FCC Grants TiVo’s Waiver – Last Barrier to the Premiere Elite is Gone

FCC Logo The FCC has granted TiVo’s waiver, allowing them to sell the digital-only Premiere Elite at retail.

In this Order, we grant, to the extent set forth herein, TiVo, Inc.’s (“TiVo” or
“Petitioner”) unopposed1 request for waiver of the Federal Communications Commission’s
(“Commission”) requirements that electronics equipment marketed as “digital cable ready” include tuners
that are capable of tuning over-the-air broadcast channels and analog cable channels for its new TiVo
Premiere Elite digital video recorder (“DVR”). This device permits simultaneous viewing and recording
of up to four digital cable channels and has a capacity of up to 300 hours of high definition
programming.2 We conclude that the waiver is in the public interest because it will reduce the Premiere
Elite’s cost and power consumption and provide consumers a new retail set-top box option that will
compete with devices leased by cable operators. In addition, we condition this waiver on TiVo’s
commitment to inform consumers and retailers about the capabilities and limitations of this digital device.

That was the last barrier preventing TiVo from shipping the box, so we should see them on shelves in a couple of months as planned. Even though they officially announced the Elite on Wednesday, it was pending the waiver at the time.

TiVo filed for the waiver back in June because, as I detailed in an earlier post, FCC regulations require all digital cable ready devices sold at retail to support both analog and digital cable signals. But those rules were written back in 2003, before many cable systems began digital simulcast of their channels, if not dropping analog completely. But rules are rules and without a waiver TiVo would have been unable to legally sell the Elite at retail. With the waiver in hand they’re now free to bring it to market.

And with TiVo receiving the waiver and setting the precedent, perhaps we’ll see other vendors (re-)enter the CableCARD market with digital-only products. (The last round of Moxi retail DVRs were all-digital, but they offered an analog adapter for customers who needed it, which seems to be how they met the letter of the law.)

You can read the full ruling granting the waiver if you want all the details. (I still get a kick out of seeing my name in FCC documents.)

Thanks @TechWzrd.

About MegaZone

MegaZone is the Editor of Gizmo Lovers and the chief contributor. He's been online since 1989 and active in several generations of 'social media' - mailing lists, USENet groups, web forums, and since 2003, blogging.    MegaZone has a presence on several social platforms: Google+ / Facebook / Twitter / LinkedIn / LiveJournal / Web.    You can also follow Gizmo Lovers on other sites: Blog / Google+ / Facebook / Twitter.
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  • http://twitter.com/TechWzrd Tech Wizard

    I’m hoping we will see a Preview waiver request in the next few days. An Elite/Preview combination is my perfect two-box solution and will get me to finally upgrade my Series3/TiVo HD pair of boxes. It will be interesting to see if TiVo clarifies the release date of the Elite or if there are other reasons (SW, manufacturing) why they announced release by the end of the year.

  • http://twitter.com/TechWzrd Tech Wizard

    I’m hoping we will see a Preview waiver request in the next few days. An Elite/Preview combination is my perfect two-box solution and will get me to finally upgrade my Series3/TiVo HD pair of boxes. It will be interesting to see if TiVo clarifies the release date of the Elite or if there are other reasons (SW, manufacturing) why they announced release by the end of the year.

  • http://twitter.com/TechWzrd Tech Wizard

    I’m hoping we will see a Preview waiver request in the next few days. An Elite/Preview combination is my perfect two-box solution and will get me to finally upgrade my Series3/TiVo HD pair of boxes. It will be interesting to see if TiVo clarifies the release date of the Elite or if there are other reasons (SW, manufacturing) why they announced release by the end of the year.

    • http://www.twitter.com/brennokbob Brennok

      I can see them waiting on the Preview. Unless they are sure they will have streaming rolled out by 90 days, no reason to rush for the waiver. They may also want to see how well early sales go on the Elite.

    • http://www.twitter.com/brennokbob Brennok

      I can see them waiting on the Preview. Unless they are sure they will have streaming rolled out by 90 days, no reason to rush for the waiver. They may also want to see how well early sales go on the Elite.

    • http://www.twitter.com/brennokbob Brennok

      I can see them waiting on the Preview. Unless they are sure they will have streaming rolled out by 90 days, no reason to rush for the waiver. They may also want to see how well early sales go on the Elite.

    • http://www.twitter.com/brennokbob Brennok

      I can see them waiting on the Preview. Unless they are sure they will have streaming rolled out by 90 days, no reason to rush for the waiver. They may also want to see how well early sales go on the Elite.

    • http://twitter.com/hemo_jr Matt Hickman

      The reason for requesting a waiver for the Elite was to get 4 QAM tuners without requiring more chips on the motherboard.  The Preview could get a QAM and OTA (an ATSC & a NTSC) tuners by using a single chip. Why not do that? No waiver needed.

    • http://twitter.com/hemo_jr Matt Hickman

      The reason for requesting a waiver for the Elite was to get 4 QAM tuners without requiring more chips on the motherboard.  The Preview could get a QAM and OTA (an ATSC & a NTSC) tuners by using a single chip. Why not do that? No waiver needed.

      • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

        My understanding is there are single unit tuner blocks with more tuners for QAM only then are available in single units for QAM+analog/ATSC.  But it isn’t just the tuner.  If you tune analog you also need encoder chips to handle every stream you tune.  And the encoder chips need RAM as well. Eliminating analog eliminates all of that, and it adds up.

      • http://www.gizmolovers.com/ MegaZone

        My understanding is there are single unit tuner blocks with more tuners for QAM only then are available in single units for QAM+analog/ATSC.  But it isn’t just the tuner.  If you tune analog you also need encoder chips to handle every stream you tune.  And the encoder chips need RAM as well. Eliminating analog eliminates all of that, and it adds up.

  • Fanfoot

    W00t!

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