Roku Wants To Sell You HBO

As we’re seeing from Apple and Amazon, Roku intends to generate incremental revenue and streamline the end-user experience by offering premium video subscriptions directly within their interface. Although, Roku’s not quite there yet and is directing folks into The Roku Channel app to seek out Premium Subscriptions… now featuring HBO, just in time for Game … Read more

The Android TV Interface Has Been Compromised

While Nvidia Shield TV gets the bulk of the attention, and rightfully so, there are a number of other Android TV products out there… including quite a few Sony televisions. And our very own Joel Ward was treated to a rather unpleasant update. Both Joel’s Sony 2016 800D 43″ and 2017 900E 65″ televisions, running … Read more

TiVo Automatic Commercial Skipping Debuts This Spring

An eagle-eyed TiVo Community Forum member caught a TiVo employee’s Facebook post that has revealed automated commercial skip will soon be available (pictured below). And, after reviewing with a source, I can confirm TiVo’s existing SkipMode will be expanded to include an “Auto Skip” option. Once upgraded, DVR owners may be prompted to enable automatic … Read more

Apple Reinvents Amazon Video, Intends To Replace Your Roku Interface*

Given Apple’s prior Apple TV app moves, such as cable single sign on, it comes as no surprise that the company would continue efforts aggregating content from disparate sources for a better user experience. And, as announced this week, what benefits us will presumably also benefit them given plans to allow in-app subscriptions and associated … Read more

Comcast Wants To Be Your Apple TV

Love streaming apps but don’t love cable? Your friendly (ahem) neighborhood Comcast cable franchise would like to rent you a streaming set-top for $5/month. Of course, most cord cutters aren’t exactly interested in the ongoing fees and platform limitations associated with hardware rentals. Hence, the meteoric rise of Apple TV, Fire TV, and Roku. Yet, … Read more

Tablo Previews Automatic Commercial Skip

Like TiVo (currently) and Channels DVR (upcoming), Tablo is bringing automatic commercial skipping to over-the-air television recordings. The good news: You can see it in action below. The bad news: The company has delayed its release until late April. Don’t worry, we’re still committed to making that happen but there are some additional algorithm tweaking … Read more

TiVo’s Best Deal Ever

I’ve been tracking TiVo a hundred years now… and I’m fairly certain this is their best DVR deal ever. In typical TiVo marketing fashion, the “Presidents Day Sale Event” kicked off a few days after the scheduled holiday. But there’s no denying the savings are on point: $280 for a refurbished 4-tuner, 500GB TiVo Bolt … Read more

How To Download Amazon Recast DVR Recordings

The Amazon Fire TV Recast DVR may not be much to look at, yet the new entrant appears somewhat hackable as AFTVNews has just documented how to offload recordings. Of course, there are tons of reasons why you might want to do this — such as overcoming Amazon ecosystem lock-in, facilitate offline viewing, or to allow … Read more