Microsoft is dropping its patent lawsuit against set-top box maker TiVo, in which Microsoft had complained of not only copyright infringement, but had also threatened a ban on importing TiVo’s hardware and software into the U.S. And TiVo has agreed to drop its suits against Microsoft, as well.
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The 2012 Super Bowl has come and gone, while you’re left to clean up the beer cans, wash off that face paint, and get back to planning your next pivot. The game itself provided more than enough excitement, with the New York Football Giants eking out a win over the star-crossed Tom Bradys and Bill Belichicks. This year’s Big Game also marked the first time that a Super Bowl was streamed live, legally, and for free on the Interwebs. While online viewers met with a number of shortcomings, the streaming was — for the most part — a success. (Read our review here.) → Read More
TiVo this morning said that internal research shows only 38 percent of their users watch live television, with nearly two thirds watching on-demand video or ‘delayed’ TV.
Among TiVo viewers who use broadband connected service such as Netflix, YouTube and Hulu Plus, live TV viewership has even dropped to 27 percent, the company asserts. → Read More
The TiVo Premiere Elite is the TV watcher’s Bugatti Veyron. It’s their Lance Armstrong, their Empire Strikes Back. It’s the Budweiser of set-top box DVRs. The TiVo Premiere Elite is simply the best recording and playback device ever made and yes, I just called Budweiser the best beer of all time.
The quad turner device quietly leaked over the summer, followed by an official TiVo announcement in September. At that time the company failed to announce the price and availability but the product page later reveled the $499 price. TiVo just took to the wires to announce the Premiere Elite is available starting today. Your king has arrived, TV nerds. → Read More
TiVo is quite proud of their DVRs – so proud, in fact, that they gave the new Tivo Premiere Elite an extra superlative, just to ensure you understand the current elite-ness of this TiVo. Other than the name, the new TiVo has Series 4 architecture (a better, faster UI) as well as space for 300 hours of programming. You can record four shows at once (if you have the right number of CableCARDs) and it supports up to 1080p recording.
At $500 for two terabytes of space it’s not too shabby but as a one-time fan of the now-diminished TiVo, I’d be loathe to recommend this over even the most annoying cable set-top box. $500 plus TiVo’s monthly fee isn’t very compelling and the box doesn’t support OTA digital, another minus. However, if you’re totally into watching four shows at once, this may be the unit for you.
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Insignia, Best Buy’s in-house tech brand, has just released a TV with a TiVo UI built-in. Why? I suppose people didn’t want to have a separate TiVo on their CE shelves. Two great tastes that taste great together, right?
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It’s about damn time. TiVo Premiere already has an impressive list of proper streaming apps: Netflix, Blockbuster, Amazon and several other smaller services. Now Hulu Plus is on the list, which will serve up all the 16 and Pregnant you can stand for $7.99 a month after TiVo’s 6-month complementary trial ends. → Read More
TiVo is about to unveil a new pricing scheme that will lower the upfront cost of the hardware by raising the monthly fee. Actually, what they’re doing, is going to a single pricing model rather than running two separate. The lower hardware, higher monthly fee scheme was unveiled a while ago and still lives on with the old-as-TiVo high up front cost, low monthly fee pricing. That’s apparently set to change later this week. → Read More
The end times must be upon us because I never thought I would see Comcast allowing 3rd party set-top boxes to access On Demand. But that’s exactly what’s happening. TiVo and Comcast just announced Xfinity On Demand will soon be available on TiVo Premiere DVRs. The San Francisco Bay Area expected to be the first market with access, but others will follow as the service rolls through Comcast’s largest markets.
Surprisingly, in these select markets, Comcast will provide and install TiVo Premiere units but the On Demand service will be available on units sold at retail as well. According to the press release, “Comcast will install TiVo Premiere set-top boxes with its cable service at no additional charge” although monthly pricing wasn’t announced. → Read More
DISH Network and EchoStar this morning announced that they’ve agreed to pay TiVo $500 million to settle all of their ongoing patent litigation with the digital video recorder company.
Under the terms of the settlement agreement, DISH and EchoStar will initially cough up $300 million, with the remaining $200 million distributed in six equal annual payments between 2012 and 2017. → Read More
TiVo is a fun company to watch mainly because they move at such a slow pace. Updates come on a seemingly yearly basis and new hardware launches with Hally’s Comet. It’s been just over a year since the TiVo Premiere launched and the highly-touted HD interface is still laggy and often reverts to the old SD scheme. So imagine my reaction when Dave Zatz posted an excerpt from a recent TiVo survey regarding interest in a 4-tuner DVR. Yeah, I’m not exactly expecting such a model before the end of the decade. → Read More
I hit a nerve. I seriously believe cord cutting is all about alternative services and not the hardware. Clearly others think different. My last post concerning the movement focused on three main areas with hardware only one small portion of the overall post. Why? All roads lead to Netflix and DLNA servers anyway. Nearly every box can run Netflix along with at least a dozen of other streaming services. I featured my favorites — the do-it-all Boxee Box and the dead-simple Roku — in the last post, but as so many commentors pointed out, there are a lots of other options.
I agree! There’s more than a few ways to cut the cord. So here we go, the six best devices listed in order of relevance that will help cut your household’s dependence on pay TV. → Read More
Motorola is suing TiVo over their infringing DVR technology, a move that is an attempt to head TiVo off at the pass after it sued Verizon over the same patents. The patents, which detail DVR technology, came from Imedia, a company that Motorola bought in the 1990s.
“TiVo is attempting to assert its patents against technology disclosed and claimed in Motorola Mobility’s patents, despite the fact that Motorola Mobility’s patents were filed more than three years before TiVo’s patents,” Motorola said in a statement.
TiVo this morning launched a free website for anyone interested in commercial ratings (particularly marketers, I guess). The ‘Ad Scorecard’ is designed to let people analyze how effective a brand’s TV commercials are at retaining viewers and how well they are performing relative to competing brands.
And by launching, I mean the company pretty much bashed every other audience and effectiveness measurement companies out there, saying they are no longer effective themselves. → Read More
The face of a patent troll After winning a hefty $100 million from Echostar/DISH, TiVo decided to sue AT&T/UVerse for patent infringement. Not to be outdone, Microsoft countersued on behalf of AT&T, citing their own patent that describes: a system that displays programmable information and a secure method for buying and delivering video programs. → Read More
You have to give it to TiVo and its just-released iPad app. They might not be the fastest responding company on the block. But they know how to get things done. → Read More
TiVo‘s are great and without doubt the best DVR on the planet. How’s it better than your standard Comcast box? It’s like the difference between LEGO and off-brand interlocking blocks. They do the same thing, but one is just so much more developed — and generally priced higher, too. However, Woot has your back and is hawking a TiVo Premiere unit over on sellout.woot.com for only $60. → Read More
TiVo has just announced a new iPad app that adds gesture control as well as live TV watching and scheduling. You can also use Facebook and Twitter to talk to your friends about the shows you watch. Gesture based control – Take complete control of all recordings, even dragging forward and back through a show with a simple tap or swipe • Start watching what you want – Launch a recorded show, live TV or streaming video with the swipe of a finger • Program guide – Browse your full-screen TV program guide without interrupting TV viewing • Schedule – Schedule one-time recordings and Season Pass recordings from the device at home or on-the-go • Get more from your shows and movies – Explore cast and crew and other recommendations of your favorite shows without interrupting the big screen • Search – Search for all of your favorite TV shows, movies, actors or directors across both broadcast and broadband from Netflix, Amazon Video On Demand, and more • Share comments with your friends – From within the TiVo Premiere App, comment and share your thoughts to Facebook or Twitter about the show you are currently watching → Read More
So you call a company with a problem, right? After navigating a series of voice prompts, you eventually get to a live person. You think, alright, great someone can help me. Well, not really because this person often cannot do anything but take your contact information and run through a series of basic troubleshooting steps that generally starts with power cycling. Everything else needs to be approved by a supervisor or handled by someone else, which causes the already irritated customer to be placed on hold or worse yet, told someone will call them later. This begs the question of why is it this way? Why aren’t these front line people empowered?
Most companies fall into this bucket I’ve found. TiVo is one of them as I’ve discovered over the last week — horrible customer experience that’s going to cost them my account but that’s all I’m going to say. Instead, a few companies have surprised me lately and deserve a small shootout from this rather short soapbox of mine. D-Link nailed Customer Service 101 when I had issues with the Boxee Box this week. Logitech keeps the line of communication open even after the phone call ends through follow up emails and such. But one poor experience can taint a person’s perspective forever. Hear that, TiVo? → Read More
Maybe something got lost in translation here, but the British English on this Virgin Media product page for the upcoming TiVo seems to state that their box will be 3D ready. Well, my mid-Michigan English reads that as if TiVo is getting something new. Sigh. Now I’m confused. → Read More
San Francisco, CA
