TiVo Archives - Page 61 of 149

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.

The $0 TiVo Premiere Returns

Last fall, we briefly saw TiVo experiment with a zero down Premiere. But that $20/month two year commitment, was ultimately superseded by the current $99 hardware fee that comes mated to a 1 year commitment (or optional Lifetime Service plan). But, TiVo’s giving it another shot this week via a Father’s Day promotion. At first blush, … Read more

Hulu Plus on TiVo Now Official

After a few days of inadvertent leaks, Hulu Plus is finally official on the TiVo Premiere.

As regulars know, I’m a Hulu Plus subscriber ($8/month) and this is a welcome platform option (on input one). While EngadgetHD takes issue with TiVo actually delivering Hulu’s interface, I’m happy to see it there. As it indicates someone other than TiVo will be maintaining the app and hopefully keeping it current. In fact, TiVo tells me it’s rendered in Flash… like their very own HDUI (although Hulu Plus can also be launched from the SDUI). It looks sharp. Just like Hulu Plus on every other platform. And, in limited testing, I didn’t notice the prior Roku overscan issues when playing back 720p video.

Having said that, all is not perfect. Hulu Plus shows aren’t yet baked into TiVo’s universal search and there are some strange remote/playback characteristics – stay away from the instant replay button if you have as little patience as I, the Zoom/Aspect button does nothing of the sort, and TiVo’s iPad app backspace key doesn’t seem to work.

TiVo Hulu Plus Launch Imminent?

If these marketing materials spotted at Best Buy today are any indication, it looks like the long wait for Hulu Plus on TiVo is nearing an end. Not to mention, www.hulu.com/plus/tivo and the referenced tivo.com/huluplusoffer links are live. Based on what little we can see of the screenshots, Hulu’s UI appears similar to what they offer on … 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.

TiVo Premiere 14.8 Software Update Begins

It’s been a long four months since the last TiVo Premiere software update. And, unfortunately, nothing in the forum chatter suggests version 14.8 features a completed HD UI or activates the second core. Somewhat surprisingly, the most apparent changes are HDUI elements that now appear within the standard definition interface – graphics, labels, and a … Read more

TiVo Simplifies Pricing On May 19th

I’ve never been a fan of TiVo’s numerous pricing permutations. Why add complexity to what’s an already confusing purchase for many? If you need a FAQ, you have failed. Well, it looks like TiVo has discovered what most of us have suspected and will be simplifying their plans come May 19th.

Regardless of where or how you buy TiVo Premiere hardware, the new monthly fee will be $19.99 (with a required 1 year commitment). Also, the Lifetime service option will return as an option for new customers; albeit, at $499, its highest price point ever. I expect TiVo will also continue to offer multi-unit service discounts (MSD). In fact, rumor has it, monthly MSD pricing will jump from $9.95 to $14.95 (ouch) with the new Lifetime MSD option running $399.

Sadly, I expect the $12.95 monthly fee is gone for good. So when $19.99 contracts expire, renewals will continue at this rate. Add in CableCARD rental along with Additional Outlet (AO) fees in some markets and TiVo becomes a rather pricey proposition.

New DirecTV TiVo Nears Launch? ($99)

Thanks to a possible slip by DirecTV’s webmaster, we may have just received a glimmer of hope that the highly anticipated TiVo-powered satellite DVR might actually be released in 2011. long time DBSTalk members JBlow and Smuuth have produced screenshots that display they were able to add a $99 TiVo HD-DVR to their respective DirecTV.com carts… … Read more