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TiVo's Latest Offering Detects and Skips Ads, Adds 4K Capability
As described by The Verge, the newest generation of TiVo is in some ways a step backward: it comes with fewer tuners than some earlier models, and less storage as well. However, two big features that distinguish the company's new Bolt DVR may entice users anyhow: it adds 4K recording, and (probably of use to more people, given the scarcity of 4K content, not to mention its file size) also can recognize and skip commercials, a feature that users have sorely missed as a mainstream feature in standalone DVRs for quite a while. (And it's possible that broadcasters will come up with a way to kill the commercial-skip function as they did with Dish's AutoHop.)
The new bent box design is a hint of what they think of their customers... "get bent."
One year is $150 that $360 is probably for the lifetime. Also the bolt comes with 1 year included.
But why does it suffer from brewer's droop?
Correct on the yearly plan. However for the lifetime plan it's worse than that. The lifetime (All-In) plan is $600: https://support.tivo.com/articles/Essential_Summary/TiVo-Payment-Plans-and-Policies
The Bolt unit itself is another $300, so the total pricetag for a lifetime TiVo setup comes to $900.
.. but hey, it saves you having to press the manual fast forward button a few times! Well they've sold it to me!
Not. What a joke.
Not sure what they're fine print says, but I still have an original Tivo series 2 from 2001 with a lifetime subscription, and they still honor it with schedule updates and occasional software updates even after I've moved several times.
It's hooked to an old analog over-the-air TV with a digital TV converter, and the Tivo controls the converter just fine via its remote control sensor. It's impressive the number of channels available free with digital over-the-air, compared to the old analog, with hundreds of future program selections at any time. Obscure old sci-fi movies playing at 3am and so on that I'd never be aware of otherwise.
Of course I have the commercial skip hack programmed in. Unlike the newer Tivos where the hack just fast-forwards for 30 seconds, the old Tivo instantly skips 30 seconds ahead, which I find much nicer.
"their" not "they're".
I remember when TiVo first came out. ReplayTV came out at almost the same time. ReplayTV was more expensive, but had lifetime listings included. Ultimately that proved to be a bad marketing decision, and would have probably led to the company's demise if the lawsuits hadn't effectively killed it first.
ReplayTV had already upset the networks with it's 30-second skip button, but the feature that led to major lawsuits was the automatic commercial skip.
It's a shame they didn't both survive and compete on features. I wonder what TiVo would have come up with by now with more competitive pressure?
With "cord-cutting" becoming more common, and increasing dissatisfaction about the networks' reluctance to offend anyone, I can see most of the people who like this sort of gadget to instead spend the same on a selection of On-demand services.
We've had Tivo since the Series 2, and we always opted for the lifetime subscription. It is cheaper in the long run, for us at least, given the amount of time we tend to keep them. We were recently discussing upgrading our Prime to a Roamio, but I am leaning more towards waiting to see how the Pro version of this new box stacks up, both cost and feature wise.
And to be fair the membership isn't rent, unless you mean renting a lot of the useful features. It will still function as a dumb DVR if a subscription is expired.
I still have the original TiVo 1, it was returned to the store as being broken worked with no problems, that I got the lifetime for and it still gets channels. I need it for the IR blaster capability.
I have had to replace the hard drive a couple of times but that is it; and I have to adjust manually for the time changes.
The lifetime of the DVR. So until it breaks outside of the warranty period or becomes outmoded.
https://www.tivo.com/buytivo/popups/popup_servicePlans.html
I have Dish. As long as you watch the show 24 hours later it will skip commercials automatically.
I had a meeting with James Barton (former CEO of Tivo and main inventor on their original patents), and he said they didn't implement commercial skipping and all the other features that ReplayTV (sending shows over the internet, etc) had because they didn't want to be sued.
Barton left Tivo a few years back and I guess the new leadership isn't worried about that stuff anymore.
Bring back the old version of slashdot.
(And it's possible that broadcasters will come up with a way to kill the commercial-skip function as they did with Dish's AutoHop.)
What are you smoking, autohop is alive and well.
"their" not "they're".
Don't worry about him - he's such a looser.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
.
From what I've been reading, lately TiVo has been very aggressive in overlaying ads along the bottom portion of the screen when recorded content is being watched. Also, the ads are being placed throughout the TiVo menus and even on the "Discovery Bar". Apparently, with the end of the patent money in sight, TiVo is turning their DVR into yet another screen for the advertisers to use.
MythTV is free software distributed under the GNU General Public License. I was under the impression that copyleft and CableCARD support were mutually exclusive. Or what am I missing?
MythTV has supported CableCARD and 4K for over a decade? Does it even support CableCARD tuners now?
I thought the Dish Auto Hop embargo got stretched out to 3 or 7 days for several key channels as a condition imposed by the networks for affordable retransmission rights.
But can MythTV transcode CableCARD-sourced video to Android and Apple if it is marked "copy once" or "copy never"? Or are the five tuners solely for OTA?
Because if you watch any daytime TV, you come away with the knowledge that: You gotta sue someone.
All present day prescription medicines can make you go nuts , but you can sue someone then
All men use catheters
All women are really leaky and ooze stuff.
There's a very limited time to sue for vaginal meshes even though the commercials have been airing for 5 years now.
MESOTHELIOMA!
100 percent of humanity is constipated
There are so many awesome weight loss products out there that everyone is underweight by now.
And the toppper - I turned on the TV at around 7 one morning, and an infomercial was on. Vaccum cleaner stuff. Not too surprising. But then it went to a break and a commercial played, then back to the infomercial. Now commercials have commercials!
Since commercials make up around 50 percent of programming these days, companies like Comcast are stuck between a rock and a hard place partially of their own making. If people skip commercials, they have a problem with advertisers. If people don't want to spend 200 a month to see all those vaginal ooze and stick this up your wingwang so you can pee commercials, then the cord cutting that is happening will simply accelerate.
tl:dr version - TV sucks today.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
and maybe they're betting that more and more content will be streamed rather than recorded
Especially with the "TV Everywhere" video-on-demand offerings available over the Internet as a perk for subscribers to participating multichannel pay TV providers. The hardest thing to get on demand as I understand it is sports, but there's a strong tradition of watching sports live, or at least (in the case of baseball or American football) delayed by no more than two hours so that the viewer can fast forward past all the downtime.
Any one of a zillion boxes will stream content from the major streaming providers and so much of cable's content is available online already.
I've owned Tivos since series 2, but have cut out cable to the "basic" package of local channels only, mostly to appease my wife and son (who has pretty much moved on to Netflix anyway).
I have 3 Series 3 boxes right now, but when they go I can't see a reason for replacing them. I already have other boxes which do Netflix/Amazon/Hulu.
Looking at their website I am not even sure the Bolt supports 4k. Their marketing mentions 4k all over the place but their specs pages appear to use UHD and 4k interchangeably which really makes me wonder if it truly does 4k or if it is really just supports UHD.
4k has a wider aspect ratio (17:9 instead of 16:9) and a different color space than UHD. Most of the cheaper (relatively speaking) consumer TVs and displays appear to be supporting UHD but not 4k but some of the higher-end displays tend true 4k at a 17:9 aspect ratio.
Much of the UHD content I have seen was originally shot in 4k and then cropped to fit the UHD aspect ratio. Often the colors are a bit wrong as well because they didn't correct for the different color space, so I try to stick to 4k whenever possible.
Yeah, it seems to me that the ChannelMaster DVR+ is the only DVR I'd consider over a media PC. It seems crazy to have to pay that much for relatively simple data. Of course I'd just be using it for OTA, not cable.
TiVo can transcode and download to iOS and Android devices as well, and it supports Cablecard. It can even remote stream from your TiVo in case you forgot to download.
Sure, I use a CableCard for Myth. The issue is that it is highly dependent on what your cable company allows, if they have the 'copy never' bit set on their programming then it will be pretty much useless. I haven't ever run into a problem recording something with my cable co. but they could pretty much disable my ability to record on a whim.
Enigma
I'd love that job. You get to watch TV and make an overwhelmingly positive contribution to the human experience.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
It's useless if they have anything except 0x00 (Copy Freely.) Even 0x01 (Copy Once) won't work.
I don't think the 30 second skip vs scan is a button sequence.
I remember there being a option right in the settings menu to configure the behavior. I'm a little fuzzy on it since I've had it for almost two years, so it's been a while since I modified that setting.
On the romeo it is the button on the bottom right of the remote. it looks like this:
->|
That skips 30 seconds I believe, I don't know of any changes that you need to make to configure it differently though as I just fast forward.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
I have been very happy with my Romeo Plus and Tivo Mini. I have 6 tuners, but never seem to use more than 4 at a time, and that is only for short periods. The skip feature of this new one would be nice, but I am sure it will be overridden in no time by the broadcasters.
I also run the Mini over a wireless bridge, which works, I am not sure why they don't recommend running it over wireless.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
The only thing that works with Comcast in my area (Sacramento, CA) is Windows7 Media Center. It allows me to record all copy protected stuff including HBO and Cinemax. Not sure what my options are after Microsoft abandons windows7 ...
Yes and no. MythTV works with CableCard but not DRM. So it can only record shows that the cable company says is freely copyable. With more and more channels and shows being flagged as copy protected, the CableCard compatibility is less useful.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
There is a setting that lets it instantly jump 30 seconds, or you can make it automatically fast forward. 30 seconds.
The sequence thing being mentioned is that the 30 second skip used to be locked out of the remote. But if you entered a series of key presses it would enable it.
It's now open source. Best DVR ever.
I have had many TiVo's for many years. (between family and friends) and there have been times where they will let you xfer a lifetime license to another device. Has happened on more than one TiVo. I know the plural of Anecdote is not data, but I have never had anything but excellent service from them.
E8B8B
Still no support for hd satellite feeds. When the new high speed internet connection arrives in a few weeks, I think I'll just switch to downloads-only for tv watching, and scuttle the dish.