“TiVo Premiere has always offered the best of XFINITY TV channels with the most popular web services, and we are excited to now integrate the XFINITY On Demand library for Boston subscribers, delivering a true one-stop shop for at-home entertainment,” said Doug Bieter, Vice President of Retail Sales for TiVo, Inc. “We are pleased that TiVo Premiere users in the Boston area will have an opportunity to experience this great XFINITY On Demand content and we look forward to additional markets in the near future.”

TiVo states it is available in the ‘greater Boston area’, so it should cover a fairly large geographic area. The TiVo website has a zip code look up to determine if your area has service. I just checked my old Waltham, MA zip code, 02453, and the site reports that service is available. (These days I’m in Worcester, MA, 01606, which is Charter territory. So no XFINITY On Demand for me.)

There is a little bit of bad news though. If you’re one of the few users still clinging to the old ‘soft-TiVo’ (Comcast DVR with TiVo) that Comcast offered way back in 2008 in the area, it is time to give it up and buy a real TiVo. For those who don’t remember, this was a special software image for Comcast’s standard Motorola DVR hardware that gave it the TiVo UI. But it never worked very well as the hardware is under powered and you had the HW running the base OS, with a Java interpreter on top of that, which then ran the TiVo software. It was a great idea in concept, but it never worked well in reality. So I don’t think this is a big loss, and the retail TiVo Premiere unit is far more powerful and feature-rich than those old units.

Now that they’re launching On Demand support for retail TiVo Premiere units, Comcast is discontinuing support for the soft-TiVo units on or around August 1, 2012. So you have until then to pick up a TiVo Premiere unit if you want to continue to have TiVo in your home. Before you run out and buy one at retail – TiVo is offering you one for free! See tivo.com/bostonoffer for details. They’re offering a 320GB TiVo Premiere for free with a monthly rate discounted to $12.95 from the usual $14.99, with a one year commitment. Or product lifetime service is $499.99. This offer is only for users who still have the Comcast DVR with TiVo.

If you’d rather have the 500GB TiVo Premiere, the 1TB TiVo Premiere XL, or the 2TB, four tuner TiVo Premiere XL4 they’re offering $100 off on those. And if you want multiple units they’re offering factory refurbished units for $49.99. (Personally I’d just get the XL4 and wait for the IP STB due later this year for multi-room functionality.) Again, these deals are only for customers who currently have the old Comcast DVR with TiVo and who are looking to switch before their service is turned off on or around August 1st.

If you’re not a Comcast DVR with TiVo users, and you don’t yet have a TiVo Premiere with which to take advantage of this new support, there is a sale on the TiVo Premiere XL and TiVo Premiere Elite on – but it ends today. $50 off a factory-renewed Premiere XL or a new Premiere Elite – $149.99 and $349.99, respectively. And yes, Premiere Elite, not Premiere XL4 – they’re getting rid of the remaining pre-name-change stock, I asked. Same hardware, different badge on the front. Amazon has the 320GB Premiere for $89.99, the 500GB Premiere for $109.75, the Premiere XL for $203.24 (did they miss the memo about list dropping to $199.99?), and the Premiere XL4 for $342.10.

TiVo Premiere subscribers in additional markets across the country are expected to have access to the XFINITY On Demand library in the coming months. Visit www.tivo.com/comcast to learn more or to sign up for notifications when XFINITY On Demand becomes available on TiVo Premiere in additional areas. Boston is the second Comcast service area to receive XFINITY On Demand support, following the SF Bay Area.

Which area will be third? I think Chicago may have a shot. Why? Back in 2008 Chicago looked set to be the next market for the soft-TiVo, after Boston, but the roll out stopped before it launched there. And Chicago is one of two cities where Comcast launched tru2way support as a trial with TV manufacturers, before that effort fizzled as well. (The other city was Denver.) This means they’ve probably already done a lot of work upgrading their head ends there, and they are likely in a good position to take the upgrade for the new service. Plus Chicago is a large market, apparently 2.3 million cable households, so it would have a potential for a large return.

But that’s all speculation of course. Only Comcast knows where they’ll launch the service next.

I’ve known this was coming for a while, it was one of the things we discussed during my call with TiVo back in February. I’d heard about it through the grapevine before the call, but TiVo asked me to sit on the news until they made it official – which happened this weekend. They feel the ‘XL4′ branding is more in line with the Premiere and Premiere XL branding, and more clearly indicates where the product sits in the lineup. (Note there has been at least one report out there than the XL is becoming the XL2. I confirmed with TiVo that that is incorrect, the XL remains the XL.)

So nothing changes feature-wise, it is just a change to branding – which includes new, glossy retail packaging, more retail marketing, etc. The Elite was initially sold in a plain brown box, primarily through custom installers and high-end A/V retailers. For example, Best Buy sold the Elite through their Magnolia centers – kind of high-end sub-stores within the Best Buy. But the XL4 looks like it will be on shelves alongside the Premiere and Premiere XL.

So now we have the Premiere for $149.99 – now with 500GB drive and dual cable(analog/digital)/FiOS/antenna tuners, the Premiere XL for $249.99 – with 1TB and dual cable(analog/digital)/FiOS/antenna tuners, and the Premiere XL4 for $399.99 – with 2TB and four cable(digital only)/FiOS tuners. The XL & XL4 are THX Certified and come with Glo backlit remotes, but otherwise the features are the same across the three units.

And since this is kind of a non-event, some entertainment:

It has been a long time coming, but TiVo Premiere using Comcast customers in the San Francisco Bay Area now have access to XFINITY On Demand content. Well, at least some of them. It started rolling out on April 9th and should be rolled out across Comcast’s SF Bay service area by the end of the month. So if you’re a Comcast customer in the SF Bay Area and you don’t have XFINITY On Demand on your TiVo Premiere yet – give it some more time. You can check for current availability in your zip code, and sign up for notification of future availability, at tivo.com/comcast.

As for Comcast customers outside of the SF Bay Area – you’ll just have to keep waiting. Comcast hasn’t announced any definite plans or schedules for expansion of XFINITY On Demand support for TiVo to other service areas. And this is 100% in their hands. TiVo has delivered their end, but Comcast needs to update their head-end systems in each service area before they can enable this. The only indication we’ve had is that New England is high up on the list to get this after the SF Bay roll out is complete.

New England is where Comcast launched the old ‘soft-TiVo’ project. The software-only Java-based TiVo interface that was downloaded to run on their standard Motorola DVR hardware. Despite several years of effort it just never worked well. The HW was under-powered, and with the TiVo interface running in Java on a virtual machine running on top of the native OS, it wasn’t a great performer. And Comcast never seemed to iron out the issues with the head end that was supposed to allow them to dynamically push the TiVo software to units in the field. While the effort was abandoned when Comcast switched focus to XFINITY support for retail units, the existing deployment of soft-TiVo units are still supported. Comcast is looking to finally phase them out by getting the users to migrate to a TiVo Premiere once they can do so without losing their On Demand. So they have an incentive to prioritize New England.

Beyond that all we’ve heard is that other service areas will see support “in the coming months”. You’d have to ask Comcast for more details – not that they’re talking just yet.

You are eligible for an early upgrade if:

• You have a TiVo Premiere series DVR (TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, Premiere Elite)
• You are a TiVo retail customer (e.g., you did not get your TiVo box through your cable company.

The software isn’t being deployed just yet, but you can reserve your spot in the queue now.

The new Premiere family lineup will be:

• TiVo Premiere – 500GB/75 Hours HD, 2 tuners, analog cable, digital cable, FiOS, antenna – $149.99
• TiVo Premiere XL – 1TB/150 Hours HD, 2 tuners, analog cable, digital cable, FiOS, antenna – $249.99
• TiVo Premiere Elite – 2TB/300 Hours HD, 4 tuners, digital cable, FiOS – $399.99

As further good news, TiVo is reducing their monthly subscription pricing from $19.99 on the first unit and $14.99 on each additional unit under the Multi-Service Discount, to $14.99 for the first unit and $12.99 for each additional unit. Product lifetime service remains at $499.99 for the first until and $399.99 for each additional unit. (Note that this pricing only applies to the Premiere family, older models remain at the $12.95/$9.95 pricing level. This reflects the different pricing model and subsidized on the older units when they were sold.)

So the Premiere gets a 180GB capacity bump and a $50 MSRP bump, the Premiere XL drops by $50, the Premiere Elite drops by $100, and monthly service pricing drops by $5 on the first box and $2 on each additional unit. Not a bad change I’d say.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – do not go monthly, buy product lifetime service. Yes, it is more up front. But you break even in 33 months with the new pricing on the first box ($499.99 vs. $14.99/month), and 31 months on additional units ($399.99 vs. $12.99/month). Odds are you’re going to be using the unit for longer than that. TiVo expects units to remain in service at least 60 months; that’s the period they amortize lifetime service revenue over. Once you break even you’re effectively saving money every month you use the box.

But there’s more – it is like buying vs. renting. If you go monthly, when you stop paying the box becomes a doorstop. And a used TiVo without any subscription has very little residual value on the resale market because of the relatively low pricing on new units – and factory refurbished units which have a full warranty unlike a used box from a user. But units with product lifetime service have a high residual value because PLS transfers with the unit. So you can resell the box on eBay, Craigslist, etc., and recoup a good bit of your initial investment. You won’t get that with monthly service – those payments add nothing to the value of the unit. So you save even more in the long run if you decide to resell the box.

Of course, you can always just give it away to someone else – a friend, the kids, etc. – or put it in another room in your home when you decide to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Since it has lifetime service it will continue to do its thing with no additional cost. And if you’re worried about it failing, which will happen to everything eventually, most failures are the hard drive or the fan – the only two moving parts. And both of those are readily replaced with very little technical knowledge required. If you can operate a screwdriver you can replace either one. Even a unit with a failed hard drive will carry value if it has PLS as people buy them just to fix them and put them back into service.

I’ve owned six TiVo units and I’ve had PLS on all of them. I’ve resold four of those over the years and recouped a fair bit. It works out especially well when PLS pricing increases between the time you purchase it and when you resell it. But enough of this – you get the point.

The full press release from TiVo is below:

ALVISO, Calif. (March 25, 2012) – TiVo Inc., the creator of and a leader in advanced television services including digital video recorders (DVRs), announced the launch of its new entry-level TiVo Premiere DVR which records up to 75 hours of HD content giving customers 65% more recording space than its previous version. Beginning Sunday, March 25, the upgraded memory version of TiVo Premiere is available for purchase on tivo.com or from your local Best Buy store.

With the introduction of this expanded model, TiVo has updated its pricing structure across all TiVo products giving customers easier access to even higher recording capabilities. The TiVo Premiere product line is the following:

• TiVo Premiere $149.99: Records two shows at once and up to 75 hours of HD content
• TiVo Premiere XL $249.99 (reduced $50): Records two shows at once and up to 150 hours of HD content
• TiVo Premiere Elite $399.99 (reduced $100): Records four shows at once and up to 300 hours of HD content

“We now live in a world where HD entertainment is the standard and there is more demand than ever to provide customers with additional recording space,” said Doug Bieter, Vice President of Retail Sales for TiVo, Inc. “By enhancing the TiVo Premiere, we’ve also responded to customers’ requests for upgraded memory and introduced a new TiVo monthly service fee structure that is highly competitive with most cable DVR pricing. It is now easier than ever to get the greatest at-home entertainment experience available on the market today.”

TiVo has introduced new monthly pricing for all TiVo Premiere DVRs:

• The TiVo monthly service fee is now $14.99 per month, with a one-year commitment, making it lower on a monthly basis than most cable offerings
• Multi-service discount pricing is now $12.99 per month

For customers wanting to pay once for the lifetime of the DVR, product lifetime service is still available for $499.99 and at a discounted price of $399.99 for customers with multiple TiVo DVRs.

TiVo’s award-winning user interface offers a unique combination of TV, web and on demand content, paired with top-of-the-line recording capabilities and the many great features users have grown to love. With TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, and Premiere Elite, users have access to the world’s largest on demand library from services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, Pandora and more.

The 500 GB TiVo Premiere TiVo can be purchased nationwide at retail stores like Best Buy or directly from TiVo by calling 1-877-BUY-TIVO (1-877-289-8486) or visiting www.tivo.com.

# # #

* There will be no pricing change for non-Premiere legacy boxes; monthly service now costs $12.95/month ($9.95/month for multi-service discount pricing). Product Lifetime Service remains the same: $499.99 – $399.99 multi-service discount pricing for additional units.

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO – News) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.tivo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo’s intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.tivo.com
TiVo, TiVo Logo, and Trick Play are trademarks or registered trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. ©2011 TiVo Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

But what’s this on Amazon? A TCD746500? Yep, it is listed as a TiVo Premiere with 500GB, or 75 hours of HD recording. And it shows as “Usually Ships in 2 to 5 weeks”, so it may be about to launch. The price is $149.99, which slots in between the current 320GB model’s $99.99 MSRP and the Premiere XL’s $299.99. So perhaps this will be a new family member and not a replacement/upgrade of the current Premiere? Maybe, but I doubt it.

Personally, if this is really coming to market, I expect it to replace the 320GB model. There isn’t enough differentiation between 320GB and 500GB to keep both models in production. And the branding on the Amazon page is simply ‘TiVo Premiere’, just like today’s 320GB model. Having two units with the same branding with only the drive being different would seem to be too confusing for consumers.

I’ll note that in my post last week on TiVo’s pitch to cable operators I linked to TiVo’s one-sheet on the TiVo Premiere as offered to MSOs, and it has a 500GB drive. Perhaps they’re seeking to simplify their supply chain by just producing one 500GB model for both retail and MSOs? It could also be 320GB drives are getting harder to source, it has been a while since the Premiere first launched.

Based on the specs given this is a revised Premiere, and not based on the Premiere Elite – it still lists antenna support. But it could have other internal revisions, past models of TiVo have had minor board re-spins during their lifespans. Note that the images on the Amazon listing aren’t anything to go by. The front photos of the unit are a TiVo Premiere, the box is clearly from the 320GB model as it states “45 Hours”, and the rear image is of a Premiere XL prototype/beta unit – the “TCD7F8″ serial is a giveaway. (Pre-production TiVo units replace a digit with a letter.)

I’ve emailed TiVo to see if they have anything official to say about this 500GB TiVo Premiere. But I suspect Amazon jumped the gun in listing this. I did look for other sites and found some that also listed this – but on further investigation they all tied back to Amazon in some way.

Spotted via FaceBook.

But now their support page for TiVo has been updated with a link to a PDF for Multi-Room Experience. The PDF details both the TiVo Premiere and TiVo Preview (no mention of the 4-tuner TiVo Premire Q/Elite though), with a table of features for each. (Click for a larger view.)

I’m a little surprised by no YouTube on the Preview, I would’ve taken that for granted as a standard feature. I’m nearly as surprised by the lack of web video support. It seems like there is no broadband streaming video support at all, only local streaming from a TiVo Premiere. There is some OTT content; music services like Rhapsody, Pandora, and Live365 are supported. It is nice to see that scheduling recordings and setting up Wish Lists are ‘Coming Soon’. We’d heard as much earlier from RCN, but confirmation is nice.

While Charter’s deployment timeline has stretched, it is good news that they’re introducing the TiVo Preview to the mix. I am still a bit surprised by the lack of the Premiere Q. The quad-tuner box was tailor made for MSOs. Unless Charter still has too many hybrid service areas and the all-digital Q wouldn’t work for them. In my area I expected to lose some channels on my Premiere Elite, since I’m on Charter, but it turns out the analog channels I used seem to have digital simulcast and I didn’t notice any losses.

Now, I think someone jumped the gun in posting this. If you look closely you’ll notice the pages are marked diagonally with “Draft For Internal Review – Do Not Distribute”. So either someone forgot to save out a new copy of the document without the watermark, or this wasn’t supposed to go live yet. Just in case, here are the two pages of the document – it’s a bit more compact than the 6MB PDF.

Thanks to reader Sam Biller for the tip.

Starting with the next software update, 21.x, which is expected in the spring (late-April or early-May), there are a few things TiVo is willing to confirm. (I’ve touched on this release before.) Aside from general polish, more screens being moved into the HD UI, bug fixes – aka the usual – the biggest news is probably the long awaited update to two streaming clients: Netflix and YouTube.

The TiVo Netflix app is getting a complete overhaul – or, rather, a replacement. The new app is actually written by Netflix and integrated by TiVo, using TiVo’s Adobe Air-based SDK. It will provide a completely modern Netflix experience, on par with other devices. TiVo says it will be similar to the Netflix client found on the Insignia Connected TV with TiVo Design, but not exactly the same.

YouTube is also getting a new client, which will be radically different. The new client will implement the YouTube ‘lean back’ style interface, and is probably most similar to the version found on Google TV. YouTube created the ‘lean back’ UI especially for home entertainment implementations, where you ‘lean back’ as opposed to ‘leaning forward’ over your computer keyboard, so this should be a nice improvement.

I did ask about an update for the Amazon app, but it will not be part of the next update. TiVo recognizes there is demand for support of the free Amazon Prime streaming in Amazon Instant Video, but to implement it they need to work with Amazon. Currently they’re in “active discussions” with Amazon about the implementation, but they can’t yet say when it might happen. But know that it is on their radar. They did want to stress that the TiVo app does have access to the complete Amazon Instant Video library via downloads, it is only the streaming that is currently missing.

I also asked about Spotify support for the US. TiVo queried US customers about interest in Spotify last July, and the Virgin Media TiVo units in the UK got Spotify in November, but there is still no sign of it in the US. TiVo doesn’t have an official comment on this at this time, aside from acknowledging the interest. Personally I think it is on the road map but they’re not ready to talk about it yet.

Something else that is coming in the next release is parental controls in the HD UI. Until now customers who wanted to enable parental controls needed to switch to the SD UI, so this is likely a welcome change for parents. This did, unsurprisingly, spark a discussion on TiVo KidZone and the future thereof. At this time there are no plans to bring TiVo KidZone to the HD UI. There are ongoing discussions within TiVo about the future of KidZone in general, and what form it might take, if it remains at all.

I got the impression that KidZone was never a high demand item and the justification for devoting the engineering resources needed to bring it to the HD UI is difficult to make. We may see fancier parental controls instead of a special KidZone implementation. Or perhaps it is something that might be addressed via user-based folders (which we’ve seen teased in screen grabs in the past), by tying access to folders to the parental controls and only allowing the kids access to their own folder. But that’s just speculation on my part.

Looking further out I tried to get some info on the new SDK, but they’re not ready to discuss that just yet. They did confirm that it is Adobe Air with ActionScript 3.0 (at least for the initial release, it seems like other environments may be added in the future), and they are very serious about supporting developers. They’ve hired someone for a new position tied to the SDK, so it will have dedicated attention. I’m hoping it fares better than the old public HME SDK. This time around I think TiVo has more appreciation for the importance of third party apps.

We also discussed Jason Wong’s interview at last September’s IBC show. I’ve already covered the transcoder box and IP STB in previous posts. The other big item, to me at least, that Jason mentioned was DLNA support:“Yes, using DLNA and DLNA approved DRM like DTCP, but yes.” This sparked an interesting discussion. First of all, TiVo clarified that Jason’s comments were within the context of the European audience of the IBC show. European units support DTCP but not the entire DLNA standard.

The discussion was over whether it makes sense for TiVo to support DLNA on the US units. My stance is that yes, it does – especially as a DLNA client. While it would be nice to have TiVo as a DLNA server, I actually don’t see it being as useful for most users. There aren’t currently a lot of devices that would act as a DLNA client for a DTCP-IP protected stream. Down the road a bit I think this will be more useful, as more cable MSOs implement this tech, thereby driving more consumer devices (like smart TVs) to implement the client side.

But going back to my original point, I think it would be useful for TiVo to implement DLNA client capabilities. Right now getting media onto a TiVo from local sources is a bit of a pain in the ass. You have to install TiVo Desktop, or one of the third party tools like kmttg, Streambaby, or pyTiVo, just to get your music, photos, and/or video onto the TiVo for display. But many devices already have built in DLNA server support and it would be plug-and-play if TiVo would only connect to these existing servers.

To me a huge issue is that so many modern smartphones have built in DLNA support. Any of the content you have on your DLNA-enabled smartphone could be streamed wirelessly over the local network to a DLNA-enabled TiVo. No need for HDMI or MHL cables, or docks, etc. Just connect to the local LAN and away you go. This is possible with most connected TVs, but that’s still a small market. TiVo could be the gateway for this content for many consumers; I think that would be very useful. Not to mention making it easier to display content from your PC, NAS, etc.

I think we had a good discussion about DLNA support and I’m hopeful TiVo will give some serious thought toward implementing it, at least as a client to start. But they are interested in gauging the demand from the market in general, so how about it? Is DLNA support, client and/or server, something you’d like to see TiVo add? And why?

All TiVo Premiere boxes (purchased from tivo.com or retail) are now authorized for the 20.2 update. “Connect to the TiVo Service now”

This update, which began rolling out in early January, brings with it a number of enhancements, most notably to the HD UI. One of the most highly anticipated features in 20.2 is multi-room streaming (MRS) between Premiere units. Margret states that this will be enabled for everyone on Monday:

Multi-Room Streaming will be turned on for TiVo Premiere boxes running 20.2 by Monday.

So if you have multiple TiVo Premiere units in your home, prepare to receive MRS.

She also had a further bit of good news for a special subset of TiVo Premiere users; those who used the on-screen clock SPS9S backdoor. As I detailed at the end of my previous post on the update, the on-screen clock and elapsed time indicator backdoor is no longer usable as it appears in the center of the screen instead of the lower-right corner.

I mentioned this to Margret on Twitter back on the sixth, and she replied:

Yeah, sorry, it was a victim of tradeoffs. I’ll see what I can do to get it restored in a future release.

But on Tuesday she was asked about it again, and this time the answer was more specific:

You can still get it if you start with an extra S. *However* it will show up in the center of the screen. Fix expected Spring

So it sounds like the backdoor functionality will be restored to a usable state in the spring release, 21.x. That’s currently expected in late April to early May. So, for those of us who used the backdoor, that’s something to look forward to.

The TiVo Premiere Elite I have for review was flagged to be one of the first units to receive the update, and I forced a call and a reboot to install it a couple of hours ago. This update does take a while to install. I didn’t time it, but it took at least half and hour to complete.

I’ve been playing with it to get a feel before making this post, and overall I have to say it is a nice improvement. It will take some getting used to since some of the UI behaviors changed. For example, with the old Info Banner at the top of the screen you could press ‘Right’ to toggle through three different sizes. With the new, smaller Info Banner, which appears just over the playback back that is no longer the case.

In fact, the small version of the banner only seems to appear when you first enter a video or Live TV, or change the channel. Pressing ‘Right’ or ‘Info’ calls up a medium sized banner that takes up about half of the screen and includes four ‘tabs’ on the left – the first showing the current program info, the second a listing on what is on each tuner (all four tuners on the Elite) and allowing you to jump to another tuner, the third controls closed captions, and the fourth the audio track. These options used to be on the right of the old banner.

The Guide has changed in a major way. Instead of the TiVo Guide we’ve had, well, forever, it is now a fully HD Guide that occupies the entire screen with the current programming pushed up into a window in the upper right. No longer is it overlaid on top of the programming. I have to say it looks very good, and I really like this change. I hate the ‘Spoiler Window’ (thanks to Ben Drawbaugh for that name) in the TiVo menus, and it is the first thing I disable, but it is perfect for the guide called up while watching a program. You still have the choice of a TiVo or Grid guide style, and you can sort the listings by channel number or name.

Oh, but UI changes are not all TiVo has packed into this update – they’ve also enabled Multi-Room Streaming (MRS) between TiVo Premiere units. So if you have multiple TiVo Premiere units in your home you’ll be able to stream content between them once you receive the 20.2 update. And, unlike MRV (Multi-Room Viewing), streaming doesn’t create a copy, so you should be able to stream even copy protected content. Unfortunately, I only have the one Premiere unit, so I can’t test this myself.

In fact, TiVo emailed me a list of the features users can expect in 20.2:

• Multi-room streaming between two broadband-connected TiVo Premiere boxes within the home
• TiVo Guide updated in HD
• “Program info” updated in HD with a few new features such as access to a “mini guide” by pressing select during a live show
• Hulu Plus search integration
• Revamped discovery bar disclosing why the content is featured
• Clock insertion under the Live TV window

Hulu Plus search integration means that when you search for content it will now show you if that program is available from Hulu Plus, just as it has for TV, Netflix, Amazon, and Blockbuster in previous releases. The discovery bar now includes labels under each entry such as “Top Pick”, “In My Shows”, “Suggestion”, “Top Pick Today”, etc. The other thing I noticed is that the discovery bar now only contains six entries (four if you have the Spoiler Window enabled), all the same size. It is no longer scrollable left or right. What you see is what you get. The clock is a small time display in the upper right of the HD menu screens, which is a nice touch.

So how do you get your hands on the awesomeness? Well, you can wait patiently for your number to come up as TiVo gradually rolls it out. However, if you’re reading this blog I suspect your not the type who likes to wait patiently for the latest and greatest. In that case Margret offered this to her Twitter followers:

If you follow me on twitter and have a Premiere, email me your TiVo Service Number I’ll do my best to get you a priority update…

I’m not going to post her email address, I’m not evil. But it is easy enough to find for anyone who reads her Twitter feed.

Edit: Three more images were uploaded, I’ve added them here.

So far I’ve only found one downside to this update, and it is something that most users will probably never notice. But it is something that causes me pain deep in my heart. The on-screen clock and elapsed time indicator is unusable in HD now! *sobs* It is still there, but instead of being unobtrusively down in the lower-right corner of the screen, at a nicely readable size, if you enable this hidden feature now it appears almost dead center on the screen, and in a tiny font. If you switch to SD menus it is still as it has been, it is only when using the HD menus that this happens.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, entering Select-Play-Select-9-Select has long turned on a clock and recording playback elapsed time indicator overlay. It has never been an official feature, just a nifty backdoor. I’ve been using it for many years and I already miss it. It just looks wrong not to have it there, and it has been my main (and only) clock in my living room for ages. I’m sure I’ll get used to the loss, and the improvements are worth it, but I’m still sad to see it go.

Four-Tuner, Two Terabyte, THX® Certified TiVo® Premiere Elite Now Available

New Set-Top Box Joins the TiVo Premiere Line and Delivers Unprecedented Offering to High-end Integrators and Home Theater Enthusiasts

ALVISO, CALIF., Oct. 10, 2011 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and leader in advanced television services including digital video recorders (DVRs), today announced the availability of its latest premium offering – the TiVo® Premiere Elite set-top box. Designed for the most discerning home theater enthusiasts, the TiVo Premiere Elite offers four digital tuners and an unprecedented two-terabyte hard drive for unmatched recording capabilities, as well as THX® certification for optimal sound and video fidelity.

The new product, available today, is TiVo’s first and only retail DVR with four tuners allowing for simultaneous recording of four different shows while viewing a fifth recorded program. Plus, its industry-leading two-terabyte hard drive allows for up to 300 hours of recorded HD programming, that’s two times more recording space than current offerings.

“The sheer power and expansive range of capabilities on the TiVo Premiere Elite answer a demand from our high-end and custom-entertainment consumers; it rounds out our range of products to meet the entertainment needs of all consumers, from general entertainment lovers with TiVo Premiere to the home theater enthusiast with the TiVo Premiere Elite,” said Doug Bieter, Vice President of Retail Sales for TiVo, Inc. “By making the TiVo Premiere Elite available at Best Buy Magnolia locations and through select home theater installers, we ensure our customers receive the best advice and professional expertise for their home theater or whole-home solution, and will enjoy TiVo’s gold standard user experience.”

The TiVo Premiere Elite is intended for use with digital cable systems only and does not work with analog cable or over-the-air antennas. With the added distinction as a THX Certified DVR, the TiVo Premiere Elite offers a high-end solution to get the most out of a customer’s high definition television and cable subscription. It maintains TiVo’s gold-standard, easy to navigate user interface, integrating Web entertainment from Netflix, Pandora, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube, bringing Brilliant TV to life.

TiVo Premiere Elite Key Specifications:

• TiVo Series4™ architecture
• Supports digital cable, high-definition digital cable and Verizon FiOS®
• THX Certified DVR, offering optimal video and audio fidelity
• Outputs: HDMI, Component video, Composite video, Optical audio, Analog audio
• Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
• Inputs: CableCARD™, Cable coax, Ethernet
• Additional support for USB 2.0 (2 ports), eSATA for external recording space, TiVo Wireless N or G Network Adapter
• 2 Terabytes of recording space for up to 300 hours of recorded programming

The TiVo Premiere Elite will be available through tivo.com, authorized home theater installers and Magnolia stores nationwide for $499.99 MSRP. To learn more about the product visit www.tivo.com/elite.

# # #

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo Inc. (Nasdaq: TIVO – News) developed the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). TiVo offers the TiVo service and TiVo DVRs directly to consumers online at www.TiVo.com and through third-party retailers. TiVo also distributes its technology and services through solutions tailored for cable, satellite and broadcasting companies. Since its founding, TiVo has evolved into the ultimate single solution media center by combining its patented DVR technologies and universal cable box capabilities with the ability to aggregate, search, and deliver millions of pieces of broadband, cable, and broadcast content directly to the television. An economical, one-stop-shop for in-home entertainment, TiVo’s intuitive functionality and ease of use puts viewers in control by enabling them to effortlessly navigate the best digital entertainment content available through one box, with one remote, and one user interface, delivering the most dynamic user experience on the market today. TiVo also continues to weave itself into the fabric of the media industry by providing interactive advertising solutions and audience research and measurement ratings services to the television industry www.TiVo.com

And, as the community members love to do, they’ve starting poking at it and documenting the features, changes, specs, etc.:

Software Level:
- shipping software is 14.9b-01-7-758 out of the box.
- current software is 14.9.AB4-01-2-758

Flash Player Version: mainline3/2011.07.06.0601
HD Menu Software Version:1-9/2011.08.31-1134

New functions/features:
- MoCA support (Ethernet to Coax bridge)
- Caller ID support if phone line attached (not verified)
- Premiere to Premiere streaming enabled

Hardware differences from base Premiere:
- (details of system board here)
- Base memory doubled. Single IC providing 1GB DDR2 SDRAM.
- Disk drive is 2TB (make?). Default recording capacity shows up to 318 HD hours or 2774 SD.

Observations and/or “obvious” functions missing:
- Installing new software level seems to be faster than Premiere.
- Recording conflict screen only shows one conflict.
- Network screens updated to show MoCA info and additional screens added.

Upgrade info:
- eSata port available. No reports of anyone trying an external drive yet. Ditto Comer tool.

The Caller ID is especially interesting since none of the Premiere units have a modem built-in. And the Series3 & TiVo HD, which do have a modem, don’t currently run the 14.x software. Yet the on-box message is:

Do you want the Tivo Box to identify a caller’s name and number when the phone rings while you are watching a program?

Note: Caller ID messages can only be displayed when a phone line that supports Caller ID is attached to your DVR.

So are the older units getting an upgrade with this feature, or is it only for the Premiere family with the USB Phone Line Adapter to provide the data? The TiVo Premiere offered through Suddenlink offers Caller ID, but only if you’re using their VOIP phone service. So this seems to be different.

They’ve even started opening up their brand new boxes and taking photos of the guts. And a couple of new screens. The Premiere-to-Premiere streaming is working, and it even works for copy protected content that doesn’t work with Multi-Room Viewing. I think we need to agree on a term for streaming – I’m going with MRS, as RCN calls this Multi-Room Streaming. MRV is the old copy-based system, MRS is the new streaming system.

The Premiere Elite is also more energy efficient, drawing only 19-20 watts.

And a nice surprise, it seems the Premiere Elite has enabled the second core. Compare these lines from the kernel on a Premiere running 14.8 to a Premiere Elite running 14.9:
14.8: Linux version 2.6.18-5.1 (build@buildmaster64) (gcc version 3.3.4) #1 Wed Mar 16 02:53:03 PDT 2011
14.9: Linux version 2.6.18-5.1 (build@buildmaster93) (gcc version 4.2.0) #1 SMP Wed Sep 21 18:32:42 PDT 2011
SMP is Symmetric Multi-Processing, which means multiple cores are enabled.

I am planning to get a Premiere Elite myself. But I’m leaving town Thursday for WDW for a combo mini-vacation and a planning meeting for my wedding there in February, so I’ll probably order when I return since it wouldn’t be here in time to setup before I go anyway. On top of that my Slingbox PRO-HD seems to have died recently. I’m hoping it is just the power supply, that happened once before, but I haven’t had time to deal with it. Anyway, once I do have it I’ll give my own run down as well.

The product listing is fairly sparse and incomplete, and it lacks the educational points and disclaimers that TiVo wanted resellers to included. Such as a statement that the Elite works only with digital cable and FiOS. TiVo might want to get on Crawford and/or Amazon to get the listing updated. It isn’t their fault, but they did stipulate that they would include such educational materials at points of sale in their waiver application to the FCC.

And not only are they offering the 2TB TiVo Premiere Elite with 2700 hours of SD and 300 hours of HD for $499.99, they’re offering a bundle with an additional 2TB external drive, that’s 4TB total capacity, for $849.99. That’s 5600 hours of SD and 640 hours of HD. (Why more than double? Remember some of the internal drive is reserved for the OS, swap, etc.)

Update: WeaKnees also has the Premiere Elite in their Amazon Storefront if you prefer to order through Amazon.

So why the post? Well, a couple of weeks ago I posted about the folks at TiVo Community spotting the new 16.x software. User brentil was doing more digging, and he found something very interesting. First up, it looks like TiVo is working toward enabling SMP – symmetric multi-processing, aka dual-core support.

For the geeks, in \arch\mips\tivo\Gen07C\setup.c, which appears to be used for the Premiere Elite/Q, believed to be code named ‘Gimbal’:
#ifdef CONFIG_SMP
if (!strstr(arcs_cmdline, "maxcpus="))
{
/* forcing to 1 CPU until SMP is fully debugged */
strncat(arcs_cmdline, " maxcpus=1", CL_SIZE - 1 - strlen(arcs_cmdline));
}
#endif

brentil determined that, as the BCM7413 is derived from the BCM7405D uses the same settings, which set CONFIG_SMP=Y. However, it seems the Gen07 (Premiere) and Gen07P(Preview, believed to be code named Picasso) do not have this code. Could they be further along in debugging SMP on those units? Curious, but not the real find.

The real find is this, in the Gen7C/P Makefile is:
# Makefile for BCM97125A0 board (includes 7019 family)

In the Gen7 Makefile is a copy & paste of the Gen06 Makefile, which mentions the BCM97401C0 – the TiVo HD’s chipset.

Why is this interesting? The BCM7125 is one of Broadcom’s loaded chips, and quite a chip it is.

The Broadcom BCM7125 is a single-chip, multi-format HD cable STB solution featuring high levels of integration including an integrated Multimedia over Coax Alliance (MoCA®) 1.1 core, HD AVC, dual 1GHz cable tuners and HD DOCSIS 2.0 compatible modems with 3.0 channel bonding over 4 downstream channels. This level of integration and performance enables worldwide service providers to offer the latest in connectivity, HDTV programming and advanced 3D user interfaces to their subscribers while significantly reducing power requirements, complexity and overall bill of materials (BOM) cost.

Integrated MoCA technology enables service providers to deploy whole-home digital media distribution and connected TV services such as multi-room DVR. The BCM7125 allows multiple users to store, time shift or access content from media servers or residential gateways for playback on STBs anywhere in the home, driving the transition to a more connected and interactive home network environment.

Now, it might seem like this means the TiVo Premiere Elite and TiVo Preview are using this chip – after all, they have MoCA. But I don’t think so, because we know that Entropic is providing the MoCA hardware for these units. And it wouldn’t make sense for TiVo to be using an external MoCA chipset if the SoC supported MoCA. It’d be a wasted expense.

Now, there is also a BCM7119 which is basically the BCM7125 without MoCA. It could be they’re using it and the reference board is the same. But why use that and an Entropic MoCA chip instead of just using the 7125? That’s added complexity and cost. Both Broadcom chips also include built-in cable modems and DLNA support. And there’s also no indication that either unit has a built-in cable modem or DLNA. We won’t know for sure until someone gets the Elite and does some hands-on investigation work to find out what chip it is using.

Could the Elite and Preview be using one of these chips? It is possible. TiVo could be hiding a few tricks up their sleeve with a dormant cable modem and DLNA support that they can turn on later. DOCSIS support could allow for DSG – DOCSIS Set-top Gateway – support, which is used for communication with the head end for things like OnDemand and SDV. And DLNA could be how they’ll support whole-home applications. Anything is possible, but if so they’ve managed to keep a pretty tight lid on the info.

But it could also be that these chips are the foundation for another generation. With built in DOCSIS support and MoCA it could be especially appealing to MSO partners. It would give a unit capabilities similar to the Virgin Media TiVo in the UK, with a dedicated channel for apps and IP delivered content.

So this is certainly tantalizing info. Who knows, it could be a red herring, some artifact of an earlier development branch that was abandoned. Perhaps TiVo was thinking of using the BCM7125 but opted for a different solution, and the comment in the code never got updated. But that’s the pessimistic view, and I prefer to be optimistic. If it isn’t the Elite, perhaps it’ll be the next generation.

Don’t panic, it looks like someone might’ve jumped the gun on the posting and the information isn’t complete, or accurate, obviously. But it is a sign that the real listing is coming soon.

Thanks @brennokbob

As Light Reading reports:

In addition to giving Entropic an undisclosed stake in privately held Zenverge, the money will go toward the development of products aimed at MSOs and other service providers that convert incoming video signals into formats that can be displayed on PCs, tablets and smartphones that are within reach of a home’s Wi-Fi network — akin to what a Slingbox does today, but without the out-of-home access element.

The companies initially will focus on a video-transcoding “sidecar” product that will connect to set-top boxes. Future implementations will be baked into network-attached storage (NAS) devices and set-tops or video gateways, says Vinay Gokhale, Entropic’s SVP of marketing and business development.

Place shifting is perhaps the key feature still missing in TiVo’s products. I think it is becoming increasingly important as MVPDs introduce direct streaming services that bypass the STB, delivering their content directly to PCs, tablets, and smartphones. There is also competitive pressure from Echostar’s SlingLoaded efforts and other products like DirecTV’s upcoming Nomad and Comcast’s Televation box, both of which use Entropic’s silicon for MoCA, but ViXS chips for the transcoding. I think TiVo needs to provide a way to stream content to remain competitive, both in retail and for their MSO partners.

The inability to stream video from a TiVo to a portable device is most painfully evident in TiVo’s iPad and iPhone apps. You can fling content from the app to view on your TiVo, and you can setup recordings, see what is on the TiVo, and manage them – pretty much everything except watch them. The real issue is that TiVo recordings are high-bandwidth MPEG-2, that’s what digital cable and ATSC OTA broadcasts both use. But the high bandwidth makes it less than ideal for streaming to mobile devices. And, even if that weren’t an issue, most mobile devices aren’t designed to handle MPEG-2. The standard for mobile devices is MPEG-4/H.264, and maybe support for other modern codecs like VC-1, DivX, and/or WebM. To stream content to an iPad, for example, TiVo really needs hardware to transcode it to H.264 first, just like a Slingbox.

One possibility is a solution along the lines of the Sling Adapter for the Dish Network ViP 722 DVR. It is a simple USB hardware dongle which handles the transcoding. The video signal is fed to the box via USB, transcoded to the proper codec, resolution, framerate, etc., for the destination device, and then fed back over the USB to the DVR. All of the network communication is handled by the DVR, as is the real intelligence. TiVo could create a transcoding dongle like this for their hardware. Now that EchoStar, Sling’s parent company, and TiVo are no longer beating on each other in court, perhaps they could even license the Sling Adapter wholesale and simply implement the required support in the TiVo software. The advantage is that Sling is the place shifting market leader and they have clients for a number of platforms. It wouldn’t be hard for TiVo to build support into their apps either.

The Nomad and Televation boxes take a different approach, the same one Entropic is apparently pursuing with Zenverge. Instead of a USB sidecar dedicated to one DVR, these are network sidecars, kind of like network attached storage. They live on the MoCA network and thus can theoretically be shared by multiple DVRs in the home. Just like the Sling Adapter does via USB, these units take a data stream of the encoded video in over MoCA, do the necessary transcoding, and feed the data back to the DVR via MoCA. The DVR then handles the intelligence for routing the transcoded video to the client device over whichever network connection is appropriate. Since the new TiVo Premiere Q and Premiere Elite will have MoCA, this would also be a viable solution for them. Older TiVo units, like the Premiere, could use the devices via Ethernet as long as there was an ECB (Ethernet Coaxial Bridge) into the MoCA network.

Given the existing supplier relationship between Entropic and TiVo, and the competitive pressure on TiVo to add place shifting, this could possibly be how TiVo gets there. This is all speculation, of course.

As for the statement that it is for streaming within the home only, that may be true for the initial plans. However, once you have the transcoding working and a solid client, extending it to streaming outside of the home is the easy part. That’s all basic network routing. If you can ever everything else working, adding that is a snap.

Via Light Reading.

RCN supplied TiVo Premiere units are the same hardware as the retail units, running software that is mostly the same. They share all of the same features with one major addition and two subtractions. The addition is support for RCN’s OnDemand library. Retail units can’t access RCN OnDemand, but their boxes can. The subtractions are Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, both not present on the RCN TiVo. We know Netflix is missing due to Netflix’s licensing with the studios forbidding them from streaming to MSO-provided STBs. It is believe Amazon is missing for the same reason. The RCN units do still have Blockbuster OnDemand and YouTube, however.

And while I’m speaking of RCN and the TiVo Premiere, we have a bit of an update as to when they expect to supply the new quad-tuner TiVo Premiere Q to customers. In a post on the DSL Reports forums, RCN’s Jason Nealis states:

Yes, There is news and the packaging and such are being put together. We are getting close… I’m hopeful that we can launch right around very early NOV.

Lots of moving pieces here, looking to get the billing codes corrected so we can get our sweepstakes winners installed by the end of the week.

The solution is awesome… If the Q can not be hardwired we will be using ActionTEC ECB’s do deliver MOCA Signal as well.

I should have a lot more info at the end of next week.

He goes on to say:

Hey Everyone, I’m actually at TiVo this week, but wanted to post this :

Quad MUST be hard-wired, if it physically can not be hardwired then a Actiontec ECB will be installed to light moca thru the house.

MOCA is really really nice, it lights up about a 100M link thru the RF. To prevent MOCA from leaving your home the TECH will install a POE Filter (point of entry filter) this will stop your MOCA signal from leaving the home.

It’s really plug and play as well, no wep keys , no SSID’s no signal strength.. IT’s REALLY nice. I’m a big fan of the ActionTec Solution.

Since the MSO TiVo Premiere Q and the retail TiVo Premiere Elite are basically the same unit with different size hard drives (500GB and 2TB respectively), that could also indicate the time frame when we’ll see the Elite available to consumers. We know TiVo’s original plan was to ship units in mid-September to have them on shelves in mid-October, and it later looked like we might see them October 7th, but TiVo would still be OK getting them out around the start of November. What they really want is to have them on the market for the heart of the holiday shopping season.

There’s also a video of a demo of the TiVo Premiere Elite being given at the CEDIA show a week ago, shot by Digital Trends.

Via InvestorVillage.

The competition in today’s residential gateway and STB market is fierce and manufacturers are challenged with developing multi-channel designs where small size and low power devices have become critical for meeting MSO requirements. The MxL241SF is an easy and cost effective method for adding channels in more complex STBs and gateways.

The MxL241SF combines MaxLinear’s cutting-edge front-end RF technology with a proven QAM demodulator solution. The device tunes to 256 QAM and 64 QAM channels up to 1GHz and provides a standard MPEG transport stream output for DOCSIS and video applications while meeting the high performance, low power and small form factor requirements for developing next-generation, multi-tuner cable video gateways and advanced set-top boxes (STBs). The device also supports legacy out-of-band (OOB) reception with CRX/DRX outputs to a CableCARD™, and one is used in each of the TiVo boxes for this function.

“This design win with TiVo is an important milestone for MaxLinear. TiVo sets extremely high standards for its products, and TiVo’s selection of our cable tuner-demodulator SoC is a wonderful validation of our exceptional CMOS broadband RF/mixed-signal IC technology,” said Brian Sprague, MaxLinear’s Vice-President, and General Manager for Broadband & Consumer products. “TiVo has found the MxL241SF to provide the ideal tradeoff between cost, power and space to be able to incorporate multiple receivers in the form factors of existing platforms as well as enabling smaller form factor platforms such as the TiVo Preview.”

The release also confirms some info we’d already heard about the TiVo Preview having a built-in CableCARD tuner:

The Premiere Q is connected to the main cable drop and communicates to the TiVo Preview, which functions as a thin client in other rooms throughout the house creating a fantastic multi-room viewing experience. The TiVo Preview also can be used by cable operators as a standalone HD cable STB.

It must have it’s own tuner if it can be used as a standalone STB.

A related press release on the MxL241SF has some more info on the chip for the curious.

So now we know which tuners will be used in the new products.

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.

If the waiver is granted, and it does look like it will be, then this is what TiVo plans to release. As previously revealed, they’d like to ship the Elite by mid-September to have it on retail shelves by mid-October.

Even the product details, officially announced today, were previously revealed via an FCC filing. But let’s see what we can expect. You can see the official TiVo Premire Elite Data Sheet as a PDF, or I’ve included the pages as images in the gallery below. But the key data is as follows:

Product overview:

• 4 tuners allow you to record up to 4 shows at once
• 2 terabytes of recording capacity provide up to 300 hours of HD programming
• Easy access to broadband entertainment providers like Netflix, Pandora, Hulu Plus, BLOCKBUSTER®, Amazon and YouTube™*
• Streams music and photos from any home network and the web*
• Full 1080p and 1080i support
• World’s only THX-certified DVR for optimal sound and video fidelity
• Free TiVo® App for iPad® and iPhone® provides a richer TV experience
• eSATA port supports increased storage via compatible hard drive
• Compatible with digital cable and Verizon FiOS®
• Enables a whole home solution by connecting with other TiVo DVRs
• Integrates with Crestron, Control4, RTI and other popular control systems
• Supports HDMI compliant splitters with up to 16 HDMI ports
• MoCA® support (including MoCA bridge)
• Superb source for HT upgrades and future expansion

What you’ll need:

• Subscription to the TiVo service via a broadband, Ethernet or MoCA connection
• Digital cable TV or Verizon FiOS® connection (does not support satellite, AT&T U-verse, antenna or analog cable)
• One multistream CableCARD™ decoder from cable company (required to receive digital cable channels, additional fee may apply)**

Supported Signal Sources:

• Digital cable (QAM only)
• Verizon FiOS®

Does not support analog cable, antenna (ATSC), satellite or AT&T U-verse.

Outputs: HDMI, component video, composite video, optical audio, analog audio
Video Output Modes Include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
Inputs: CableCARD™ support, cable coax, Ethernet connection, USB 2.0 ports (2), e-SATA, MoCA
Architecture: TiVo Series4™
Audio/Video: THX® certified, Dolby 5.1

TiVo Premiere Elite Dimensions:
16.5″ W x 9.7″ D x 2.4″ H
Weight: 6.64 lbs.
Outer Carton Dimensions: 19.75″ W x 13″ D x 6.13″ H
UPC: 851342000933
Model: TCD758250
SKU: R75825

Optional Accessories:

• TiVo® Slide remote
• TiVo® Wireless N or G Network Adapter

Included in Box:

• Premiere Elite
• TiVo® Glo remote
• Instruction manual and Quick-Start guide
• Cables (includes 6’ HDMI, 6’ AC power, 6.5’ Ethernet, 6’ composite video & audio cable)
• THX optimizer glasses

*Broadband Internet connection required. Due to restrictions placed by copyright holders, certain premium programming cannot be transferred to computers or mobile devices. TiVo Desktop Plus software (sold separately) is required to transfer recordings to mobile devices.

**CableCARD™ Decoder. A CableCARD decoder is required for your TiVo Premiere Elite DVR to receive any cable programming. The TiVo Premiere Elite is designed for use only with digital cable systems. It does not receive analog programming, including over-the-air, and will not work with an over-the-air antenna. Most of the largest cable providers have “digital simulcast,” which means they rebroadcast all their analog channel programming on digital channels as well. This means that all or most of the programs available on analog channels are also available on digital channels when a CableCARD is inserted. Therefore, if your provider has “digital simulcast” and rebroadcasts all of its programming in analog you will not miss any of your cable channel programming with a TiVo Premiere Elite. If you are unsure whether your cable operator’s service provides digital simulcast of all analog programming, please contact your provider to determine whether it offers all-digital or digital simulcast service. If you plan to relocate to a new area or change your video service provider, please contact your new provider to determine whether it offers all-digital or digital simulcast service for all of its analog programming.

So, that pretty much jibes with everything we learned earlier from the FCC filing.

The press release basically reiterates the specs in a less concise form. If you’re interested, here’s the TiVo Premiere Elite Press Release as a PDF, or as images below. The one key bit I’ll cite is:

Pending FCC approval of TiVo’s request to waive a requirement to include analog tuners, The TiVo Premiere Elite will be available by the end of the year through tivo.com, authorized home theater installers and Magnolia stores nationwide. The TiVo Premiere will be on display at CEDIA 2011 in Indianapolis September 8-10 at Booth # 2140. For more information on the product and to sign up for notifications of availability please visit www.tivo.com/elite.

Note the www.tivo.com/elite link doesn’t appear to be live as of yet, but I expect TiVo will flip the switch soon. The page is up.

As you can see, the TiVo Premiere Elite looks pretty much like a TiVo Premiere with the addition of two more red ‘recording’ LED indicators on the right, and the ‘Elite’ badge on the left. The rear panel is similar, with the removal of the antenna coax input found on the Premiere.

You may have noticed one key bit of info is missing from this post – pricing. TiVo hasn’t revealed that yet. I’m still thinking $499 given the Premiere is $99 and the Premiere XL is $299. And while they’ve added two digital tuners and MoCA, they’ve removed two analog tuners and the associated encoders and RAM. And a 2TB drive isn’t that much more expensive than a 1TB drive. Then again, it is going to be pitched as a premium product, and the Series3 was $799 when it launched. So who knows, we’ll see how far off my prediction was in due course of time.

UPDATE: And the TiVo Premiere Elite webpage is up and includes the pricing – $499.99! Nailed it!

You can sign up on that page to receive email updates from TiVo.

What is important is that RCN is looking for five customers to test both the Premiere Q and the non-DVR Preview box. Jason Nealis, RCN’s Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations, posted in the forums at DSL Reports:

I need 1 customer. from DC , PA, MA, NY AND IL to get help with looking / testing and getting a feel for the new 4 Tuner Tivo (quad) and the new NON DVR TiVo Preview… SO…

I’m going to do a lottery / ping pong ball draft…

In order to qualify, you need to have

(2) TV’S .. HONESTLY I NEED THE BOTH TO BE HD if possible, you must have at least 1 HD!

(1) TV WILL GET THE TIVO QUAD TUNER

(1) TV WILL GET THE TIVO PREVIEW (NON DVR/ HD ONLY TIVO)

yes, btw you need to have RCN TV and internet.

———————————————————————-

PM / EMAIL me your :

NAME
RCN ACCOUNT #
and market (DC / PA / NY / MA / IL)
Email Address

———————————————————————-

I will collect these until 1159PM EST on Friday 9/2

then on our about 9/4 or 9/5 we will select 1 customer from each market to test these proposed BUNDLE of the TIVO Q and a TIVO PREVIEW… We may even do a live video selection lol
Our at the very least Internet Chat room …
–
Jason Nealis,
Sr. Director, Video Product and Video Operations

Jason’s a great guy, we worked together a bit earlier in our careers, back around ’96-’97.

So if you’re an RCN customer in DC , PA, MA, NY or IL and you have two TVs (at least one HD), you have a shot at beta testing the Premiere Q and Preview. (And if you wanted to write up a blog post for Gizmo Lovers I think we could work something out. )

Good luck!