Slashdot Mirror
TiVo Series 5 Coming This Fall
WebGangsta writes "The rumor mill continues to grow closer and closer to reality, as The Verge is reporting the upcoming SERIES 5 TiVo will have 6 tuners, support OTA recording (an old TiVo feature being brought back), storage beyond the 2TB limit, and more. While some would say that TiVo today is nothing more than a Patent Holder (albeit a successful one), there's still a market for a cable box that doubles as a streaming player. Is hardware the future of TiVo, or should they go and just license their software to all? And don't get us started on those 'TiVo Buying Hulu' or 'Apple/Google buying TiVo' rumors... that's a different story for a different day."
I've always gone back to Tivo - every single time. I won't say that it's "perfect" - but it all comes down to User Experience - and though each of those had nice characteristics about it - Tivo was the one that always worked - was always responsive - and reliable.
You can say what you want about them - but to refer to them as nothing but a Patent Troll is pretty insulting.
And don't get us started on those 'TiVo Buying Hulu' or 'Apple/Google buying TiVo' rumors... that's a different story for a different day."
Do you mean we should keep the rumors in our Now Playing list? Or should they get a red thumbs down?
It might be 8+ years old at this point, but Tivo hasn't had a DVD burner in years.
As I shelled out for Roxio Toast (thank you, MacBundle), I could spend a few hours transfering stuff to my laptop, then go and burn a DVD ... but it's so much more convenient to just pop in a DVD-R, click a few buttons on the tivo, and in under an hour, it's all archived.
Yes, it'd be nice to strip out the commercials, but you can't beat the convenience.
Some people talk about the joys of the newer models because of HD support -- but my eyesight is bad enough that it doesn't matter. The only thing annoying about SD is when they letterbox it, then shrink it, so you end up with a black border around a shrunken video. (mostly seems to be PBS)
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
"M" CableCards can decode 6 streams. You'll need only one for a Tivo with 6 tuners.
Ah okay I figured it out.. they mean ONLY digital connections on the unit its self, NOT just OTA digital only (so no RCA connectors etc). I think the line I quoted above could have been stated that a little better
Adding additional tuners is a good thing, Increased storage is a must as well (to accommodate all of those tuners) but what they really need to do is to show some innovative changes to move them ahead of the pack. Simplifying the cable card piece, streamlining their controller and interface and adding some cool new features would compel more people to ditch the archaic dinosaurs that cable companies currently shovel out their doors to customers. I'm not talking about adding voice control or arm gestures which everyone seems to think is the next big thing for using TV's either. We can all agree that the user interface is horrible. They seem to be cramming more buttons on the remote control (3/4 of which I seldom have ever used) and finding content you want has been a horrible experience.
TiVo should look to integrate with other services too (via the internet) and pre cache content you'd like to watch, perhaps downloading during non-peak times to ease internet load. Get some truly-def content this way all lined up to watch later instead of dealing with reduced quality streams. This would require working out deals with the various providers but that's part of what they need to innovate. Say what you will about Steve jobs, he was able to push, pull and shove companies reluctantly along so that all pieces of his vision for a product were lined up.
The summary describes TiVo as kind of a glorified cable box. However I believe (from personal experience) that TiVo's greatest feature is that it lets you cut the cable altogether. TiVo can act as a DVR for your antenna -- a feature that is a reason many stay with cable nowadays -- and supplements free, local programming with thousands of on-demand shows over the internet. I am over 25 miles from the nearest TV transmitter and I can still receive dozens of local channels with excellent quality and better reliability than satellite.
I no longer pay outrageous cable or satellite bills. I installed a rooftop antenna that, including amplifier, antenna, and mounting hardware, cost less than a once month subscription to my satellite provider. If you are dissatisfied with cable/satellite pricing, programs, and paying to be advertised to, then stop paying them!
>> Standing on head makes smile of frown, but rest of face also upside down.
This just in: MythTV boxes still 10x larger capacity, more flexible with more features, more upgradeable, custom chassis, you can also game on it, and the OS is free.
Tivo has been in decline since Series 2. Their UI since then has been so slow it is unusable, and a good number of people (like myself) are using the SD or old interface. I don't understand how you release an interface that unresponsive and slow when you own the hardware you are releasing it on, and have a second processor in the machine that isn't even used. Wireless support is useless and it requires ethernet to realistically work. Their customer support is also complete garbage. The only good thing they got for them right now is it's relatively easy to copy videos to a computer. This is the only reason I use Tivo. If they can at least make an interface in Series 5 that is responsive enough that it doesn't give you a headache they could at least be on the road to redeeming themselves.
When I dealt with mine for my dual tuner Tivo HD a few years ago, they brought a multi-stream capable card with no issues. I got the impression that's standard now.
On the bright side, shortly after that the FCC ruled that cable companies have to let you install the cable card yourself if you want to, and I believe they're not allowed to charge a fee for that either.
Dear Tivo,
1) Lower your damn prices already! You'd have people beating down the doors if you'd lower your monthly fee to $5/month, and you'd still be making good money to boot!
2) Stop treating your old customers as second-class citizens! The old Tivos work just fine, so why aren't you porting new features to these units? Even UI/UX improvements which take negligible CPU or memory usage are never implemented. Sure, there are a lot of lifetime account holders, but you're still collecting monthly fees on some of these, right?
3) Integrate the "tuning adapter" for switched digital video to inside the Tivo. The fact that I need such a thing in the first place is ridiculous.
4) Lower your damn prices already! $60 for a wireless G dongle? $90 for an N wireless bridge?! C'mon!
5) What's the deal with CableCard, anyway? Are cable companies going to continue to support this? What about users of IP-based services, like AT&T's U-verse?
6) Don't get me started on copy-protection...
7) Lower your damn prices already! $5/mo -- it's worth repeating!
Thanks,
Me
My wife and I used to love Tivo. We had a series 2 with lifetime, and then bought three series 3 boxes, also with lifetime. It was a HUGE outlay, but we felt it was worth it and we'd be set for a long time.
Unfortunately, this was just before they announced the new series 4, which they were keeping quiet, so they weren't making any new units. It turned out they were only shipping refurbished units. Within 6 months all three units had failed, as well as a couple replacement units. We got so frustrated with losing our recorded shows, dealing with shipping back and forth, etc, that we ended up selling the units on eBay and switching to DirecTV with their (at the time) superior DVRs.
We felt sort of like since we'd paid all that money up front for lifetimes, Tivo had our money and didn't really care about fixing the problem permanently. They just kept sending us refurbs that would fail within a few months. Needless to say, our Tivo love dried up and we won't be going back.
My experience with Comcast from last year: before I got my newest TiVo I picked up an M-card from my local office. It came in a sleeve with a paper listing the procedure for getting it working in the TiVo, including the step "and now call us at this dedicated number where we have people who actually know what to do with a cable card." So I did, and it worked perfectly first time. Moral: sometimes, things do work.
Yeah, they wouldn't let me pick mine up, they had to roll a truck. So I was prepared for the worst, and it worked out just fine.
Same with the new cable modem I bought. Called 800-COMCAST or whatever, told them the MAC address, they had it provisioned in 5 minutes.
With the first link, the chain is forged.
I'd sure love 6 tuners to catch all the TV I never watch!
I like entertaining shows. There are even some left on TV. TV, as a whole, is abhorrent.
I didn't consciously cut the cable, but realized sometime last year that I have not watched actual TV for, well years now. The few gems available are not worth the trouble. Stuff you find on youtube is honestly much more entertaining than 99% content that gets blasted over the airwaves.
Whenever I visit a household that has traditional TV going it's.. Really disturbing. I don't know how to describe it. The whole medium seems designed to manipulate viewer's thoughts and behaviors in an orchestrated barrage of crap and nonsense. (Yes, this is compared to some of the acid tripping strangeness that can be found on youtube. Ex - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iw1EnLvm88 *Warning* This video is an honest to goodness cognetohazard. It's so bad and yet so.. Bad)
We all like to laugh at Fox News, but the show really is reality manipulator for it's viewers. The show has honest to fucking goodness /music cues/. That's right. Music will start playing, and reach a dramatic flare as a "reporter" is making a point.
TiVo is more than a "TV guide-type service".
Yes, there is the guide data. That affords recording your shows, EVEN WHEN THEY CHANGE TIME SLOTS (assuming it wasn't done at the very last minute -- i.e. within a day it "just works"). I actually micromanage the Tivo recording more than most people (and definitely more than necessary), e.g. checking the to do list frequently, sometimes manually rescheduling recordings if I'm close to full, etc.
Auto-recording wishlists are more powerful than any of the other keyword-based schemes on other DVRs I've used.
I have PLENTY of things I would make better about TiVo (and I *definitely* disagree with the "responsive" part.. the HD UI is RIDICULOUSLY slow), but mostly it "just works", better than the others.
Plus, the summary and presumably article are wrong about OTA being "brought back". Yes, the very newest Tivos (e.g. the Premiere 4, of which I have one) can record only from digital cable.. But they continue to make and sell Tivos that record from OTA. (They only have 2 tuners though.)