Hasta La Gadget!

The TiVo Mini has yet to make its retail debut, but cable provider Suddenlink is now serving up the DVR extender for use with its own services. According to Zatz Not Funny, the outfit is pricing rentals of the boxes between $6 and $12 depending on a customer’s location, and presumably their service package as well. That rental fee nabs users the privilege of slinging live TV from a TiVo Premiere DVR on their network to another television set, in addition to searching for and watching recorded shows. While dynamic tuner allocation is on the hardware’s roadmap, it doesn’t appear to be switched on just yet. Waiting to pick up the hardware from retail shelves rather than take Suddenlink up on its offer? TiVo’s pint-sized offering is slated to ship this spring.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

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Source: Zatz Not Funny

At this point it’s probably easier to keep count of the devices that Spotify hasn’t weaseled its way onto, but you can hardly blame the company for hustling. Today, Spotify has announced that it has brought its streaming music service to yet another hardware line — users of TiVo’s Premiere series DVRs can now get their Katy Perry fix without having to leave their television’s comforting embrace.

Of course, the usual caveats apply: you’ll need to be a Spotify Premium subscriber to get any real use out of it. A majority of Spotify’s users lean on the service’s free, ad-supported offering to get their musical fix — only about 25% of Spotify’s 20 million users actually pay for it, as CEO/co-founder Daniel Ek revealed earlier this month — but a fondness for pinching pennies won’t fly here.

What’s more, TiVo doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to offering well-designed media applications. The company’s Netflix app has driven a few users to near madness for instance, as has the YouTube app meant for use with the TiVo Premiere. The jury’s still out on Spotify’s app though — what screenshots the company has made available don’t look too bad at all, though I’m always wary when users are forced to rely on relatively simple remotes to navigate through vast stores of content. If you’ve got a TiVo Premiere and you’re itching to take Spotify for a test run, it should pop up in your Music & Photos menu within the next 24 hours if it hasn’t already.

UK broadcaster the BBC has launched Connected Red Button, further blending web TV with live broadcasting, and kicking things off with an appearance on Virgin Media TiVo boxes. The new service redresses existing BBC internet TV features like iPlayer, BBC News, Sport, Weather, and other content including local, into a new interface suited for big-screen browsing, and in a curated fashion which the BBC claims will cut down on choice-overload.

Catch-up TV will be included, with shows from all of the BBC channels, and there will be behind-the-scenes content from sports and other events. The BBC already offers “Red Button” services via traditional broadcast, including news, weather, and other content, but by using internet streaming rather than the broadcast signal, the amount of data on offer can increase considerably.

Initially, 1.2m Virgin Media TiVo boxes will be compatible with the new Connected Red Button services, though the BBC says that will be extended to other internet-connected TVs “over the coming months.” We’d expect to see web-enabled set-top boxes from Freeview, YouView, Freesat, and others join in the fun in time.

According to the BBC Internet blog, meanwhile, phones and tablets could eventually be integrated, with the hint of second-screen style content shown on both big-screen and mobile device. There’s also the possibility of retroactive updates for existing web-capable AV kit to get Connected Red Button service.

“Throughout 2012 the BBC has also been engaging with a number of TV manufacturers and platform operators regarding our connected TV application plans and the related technical specifications and certification requirements” Matt Coulson, executive product manager for Red Button says. “We’ll be rolling out Connected Red Button to a range of connected TV devices during 2013 and in many cases 2012 TVs will also be upgraded to Connected Red Button.”

You’ll need to have a Virgin TiVo box in the UK in order to try the Connected Red Button service out today.

BBC Connected Red Button blurs line between TV and web content is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

UK broadband and home entertainment provider Virgin TV has launched a new streaming service for desktop browsers and smartphones, Virgin TV Anywhere, including remote control over their TiVo. The new service is a free extra for Virgin TV customers, and offers a selection of live streaming and on-demand content from Sky, BBC iPlayer, ITV, 4oD, Demand 5, Disney, Nickelodeon, and others. However, the service will only work over WiFi, not 3G connections, and mobile users will have to wait a while for on-demand shows.

There are as many as 45 channels at launch, though what you get to watch will depend on what Virgin TV package you’ve subscribed to at home. That means, if you’re a Sky Movies or Sky Sports subscriber, you’ll also get access to content from those channels while you’re out, just as long as you can find a WiFi connection.

Initial live streaming channel line-up:

Unfortunately, that isn’t the only limitation. Virgin says that on-demand access isn’t expected to land on the mobile client until sometime next year, and so until then it’s live streaming only. Update: You’ll also need to have a TiVo box in order to use the mobile app.

Initial on-demand channel line-up:

As for your Virgin-supplied TiVo, users will be able to use the remote control functionality – initially available for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch users – to remotely set recordings, delete shows, and rate them. It will also work as a touch-remote when users are actually at home in front of their TV.

Subscribers to Virgin TV can find the new Anywhere app for iOS in the App Store [iTunes link]; Virgin tells us an Android version will be out sometime in 2013. Up to two devices can be used with the service at any one time, and users can change them “on a monthly basis.”

Virgin TV Anywhere hits web and iPad/iPhone (but it’s not perfect) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We got an early peek at some of the newly revamped menus from TiVo’s fall update a few days ago, and now the company has announced it is officially rolling out to retail Premiere DVRs, with cable-provided boxes getting the update at some point in the future. Those on the priority list are first up so some TiVo Community posters report they’ve already received it and can confirm the Netflix app is “still terrible.” Besides the upgraded screens for Season Pass Manager, To Do List, History and My Shows (beyond the new look, they each have gained a few new features), Parental controls has replaced KidZone settings, there are some new games in the apps menu and users can name their DVR in the menus. Hit the source link to check out the full list of changes,

Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD

TiVo Premiere fall update starts rolling out with more HD menu screens and a few other tweaks originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Oct 2012 16:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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