TiVo may have invented time-shifting, but the past few years haven’t been kind to this company unsure how to cut a profit. Then, someone inside TiVo HQ must have realized, oh right, INNOVATION! That’s the ticket!

What You Need to Know

• The TiVo Premiere (320GB, $300) and Premiere XL (1TB, THX certified, $500) are the new Series 4 TiVos
• They have completely new widescreen HD software built on Flash
• This software will not come to Series 3 models (or earlier)
• The Premiere is less a DVR than a completely integrated video machine
• Available in early April

Why I’m Excited

The TiVo Premiere is the smallest TiVo yet, a thin and diminutive box that holds only one CableCard and still lacks Wi-Fi (a $90 802.11n adapter will be available this May, plus you can pick up a $30 TiVo powerline adapter). It hides a multicore processor inside that drives a new, HD UI that previews your program at all times. That’s right—no more going into Now Playing only to lose the stream of your show.

Despite the redesign, you’ll find the experience is remarkably familiar. The basic fonts and menus are unchanged, with a few key differences. Most importantly, instead of seeing one page at a time (like being in Now Playing, then clicking to a new screen with a particular show), you see two pages at a time—a logical design update to the widescreen format that speeds up navigation enormously.

Plus there are little touches that anyone can appreciate: A disk space meter. Show titles change colors once watched. The 30-second commercial skip? That’s been programmed into a dedicated “scan” button that flashes half a minute by in just a handful of frames (to keep advertisers happy). Plus, I have it in good faith that TiVo won’t be eliminating the classic 30-second skip, either.

Of course, you’ve already noticed the top bar filled with show icons. That’s basically a list of suggestions that shift dynamically depending on what you’re watching at the time. I have a feeling TiVo is finding a way to make money off that thing, but you know what? That’s OK if they’re offering content to me based upon what I like.

Which brings us to the big, key difference about the Series 4.

It’s the Internet

Even though the Series 4 still makes you pay for a Wi-Fi dongle (ridiculous, right?), it’s truly an internet machine.

Imagine if TiVo and IMDB made a baby. That’s exactly what you get.

Swivel Search, which allowed you to search for programs by criteria like actor and keyword, has been built in to the very core of Series 4, and it’s got internet access.

So say you’re watching 30 Rock and you decide, that Jack Donaghy is an interesting guy. I want to see more of his work! A few clicks takes you to Alec Baldwin. A few more? You can access pretty much anything Alec Baldwin’s been in—but not just within your cable subscription.

You’ll see Netflix streaming options. Amazon Video on Demand. Blockbuster on Demand. YouTube clips, even. Or you can find an Alec Baldwin movie that will be in the theaters in several months. Then? You can program your TiVo, right then, to record that movie whenever it’s finally on cable.

And I should add, none of this advanced search is forced upon you. Much like IMDB, the information is just there if you choose to dig deeper.

For Flash, There’s Not Much Flash

If we have one criticism regarding the Series 4 (other than the lack of integrated Wi-Fi, yes, I’m gonna hammer that point home), it’s that there’s nothing all that flashy about it.

Yes, this point is a quibble, but an important quibble all the same. Those accustomed to flipping through their Netflix queue on a modern, powerful machine like the Xbox 360, those accustomed to the seemingly endless media oomph of the PS3’s animated XMB previews and photo collages, may be disappointed in the Premiere’s general lack of flare.

I’d love to see a few more UI treats—tiny, tactile animations that smartphone programmers are so wickedly good at designing—built in to the core UI.

There’s no doubt, the Series 4 is a smart machine. I just want to make sure that TiVo doesn’t become an old maid, but rather a naughty librarian with a sense of adventure. I’m not sure whether or not, just by glancing at it, the Premiere will be enough to woo the average consumer again. And that’s something that TiVo very much needs to do.

Oh, and TiVo, Wi-Fi dongles shouldn’t cost $90 anymore. Who are you taking lessons from, Microsoft? (OK, OK, I’m done with the Wi-Fi complaints…for now.)

While my impressions were from a meeting long ago, John Herrman just got a second hands on. Here is the sum of his experience:

TiVo’s Series 4 box is superficially, well, just another TiVo box, but that’s not the point—all set-top boxes are boxes, and if they were anything else, they wouldn’t be set-top boxes. It’s what’s inside that counts, and that’s where the Premiere’s newness is.

The new TiVo interface is recognizably TiVo-y (and almost exactly like what was previewed back in 2008), and just as recognizably fresher—there are fewer tacky shine effects, and more soft gradients. It’s kind of a natural progression for the original interface, which was designed with SDTVs in mind, to a more HD-ready take on the same concept. It’s based on Flash, and while you can’t really tell now, Tivo’s said that the platform is extensible with some kind of app store-type platform, from which you can download Flash Lite-based apps, very little of which TiVo has made specific commitments about, but which is coming, in one way or another. This could be what makes the Premiere a gamechanger, whenever it happens.

In terms of content, TiVo’s taken a hard turn online: as Mark put it, it’s as if “TiVo and IMDB made a baby,” which is to say any TV show or movie you’re browsing is augmented with context and metadata, pulled from online. A minor feature which is actually kind of huge is that if you look up a film or show, the Premiere plants icons for the integrated streaming services—Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon, etc—to help see if a download or play option is available. The integration is smooth, and the concept natural. But groundbreaking? Not so much.

The optional QWERTY remote will be very familiar to anyone who’s used TiVo for more than five minutes, excepting the giant freakin’ keyboard that slides out of the side. Integrating the keyboard into a peanut shape was risky, and it didn’t really pay off: The keyboard itself isn’t overly large, but the fact that it’s flanked by two large endpieces makes reaching the center buttons tough, even for the large-handed. Anyway, it’s more merciful than generous, since asking users to navigating any amount of text-oriented web content with the regular ol’ peanut is mildy hellish. I suspect a lot of folks will spring for this one, even if the necessary Bluetooth dongle (not to mention the remote itself) costs.

What’s most striking about TiVo’s Next Big Thing is that it doesn’t do a whole lot that other DVRs and set-top boxes couldn’t, probably for a lower price. (The Premiere is $300, and the XL, with a 1TB drive, is $500.) Granted, a lot of people are going to end up with a Series 4 DVR subsidized by their TV provider, and then, yeah, it’s going to be a nice step up from whatever terrible TI genero-box they would have had otherwise. But TiVo’s breathless invite to this launch (Inventing the DVR was just a warmup!) doesn’t ring true. Is there’s something else on the way? Is everyone missing something? mean, I’m glad TiVo discovered the internet and all, but this kind of stuff is baseline nowadays.

TiVo Premiere Box Specifications:

* TiVo Series4™ architecture
* Supports digital cable, high-definition digital cable, antenna (ATSC) and Verizon FiOS
* Outputs: HDMI, Component video, Composite video, Optical audio, Analog audio
* Video output modes include: 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
* Inputs: CableCARD™ support, Cable coax, Antenna coax, Ethernet
* Ethernet connection, USB 2.0 ports (2), E-SATA support for external storage
* TiVo Wireless N and G Network Adapter support
* ENERGY STAR® certified
* 320 Gigabytes
* Records up to 45 hours of HD programming or up to 400 hours of standard-definition

TiVo Premiere XL Box Specifications (all specs not listed are the same as above unless noted)

* One Terabyte storage
* Records up to 150 hours of HD programming or up to 1350 hours of standard-definition
* Backlit, programmable, and learning remote
* THX®certified, ensuring optimal audio and video reproduction and enables seamless integration with other THX components
* TiVo Premiere XL box is the first HD product to feature THX® Optimizer™, a video calibration tool that lets users fine tune color, black levels and other settings to improve picture quality. Hailed by critics for its ease-of-use, the exclusive THX Optimizer for TiVo Premiere XL box is found in the My Shows menu of the TiVo service. A pair of THX Optimizer Blue Glasses, designed for adjusting Color and Tint settings, is included with the owner’s manual.

TiVo Premiere and TiVo Premiere XL boxes will be available in retail nationwide in early April. They are also available for pre-order today at tivo.com for $299.99 and $499.99 respectively.

We’re here at TiVo’s press event, taking place in a pretty swanky spot atop Rockefeller Center. CEO Tom Rogers just got up on stage and is about to drop some knowledge! Follow us after the break for live updates.

Continue reading Live from TiVo’s ‘one box’ press event

Live from TiVo’s ‘one box’ press event originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a ten year process, but TiVo just won a patent on managing DVR recording schedules and resolving schedule conflicts using a list of shows ordered by priority. US Patent #7,665,111 covers “recording, storing, and deleting of television and/or web page program material” by generating a prioritized list of shows that contains both shows chosen and ranked by users and shows the DVR think you’ll like, matching that list against the program guide and available recording space, and resolving conflicts based on priority. Yeah, that’s what essentially every DVR on the market does now — but before you run off screaming into the woods, remember that this was all basically uncharted territory when TiVo applied for this patent way back in 1999, the same year it launched one of the first DVRs.

Now, TiVo has been anything but shy when it comes to suing over its other hard-fought DVR patents, so we’ll have to see how the company decides to use this new bit of IP leverage; patents that have been pending for this long aren’t exactly secrets to anyone, and we’re sure TiVo’s competitors have been thinking of clever ways to design around it. (One bit that jumps out: the priority list has to contain both “a viewer’s explicit preferred program selections for recording” and “inferred preferred program selections for recording,” so DVRs that don’t auto-record like TiVos could potentially be excluded.) Of course, we’d rather just see TiVo retake the lead in the DVR space with some entirely new ideas — we’ll see what happens next month.

TiVo granted patent on recording Season Pass subscriptions by priority originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We already know all of you have more than a few ideas about what TiVo should or will bring to the table March 2, but an anonymous tipster claiming knowledge of recent developments in the beta program let us know what may be coming. Although it began as simple bug fixes for the Series 3 now an all new user experience is on the way that the company expects to perfect the DVR. The UI is speedy again, rising to the level of the older Series 2 but with new high res, crisp widescreen elements designed to look great on your HDTV. Other fixes that should have the faithful drooling are a capacity meter for add-on drives and Tivo Desktop enhancements including “Sling-esque” features. Naturally, add-ons like Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster and even Facebook lead the app charge with faster and easier program access. No real details on what’s new on the hardware side, but that QWERTY remote seems to be a sure bet, we’ll be counting down the next 19 days until we know for sure.

New UI, tweaked hardware in store for TiVo’s March reveal? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know what’s great? My smartphone puts the world in my pocket. Broadband puts 2,454,399 channels on my HDTV. I can access the internet from a freaking airplane! You know what’s unsustainable? Paying for it all.

Here’s why: a well-equipped geek will, in our research, have a subscription and service bill total of between 200 and 750 dollars a month.

Let me break it down. You’ve got your smartphone bill, your cable bill, your home broadband bill. Those are unavoidable expenses—there’s not much you can do about them.

Then think about the must-have gadgets on the horizon: a smartbook that requires a data plan. A tablet that’ll require Wi-Fi HotSpot access or a 3G dongle. The same for a thin-and-light notebook. And those are just your 1:1 service fees for devices.

Now throw in all of the wonderful content and service subscriptions you either already have or will soon. You’ve got TiVo, which is better and cheaper than most cable-provided DVRs but still about $11 a month. Netflix, to rent or stream unlimited movies. Hulu’s free for now, but we know they’re going to start charging any week. If you’ve got an Xbox 360, you’ve got an Xbox Live Gold membership. I’m a city slicker with no car, but if I had one I’d need a navigation app that’s good enough for everyday use. A free Flickr membership is fine today, but once HD camcorders gain prominence, you’re going to want a Flickr Pro membership for high-def playback. And so on.

If that doesn’t sound so bad, see how it looks when you add it all up:

That’s right: if you want to stay even close to fully connected, you’re expected to cough up nearly $1,000 a month. Not for hardware. For fees. And that doesn’t even include niche services like Vimeo and Zune Pass, or one-off purchases like eBooks or iTunes downloads. Or, god forbid, food and shelter.

A couple of years ago, we talked about the Infinite Video Format War, and the dozen-plus disc-free video formats that each come with their own subscription models, fees, and offerings. There’s still no resolution there. Think of the Subscription War like that, only extrapolated across all of your devices, content, and services.

The problem isn’t subscriptions themselves. Content subscriptions reward risk-taking, which is great! How many movies have you discovered because of a Netflix recommendation? How many shows have you watched on Hulu that you never would have found on your TV’s channel guide? And individually, they seem cost effective.

The problem is fragmentation. The problem is that each service provider thinks within a bubble, without recognizing the larger ecosystem of payments we live in. It’s like those nights in high school when each teacher would assign you two hours of homework. There weren’t enough hours in the day then, and there’s not enough money in a paycheck now. And there shouldn’t have to be.

There are some ways out: you don’t actually need cable or satellite TV to enjoy your favorite shows. If you’ve got a smartphone, you really don’t need a land line, and you can probably get away with the minimum 450 minutes if you lean on messaging and Skype. There are also free navigation apps that’ll work in a pinch. But at the end of the day, you’re still looking at hundreds of dollars a month for services you don’t need constant access to.

So what’s the answer? Well, ad-supported content generally comes free or highly discounted. But ad-supported solutions require people to purchase the things being advertised. Hulu’s plans to start charging indicates that that model’s not sustainable in the long run. One blanket subscription that lets you access several different sites or services works for the online porn industry, but those linked sites all operate under the same umbrella parent company. Not feasible when the participants are major competitors.

The honest answer is that there may not be one. Not yet, anyway. Eventually the monthly bills will stack up so high that people will have to start cutting ties with companies, who will in turn have to either lower prices or fade away. You’ve already started to see it with AT&T and Verizon cutting prices on unlimited plans last week. Until everyone gets on board, though? We’re all just casualties.