or is it a way to keep the big MSO’s happy by not partnering with a company the big MSO’s wish would go away?
(I’d somewhat lean against the conspiracy theory here, but at least it makes some sense…)