TiVo

TiVo Now Offers Roamio OTA Lifetime Service

As TiVo expands cord cutter marketing, they’ve now brought a Lifetime Service option to Roamio OTA. At least on an experimental basis. For a single $300 fee, you can now pick up a Roamio OTA bundled with a lifetime of TiVo service. Given four HD tuners, a 500GB drive, several solid apps like Netflix and Amazon Instant, … Read more

Is TiVo update 20.4.8 the one that enables Plex?

TiVo has a long and storied history of miscommunication. So, while they’re still promising Plex will arrive with software update 20.4.7… those of us on that build for weeks are doubtful the switch will be flipped at this point. Enter 20.4.8, for which TiVo is now soliciting prioritity signups. Of course, we still don’t know if Plex will be a native app versus something buried within Opera, nor do we know its capabilties. But, we sure are anxious to find out, as the potential is awesome.

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TiVo Begins Pitching Aereo Castaways

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Is a list of (perhaps) 80,000 customers and a URL worth a cool million? TiVo’s about to find out… as they’ve begun emailing Aereo castaways, having closed on various Aereo assetts through bankruptcy proceedings. As you can see above, the targeted pitch is actually pretty compelling. For those who have OTA reception, anyway. At $20/month, with a two year commitment, TiVo is offering the four-tuner Roamio OTA DVR with 500GB hard drive and a TiVo Stream to handle mobile viewing on iOS or Android. Beyond television recording and streaming, TiVo also includes a variety of online apps like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Instant. While I might find this to be a good deal, our pal Todd’s knee-jerk reaction when forwarding me the email blast was: ‘dafuq?’ So I’m wondering how others feel – chime in below! (By the by, the Aereo URL has not been updated… yet.)

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The TiVo Roamio Heart Transplant – Easy, Breezy

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Given periodic tuner conflicts with my Premiere XL4/Elite, due to recording duties and Mini streaming, and a desire to periodically offload DVR-ed shows, something the devalued Slingbox cannot offer,  I’ve been quite pleased since taking TiVo up on their 10 year customer deal last month for a 6-tuner Roamio. Indeed, while TiVo’s “Stream” functionality isn’t currently as robust or reliable as Sling’s, I downloaded several episodes of Arrow onto an iPad for two recent flights. Even with the more frequent drops or need to restart a stream as the 5PM news flips to 6PM, given TiVo’s need to initiate a recording prior to streaming, it’s still far more efficient and pleasant than Sling for “watching TV” at the dinner table. My only real issue since upgrading TiVo has been storage capacity…

My Lifetimed Premiere XL4 provided 3TB for recordings. And while we’re probably watching less “cable” television these days, we’re hoarding much more content as we accumulate seasons and half-seasons for binge viewing, sans commercial interruption. TiVo had offered me the Roamio Plus (1TB) for $500 or the Roamio Pro (3TB) for $700, both with Lifetime service. I figured I’d give the smaller drive a shot to potentially save a few bucks… and knowing I could upgrade on my own down the road, for less than TiVo charges for the drive delta, should 1TB prove insufficient.

Fast forward a few weeks…

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TiVo Begins Software Update To Power iHeartRadio & Plex

Plex, now triply confirmed for the platform, is just weeks away as TiVo begins rolling out software version 20.4.7 to Premiere and Roamio units. Its ultimate usefulness and quality will likely be governed by launching as a native app, like Amazon Instant, or living within the Opera TV app store. Neither Plex and TiVo have yet to respond … Read more

TiVo Drops YouTube & Video Podcasts

TiVo app pruning continues… As previously reported, Amazon Instant downloads were to be dropped. Well, as it turns out, TiVo Series 2 and Series 3 owners will also be losing YouTube access come April 16th: All good things must come to an end, right? Well, that’s the case here. As of April 16, 2015, you will no longer be … Read more

TiVo Android App Rewritten (Faster, Root-compatible)

As promised from CES, TiVo has released a brand new Android app. While it looks similar to the app it replaces, it’s been “redesigned from the ground up” — which surely accounts for the much faster interaction. OnePass integration and What To Watch also make appearances, closing the platform parity gap with iPhone and iPad. As with the prior TiVo Android app, it’s still streaming-only from Roamio Plus, Roamio Pro, and Stream units… with downloads expected later this year. Most exciting for a number of customers, at least for the time being, is a newfound compatibility with rooted devices.

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Confirmed: Plex Headed To TiVo!

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Why thank you, Evolution Digital for spilling the beans. We’d previously wondered if Plex might hit TiVo … given its recent Opera TV integration. And, now, we have part of the answer. What’s not yet known if this would be a native app, like Vudu, or an app-within-an-app via Opera. What’s also not known is box support and timing. However, I can’t imagine it’ll be a long wait given Evolution’s Amazon download cessation outreach and, at the very least, we can expect Roamio to be covered. Hopefully Premiere too. Properly integrated, Plex would go a long way to shoring up TiVo’s poor support of local media and opens doors on all sorts of interesting scenarios.

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