Dave Zatz 
I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news. Assuming you’ve read the headline, you already know one of our favorite OTA DVR offerings will be making commercial skip available for $2/mo (or $20/yr) as part of a new “Tablo Premium” service. In order to generate the Automatic Commercial Skip playlists, each Tablo … Read more
40 months after consummating their courtship of Rovi, TiVo is once again on the move. Whereas the DVR pioneer had been planning to split the company as it sold off two component businesses of patent/licensing and TiVo product/services, Xperi (who?) is taking the whole enchilada. On paper, Xperi seems to align more closely with the … Read more
Our long national nightmare has come to an end, as TiVo FINALLY enabled iOS cellular streaming this week…. seven years after release. As the story goes, Apple has (had?) some sort of requirement that developers offer a low bandwidth streaming option to preserve data. And apparently addressing that wasn’t a priority for TiVo. In any … Read more
The TiVo Mini Wireless Adapter has arrived, having just popped up on Amazon for $59.99 with delivery available as soon as 11/26. The wireless adapter was originally announced at CES in January and, as I said back then, “Unlike my most recent 802.11n bridge suggestion, the upcoming TiVo USB dongle implements the more current, capable … Read more
Over on Earth 2, cord cutters are loving the wireless, dual-tuner TiVo Mavrik. Yeah, like most TiVo products, it needed work at launch (channel changing was so slow back in 2017), but it’s finally become a viable Tablo competitor and then some. The “headless” network tuner with cloud DVR service pipes live OTA and recordings … Read more
TiVo+ has arrived. Boy is it underwhelming. Merely being available on a TiVo box for “free” isn’t innately compelling if the content isn’t interesting or usefully presented. And that’d be a double no at present. Given the number of places TiVo+ is advertised within the UI (home screen x2, guide, apps), it’s absurd how little … Read more
As TiVo degrades their consumer DVR experience, and generally hasn’t morphed into the digital lifestyle company some had hoped for, folks are seeking out alternatives. And, for cord cutters, there are several great options to enjoy and manage that free antenna television… with or without an actual antenna. First, most of the streaming aggregators (YouTube … Read more
TiVo pre-roll advertising has arrived. And the experience is less than ideal. Basically, all retail hardware running the TiVo Experience 4 (TE4 aka Hydra) will insert video commercial interruption at the start of your DVR recordings by the end of the year. Sure, the ads are skippable. But that’s not the point. Especially given its … Read more