It's not
March 2 yet, but we do have another early indication of what TiVo's big announcement
will be as a tipster spotted two new DVRs in Best Buy's intranet. Other than the shocking revelation that the two SKUs would allow users to record, pause and rewind live TV and pack in HDMI cables, they went on to mention pricing information and ship dates not seen in this screen grab pegging the new
Premiere at $299 and THX Certified XL edition at $499 with an expected arrival of March 27. No word on any subscription fees,
features or hard drive sizes, we guess there's a few secrets left to be revealed next week in New York.
[Thanks, anonymous]
posted February 25th 2010 11:31AM
Darn... no sign of Tivo Directv-style.
@nickff
Can we just call the next-gen DirecTV-Tivo box "vaporware" or is it still too soon for that? I gave up hope 18 months ago and went with the Comcast-Tivo HD combo, but still would love to add the a Tivo with the NFL Sunday Ticket. *wipes tear from eye*
@TheLoveDr
It would take more then that to get me to switch to comcrap, xstupidity or whatever the hell they are calling themselves these days.
I really hope we see a hybrid unit, I love my DirecTV but I hate the DVR that came with it.
@nickff: My understanding is that the new DirecTiVo is not going to be running on TiVo hardware, but it's going to be TiVo software running on a new DVR hardware platform from D* (HR24? HR30?) where the customer can choose to run either D*'s own DVR software, or the TiVo stuff. This is totally separate from that. It'll be good to see DirecTV+TiVo again though (hopefully).
@admlshake Agreed. As of now I've run through at total of FIVE DirecTV branded DVRs that have all died and taken some of my favorite shows to heaven with them. If my only alternative wasn't Time Warner, who I loathe with a white-hot passion, I would have been out of here years ago. Instead, I get to wait as they play with my emotions by talking of Tivo's return and then giving me a heaping tablespoon of jack shit. DirecTV, if you were a person I would have no doubt punched you in the face by now. Here's hoping my extra HR10-250 lives long enough to see the birth of its replacement.
Looks like bigger hard drives at least. I think the current Tivo HD is 23 hours, although the current XL is also 150 hours.
@Le Big Mac - In addition to that, here are some other guesses for the "series 4":
- Faster UI
- Qwerty remote
- Wifi
- HULU
- SDV (FINALLY!)
- VOD (FINALLY!)
- 3D/HD support? (Probabily not)
Your turn...
@Frankenstein Black Also hoping to finally get rid of the cablecard, though I doubt that will be possible yet. Otherwise probably no VOD. I'm really hoping that this can now become my main media center. In addition to your suggestions, it should:
1. Reliably stream mp3s in the background while still allowing for TV picture (better remote control of music too)
2. Allow me to rip my own personal copies of all my movies (stored externally of course) and then present them all in a slick interface for easy playback.
3. Integrated slingbox with support for Android
4. Auto detect and skip commercials rather than just FFWD
5. Dispense milk and cookies.
@JonW If #3 became a reality, I would buy on day 1.
@JonW - Oh, I forgot this:
- Network Tivos to allow content sharing across the internet (like ReplayTV did) and make a strong pitch to the network and content providers like:
“WHAT DO YOU CARE? IT ONLY GETS YOUR COMMERCIALLY LADEN PROGRAMS TO MORE EYEBALLS, and after all, isn’t that what you want?)”. Sayin...
Lol, Commercial Skip (like ReplayTV did) is unfortunately a “KOD” (Kiss of Death)...
@JonW
Cable Card works surprisingly well though, without it, the cable companies would lobby against devices like the TiVo, because it gives them something to rent out, it lets them "get something" out of the deal. As long as the new TiVo has SDV support it seems like the best compromise for 3rd party devices and the cable company. It also guarantee's to the cable company that (At least it becomes more difficult) to build boxes that pirate their signal. If you want an IR blaster instead of a cable card slot to control an external box, that I can understand, and I do believe the XL at the very least should offer the IR blaster port and support. But in general I think CableCard is good for TiVo (Even if it was a pain to get setup initially, its been going smoothly for me ever since).
@Frankenstein Black TiVo HD streaming over anything other than 802.11n would be a poor user experience. My TiVo HD, HDTV, and cable modem are right next to the cable outlet in my family room. I'll take Gigabit ethernet please.
Hulu and iTunes are on my wish list.
No use for 3D TV. Imagine how many of those head sets I would need for a super bowl party.
@Frankenstein Black
if the Premiere gets Hulu support...I'm getting one...and finally getting rid of my Series 1. :D
Inventing the DVR was "just a warm-up" to inventing a DVR... with a bigger hard drive?
Huh? I guess we'll have to wait 'til March 2nd to see how over-hyped this really is.
@MBN
No kidding. If this is all we get, the TiVo announcement is a HUGE FAIL.
@MBN I love TiVo but if their announcement is THX certification I will laugh at them.
@Sherifftruman: Announcement of THX certification would be especially stupid considering the current TiVo HD XL already has THX certification.
As a TiVo fan, I hope they've got something really compelling to announce as well. But nothing that I've heard thus far meets the level of hype it looks live they've tried to stir up with their announcement.
@Sherifftruman The HD XL also has THX certification so this isn't new.
@MBN
There still hasnt been an announcement yet. How are you even being disappointed by something we don't even know yet? We see pricing for 2 new TiVos with no specifications about either of them.
Anyone else notice this is under Gamecube controllers? Why would TiVo be categorized as a Gamecube controller?
TiVo also includes industrial strength glue, so you can permanently sit on the couch and watch TV forever.
What are the odds we get Tivo without a subscription fee? My VCR doesn't require a monthly payment... Isn't Tivo the modern day equivalent?
@davidc55 Your VCR does not record in HD does it?
@davidc55 Odds are approx. zero. Roll your own DVR with MythTV if you want no subscription fees.
@davidc55
TiVo doesn't require a monthly subscription. If you simply want to use it as a digital VCR, you can set it up manually to record a channel at a particular time, just like a VCR.
Of course, the reason you buy a TiVo is to get the channel guide, and the bells and whistles, e.g. Season Pass. For that, you pay the subscription, or pay a one time fee for the life of the unit.
@kwiksilver
I bought my VCR from a guy in the apple store, and he assured me that it did in fact record and broadcast in 1080p. He wanted 700 bucks for it but I thought that was a bit high, so he went in the back and when he came out it had a apple logo on it. He told me he added a few more things that his manager normally wouldn't allow. After seeing that Apple logo I would have paid double that price!
@Spiny Norman: Erm, wrong, actually. You have to pay for TiVo service (whether monthly, yearly or lifetime) to use a TiVo - if you don't, you can't record anything, just flip channels, do trickplay on live TV, and watch already-existing recordings. That might have applied during the "TiVo Basic" experiment, but not now - unless they get rid of the TiVo service requirement, which I rather doubt will happen.
@davidc55
Buy a Moxi if you want a sub-free cable DVR.
@davidc55
You can buy lifetime service with your Tivo. What you're asking for is that, except without the option not to buy lifetime service.
@THJ or Windows Media Center.
@Spiny Norman that only works on older units which were offered with TiVo basic. This doesn't work on the series 3. They all require a subscription now
@davidc55 Approximately zero. They're already just scraping by. Various places have them on death watch already. Without the monthly revenues I assume they'd go under.
@THJ MythTV now requires a $20 a year donation to schedules direct if you want to use Tribune's guide data.
@davidc55 you can use TiVo as the modern day VCR. no subscription required just to record. no menu system or season pass or any other feature that makes TiVo great but if you really want to you can just record like a VCR.
I've had Tivo for many years and I've stayed with Comcast soley because I love my Series3 HD Tivo so much. I'm happy to see Tivo finally releasing some new hardware and HOPEFULLY coming out with some great new software features as well. As good as Tivo is there is a lot of room for improvment. Tivo needs to continue being innovative if they want to stick around...don't let us down on March 2nd!!
you are comparing a Tivo to a VCR....seriously? That doesn't even deserve a response...I'll just say the back end resources behind a Tivo make it impossible to be free. Cheaper yes, free no. The only way Tivo could possibly make their service free is through ad revenue which would be similar to online services such as Hulu where you are forced to watch commercials and there is no way to skip them...I'd rather pay my $12/month to skip the commercials and just enjoy my Tivo.
I think Tivo should offer a "free" ad supported version, but it should be optional because I wouldn't want forced ads on mine.
The only thing that matters to me is if they speed up the network transfers. Right now it takes longer to download a show than it does to watch it. If they actually push 1Gbit speeds I'll upgrade both of mine.
@clubside
The TiVo is one of the slowest pieces of tech I've ever dealt with. (well all DVRs are pretty slow). They boot slow, they reconfigure season passes slow, they universal search slow, and they transfer shows extremely slow. Still... no DVR is better than it.
@clubside I can stream a show in realtime (no waiting/buffering) from my TiVo S3 or PytivoX server to my TiVo S2 over 802.11G Wireless- might want to check your network setup.
@THJ Streaming I'm assuming is not an issue, it's the desktop app for transferring shows that doesn't even use 100Mbit. It's a long-running complaint from other users that is "explained" as a problem with the limited horsepower of the TiVo. I don't stream, I archive, and I have no trouble reaching near gigabit speeds between any of my gigabit devices (PCs, Macs, Synology NAS, etc.) or 100Mbit speeds between those devices (360, PS3, etc.). But with TiVo central a one hour 1080i recording takes one and a half hours to transfer at best. I want it in less than 15 minutes. And trainwrecka is right, it is hideously slow at everything (particularly startup), but not all DVRs have to be like this (the ReplayTV was always fast for its time).
@clubside Yeah, I just set iTivo to transfer/convert overnight + add to iTunes/Sync; but I agree, if you're watching transfer speed, it is slow when compared to NAS or other networked storage device.
@rhezaganteng Yes, Engadget has news on the next MBPs, they were just waiting for you to ask for it!
I've had Tivo's (series 1, series 2, directtivo, tivo hd) since early 2000. I see this one will be 1080p. The Tivo HD was 1080i. Hopefully they are as hackable as ever so I can drop in a bigger 2tb hd.
@iamcds1
I don't see any value in a 1080p TiVo. There's nothing broadcast in 1080p. Unless they plan to allow you to actually download and *store* movies over the internet, it's practically useless.
Given that TiVo generally contains low-end, minimally capable hardware, I wouldn't trust them to scale the other resolutions to 1080p. I'd stick with the chipset in my receiver or TV.
@Spiny Norman But it will probably last for 5-10 years (if you don't spring on a newer model before then), and I guarantee we'll see channels broadcasting in 1080p by then. I mean we can buy 3d blu-ray players before we even have any 3D content to watch on it, so why not 1080p support before the content. This seems way more rational to me than that.
@engadgetcomexcludeengadget I agree. As I wrote in my earlier posts (see below) I'd rather invest in new hardware knowing it can keep up in the future than buying another repackaged TiVo HD that's was conceived in 2005/2006. TiVo needs Tru2Way, 1080p capability, integrated wireless G & N, Gigabit ethernet and the abiity to display 3D downloadable movies. We already know what 3D capable TVs require so TiVo can build hardware capable of outputting that signal. Similar to 3D DVD players. Eventually the 3D downloadable content will come and TiVo hardware could be ready.
Unfortunately if history is any indicator TiVo will continue to chase the technology curve instead of plan ahead for it. The underwhelming TiVo updates since the 2006 release of Series 3 HD have only shown that TiVo is better at licensing good software than building long term desirable hardware.
@gdgtr while I agree about TiVo chasing the tech curve, they are somewhat in a position where they are dependent on the cable companies. It also doesn't help they lose money on the hardware so they can't push the tech as much as we want them to.
@Spiny Norman sure, no video content would be in 1080p, but why would you want your user interface to be interlaced when so many TVs support 1080p progressive scan? That would add unnecessary artifacts
@CmdX
There's no movement in the interface. You only get artifacts when the deinterlacer has to combine two frames that don't completely line up, as is the case when there's movement.
@engadgetcomexcludeengadget
No way the cable companies will ever broadcast 1080p. They want to jam as much crap down the pipe as they can. Today, the compress the crap out of most HD feeds. If they have more bandwidth, you can rest assured that they'll use it for more channels, not more resolution.
Besides, the cable companies simply retransmit the signal they receive from the networks. There's been absolutely no talk about broadcasting 1080p.
I guess it's possible that the cable companies start offering 1080p on-demand movies to compete with NetFlix, etc. In this case it might be useful, but with all the fears of piracy, I can't see the cable companies letting us store the movie on a DVR.
@brennok I see your point but don't agree TiVo is "dependent on the cable companies". Recording cable content is what TiVo is known for but the TiVo box has grown to be a home entertainment device. TV, movie & music streaming or downloads. Networking to share media between other TiVos/TVs and PCs. And that aforementioned cable recording. TiVo needs to start looking at their hardware as more than what minimum they need to deliver cable content and start looking at their hardware as what do I need to compete with other digital video boxes that include VOD services.
If TiVo made compelling enough hardware some people may buy it for VOD services (instead of a Roku, etc) even if they have satellite service. Then TiVo would have increasing hardware sales instead of decreasing hardware sales. And TiVo wouldn't be losing money on hardware.
Wouldn't it be great for TiVo as a hardware manufacturer (not a cable recording software service) to produce a box that makes people without cable want it because it's the best VOD, home media connecting box out there? The icing on the cake is they would still have the cable users buying the box for the TiVo interface & service so they would get monthly fees for that service like the cable companies currently charge.
If TiVo had a great box and allowed people to buy it just for the VOD and home network parts they could put the competition out of business. Who cares if they don't get a monthly TiVO service subscription if they are selling boxes to satellite users that wouldn't have bought a TiVo box in the past.
I guess I look at TiVo as 2 separate but complimentary products. Hardware and software. When put together they are unbeatable. Apart they can stand their own. Software licensed to other DVR companies plus used in their own TiVo hardware. Hardware competing for the media center/VOD market. Together satisfying both needs for cable users.
TiVo continues to think too narrow to bring in new customers and this is causing a decrease in subscriptions and decrease in hardware sales. People look at the same monthly fee for TiVo as cable DVR but they have to buy the TiVo hardware. Make the TiVo hardware appealing in itself and that hurdle goes away. Plus letting sat users buy a box without monthly subscription for VOD use is just extra money for TiVo.