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TiVo Roamio DVRs can stream or download TV to iPhones, iPads
It's just over two months since the release of the TiVo Roamio Plus and Pro, and the namesake feature is now available. Beginning today, iOS device users can update their TiVo apps and start streaming live or recorded content from TiVo Roamio Plus or Pro DVRs while connected via WiFi. Users can also instead choose to download recorded shows for offline viewing over WiFi (assuming the content provider's copy protection allows it) whether at home or away, and even start watching while it downloads. Android support and streaming via 4G/LTE is on the schedule next year -- on iOS the minimum supported bandwidth needs more tweaking to meet Apple's maximum bitrate for cellular. Slingbox owners have enjoyed no-strings streaming for years, and others like Monsoon have pushed downloads while TV providers like Comcast and Time Warner offer their own apps; but TiVo's setup promises the most streamlined solution this side of the similar Dish Hopper DVRs. TiVo Premiere and standard Roamio owners with a TiVo Stream attached will have to continue to wait a few more weeks before they too can enjoy this new freedom.
Verizon FiOS TV finally set to enforce CableCARD restrictions
Verizon launched its fiber to the home service the same year CableCARD was released, but Verizon's implementation has always been a little different. For starters, Verizon got an extra year before it was required to support it, but even since then, Verizon has been pretty lax about enforcing all the restrictions CableCARD has to offer. Despite years of predictions about the sky falling one day, only now have a few FiOS customers received letters notifying them that the party's over. What we mean is that starting July 31st, you won't be able to just slide an activated CableCARD into another box, like you can now. The real bad news however, is that some premium content will now be flagged Copy Once. Although the FCC has always permitted the use of this flag on most content, Verizon has never used it. Essentially that meant that you could record anything you wanted on your TiVo or Windows Media Center PC and copy those programs any which way you'd like. Not only does this break TiVoToGo and other similar features, but it actually breaks Multi-Room Viewing on the Series3. CableCARD FiOS TV customers can tune to channel 131 to see if their TV will turn dark on D-Day (the screenshot above means you'll need to update your activation to continue viewing) but until then, enjoy the free for all copying while it lasts. [Thanks, @BrennokBob]
FiOS customers moved to Frontier getting Copy Once DRM
Verizon's FiOS is literally at the top of its industry in customer satisfaction and it isn't just the fiber running to the outside of its customer's houses that makes it so great -- although no one is saying FiOS is perfect -- it is the total package including how FiOS doesn't mark any content as Copy Once or marry CableCARDs to 3rd party hardware. Well here is the first bad news for the 69,000 FiOS TV subscribers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin that are now Frontier subscribers. You see although the company promised regulators that customers would continue to receive the same great service, on June 10th TiVo Community members started to notice they couldn't watch recordings in another room or on the go. After some discussion, and many a call to customer service representatives, it became apparent that Frontier is purposely setting the CCI byte to Copy Once, which for all intents and purposes locks down the content to being played on one TiVo. Not much anyone can do since the FCC does allow the Copy Once CCI byte to be set on non-broadcast TV, but still, it sucks for those who are affected.
