It’s about time that TiVo outs some new hardware and it looks like it might be sooner than later. The TiVo HD and HD XL have been sitting atop the companies mast unchanged for sometime now, while other DVRs like the Moxi keeps the updates rolling. But a little manual mix-up might show what TiVo is prepping to launch.
The story goes that Patrick McCarron upgraded to a TiVo HD and discovered that his box included a TiVo Premiere and Premiere XL setup guide. Now that’s a little interesting because as far as anyone knows, those products don’t exist. But from what we can make it, the info on the unannounced products seem to follow a evolutionary path from the current models.
Really the only info shown in the guides are a pic of the back panel. The front-facing dual Cable Card slots (one single stream, one multi-stream) have been replaced by one slot in the rear, which we can only assume is of a multi-stream type. Also, the S-Video port has been dropped along with the RJ-11 phone jack. Thankfully it appears the ATSC tuner made the cut and is still included. Hopefully this time around though, the included eSATA port is opened up to more devices than TiVo branded units. (not likely)
But this is what everyone would expect next-gen TiVo HD would look like: less legacy ports, a single, multi-stream Cable Card slot, in a smaller device. It’s the hopefully revamped UI that comes with it we’re dying to see. The one thing the MoxiHD DVR has going for it is that the interface is gorgeous compared to the old TiVo GUI. As long as TiVo followed the design cues in theBeta Search though, it should be good looking indeed.