Features (some features are only available to TiVo® Premiere DVR customers):

• Browse the channel guide without interrupting the show you’re watching – View shows up to 14 days in advance
• Schedule TV show/movie recordings and ongoing (Season Pass®) recordings
• Browse your recorded shows list and play a show from the App
• Find exactly what you want to watch – Search across TV, Netflix, Amazon Instant Video & Blockbuster -and see integrated results on Demand to find what you are looking for
• Explore cast and crew while watching a show
• Comment about what you’re watching on Facebook or Twitter
• Use a TiVo remote control replica or our intuitive, gesture-based remote control
• Manage your ongoing (Season Pass®) recordings and your To-Do List – Delete and reprioritize recordings for your favorite shows
• Instantly schedule, search and browse for shows while you’re away from home

Screenshots:

Via Android Police and TiVo Blog.

Younger people have adopted the DVR a lot faster than the baby boomers. A perfect example is the CW network, which has 44% less live viewing during primetime than CBS. CBS skews toward an older viewer (with programs like 60 Minutes), who tends to watch more shows live – all because of habit. My father records PGA Tour golf events and when he plays them from his recorded list he sits through the commercials without fast-forwarding. Is he lazy? Charles Duhigg might argue his behavior is related to habit. In contrast, the younger viewer watching Gossip Girl on the CW is in the habit of recording his/her favorite TV show and speeding through the commercials.

It made me think about the implications over time, as newer generations grow up with the DVR, streaming video, etc. What habits and expectations will they have? Will they even be willing to tolerate advertising in their content? Or will they be habitualized to skip over ads or avoid ad-driven content entirely? What new business models will work with the new audiences coming up? Check out the full post.

Also at MediaBizBloggers, Alex Petrilli, senior manager of audience research at TiVo, talks about a potentially surprising finding from TiVo viewing data. TiVo data relating to viewing of movie ads seems to be a fairly strong predictor of future box office performance. In other words, if users stop and watch the ad, the movie will do well in the box office. But the more users who skip through the ad without watching it, the worse the film will perform.

During the past year TiVo has been studying box office performances in relation to the fast-forward rates of movie spots – and the correlation between the two is undeniable. Fast-forward rate is simply the percent a spot is skipped during live plus seven days of time-shifted viewing. On average the fast-forward rates for movie spots, which are traditionally some of the most popular commercials on television, range from 12-17%.

We first took notice of this correlation in September of 2011 when the latest “can’t miss” Sarah Jessica Parker film I Don’t Know How She Does It was set to open. The fast-forward rate almost jumped out of our TiVo Stop||Watch portal with a 20.4% rate. This was unusually high for a theatrical release. Not surprisingly, the box office followed suit opening at #6 for the weekend of September 17, 2011, scrounging up $4.4 million. The Avengers amassed a total of $4.4 million on a Tuesday afternoon… in Des Moines.
…
Fast-forward rate can also work the other way too and reveal a hit. A successful fast-forward rate will drop below 12%. Two recent examples are The Hunger Games which scored an 11.8% fast-forward rate in its initial broadcast campaign and The Avengers delivering a 10.3% fast-forward rate. Although expectations were high for these films there are no guarantees.

Of course, no system is perfect. It seems that children’s films and horror films don’t follow the same patterns, for example. Children’s film’s ads tend to run during children’s programming, and they don’t fast-forward ads. I’m not sure about horror films – perhaps people skip the ads because they’re scary? Or do more people watch the ads but then not see the film because it is scary? Either way, these’s more info in the full post, so check it out.

In addition to focusing on small- and medium-size U.S. operators, TiVo will seek to expand distribution in Western Europe, Rogers said. But TiVo has parted with one potential partner in Telenor’s Canal Digital direct-to-home satellite service in Scandinavia, Rogers said. TiVo signed an agreement with Canal Digital in late 2010, but the company has undergone a management shakeup, including the departure of CEO Tone Krohn Clausen, and is said to have been up for sale.

“They had a big strategic process they were going through in selling the company and we decided pouring resources into a company that might be selling itself near term might not be the smartest thing,” Rogers said. “It’s not clear what they are doing and for the kind of shoulder that it takes roll out what we do, we knew that it would not be the best circumstances.”

So we finally have an explanation of what happened with that deal. It’s dead, Jim. Well, at least for now. It sounds like the door is still open if Canal Digital sorts their issues out and is still interested, but TiVo doesn’t want to get involved for now.

You might have noticed the first sentence in the quoted material, about small- and medium-sized US operators. That’s actually the main gist of the CED article. TiVo is seeing most of their traction in the US come from those operators, and not the big boys. So they aren’t putting a lot of energy into pursuing ‘Comcast-size’ deals. While TiVo’s deal with Comcast is significant, it is clear that Comcast’s focus is on their own in-house developed service, X1. While it seems that Comcast will fulfill their end of the agreement and continue to expand coverage of TiVo support for XFINITY VOD, TiVo is really a secondary offering for them. Their primary push is going to be X1, and understandably so.

Five of the largest MVPDs in TiVo-served territories – Comcast, British Sky Broadcasting, DirecTV, Dish Network and Time Warner Cable – are working on DVR strategies in-house and are unlikely to ever adopt TiVo’s software as their primary platform. I’d also add Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-Verse to that list. While TiVo may be able to collect licensing revenue for their patents from these providers, there’s little chance they’ll contribute directly to subscriber numbers. But the small- and medium-size MSOs don’t have the resources to develop their own DVRs, so they need third party vendors to fill the need – which is where TiVo comes in. They’ve already had success in the US with MSOs such as RCN, Suddenlink, Grande Communications, and more.

Of course, they have landed one major MSO as well – Charter Communications. But the deal seems to be stuck in neutral. Charter began deploying TiVo in Fort Worth, TX last November and at the time planned a“full production launch enterprise wide in the first half of 2012.” However, in February of this year they announced they they were pushing the schedule out, without providing any new time frame.

Since then we haven’t really heard much, and Charter’s TiVo deployment remains limited to Dallas & Ft. Worth, TX. Rogers stated that TiVo is “working closely” with Charter to expand their deployment into new territories. There has been some speculation, which I also heard going around The Cable Show, that Charter might be one of the early customers for the new Pace XG1 running the TiVo software. And that could account for the hold up, waiting for the XG1 to be available, but that’s just a rumor and I don’t know that I’d put much stock in it.

Check out the Consumer Electronics Daily article for yourself.

There are other tidbits, such as the statement that side-loading is up to 4x speed, so an hour-long program and be loaded in as little as 15 minutes. But I don’t really agree with the comments about side-loading vs. out-of-home streaming (ala Slingbox). While I acknowledge side-loading is useful for environments where streaming isn’t viable, such as on an aircraft, I really have no interest in side-loading. I prefer to stream my content real-time from my TiVo when I’m on the road. The comments about broadband speeds just don’t ring true anymore. Back in the day I used to stream from my Slingbox to my Palm Treo over a 200kbps EDGE connection, and it was perfectly usable.

These days almost every phone has a 3G connection many times faster, if not a 4G LTE connection. WiFi is nigh-ubiquitous, and upload speeds from the home are more than capable of streaming content at a solid quality. My Slingbox PRO-HD can stream 720p video starting at around 1.5Mbps, which is not at all uncommon these days. So the excuse that out-of-the-home streaming isn’t supported due to available broadband capacity just doesn’t hold water. I hope TiVo gets it together and adds it to the TiVo Stream quickly. Especially for those of us with providers who copy-protect nearly everything, making side-loading impossible in the first place.

Watch the video for yourself, of course.

I’m not really a big fan of PayPal myself, I only use it when I have to, but there is no denying they’re the 800 pound gorilla in the online payments arena. PayPal is a name known and trusted by most consumers, a strong brand accepted by a multitude of merchants. Like them or not, there really isn’t a better payments processor for TiVo to partner with. Someone like Amazon Payments or Google Wallet just wouldn’t give them the scope of PayPal. And there certainly seems to be a lot of potential, given the data shared by PayPal:

According to a survey conducted by PayPal in October 2011, half of TV subscribers (49%) show an interest in purchasing goods and services linked to the content they’re watching on TV, either directly from their television through their remote control, or on a companion device (smartphone or tablet). In addition, nearly 30% of those same TV subscribers said they would use PayPal to make those purchases. In fact, 89% of respondents knew about PayPal as an online payment service with 61% of them having used it in the last 12 months. Furthermore, according to research done by Nielsen, consumers who watch traditional television are engaged approximately 5.1 hours a day, whereas consumers who surf the Internet are engaged less than an hour a day.

TiVo and their agency partners will be working to bring PayPal-enabled ads to consumers in time for the fall 2012 TV season. It sounds like purchasing capabilities will be available to advertisers across TiVo’s ad placement offerings – Interactive Tags, Showcases, etc. I think that’s a good first step, but I think the real potential is integration with shopping channels. As well as the possibility of enhanced TV. How about watching a cooking show and being able to call up an onscreen display to order the host’s cookbook or their branded products? Or watching a fashion-based program and being able to order the clothing seen on the show? It’ll also be interesting to see if the payment system is part of the new SDK TiVo is preparing, to allow purchases via third party apps.

PayPal is also looking to expand this beyond TiVo, as they stated in their blog they’re also working with Comcast:

We’re excited to announce that we’re collaborating with industry leader Comcast Cable to explore opportunities that include enabling consumers to make purchases or donations related to the content they’re watching on television either directly through their TV using the remote control, or on a companion device such as a smartphone or tablet. We are also exploring opportunities for enabling consumers to accept coupons directly into their PayPal online wallet during television advertisements.

Though it sounds like their plans with Comcast are much less concrete than what was announced with TiVo today.

There is one thing about this announcement I could really do without – the term ‘t-commerce’. Yes, a ‘clever’ play on e-commerce and TV. Oh well, marketing, what can you do?

The press release is below:

TIVO TO INTEGRATE PAYPAL ENABLING SIMPLE SHOPPING ON TV AND STRENGTHENING ITS INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING SOLUTION

Will allow users to easily purchase featured products through a few clicks of the remote control improving advertisers’ ability to reach consumers in today’s fragmented TV viewing world

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – June 12, 2012 — TiVo Inc.(NASDAQ: TIVO), a leader in advanced television services and advertising solutions, and PayPal announced they have teamed up to provide TiVo users with the ability to purchase products featured in interactive advertisements on the TiVo user interface through PayPal, the faster, safer way to pay. This integration creates a new opportunity for advertisers and brands to connect with TiVo users and to turn their 30-second spots andinteractive TiVo ad placements into actionable purchasing opportunities through a one-time account link.

“In today’s fragmented TV viewing world it is harder than ever before for advertisers to reach their audiences, and it’s important to find creative ways to get in front of viewers,” said Tara Maitra Senior Vice President, General Manager, Content and Media Sales, TiVo Inc. “TiVo’s interactive ads allow advertisers to grab the attention of viewers in unobtrusive ways and on the viewer’s terms. By teaming with PayPal consumers will be able to instantly purchase products with just a few clicks of the remote after an easy, one-time account setup. PayPal’s expertise in online payments, customer service, and working directly with merchants and sellers makes the entire payment process easy and trustworthy and will create a valuable experience for TiVo users and advertisers.”

Scott Dunlap, Vice President of Emerging Opportunities and New Ventures for PayPal said, “At PayPal we have been redefining commerce from online to mobile to offline and we see television as the newest channel in commerce. Teaming up with TiVo will help us connect merchants and consumers via the TV set in the fastest and safest way possible. We are excited about the prospect of delivering a more complete and seamless couch commerce experience.”
TiVo’s other interactive advertising solutions are currently being used by various leading brands in a host of industries as they allow advertisers to target consumers in a time-shifted world without unwelcomed interruption and offer them the option of exploring products that interest them.

TiVo will be working with its advertisers and agency partners to develop PayPal-enabled TiVo ads and Showcase campaigns beginning with the fall 2012 television season. This solution will also be available to TiVo’s MSO customers such as RCN, Suddenlink and more. Products purchased through PayPal will be charged to the TiVo user’s PayPal account through a secure transaction and shipped to the address the user has registered with PayPal for deliveries. Orders will be fulfilled either by the advertiser or a trusted merchant that accepts PayPal for payment.

TiVo and PayPal unveiled news of this new offering during the TV of Tomorrow Show 2012 in San Francisco. To learn more about TiVo’s interactive ad opportunities visit www.tivo.com/advertising. For more information about PayPal and t-commerce visit the PayPal Blog.

“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.

Conference Details:
Twenty-Eighth Annual Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Strategic Decisions Conference 2012
New York, NY
Thursday, May 31, 2012
3:00 PM ET
Tom Rogers, President and CEO

Yeah Boston! MT @ stevegarfield Breaking: Available next week for Boston area Comcast @TiVo customers, XFINITY VOD bit.ly/JEaxLz

— Steve Wymer (@stevewymer) May 24, 2012

For those who don’t know, Steve is TiVo’s Head of Corporate Communications. So this is an ‘official’ source who would know. I suspect Comcast didn’t announce this during The Cable Show because they wanted to keep the attention focused on their X1 product announcements.

Thanks to Brennok for the tip.

EDIT: I originally said ‘Monday’ since Brennok had used that in his comment and it wedged in my brain and when I read Steve’s ‘next week’ I think I mentally filled in ‘next Monday’. I replaced ‘Monday’ with ‘next week’ throughout the post to better reflect what Steve actually said.

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 Pace XG1 isn’t considered a DVR, but a “Multi-Tuner Video Gateway”. It is really part of a new type of solution, in the same category as Arris’s Moxi Gateway. It is meant as a content ‘gateway’ into the home, feeding client boxes which actually handle the content display. The XG1 has six digital cable tuners as well as a built-in DOCSIS 3.0 modem for data connectivity and IP content delivery, and MoCA for home networking.

Running TiVo’s software it will support TiVo’s whole-home solution, streaming content to traditional STBs as well as IP clients. It is also compatible with TiVo’s phone & tablet apps. It will be available to US operators later this year.

I didn’t make it to Pace’s booth Monday. I’ll try to get there on Tuesday to see what additional info is available.

The Press Release is below:

TIVO AND PACE ANNOUNCE FIRST PACE PRODUCT WITH TIVO SOFTWARE INTEGRATION

Pace XG1 Multi-tuner Video Gateway to offer 6 video tuners, integrated DOCSIS 3.0 and support for TiVo Whole Home Solution

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, and Pace (LSE: PIC), a leading developer of technologies, products and services for global broadband and broadcast markets , today announced details of the first product, the Pace XG1, resulting from a global partnership TiVo and Pace announced in February 2012 to develop flexible, advanced television solutions for operators. This new Multi-tuner Video Gateway from Pace will provide cable operators in the Americas an advanced television solution for their customers by bringing to market the full award-winning TiVo experience on powerful, new platforms designed to be easily integrated with today’s cable networks.

The Pace XG1 includes 6 video tuners, an integrated DOCSIS 3.0 modem, and at least 500GB of on board hard drive storage. It will utilize TiVo’s whole-home capabilities, such as multi-room streaming and support for both traditional set-top boxes and IP devices as clients over MoCA, and support for TiVo’s mobile and tablet applications.

David Sandford, Vice President and General Manager of TiVo’s Service Provider Business said, “This partnership will make the TiVo experience easily accessible to more cable operators than ever before. It will provide operators a best-in-class advanced television solution that they can quickly and cost-effectively deploy and will serve as the gateway to a rapidly expanding choice of content across multiple screens through TiVo’s whole-home solutions.”

Tim O’Loughlin, President of Pace Americas, stated, “There is no denying that the current climate for operators is immensely competitive, and we have been hearing more and more frequently from this community that TiVo is a user experience that they want to offer. We are excited this partnership has yielded a product that will harness the very best of traditional television and broadband delivered content into a seamless, enjoyable package across multiple Pace platforms and customer owned devices.”

As previously announced, this initial offering will first be made available by Pace to cable operators in the Americas later this year. TiVo and Pace also expect to follow the XG1 with additional solutions for domestic and international operators soon after.

U.S. operators currently deploying TiVo offerings to their customers include Charter, DIRECTV, RCN, Suddenlink and Grande Communications, and European operators include Virgin Media, the largest cable operator in the UK, and ONO, the largest cable operator in Spain.

TiVo and Pace unveiled details about the Pace XG1 at the 2012 NCTA Cable Show in Boston. For more information visit the TiVo booth #1859 and Pace booth #1653 located in the main exhibit hall.

If you spotted EPIX and Aol HD, congratulations. Neither of those have been previously announced – even at this show. After I spotted those I asked Jim Denney about them and he seemed a little surprised that they were on the wall too, but said that since they’re clearly visible they were fair game. He couldn’t tell me much, but did say that the EPIX deal would probably be tied to MSO-provided units as EPIX is similar to HBO Go in that your cable provider has to have a deal with EPIX to enable access. You can see the currently supported providers & devices on their site. I’ll note that Charter & Suddenlink, two MSOs distributing TiVo HW, are on the list. So I think we can guess those are the likely MSOs to receive EPIX on TiVo.

Aol HD on the other hand will be a retail play, joining Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, et al. Aol HD is currently available on select Sony and Samsung devices, Roku, Google TV, Boxee, DivX TV, and Yahoo! Connected TV devices – and apparently coming soon to TiVo. As one of their recent press releases put it:

AOL HD features high-definition technology, lifestyle, celebrity and entertainment content updated daily from properties across the AOL Huffington Post Media Group, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Translogic, Moviefone and Huffington Post Celebrity.

Expect both of these to be on the TiVo Premiere family, and likely not on earlier models.

I also noticed that Cox is missing from the Operator Partners list, but I don’t read too much into that. TiVo said they’re still working on their VOD support, but since they haven’t launched anything yet I can understand why TiVo wouldn’t be touting them on their booth.

Though I did confirm with TiVo that the deal with Canal Digital in Europe has basically fizzled out, as I previously covered. Nothing official has been announced, and I don’t expect anything to be said – companies generally don’t announce when deals wither on the vine. Like I said before, it is a setback, but nothing earth shaking.

Here’s a gallery of a few photos I shot in and around TiVo’s booth today:

Again, if you have questions you want me to ask TiVo, or any other exhibitor at the show, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

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.

And that was before the Collections service bundle promotions were offered, which kicked off with the current quarter. Virgin Media really seems to be the ideal TiVo would hope all of their MSO deals could be.

Here’s the new ad:

They also put out a shorter version of the previously released ‘Jellyfish’ ad, so I may as well share that while I’m at it:

There were familial obligations – Mother’s Day, our nephew’s birthday, stuff that needed to get done around our house, etc. And my day job has kept me pretty busy lately, including a trip down to New Jersey this past week. Just a storm of time sucks and catching up from being laid up took up the rest.

So I have a bit of catching up to do here on recent events, such as TiVo’s latest software update, and a bunch of other stuff. But I think I’m healthy again and feeling as well as I can expect given the pollen levels. So I’m going to try to knock out some posts to catch up. Sorry I’ve been absent, it bugs me when that happens too.

The timing is good since The Cable Show hits Boston this week – Monday through Wednesday. Well, actually, there is a press reception Sunday night at Fenway Park that I’ll be attending as well. This is my first time attending The Cable Show, so I’m not quite sure what to expect. I’ve attended may other trade shows and conferences over the years, both as an exhibitor and as an attendee/blogger, so I know the generalities. But each show is different, so it will be interesting to see what this one is like.

I have a meeting scheduled with TiVo on Monday morning, just after the show floor opens. So if there is anything you really want to know about, leave a comment. Oh, but don’t suggest asking about obvious stuff like the forthcoming transcoder box and IP STB, or the new SDK, as those are already on my list to follow up on, along with the rest of the road map info they previously shared. Being that this is The Cable Show I expect a lot of what TiVo will have to say will relate to their progress in the MSO market with less focus on retail products. This is their show blurb:

Only the TiVo® service brings together the best of TV, VOD and web entertainment together in a single user interface, with one remote and one simple search across everything. And in this environment of increasing over-the-top competition and shifting consumer loyalties, TiVo is uniquely suited to combine over a decade of consumer experience with the ability to integrate with existing infrastructures and the know-how to execute with speed. New this year, TiVo is showcasing its whole-home and TV-everywhere solutions, which offer the same award-winning TiVo experience on every screen, big or small. Come see why more and more cable operators are choosing TiVo for their advanced-television solutions.

Still, let me know what you want to learn.

And if there is anyone else on the exhibitor list you think I really must visit, or anything specific I should ask about, feel free to suggest it. I can’t make any promises, there is only so much time in the day, but I’m always interested in checking out interesting stuff. And if you’re an exhibitor and you think I really need to meet with you, feel free to contact me.

Speaking of contacting me, I’m always interested in meeting up with my fellow bloggers, especially since I haven’t made it to CES in a few years. So if you’re going to be there and want to get together contact me directly if you have my info, or just go through the site. And if you’ve done The Cable Show before and have any pointers, I’m open to suggestions.

Hopefully next week I’ll have some interesting info to share.

The Premiere works with antenna, analog & digital cable, and Verizon FiOS. It also supports a number of broadband content services: Amazon Instant Video, Netflix, Hulu Plus, Music Choice, YouTube, Pandora, Rhapsody, Live365, and web videos from a variety of sources such as CNET & Revision3. Stream music from your PC. View photos from your PC, or online via Picasa & Photobucket. You can control the unit via free apps for iOS & Android. Schedule recordings online via TiVo’s website.

Transfer recordings to your PC via TiVo Desktop, or a Mac with Roxio’s Toast or Popcorn. You can also move content to & from the unit, or stream video to the TiVo using third party applications like kmttg, Streambaby, or pyTiVo. And if you’re a Comcast customer, the TiVo Premiere is receiving XFINITY On Demand support. It is available now in the SF Bay Area and coming soon to Boston, with other service areas to come.

There is a reason TiVo is still the gold standard for DVRs, and this is a good deal on the current model.

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.

I’d love to see this integrated into the US units. As in the UK, keep the back-dated guide data going back a week or so. While we don’t have the dedicated catch up services like they have in the UK, we do have Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and MSO On Demand services where supported. So the guide could link directly to the available service(s).

With the change, the company said in a statement provided to Multichannel News, it will shift resources to support “EchoStar’s unique intellectual property and advanced content-delivery technologies.” The company owns Sling Media, developer of the Slingbox device, and acquired the adaptive bit-rate technology of Move Technologies last year for $45 million.

However, EchoStar said it “remains firmly committed to supplying advanced hardware, software, and system solutions to its global cable, satellite, and telecom customers outside of the U.S. cable set top box market.”

“EchoStar recognizes that the highly demanding and competitive nature of the U.S. set-top market is very cost-competitive,” the company said. “After considerable review of the market and EchoStar’s sales/product development efforts, EchoStar has concluded the U.S. cable market offers insufficient revenue return opportunities to the company and our investors.”

That’s good news for TiVo, as Aria had the potential to be a serious competitor, especially with small-to-medium MSOs, if EchoStar was able to execute. EchoStar certainly knows how to make DVRs; something like a CableCARD version of DISH Network’s Hopper could’ve been quite a strong whole-home product. The death of Aria removes a potential competitor from the field, and really effectively leaves only ARRIS’s Moxi lineup to compete with TiVo for the small-to-medium market. The larger MSO market is dominated by traditional players like Motorola and Cisco, though TiVo has made inroads there with the likes of Charter.

The post seems designed to cast further doubt on the value of Nielsen’s C3 (Live+3 days) data, the mainstay of today’s ad buying. It does this by raising questions seemingly designed to generate a little fear, uncertainty, and doubt in the mind of the reader:

Changing Channels In 2008, according to Nielsen, the average TV household received 130.1 channels. Today, a midrange DirecTV package includes 225+ channels. Is the C3 metric and the Nielsen sample size equipped to handle this increased fragmentation?

Tablet Time In April of 2010 the first iPad was released and second screen viewing began to accelerate at a rapid pace. In fact, according to a recent study commissioned by Viacom, tablets have surpassed computers for full length TV show viewing and now account for 15% of all viewing. The industry doesn’t currently have a viable way to measure data for second screen viewing so where is it going to come from in the future? Nielsen’s cross-platform measurement plan cuts their NTI sample in half leaving approximately ten thousand homes to interpret what is occurring on the second screen, hardly a robust sample size.

DVR Domination And then there’s the DVR: According to a number of research studies, DVR penetration has more than doubled since 2007, going from 22% to over 45% today. The C3 metric was produced in an attempt to assuage the affect DVRs had on viewing in the home. C3 measures average viewership during the specific times when commercials are aired on a minute-by-minute basis. There are a couple of flaws in this formula, the most prevalent of which is minute-by-minute analysis. If a commercial break during Modern Family begins at 9:14:46, as I understand it, 9:14 is included in the C3 calculation. Bucketing this way can cause data which doesn’t paint the real picture of viewing. Let me show you what I mean.

He then goes on to highlight the increased accuracy of TiVo’s own Stop||Watch service. And they continue to pick on poor Modern Family as their example show:

At TiVo, our Stop||Watch rating service tracks viewing on a second-by-second basis and when analyzing a top rated show such as Modern Family, the time-shifted ratings in DVR homes can drop as much as 60% over a 14-second interval in the moments after a commercial break begins. 60%! Including those 46 seconds into the C3 calculation inflates the viewership levels for almost half of all U.S. homes. There are other factors that further complicate the equation – pod busters, commercial-program integrated spots, network promos, etc. – none of which were contemplated in the construction of the C3 metric.

TiVo really seems to be gunning hard for Nielsen’s spot as the ratings provider used as the basis for ad buying. Of course, they do seem to have a superior offering that provides much more accurate data to ad buyers.

Via MediaBizBloggers.

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:

As you might expect, this time around they’re giving away gas – or, rather, $1000 in gas cards. Four people will each win ten $100 Chevron gift cards. It looks like they’ll work at Texaco as well, as Chevron and Texaco are sister companies. Which would be good for me if I win; there are no Chevron stations in my area, but there are a few Texaco stations.

In connection with the sweepstakes, TiVo is also running a promotion – purchase a new $149.99 TiVo Premiere with $499.99 product lifetime service or a one-year commitment to $14.99 monthly service, and receive a TiVo 802.11n WiFi adapter free. See www.tivo.com/freeadapter for details. TiVo calls it an $89.99 value, but that’s the full MSRP. Amazon has them for $64.50.

The sweepstakes is open to everyone, so you may as well enter. Even if you don’t have a car you can always sell the cards to someone else for less than face value. Selling them for 75 cents on the dollar still nets you $750, and the buyer saves 25% on gas.

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.