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.

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.

Unfortunately it sounds like it is hear to stay. It wasn’t meant to be included in 14.9, but it is a deliberate change TiVo is making, according to Margret Schmidt, TiVo’s Vice President, User Experience, on Twitter.

So some users were accidentally exiting out of FF/RW with the extra press. OK, I can see that. But it isn’t that hard to adapt and learn not to do that. Changing a long-standing behavior is disruptive to existing users, was this really a big enough problem to justify that? If so, how about adding a toggle to the settings just as was done for the changes in behavior for the Advance button? Default it to the new behavior but allow users to keep the old behavior if that’s what they prefer.

Yes, I know, “Big deal” I hear you say. So now you have to move your thumb a half an inch and hit Play instead of FF again. For someone who has been using TiVo for a while it is muscle memory now. And it is hard to overcome the established behavior. I expect there will be a lot of Badoop, Badoop, Badoop, Bonk “Dammit!” Badoop in homes of experienced users.

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

Thanks @brennokbob

Now, Hybrid TV Services has had a bit of a rough time. After their primary backer, Seven Network, declined to invest more in the company, and sales didn’t meet initial expectations (despite being the top selling DVR platform in ANZ), Hybrid was forced to lay off a large portion of their staff. But they remain the best selling DVR platform in ANZ and seem to be making slow but steady progress in building their customer base. I don’t think a change in CEOs is any kind of bad omen, especially as Minicola isn’t jumping ship, she’s still involved via the BoD.

We don’t know what triggered the move, but seeing as she’s not just leaving the CEO position but is leaving a country she’s lived in for nearly three decades to return to the US, I suspect there are reasons outside of anything to do with Hybrid TV Services and TiVo. She’s originally from the US, it could be personal reasons such as a family issue that led her to decide to return to the US, and that move necessitated stepping down. Who knows? The point is that it could be any one of a number of reasons and we shouldn’t read too much into it.

However, techAU seems to feel it is a terrible sign, as they covered the change with an article entitled“Head of TiVo Australia leaves for the US, future looks grim“. It includes statements such as“As an owner and fan of TiVo, its incredibly frustrating that TiVo is being left to die like this. There has now been multiple models and updates released internationally that have not made it to Australia.”, which I think is just a tad melodramatic. Left to die? Really?

Yes, TiVo in ANZ is based on the TiVo HD Series3 platform, as is the software, but so what? The hardware is unique to ANZ, designed to support only DVB-T. The services it supports are unique to ANZ as well, such as CASPA. The TiVo Premiere Series4 platform wouldn’t offer all that much of an advantage in that unique service environment. Broadband costs are high so there aren’t many OTT options, and unless you’re using a pay TV service you’re basically limited to OTA DVB-T aka Freeview, as TiVo uses. It would be a major investment to design a new ANZ box based on the Series4 platform and to put it into production and I’m not sure Hybrid could justify the expense when the return is questionable and funds are already tight. The current platform is already a leader in the local market, and that’s really what is important. You design a product based on what is appropriate for the target market, not based on what is done for other, very different markets.

Rumors of Hybrid’s imminent demise have been running since last year, so I find it hard to put too much weight on them without new evidence. Robbee Minicola is no longer the CEO, yes that’s a major change, but it isn’t a sign of the end times. Stay calm. I wish Robbee the best in whatever she has planned next, and I wish the best for Hybrid TiVo Services and the TiVo customers in ANZ. I hope the service continues to grow and becomes successful and sustainable.

EDIT: As some of you know, I cross-post TiVo-related entries from this blog to the TiVoLovers LiveJournal Community, including this one. It seems the cross post tripped one of Robbee’s alerts and she (or someone claiming to be her at any rate) posted the following comment:

Hey zonereyrie

Thanks so much for your kind words and correctly assuming all is good with Hybrid and I simply wanted to head back to the US. Yes the reasons are mostly family, but I am looking forward to being at the pointy end of things in Silicon Valley, LA and NYC.

It was an honor to be asked to go on the Board – and it is a great feeling to remain linked to the business and the customers.

I actually stuffed up on the tweet – meant to send it only to my linkedin connections but the darn twitter box was ticked and it went out to everyone!

Take care
Robbee Minicola

Although the launch itself seems to have a few glitches so far. The two new models are up on Best Buy’s website, the 32″ NS-32E859A11 and 42″ NS-42E859A11, but the prices given are $599.99 and $999.99 – when they are actually a much more palatable $499.99 and $699.99, respectively. And, interestingly, the online product descriptions don’t mention TiVo at all. In fact, they’re kind of weak, and don’t really cover the full capabilities of the product. They really need to be spruced up to better reflect the breadth of features available.

Furthermore, the packaging displays a ‘Mobile Code’ (a QR Code), which Dave Zatz helpfully has a nice photo of, but the page isn’t active. I scanned it and it resolves to http://bby.us/?c=BAEB1, which currently redirects to http://bby.us/TBD and an error not found. Someone at Best Buy is asleep as the switch, I think. Hopefully Best Buy will resolve these issues ASAP to avoid any bad first impressions or confusion.

The TVs themselves look like good values (at the correct pricing), especially the 42″ model. They’re fairly inexpensive for LED HDTVs (the industry calls LED-lit LCD sets ‘LED’ while ‘LCD’ sets have conventional backlighting – but both use LCD panels to create the actual image) and they are well stocked for connected TVs. The bundled apps include Netflix, CinemaNow, YouTube, Insignia OnDemand (which is powered by Flingo), Pandora, Napster, Photobucket, Facebook, Twitter, and more. But the real app power comes from support for Chumby apps, which provide over 1,500 app options. It’s no iOS App Store, or Android App Market, but it is a much broader selection than other connected TVs offer. And Chumby’s Flash environment is open to third party app developers, so they can start targeting apps to the big screen. Since the work has been done to integrate Chumby apps with the TiVo platform for these TVs, I’m hoping this will trickle down to the DVR units as well. The addition of Chumby apps would provide a huge jump start to TiVo’s anemic app selection.

As far as the specs go, they’re both Energy Star rated 1080p sets with 120Hz refresh, with four HDMI inputs and one each DVI, PC/VGA, component, composite, and RF antenna inputs. Interestingly they lack a media card slot (no CF/SD), but they do have a USB port. I’m not sure if the USB port supports mass storage for media access, but I’ll note that TiVo DVRs with USB ports do not. Both sets include audio technology from Audyssey and SRS. They also include a slot for a card to support Best Buy’s Rocketboost wireless audio system, which interfaces with Insignia Rocketboost enabled wireless speakers, etc. Network connectivity is via Ethernet or the built-in dual-band 802.11n WiFi. Both sets come with a two-year warranty, which is rather good.

I’m a little disappointed that the remote control isn’t a TiVo Peanut and that it lacks QWERTY (given the connected nature of the device), but it looks decent enough. It is a more conventional rectangular remote with a combination of conventional buttons and TiVo buttons. There’s a TiVo button, as you might expect, as well as an ‘Apps’ button to jump straight into the apps screen, the obligatory thumbs up/down, etc. A bit more busy/cluttered than a normal TiVo remote, but it looks functional. It is also a universal remote, and supports both RF (Z-Wave, not Bluetooth) and IR. It can be programmed to control up to three other devices – such as your cable DVR, a receiver, and an audio source – via on-screen menus, without having to enter codes.

An interesting feature of these TVs is that they are designed to work with your existing STB. The TV’s themselves lack CableCARD support, and are not DVRs, of course. But that’s where the universal remote comes in. When you want to access linear content you basically switch to your existing STB, but can control it from the same remote. I was disappointed to learn that there is a very limited EPG on these sets, just three hours of OTA. I wonder if if it is even downloading the EPG or just using PSIP. The TiVo Search capabilities are limited to the broadband accessible content, unlike a conventional TiVo where they encompass broadband and linear TV. I was hoping for something where you would have the full EPG just like on a DVR, and maybe integration with STBs via IR blasters. But these TVs are really focused on OTT content, leaving linear content to your existing sources. With the network remote on the TiVo S3+ they really could’ve done some transparent integration, the TV’s UI could’ve proxied for the DVR completely.

The elephant in the room is interoperability with existing TiVo units, specifically the TiVo Premiere. And right now the answer is – we don’t know. We have a pretty darn good idea, but there is nothing official. Unofficially it is expected that when TiVo officially launches streaming from the TiVo Premiere, these TVs will be able to act as a client. That would allow these TVs to be used as extenders in other rooms, streaming from a central TiVo Premiere – or TiVo Premiere Elite. Dave Zatz reports his sources indicate that not only is TiVo streaming is under discussion – but also DirecTV RVU, which would allow streaming form DirecTV DVRs in the home. (Maybe the new DirecTiVo will also support RVU? OK, that’s a big leap to make.) We do know TiVo is used MoCA in forthcoming products, and DirecTV also uses MoCA for their whole home DVR (which some people incorrectly call DECA – that’s the adapter, the protocol is still MoCA). There’s no mention of MoCA in these sets, but a DECA (DirecTV Ethernet-to-Coaxial Adapter) or ECB (Ethernet-to-Coaxial Bridge, for the non-DirecTV systems), would solve that.

There is no MRV, of course, as the TVs lack local storage and MRV makes a local copy. All of the services included on the sets are streaming – note no Blockbuster or Amazon video support either, as both systems are primarily download to play. Best Buy says they’re looking to add additional services in the future, I hope that includes Hulu and support for Amazon Instant Video. I think they missed a trick by not including and SD slot. They could’ve used it as many Blu-ray players do for BD-Live content, as user-added storage. Stick in a blank SD card and download a movie, use MRV, etc. Maybe they can use the USB port.

The other nugget from Zatz’s report is that the TVs include an all-new, redesigned Netflix app. That’s something TiVo users have been asking for for ages, so I hope it trickles down to existing units. I suspect it is Flash based, like everything on this platform seems to be, so it may only come to Premiere owners.

As part of their press push, Best Buy also released some ‘B-Roll’ footage for video bloggers, TV spots, etc., to grab clips from. I thought it was an interesting curiosity, so I stuck it on YouTube to share with you all. Warning, it starts with a test pattern with a piercing ‘beep’, just for a moment.

Right now I’m interested in a TiVo Premiere Elite for my main room and two TiVo Preview units – for the bedroom and my front room. If these TVs get TiVo streaming support, I’d seriously consider them. But it depends on how well the streaming works. If I can stream all my recordings and downloads from the main unit that’d be an easy choice. But I’d like to see some way to access Amazon and Hulu – this household no longer has a Netflix account but we do have Amazon Prime and Hulu Plus accounts. If the Preview provides access to those, but the TVs do not, it’d make the choice less clear.

While there is no confirmation, or refutation, of the July 31st launch date, but his sources indicate pricing for the 32″ 1080p LED HDTV will be $599 and the 42″ 1080p LED HDTV will be $999. Those prices may sound high, but these are LED HTDVs, and for LED models those prices are pretty reasonable. And, if they’re accurate, they’re probably MSRP – and who pays MSRP? Dave also believes he’s found the specs: 1080p, 120Hz LED LCD, dual band 802.11n wireless, 4 HDMI ports, 3 speakers. Not bad.

Shortly after making his post, Dave was contacted by a tipster who provided a number of photos of the 42″ model’s packaging. The photos confirm most of the information, and provide even more. The new branding is ‘TiVo Design’, which seems like TiVo’s version of ‘Intel Inside’. The remote is, unfortunately IMHO, not a TiVo peanut, but looks like a button farm brick.

The TV’s have no DVR, as we knew, just using the TiVo HDUI from the Premiere to access OTT content and for the guide. There will not be a subscription fee to use the service.

But what is really interesting are the included apps. This is a TiVo-powered TV, so you might expect expect services like Photobucket, Pandora, Netflix and YouTube, and they’re there. But so are Twitter, Facebook, Napster, CinemaNow, Insignia OnDemand, and Chumby apps. Best Buy owns Napster & CinemaNow, and of course Insignia, so these aren’t much of a surprise. But what makes these interesting is that the work must have been done to integrate then into the TiVo UI for these HDTVs. And if that work has been done, doesn’t it make sense to leverage it for the standalone TiVo units like the Premiere? We’ve heard mention of Twitter and Facebook apps in conjunction with MSO deals in the past, but this looks like it will be the first public appearance of such apps.

And, to start a rumor:

• TiVo has talked about apps as part of their new platform.
• Chumby’s app development environment is Flash.
• TiVo’s new platform also just happens to use Flash for apps.

Could TiVo jump-start their app library, as well as their developer base, by adopting Chumby’s app environment for their platforms outside of the Insignia TVs? It would certainly give them a shot in the arm. They’d benefit from the established library of apps, and the combined platform would provide a larger user base, which is more appealing to developers.

Certainly something to think about.

I suspect this may be more viral marketing (getting users to talk about a feature they already plan to add, especially as the work is being done in the UK) than an actual poll of interest. Still, it can’t hurt to let them know if you want it, if indeed you do.

I’ve been increasingly missing blogging, and I slowly started getting things together for a relaunch several months ago. I decided that if I was going to start blogging again, first I wanted to make some changes, as well as adapt to the changes in online trends from the past few years – like social networking. So there are a few things I wanted to point out.

First, and most obvious, I’ve upgraded most of the software – new version of WordPress, new plugins, etc. I also took the opportunity to create a new theme for the site, based on the ‘TwentyTen’ default theme. I know a number of readers disliked the old green-on-black look, so I hope the new minimalist look is more to everyone’s liking. I’ve also upgraded to a new caching system, W3 Total Cache, to improve performance, and I’ve installed WPTouch to provide a better mobile version of the site.

One of the more notable changes is that I’ve switched to using Disqus for commenting. I felt that it was a more powerful system, and it is used by large sites such as Engadget, but also smaller sites – like this one. But it gives you one place to manage your comments from multiple sites, track other users you want to follow, etc. A small tip – all of the old site comments were imported into Disqus. If you have a Disqus account I discovered you can ‘claim’ them by switching your Disqus account email to whatever email you used on the comments. Once linked they’ll stick with your account even if you change the email again.

Gizmo Lovers has also joined the modern world of social media, and is represented on Facebook and Twitter. (We need 16 more followers on Facebook before they’ll let me have a nice short link.) New posts made on the site will automatically be mirrored to both, if you prefer to follow the site that way. (The twitter feed at the bottom of the site is my personal account. Mirroring the site’s Tweets on the site seemed kind of redundant.) Of course, the RSS Feed is still around. You may also notice that Gizmo Lovers has a custom short link URL now too – giz.lv, supported by Bit.ly Pro. I registered that several months ago when I first got serious about relaunching, all the cool kids are doing it.

Since I stopped posting, the TiVo Lovers LiveJournal community has gotten pretty quiet. I used to manually cross-post TiVo-related posts to the community, but I won’t be doing that any more. Instead I’ll be letting the software do it for me! I only intend to cross-post TiVo-related posts to the LJ community though, not all posts, to remain within the intended purpose of the community. (I may cross-post administrative posts, like this one, from time to time.) If you’re one of the handful of people still using LJ, and you want to see all the posts, there is still the ‘tivolovers-blog’ RSS feed account. Yes, it dates back to when the blog was TiVoLovers.com, before the switch to GizmoLovers.com.

Of course, there always has to be a glitch. One of the changes that occurred during the hiatus was that I migrated my domains over to Google Apps. Which means I’ve basically retired my old Gmail.com personal address, and migrated all of the various Google services I use to my Google Apps account. One of the last things I did before making my first public post was to open a new AdSense account under my Google Apps account. Unfortunately Google doesn’t provide a simple way to migrate an AdSense account. It is a real grab bag depending on which service you want to migrate, and AdSense is probably the worst.

When I saw it was active I switched all of the ad blocks on the site over to the new account, and started posting. Of course, just a couple of days later Google disabled the new account because it duplicated the old account. So now the AdSense ads on the site aren’t working. I’ve jumped through more hoops, closing my old account completely and that is supposed to allow them to re-enable the new account, but I’m still waiting on that. So that’s why you may see weird yellow-ish boxes on the site right now – those are artifacts of the missing ads. (I’m not going to complain if you use an ad blocker, but it would be nice to have some return from the site…) Hopefully Google will re-enable the account soon.

Aside from that, I’d love some feedback on the new site. Especially if you have any problems with it. Use the contact form to drop me a line. And if you are having problems, please include as many details as you can – platform (Windows, Mac OS, Android, etc.) – including version, browser – also including version, the nature of the problem (any specific error messages would help), etc. There have been a lot of changes under the covers, so I expect there may be some kinks to work out.

I still have some work to do. I plan to overhaul a lot of the existing content. A number of the pages are stale, a lot changes in two years. I’ll be working on that bit by bit.

Oh, and I probably should say one thing – I don’t plan to post as much as I did before the hiatus. I expect to be posting fairly regularly, but a lot has changed in the past couple of years and I don’t expect to be able to spend the hours a day I used to on research and posting. I’ll cover that more in my ‘what happened’ post when I make it, but I will say that one of the big changes that happened during the hiatus is that I’m currently engaged to be married, the wedding is slated for February. So life is a bit different now, in a very good way.

To those of you who stuck it out, thanks for hanging in there. And for those of you who may be reading for the first time, welcome, and I hope you find the site worth your time.

You have to love the net – I found out about this from a Twitter message that linked to the deal at dealnews.

Disclaimer: I’m currently employed by Sling Media. But, as I said, my finding this deal had nothing to do with work.