“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.

TiVo will continue to support ATSC in future products, in some way, shape or form. I asked about this because the TiVo Premiere XL4 is a QAM only product, and knowing how hardware development and refresh cycles work I fully expect the Premiere and Premiere XL to be refreshed at some point and migrate to a shared design with the XL4. It is much more cost effective to produce one board and simply populate it differently for different products. The Premiere and Premiere XL will clearly be updated to add MoCA at some point, and it makes sense to go to a shared design. But that had implications for ATSC, hence my query.

TiVo can’t say, probably because at this point they honestly don’t know, what form an ATSC-supporting product might take, but they know there is a solid niche of ATSC users. Clearly the majority of their business comes from cable subscribers, but they do not plan to abandon ATSC users. There are issues with supporting ATSC however. ATSC tuners are more expensive than QAM tuners, and aren’t available in the same densities. We’re seeing single QAM tuner chips with six QAM tuners, even fully integrated SoCs with six, or more, integrated QAM tuners – but not ATSC.

This makes it harder, and more costly, to design and build a product with ATSC support. And the more ATSC tuners you include the higher the cost and complexity. And there are often knock-on costs – additional RAM, ancillary chips, etc. Add to that the effects of economies of scale. There are more QAM-enabled products than ATSC, that means there is more demand for QAM chips. The greater demand drives higher production levels of QAM chips, and the per-unit costs keeps coming down. ATSC components aren’t following the same decline, but remaining at higher price points.

And that’s why we don’t have an ATSC XL4, and probably won’t see one. And also why the bulk of products going forward are likely to be QAM-only, with specific SKUs to address the ATSC market niche.

On a different note, the new TiVo SDK will be released ‘this fall’. TiVo has hired someone who is working full time on running the SDK program and driving it to release. They’re serious about getting it out there and attracting more developers to create apps for TiVo.

TiVo would like to support Amazon Prime Streaming as much as users would like them to, but at this time they have nothing additional to announce.

My own take is that it is in the road map but they need developer support from Amazon to get it done. Remember the situation with Hulu Plus? Same deal. It will almost certainly happen, the question is when, but TiVo isn’t going to announce anything until there is something firmer to stand on. Like I said, that’s my read on the situation.

As for HBO Go – they know there is demand but they have nothing public to announce right now. My take is they will probably do it but won’t be saying anything until there is ink on paper to authorize it.

While I’m on the subject, TiVo says to expect a lot of additions to OTT content and, further out, extensive changes to the UI for selecting OTT content. I’m heartened by this, as the weak support for OTT content has been a pet peeve of mine for some time. For myself, I’d love to see content like NASA TV and Crunchyroll supported. I know others would love sports channels, such as MLB.TV. And the UI for Web Video is very creaky now. Next to something like Roku it is kind of sad.

I think the ’tile’ HD UI for ‘browse’ that TiVo has now could make for a decent web video UI. You could have a tile for a provider, and then tiles for each ‘show’ from the provider within that screen, etc. I think that if TiVo can really enhance the UI and expand the content list, the IP STB could have a secondary life as a general purpose streaming STB even for non-TiVo households.

As I reported back in February, TiVo continues to consider adding support for DLNA/DTCP-IP but doesn’t have anything more to say at this time. However, I have to say that, after talking to many vendors at the show, TiVo will add support for DLNA/DTCP-IP. It is a question of when now, not if.

Why do I say that? Because everyone else is doing it. It is really taking off, it seems like every vendor I talked to had something to say about DLNA/DTCP-IP. Just one example, the Pace XG1 box that runs the TiVo software can also run several other software stacks. On every other stack it uses DLNA/DTCP-IP for whole home streaming – but when running the TiVo software it uses TiVo’s proprietary system. ARRIS’s Moxi DVRs use DLNA/DTCP-IP – and therefore you can use a PS3, DLNA/DTCP-IP-enabled Smart TV, etc., as a client.

The stack is rapidly becoming MoCA+DLNA+DTCP-IP – and with RUI coming on strong as the next likely standard component. Since TiVo is serious about playing in the MSO market, and MSOs all seem to be extremely interested in standardizing on these components, I believe TiVo will simply have to adopt them to remain a player. It is almost painful to say, but the big, legacy players seem to be adopting standards faster than TiVo. You’re going to see DLNA everywhere before long, and TiVo needs to invite themselves to that party or risk being on the outside looking in.

Oh, a little side note. I was in Pace’s booth today, looking at the XG1 (there will be a post eventually), and I got crowded up for a bit by a gaggle of suits who came in for a demo. I noticed they were with Suddenlink, and they were quite interested in the XG1 running the TiVo software. I overheard some generally favorable comments about TiVo as a solution, but they seemed to like the idea of more ‘MSO-friendly’ hardware like the Pace unit. Which is kind of the whole point of TiVo’s partnership with Pace, so that’s a good thing.

Another good thing is that the Pace reps I observed doing the demo for various groups were all pretty gung ho about the TiVo solution. While they had an number of units setup, running different UI stacks (Comcast X1, a few Rovi solutions, etc.), they really stressed the TiVo solution. I head things like “TiVo is the one we’re really excited about” from the reps talking to MSO people dropping by for a demo. So that’s good to see & hear; it is good to see TiVo with an enthusiastic partner.

On a different note, unsurprisingly TiVo wouldn’t comment about future DVR products, aside from indicating it was likely transcoding will be ‘baked in’ to some future box, as I previously reported. But reading between the lines I think we can expect to see more tuners in a future box as well – an XL6 if you will. There are chips available now with six, or more, integrated QAM tuners. And an M-Card supports a maximum of six streams.

In addition there are a growing number of units from other vendors appearing with six tuners, which means competitive pressure on TiVo. Their MSO partners are going to want to “keep up with the Joneses”. While they could do that by using a box like the Pace XG1, those that have based their solutions on TiVo hardware are likely to want commonality.

My speculation is that sometime in 2013 we’ll see an ‘XL6′ using one of the newer chips, such as the BCM7435, with six QAM tuners, MoCA 2.0, and on-board transcoding. It probably will not have built-in WiFi as TiVo is trying to steer users away from WiFi and toward Ethernet or MoCA, to avoid customer experience issues and support headaches with streaming and flaky WiFi networks.

The tablet version of the Android app is actively being worked on. I reported in March that TiVo was saying ‘spring’ for Android tablets, but that’s clearly slipped a little. They recently made changes to the way they handle app development and they’re committed to iOS and Android. When the TiVo Stream is released this fall there will be clients for both, on phones and tablets. The streaming functionality will be incorporated into the existing TiVo apps.

TiVo is aware that the new YouTube and Netflix apps have long start-up times, and they’re working on ways to speed that up. The apps themselves are out of their control, that’s Google & Netflix, but they are working to improve performance, especially the start-up.

TiVo is updating their software more frequently, and we can expect more and more of the UI to migrate to HD with the coming releases. Screens such as the Season Pass Manager, To Do List, and screens from a remote unit (such as when using MRS), will be made HD this year. I think TiVo has made some real progress with the migration over the past couple of releases and I look forward to seeing it continue to progress.

OK, I think that’s it for now – and I really need to get a few hours of sleep before I return for the last day of the show. I have plenty more to write up as posts – such as my visits with Humax, Pace and Arris – but that’ll have to wait.

As they say, a picture is worth 1,000 words, and this one answers some of the questions I had, and that I heard from readers. Note that the photo is from a box running development software, so the screen and/or language therein may change before release, etc. But the underlying logic is what we should expect in the initial release. As you can see, you do not have to give up a tuner on your Premiere XL4 to use the IP STB – if you’re willing to forego Live TV, as I am. Basically you’re reserving one or two tuners in the XL4 for use by IP STB(s) elsewhere in the home. When a tuner is reserved it is not available for anything else. It is not used for recordings, it is only used for Live TV on the IP STB. Period.

Now, one question that occurred to me after I’d left the show today was if a tuner is paired with a single IP STB, or if it can be shared. Say you have one XL4 and three IP STBs – can you reserve just one tuner which would allow any one of the three IP STBs to use Live TV at a time? I’ll need to ask that.

But, that aside, you can see that you have the option to reserve 0, 1, or 2 tuners for use by IP STBs. Personally I’d go with 0 as I never use Live TV and would only want the IP STB to access my recordings or OTT content. I think this will make a number of people happy. Also, this is a settings screen on the XL4 and you can change this whenever you want. So it isn’t something you have to do at setup, etc. So if you know you want to watch Live TV in another room (the game is on, you’re sick in bed, whatever) you can reserve a tuner and then un-reserve it when you no longer need it.

Speaking of setup, there apparently really isn’t much of one on the IP STB. Setup basically involves ‘pairing’ it with the XL4 – and that’s it. There’s nothing else to setup, it pulls all of the settings it needs from the XL4. I’m told there are very few settings local to the IP STB.

I did confirm that the will not pair with the Premiere or Premiere XL at launch, only the Premiere XL4 (aka the Premiere Q for MSOs). So no Live TV on your IP STB if that’s all you have. And this isn’t a ‘soft’ thing where it isn’t officially supported but you can make it work, the software is just not there to support it on those units. However, the IP STB is a standard Multi-Room Streaming (MRS) client. It can stream content of of any Premiere unit in the home. So it does work with the Premiere and Premiere XL in as far as you’ll be able to stream your recordings via MRS. My understanding is that you will not be able to set recordings on the Premiere or Premiere XL, etc., as that requires the pairing that can only be done with the XL4. Basically whatever you can do with MRS between Premieres today you can do from the IP STB, but that’s all – for now at least. (I’m going to double check to make sure that’s accurate.)

As for pricing – again, they haven’t said yet. We don’t know if they’ll be a one-time purchase, or if there will be a subscription required, etc. Personally I expect them both to be one-time purchases with no subscription requirement. But they will need to be activated on the TiVo account so that they get the same MAK and can connect to the TiVo DVR units on the network.

I did have an idea which I suggested to TiVo – parental lock down on the IP STB. Basically ‘KidZone’ on a per-box basis. My idea is that you could put an IP STB in the kids’ room and lock it down so it can only access a wall garden of recordings and channels, just like KidZone did. You’d be able to (dis)allow functions – so the kids couldn’t delete recordings, or cancel them, or setup new recordings, etc. Whatever power you want to give them. Basically they’d have their own Nerfed virtual TiVo.

Enough about the IP STB, how about the TiVo Stream? The Stream will transcode at native resolution. So the 1080i recording remains 1080i as H.264, and the 720p recording remains 720p as H.264, etc. So it isn’t fixed, or limited to 720p, etc. And side-loading happens at better than real time. I was told ’2x’ is a good rule of thumb – so a 30 minute recording will side-load in 15 minutes, etc. But this varies depending on the bit rate of the source material. A 19mbps minimally compressed HD ATSC stream will probably take closer to real time, while a 2mbps highly compressed SD digital cable recording will likely side-load very quickly. In other words, results will vary, but it isn’t stuck with only doing real-time transcodes for side-loading.

Right now the TiVo Stream will only stream content from a TiVo DVR to one of the TiVo client apps on iOS or Android. TiVo hasn’t announced anything for other platforms at this time. I don’t know if we might see an updated version of TiVo Desktop that would support streaming to a PC, though it may make more sense to just add MRS to TiVo Desktop to allow it to stream content to a TiVo as well as from one. And PCs can handle MPEG-2, so I don’t see the need for a TiVo Stream for that.

Hopefully this news makes a few folks happy.

Lastly, this won’t be news to regular readers of this blog, but the Stream is powered by a Zenverge ZN200 chip. I speculated to that effect last year, and TiVo confirmed it for me in February, but today it was officially announced via press release. The release is below:

Zenverge Showcases TransAll™ technology with TiVo’s new TiVo Stream

TiVo Stream to extend TV viewing to mobile devices with the world’s first deployment of multi-screen streaming from a DVR

BOSTON, May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Zenverge Inc., a leading developer of Advanced Content Networking ICs, and TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advanced television services including digital video recorders (DVRs), announced TiVo® Stream, a revolutionary product enabling streaming to tablets and smartphones with the same rich TV viewing experience TiVo customers know and love.

Based on the industry leading Zenverge TransAll™ Transcode engine, TiVo Stream will allow a viewer to seamlessly stream or download multiple live or recorded shows from a TiVo Premiere DVR to multiple devices like iPads or iPhones simultaneously. Its unique fast side-load capability is a critical element of a true on-demand experience and allows users to quickly download favorite shows to their tablets for later viewing.

This product takes advantage of the Zenverge TransFormat™, TransRate™, and TransScale™ functions to convert broadcast content into the format supported by tablets and smartphones. TransZip&treade; allows side-loading DVR content at a high speed into mobile devices for sync-n-go. Lastly, TransCrypt&treade; ensures that live and DVR content can be securely distributed in the home.

“Cable MSOs are keen to extend the whole home experience beyond the TV to include mobile devices,” said TiVo’s David Sandford, Vice President and General Manager, Service Provider Business. “Using the unprecedented quad HD transcoding capabilities of the Zenverge ZN200, we are bringing the unique TiVo experience that consumers love to the mobile screens.”

“We’re excited to work with TiVo on extending their premium TV viewing experience to second screens as they pioneer yet another blockbuster entertainment product following their success with the DVR,” said Zenverge’s Raghu Rao, Executive Vice President of Sales and Business Development. “TiVo Stream will enable service providers using TiVo’s innovative advanced TV solutions to create a compelling anywhere, anytime, any device experience for their customers.”

Zenverge’s Advanced Content Networking ICs are the preferred transcoding solution for operators and box manufacturers for devices such as Gateways, DVRs, and IP/Broadcast streaming adapters.

The ‘transcoding box’ is now officially the TiVo Stream, and it will be available to both retail customers and TiVo’s cable MSO partners later this year. The render to the left is the retail version of the box, while the one to the right is the MSO version. They’re pretty much the same except for coloring, and obviously the final labeling will change.

The TiVo Stream will work with the TiVo Premiere, Premiere XL, and Premiere XL4 (formerly known as the Premiere Elite, and known as the Premiere Q for MSOs). It is a very simple device with only two connections – power and Ethernet. The photos below were taken at the show, you can see the simple design and limited connectors.

The TiVo Stream acts like a Multi-Room Streaming (MRS) client on the network, just like another Premiere would. While the hardware is cable of transcoding four streams, it is limited to two per Premiere due to transport throughput limits on the Premiere end. So to use all four transcoding stream simultaneously you would need at least two Premieres on the network. As previously reported, the MPEG-2 streams are transcoded to H.264 for delivery to ‘second screen’ devices within the home.

The Stream supports real-time streaming as well as side-loading of content onto a mobile device for later viewing away from the network. However, copy protection does apply. It is basically Multi-Room Streaming (MRS) vs. Multi-Room Viewing (MRV). If you can stream a problem between Premieres, you’ll be able to streaming it to a second screen. And if you can copy programs between TiVos, or to a PC via TiVoToGo, you’ll be able to side-load it. But if a program is blocked from TiVoToGo it will also be blocked from side-loading. TiVo doesn’t make the rules, they just follow them. So it really depends on how draconian your MSO is.

The Stream can access ‘Live TV’ – kind of. Since it acts just like any other MRS client, and MRS only streams recordings, what happens is it triggers the Premiere to start recording the content. The Stream then accesses that recording in progress and streams it. So in the end there is a recording on the Premiere of the show you streamed ‘live’.

And, as I’ve said previously, right now the intention is to support clients within the home. So place shifting content onto your phone or tablet in another room, but not across the Internet to another location. So this will not be a Slingbox replacement, at least to start. TiVo acknowledges the interest and it is something that might come via a software update. They have looked into it, and interestingly they’ve even talked to Sling Media about remote streaming (possible now that TiVo and EchoStar have kissed and made up), but there is nothing firm at this time.

Jim Denney and I talked a bit about future plans and the transcoding eventually being ‘baked in’, and it is all but certain to happen. It is all a trade off, and right now we’re not quite at the tipping point. SoCs with transcoding baked-in are appearing but are still higher costs parts and there have been performance tradeoffs. We talked about the Broadcom BCM7425, which has dual transcode support, and TiVo has looked at the chip. And there is a newer BCM7435, which just started sampling, which has quad transcode support and a general bump in capabilities, including 8 QAM tuners. (Humax has a demo box at the show using this chip, but they don’t expect it to be available to MSOs until 1Q13.) So TiVo is looking ahead and it is all but a given that this will be baked into a future product, but I wouldn’t expect that until 2013 at the earliest.

The other new set top box is the IP STB – which doesn’t have a snappy name yet, sorry. This is the baby brother to the TiVo Preview and at launch it will only work with the TiVo Premiere XL4/Q – not the TiVo Premiere or Premiere XL. STOP! Before you freak out, there is a reason, and this should change with a future update. Calm? OK. The IP STB does not have a tuner of its own, it uses a tuner from the XL4 for Live TV. In the initial release this requires dedicating a tuner in the XL4 to the IP STB. Yes, that means the tuner is not available for recordings, etc. This is done during setup, you pair the IP STB with a single Premiere XL4 and select one tuner to dedicate.

TiVo knows this is not optimal, but it is a matter of releasing something that is ‘good enough’ for market and then improving it. The plan is to have dynamic tuner allocation in a future release, whereby the IP STB would grab a free tuner for Live TV. But it is a sticky development problem to solve, so for the first release they basically avoided it by going with the dedicated tuner. It is sticky because there are a number of use cases. How can the unit reliably schedule recordings when one (or more if you have multiple IP STBs) can grab a tuner? How do you handle it if all four tuners are in use and someone wants to access Live TV on an IP STB? Etc. I’m sure lots of people have answers, but I’m also sure a lot of those answers will conflict. So TiVo needs time to work on the issue, do their usability testing, and create a good solution.

This need to dedicate a tuner is also why the Premiere and Premiere XL are not supported in the first release. They’d be reduced to single-tuner units. With the XL4 sacrificing a tuner, or even two, isn’t as big a deal. Again, this is temporary and TiVo plans to resolve this in a future update. (And just don’t even start with the “Oh, so when will that be?”, OK?)

I did ask Jim if it might be possible to pair it with an XL4 and *not* assign a tuner at all, which would mean no Live TV on the IP STB. Some users, like myself, never watch Live TV and wouldn’t miss it. I’d rather leave all four tuners free to record and use the IP STB only for watching recordings and accessing OTT content. He didn’t know if that was possible, and he’ll look into it. I think that’d be a nice setup option.

As for the hardware itself, it is a small, square, trapezoidal unit in the same league as the Apple TV or a Roku box. It supports all of the standard TiVo Peanut remotes, including the TiVo Slide remote. I didn’t get the specific model number of the chip inside, but Jim said it is roughly equal in performance to the SoC in the Premiere XL4, and that performance on the IP STB can be even higher because it doesn’t have all of the other work to do with recording, etc.

The back of the box is where you’ll find all of the connectors – coax, a component break-out port, a composite A/V break-out port, HDMI, Ethernet, USB, and power. Component and composite A/V connections are accomplished via break-out cables, similar to some of the Roku models. The coax connection is not for a tuner, it is for MoCA and only MoCA. At this time the USB port is only for the Bluetooth dongle used by the TiVo Slide remote. It will not support the old TiVo 802.11g WiFi adapter as TiVo is actively discouraging the use of WiFi due to the high bandwidth demands of the box. Though there is nothing stopping you from using an external 802.11n, or even a new 802.11ac, bridge.

I did ask if the box could be used as a MoCA bridge, like the XL4, and it cannot. So you can’t use an XL4 and an IP STB to bridge Ethernet over MoCA for another room. I was thinking that if it could act as a bridge you could connect Ethernet to the XL4, use MoCA to feed an IP STB in the bedroom, and then connect other devices, like a Blu-ray player, to the Ethernet on the IP STB. But no such luck, sorry. You’d need another ECB (Ethernet to Coax Bridge).

It is the same UI you know and (probably) love from the TiVo DVR. When you access Live TV it uses the dedicated tuner on the XL4. Recordings are streamed as-is from the XL4 to the box, so they’ll be the same MPEG-2 content. Full quality, there is no transcoding. All OTT IP content, such as Netflix, Hulu Plus, and YouTube, stream directly to the box over the network without touching the XL4. Cable MSO VOD, where supported, would require a tuner on the XL4, as it is delivered today via QAM and not IP.

Now, you probably want to know pricing and availability, right? Yeah, sorry. No pricing details as of yet. And the timeline is ‘in the coming months’. It looks like fall, maybe late summer if we’re lucky.

I think that’s it on these two boxes. I have more photos, if you want to see them check out my Picasa gallery from the show. I’ll be adding more photos as I take them the next couple of days as well.

If there is anything else you want to know, just ask. I may have forgotten to share something, and the show has two more days so I can go back to ask more questions.

EDIT: I did go back, and I did ask more questions, and I’ve posted the new info.

The Press Release is below:

TIVO EXPANDS WHOLE-HOME AND MULTI-SCREEN OFFERINGS

TiVo introduces a low-cost IP set-top box to extend the full TiVo experience to additional televisions in the home

TiVo adds a low-cost transcoding accessory – TiVo Stream – enabling operators to provide streaming of linear content to tablets and mobile devices

BOSTON, MA – May 21, 2012 — TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in advanced television services, including digital video recorders (DVRs), for consumers, content distributors and consumer electronics manufacturers, today announced two major enhancements to its whole-home viewing solution. Its IP set-top box, delivers the TiVo experience on secondary televisions throughout the home. TiVo Stream, provides transcoding to enable content viewing on mobile devices.

Through these new products, operators working with TiVo can give their subscribers the content they want on any screen within the home, including secondary televisions, tablets and smart phones and all through the same easy-to-use TiVo interface. For example, the IP set-top box compliments the home’s primary TiVo DVR by extending the TiVo experience onto secondary TVs including live and recorded television viewing. TiVo Stream delivers content to a customer’s tablet or mobile device, creating a cohesive viewing experience no matter how they choose to watch their programs. Both products are optimized for operator distribution, including automated provisioning and activation, and the low-capital costs that operators demand.

Tom Rogers, President and CEO, TiVo Inc. said, “Consumers not only want an enjoyable TV experience, but now demand choice and the flexibility to watch content on multiple devices and screens within the home. TiVo has worked with our operator customers to create a suite of affordable companion devices that deliver a cohesive experience regardless of the screen the customer wants to use.”

The IP set-top box works with the TiVo Premiere Q, a home’s primary gateway device, to give consumers access to live and recorded TV, operator VOD, plus broadband-delivered content on every TV in the house. This is delivered through the innovative TiVo experience consumers have come to know and love. It includes integrated MoCA to simplify home networking and multi-room applications.

TiVo Stream seamlessly delivers the content available on a consumer’s TiVo Premiere or Premiere Q DVR to alternative screens such as iPads and iPhones. Unlike similar offerings in the market, this is the first product to enable streaming or download of shows simultaneously to multiple portable devices without interrupting what’s playing on the television. The power of TiVo Stream enables users to quickly transfer shows to their mobile device for viewing outside the home.

TiVo will release both products at retail and through select cable operators. Additional details on availability for both the IP set-top box and TiVo Stream will be announced in the coming months.

TiVo unveiled details about both products during the 2012 NCTA Cable Show in Boston. For more information visit the TiVo booth #1859 located in the main exhibit hall.

This actually isn’t a surprise, as I’ve posted a couple of times, a while back Comcast made the comment that New England was high on their list of territories to follow the SF Bay. Why? Well, to quote myself:

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.

So they still have a number of those old units in the field that they’d love to stop supporting, and I bet many of the customers would love the added benefits of having a real TiVo to boot. And perhaps Comcast will be able to recycle some of the work they did on the head end for that project to support the new roll out. In any case, TiVo confirmed today via email that Boston is the next market that will see this roll out. They didn’t provide a specific time frame, saying only that Boston would see this ‘soon’.

As always, you can sign up to be notified when this is available in your area at tivo.com/comcast

Remember, Comcast controls when this is rolled out to a new area, not TiVo. TiVo has delivered their part, the software integration on the unit. The other piece is the head end upgrades to support the service, and that’s what Comcast needs to do for each service area where this is deployed. That’s why it wasn’t flipped on for everyone at once, and why it is getting a region by region roll out. So don’t bother TiVo with questions about when it will come to your area. Odds are they don’t know, and even if they do know they can’t speak for Comcast until Comcast is willing to announce their plans. If you need to pester anyone, pester Comcast.

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.

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.

Key points:

• Targeted at the custom home theater market – which means it isn’t going to be cheap. Given the current Premiere/Premiere XL $99.99/$299.99 pricing, I expect this to be at least $499.99, and possibly much more.
• Four digital (QAM) tuners
• 2TB of storage – 300 hours of HD or 2200 hours of SD recordings
• Supports all TiVo broadband partners (Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, Hulu, YouTube, etc.), unlike MSO boxes which lack some of these (notably Netflix) due to contract limitations.
• Network content sharing with other TiVo boxes – the Premiere & Premire XL, and probably the Preview if that ever comes to retail. This seems to be streaming, which we know is coming.
• MoCA support, including MoCA bridge. This was a feature of the Premiere Q some were unsure would make it to retail.
• THX-certified, as befits a high end box.
• Full 1080p and 1080i support, including HDMI compliant splitters for up to 16 HDMI ports. We’ll see what ’1080p’ means. The TiVo Premiere has 1080p support – but only 1080p24 pass-through, no upscaling, no 1080p60, etc.
• Supports Control4, Crestron (misspelled in the slide as ‘Creston’), RTI, and other control systems. I’m guessing this is the network remote feature that is in the Series3 and later boxes.

To use the Premiere Elite you’ll need digital cable (QAM) or Verizon FiOS, one Multi-stream CableCARD (M-Card), and a subscription to the TiVo service. The unit will need to be connected to the network – Ethernet, MoCA, or WiFI (using a TiVo WiFi adapter). There is no mention of a phone line adapter, available for the Premiere/Premiere XL, but who’s really going to buy such a high end unit and use a phone line anyway?

The training materials make it clear that it is NOT compatible with analog cable, ATSC/antenna, satellite, or AT&T U-Verse. This is a digital cable/FiOS only unit. OTA users start screaming… now. I wonder what factors went into the decision to block ATSC. It is still digital, and QAM/ATSC tuner blocks exist. With the growth in cord cutting this could’ve been kind of the hill for OTA users.

In the ‘Whole home solution’ slide they have a ‘circle of life’ showing the Premiere Elite, Premiere, Premiere XL, Media Server, Laptop/PC, iPad/mobile device, and Control system. (Note the TiVo Preview is not listed.) It isn’t clear if that refers to existing functionality that we’re aware of – TiVo Desktop, the existing iOS app, etc., or if there could be more. In mentioning a media server, could TiVo finally have implemented DLNA? With out without DTCP-IP? I really hope so, but I’m not holding my breath. With the new streaming support if would be nice if there were a client for other devices to receive the streams, not just another TiVo. For devices like the iPad, iPhone, Android phones, etc., which don’t handle MPEG2 well, could the Elite include transcoding for real placeshifting support? Again, I doubt it, but it really would be a nice addition.

In addition to the training slides, TiVo’s FCC filing includes additional information about their consumer education plans to handle the digital-only aspect of the product. The in-store data sheet will contain this notice:

CableCARD™ Decoder. A CableCARD decoder is required for your TiVo Premiere Elite DVR to receive an 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 programs available on analog channels are also available on digital channels when a CableCARD is inserted. Therefore, if your provider has “digital simulcast” you will not miss any of your cable channel programming with a TiVo Premiere Elite. Please contact your provider if you are unsure whether its service provides digital simulcast of all analog programming.

The Quick Start Guide and User Guide will also make it clear:

a. Quick Start Guide — The Premiere Elite packaging includes a large (18″ x 24″), heavy-weight, glossy installation guide that includes the following prominent notice:

The TiVo Premiere Elite is intended for use with digital cable systems only and does not work with external cable boxes, analog cable, or over-the-air antennas. A CableCARD decoder is required to receive any cable programming. To receive digital cable channels, and to watch and record multiple channels at the same time, you need one Multi-Stream CableCARD decoder (M-Card) from your cable company.

b. User’s Guide — The detailed Premiere Elite information booklet included with all
units includes notifications essentially identical to those of the in-store “Data Sheet” described above.

This all gives us a tantalizing peak at the TiVo Premiere Elite. Now, if only the FCC would hurry up and grant that waiver.

Or do we? As I mentioned in my last post, during the Q&A at the end of their recent quarterly call, Virgin Media said“Just think about October, the second drop. The access your hard drive from another device.” That certainly sounds like they’ll be enabling streaming in October. And we know that Virgin Media intends to deploy the TiVo software on non-DVR STBs as well, as it was stated in the initial partnership announcement. While the UK HW is different, it still would be quite similar to a Premiere/Premiere Elite streaming to a Preview in the US. And the software used in the UK is related to the software used in the US, so perhaps not so very different after all.

If UK TiVo users will be getting streaming in October, perhaps the same time frame will hold true for the US? It makes some sense to roll out such a feature in time for the holiday shopping season, so I think it has some merit.

Well, play time is over. A new TiVo OS update, 14.8b, is rolling out and it appears to kill the unofficial streaming support, pulling it back behind the development/beta curtain. Since it was never officially released it isn’t really removing functionality, but that’s cold comfort for users who have been using it. They’ll just have to wait for TiVo to complete development and make the official launch, which is expected later this year as it is required for the ‘whole home’ DVR functionality of the TiVo Premiere Elite and TiVo Preview.

Try to be patient and don’t reach for the pitchforks and torches just yet. TiVo was damned if they did and damned if they didn’t. The feature was plainly rough and incomplete, and not intended for public consumption. If they left it out there they would have to deal with the users complaining about the problems, even though it wasn’t an official feature. If they pulled it back to complete work out of the public eye they’d upset those users who have been using it. Since the feature was only of use to those with multiple Premiere units in the home, it is likely not a large number of users impacted by the removal.

Reported in the forums at TiVoCommunity, via EngadgetHD.

Joining the already available TiVo App for iPad, TiVo today released and app for iPhone and iPod Touch. The new App has full support for the TiVo Premiere, and partial support for the TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD. Additionally it seems the iPad App has also been updated with S3 & HD support.

From the press release:

Features of the TiVo App include:

• NEW! Guest Mode — Even if you don’t currently have a TiVo DVR, you can still sample the TiVo experience through the new Guest Mode. Users can browse, search and scroll through program and channel guides and experience the simplicity of the TiVo interface.
• NEW! TiVo Series3™ Support* — Now users who have TiVo Series3™, HD and HD XL DVRs can also download the app to browse, search and schedule recordings as well as make use of the reinvention of the TiVo remote.
• Gesture-based controls — Take complete control of all recordings, even move forward and backward through a show with a simple tap or swipe.
• Program Guide — Browse your full-screen TV program guide without interrupting TV viewing.
• Schedule — Schedule one-time recordings and Season Pass® recordings from the device at home or on-the-go.
• Get more from your shows and movies — Explore cast and crew and other recommendations of your favorite shows without interrupting the big screen.
• Search — Search for all of your favorite TV shows, movies, actors or directors across both broadcast and broadband from Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and more.
• Share comments with your friends — From within the TiVo App, comment and share your thoughts on your favorite programming on Facebook or Twitter.

* TiVo Series3™, HD and HD XL DVR users will enjoy the app’s guide, scheduling, remote control, search and explore features, but these users should anticipate a smaller set of features and capabilities than TiVo Premiere users.

This feature matrix illustrates which app features are available for use with each TiVo platform:

Now, can we get some Android love? Please, Tivo?

Edited to add – TiVo also published a video demo: