Verizon FiOS TV CableCARD Self Installs Are A Go

Last year, the FCC ordered CableCARD reform. While I had doubts that change would arrive, and in a relatively timely fashion, at least one “cable” operator has gotten with the program. Beginning this past weekend, current and potential Verizon FiOS TV customers can now order CableCARDs online ($3.99/month) for their TiVo, Windows Media Center, or … Read more

TiVo’s New Hardware at The Cable Show

While 2011 marks the first year in ages we failed to hit The Cable Show, we’ve fortunately got friends with boots on the ground. Who kindly went on a TiVo booth recon mission to bring us photographs of the brand new TiVo Premiere Q four tuner DVR and non-DVR TiVo Preview. Sadly, TiVo’s rep clearly stated … Read more

If It’s Netflix Versus Cable, The MSOs Have Won

GigaOm has proclaimed that Netflix streaming and the cable industry are clearly in competition – vying for the same eyeballs and the same dollars. Yet, I’m not seeing it. Sure, there’s some overlap… of on-demand television content and back catalog films. But amongst the vast majority of my peers, and within my household, Netflix provides suplemental … Read more

More TiVo Premiere Q Details

TiVo’s pushed out a press release that expands upon earlier news of a new four tuner TiVo Premiere Q and non-DVR TiVo Preview (pictured). An excerpt: Consistent with TiVo’s mission to bring the TiVo experience to every screen in the house, these new products enable TiVo’s operator partners to provide a superior advanced television experience … Read more

TiVo Premiere Q & Preview Announced (sort of)


TiVo’s been telegraphing this move for nearly a year, not to mention a few good leaks, so it should come as no surprise that they’re (sort of) announcing the components of their whole home DVR solution: a quad-tuner TiVo “Premiere Q” and the non-DVR “TiVo Preview.” However, the reason I say sort of is that the news comes from a single source and hasn’t been corroborated anywhere else. Yet, it all sounds legit. And we know The Cable Show gets going in Chicago this week. So it’s most likely a case of premature coverage, rather than a forgery of some sort.

From the TMCnews article:

TiVo Premiere Q is the company’s first quad-tuner gateway set-top box, a higher-end option than its flagship Premiere dual-tuner digital video recorder. In addition, TiVo is rolling out Preview, its first non-DVR HD set-top box. RCN will be the first U.S. cable operator to offer subscribers the Premiere Q and Preview, in addition to its current TiVo Premiere offering, later this year. Suddenlink Communications also expects to offer the new boxes at some point.

The story goes on to say these new units stream content box-to-box locally via MoCA, versus the retail Premiere’s traditional wired or wireless networking. Again, no surprises.

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Verizon FiOS TV Headed To Roku & PS3?

The GigaOm crew attended a FiOS TV briefing… where they received a demo of Verizon’s FlexView video-on-demand service running on a Roku streamer. I can’t say I’m surprised, as Verizon made their intentions to break free of the set-top box clear back at CES. In fact, they demo-ed live television on an iPad and Samsung … Read more

RCN Confirms TiVo Premiere-To-Premiere Streaming

RCN’s Sr. Director of Video Product and Video Operations, Jason Nealis, has kindly spilled the beans. TiVo Premiere-to-Premiere streaming functionality is indeed included in the 14.8 software update. Perhaps even more significant (to TiVo) is what looks to be a consolidation of the codebase. The fact the RCN-deployed TiVo Premiere DVR hardware is running a similarly numbered software version as retail and now includes the HDUI is notable.

From Jason’s RCN release notes on DSL Reports:

  • Support for IPAD APP
  • Support for Multi Room Streaming (versus move of content)
  • Several Bug Fixes and enhancements
  • VOD previews
  • Further TiVo Look / Feel when in VOD Portal

While streaming has previously been alluded to and leaked, not to mention those compelling new clues in the code, we still don’t know when or if the improved multi-room DVR functionality is headed to retail TiVo DVRs.

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Verizon FiOS TV IMG 1.9 Rollout Paused

The eminently valuable Verizon Idea Exchange is not only a rich resource for customers and employees, somewhat reminiscent of the TiVo Community Forum back when TiVo actually cared participated, it’s also a blogger gold mine. Unfortunately, the news I bring you today represents a little short term pain based on customer feedback. Yet, it’ll presumably result in a better long term experience. The FiOS IMG 1.9 nationwide rollout has been temporarily placed on hold. From Verizon Director Joseph Ambeault:

We are pausing for a moment to incorporate some customer feedback into 1.9 (e.g. SD Override wizard and improved contrast between the text and background)… we’ll be back in action shortly.

And…

We’re incorporating feedback we got from customers in the 4 markets that were already upgraded to 1.9.  Just some minor tweaks as we get ready to roll to other markets in the coming months.

Anecdotally, based upon ZNF commentary, it does appear some users have had difficulty reading text within the toned down color scheme. But I have no idea what this SD Override wizard is, as I do my best to avoid SD channels. Not to mention that most televisions offer plenty of display modes to stretch or zoom content. But our audience is probably a little more savvy than the typical cable customer and it sounds like Verizon may have ended up with a number of confused or disgruntled subscribers who’ve received 1.9. Hopefully, they clear these issues and resume the rollout in short order. As I’m ready for the 16:9 guide and whole home streaming to/from each and every HD DVR.

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