July 23rd, 2010

DISH Network Ends Half-Cooked DTVPal DVR

If you’ve never heard of the DTVPal DVR – or DTVPal tuner, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The DTVPal DVR was an interesting device that was a cross between a VCR and a DVR. VCR because it could record shows based on time – unlike the better TiVo model, where it records by show – and DVR because it was, well, digital. → Read More

May 14th, 2010

TiVo Responds To Court's Decision To Revisit Patent Case As Stock Plummets

TiVo is having a very rough morning.

A federal appeals court stated today that it will revisit a digital-video recorder patent dispute between TiVo and both Dish Network and EchoStar. TiVo has sued the companies back in 2004 over its patented DVR technology back when the two were still a single company.

They won the suit, but the court has now decided to reconsider its verdict, which is a bit of… → Read More

May 4th, 2010

Study: TiVo, other DVRs don't negatively affect TV advertising

Reasonably interesting study coming out of Duke University that says that digital video recorders (TiVo and the like) do not negatively affect television advertising at all. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom, wisdom that says TiVo and its ilk have destroyed the TV business forever. Well, that’s just not the case. → Read More

April 14th, 2010

WeaKnees now selling a 2TB and 4TB TiVo Premiere

Just in case the 1TB drive in the TiVo Premiere isn’t big enough for you, WeaKnees is now selling two upgraded models with a bit more storage capacity. The TiVo authorized reseller has a 2TB and 4TB Premiere available for $849 and $149, respectively. That’s a lot of recording storage, boys and girls, and currently the only way to get a larger drive in the Premiere. → Read More

March 11th, 2010

TiVo will be offered by Virgin Media in UK later this year

One of the three points I laid out as TiVo’s keys to survival was to partner with more content providers. And just like that, Virigin Media announced it will be offering TiVo set-top boxes to its 3.8 million subscribers sometime this year. This move, along with the Conax partnership, makes TiVo a major player in the European DVR market. See, I told you the company didn’t deserve the deathwatch… → Read More

March 10th, 2010

That TiVo Series 3 on Woot isn't a bad deal

The TiVo Premiere will be here real soon so it isn’t much of a surprise to see a Series 3 on Woot. You might want to consider it, too. The Series 3 might be old, but it’s still a great DVR. It even has a few advantages over the TiVoHD line and upcoming Series4. → Read More

March 10th, 2010

HP MediaSmart Windows Home Servers gets a TiVo companion app

HP keeps the fun rolling with its MediaSmart Windows Home Servers. It’s called the HP MediaSmart Expander for TiVo, but don’t let the name fool you, it doesn’t directly increase your TiVo’s storage. The app, however, still has some nice features and might be a worthy replacement for the TiVo Desktop program. → Read More

March 9th, 2010

What TiVo needs to do to make the Wall Street boys happy (and survive)

TiVo can’t catch a break. The company just rolled out its next-gen platform and then finally ended a long court battle with Dish Network, causing its stock to surge to new heights. This all happened within the last two weeks. But then last night the company announced its sad Q4 2009 financials.

You already know the problem. TiVo is having a real tough time signing up new customers and retaining… → Read More

March 8th, 2010

TiVo is headed overseas to millions of potential customers

TiVo has long been limited to just a few countries, but that’s set to change thanks to a new agreement between the DVR company and Conax, a Norwegian content security supplier. The deal has the potential to reach over 100 million potential TiVo customers, spanning 80 countries. This could be big. → Read More

March 3rd, 2010

TiVo's CEO goes on Fox Business to talk about the new Premiere

Watch the latest business video at video.foxbusiness.com In case you missed it, TiVo launched new products last night, the TiVo Premiere. The big news isn’t the hardware, it’s the software that’s dramatically different than the previous versions and the CEO went on to Fox Business to explain it to the talking heads. Oh and he said this, “Hulu would be great. As soon as they… → Read More

March 3rd, 2010

How TiVo missed the mark with the new Premiere

Excuse me while I let off a little steam. I was a tad hasty in my proclamation yesterday that the TiVo Premiere changes everything. It doesn’t. In fact, it doesn’t change anything. It’s a big pile of disappointment and missed opportunity. → Read More

March 2nd, 2010

TiVo Premiere hands-on~!

Greetings! Nicholas and Jimin here live from the big TiVo Premiere launch in New York. There was a man guarding the device, which was hidden under a cloak, but when the cloak was lifted, oh dear! The gist: this is a TiVo you’re probably going to want. HD menus (build using Adobe Flash), searching that actually makes sense, a fancy remote control, and other goodness that you wouldn’t mind. → Read More

March 2nd, 2010

Series 3 TiVo boxes will NOT get the Premiere software

Sorry, TiVo owners. Your TiVo HD and HD XL boxes will not be getting the swanky new software TiVo announced today according to an official TiVo spokeswomen we just asked. It probably has something to do with the fact that the Premiere hardware is the same as the current generation and therefore current owners would have little reason to upgrade to the new models. This isn’t very customer… → Read More

March 2nd, 2010

The TiVo Premiere is finally official

Finally. We finally have new TiVo models. The TiVo HD XL launched a long year and half ago and the UI is even older. But that’s behind us now, the TiVo Premier is here and it’s (nearly) everything we need in a DVR. Everything is different: the hardware, the interface, even the remote. (QWERTY!) → Read More

March 2nd, 2010

The AP leaks the first photo and confirms the TiVo Premiere name

Well done, AP. Thanks for giving us the very first look at what TiVo has in store for us later tonight. Too bad you had to go plaster your watermark all over it. But from what we can gather, it seems like the interface got an HD makeover while maintain the classic TiVo look and feel. Plus the image description confirms the TiVo Premiere name that leaked back in December. ** HOLD FOR RELEASE… → Read More

March 2nd, 2010

Be on the lookout for TiVo news later today!

I don’t want to alarm any of you, but today is TiVo Day! Yes, a little later on today TiVo will unveil something that’s sure to please Matt Burns, if no one else. There have been plenty of rumors as to what the company has up its sleeves, but I’m sworn to secrecy. That, and it’s been several months since they actually told me What’s Up, and I simply do not remember what I was shown behind closed… → Read More

February 11th, 2010

Rumor: Upcoming TiVo improvements include UI revamp and full HD support

<A tipster writes in with knowledge of some of the improvements TiVo may be making to its devices. The most important: a move to full HD menus, improved search, and the phasing out of Series 2 hardware. Because the company stopped making improvements to the current software as of the middle of last year, our source believes that aside from minor add-ons like Blockbuster support the old UI and… → Read More

February 11th, 2010

TiVo schedules a March 2nd NYC event and we'll be there

We’ve known that TiVo was cooking up something tasty for a bit now. It could be the Premiere that leaked a few weeks back or something entirely different. We really don’t know at this point. But what we do know is that we’ll be at TiVo’s March 2nd event to get a good look at TiVo’s latest creation. → Read More

February 8th, 2010

TiVo sez Doritos commercial was the biggest hit in the Super Bowl

Thanks to TiVo, we have a pretty good idea of what the most popular commercials from last night’s Super Bow. Survey says: that Doritos commercial with the little kid telling his mom’s date to keep his hands off his mother (fat chance!) and off his Doritos. America is a peculiar little country, isn’t it, cheese-flavored chips and light beer as far as the eye can see. → Read More

February 3rd, 2010

Where did the TiVo HD go? New model launching soon?

Let’s say you want to buy a TiVo HD right now from TiVo.com. After all, it’s a great DVR with Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, and local networking streaming support. The only thing is you that can’t. It’s listed as out of stock. The only option available is the 1TB $499 TiVo HD XL. Does this hint that there’s a new TiVo model launching soon? Maybe the TiVo Premiere we heard… → Read More

January 15th, 2010

Comcast acknowledges 2005 by slowly rolling out remote DVR scheduling

Do you have a Comcast DVR? I do. I also have a TiVo, which has had remote scheduling since 2005. I can almost schedule recordings remotely to my Comcast DVR. Not yet, but almost – it’s not available in Boston yet, apparently. If you have a Comcast DVR, check out http://www.comcast.net/mydvr/ to see if the service has been switched on in your area. → Read More

December 30th, 2009

TiVo Premiere leaked by manual mix-up?

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… → Read More

November 25th, 2009

Sad-Eyed TiVo of the Low Subscriber Rate

And… it’s… outta here. TiVo is down to less than three million subscribers and they sold about 500 DVRs a day last quarter, giving it 8% of the 38 million US DVR market. That’s not much.

TVByTheNumbers has the numbers. They’re down 314,000 subscribers to 2.76 million and lost 146,000 last quarter. Rough stuff. → Read More

November 18th, 2009

TiVo drops the prices of the HD and HD XL DVRs in the spirit of giving

TiVo has finally dropped the price on the HD and HD XL DVRs. These models have been rocking their initial MSRP for years now, but now they can be had for a little bit less. The 160GB HD model is now $249 and the 1TB model, $499 down from $599. Of course you still have to pay a monthly fee to use these DVRs, but I’m not one to snub a modest price drop. → Read More

November 3rd, 2009

How do you like that, DVRs didn't kill the television business after all

Here’s a story I first heard on Figure 4 Daily last night while farming for mageweave (no, I’m not lying): not only have DVRs not ruined the TV businesses, as we had been led to believe for so many years, but it turns out that the delayed viewings, and more accurate ratings, have given the networks exactly what they’ve always wanted. That, of course, is the opportunity to squeeze more money out of… → Read More

October 13th, 2009

Hands-on: BlockBuster On Demand on TiVo

TiVo users have known that Blockbuster On Demand was coming to TiVo for a while, but the service just went live. So, does it have the goods to put up a fight against Netflix or Amazon On Demand that have been streaming content on TiVos for months already? Nope, not at all. → Read More

October 13th, 2009

TiVo's On Demand section down for Blockbuster On Demand update

Don’t look now, but your Series 2, 3, or HD TiVo is probably getting the Blockbuster On Demand update right now. Actually, go look now because while I couldn’t get a picture to show this accurately, the screen above looks slightly different than other TiVo screens. It’s tad higher resolution and there is just something different about it. Maybe a TiVo GUI refresh is just around the corner… → Read More

October 13th, 2009

Blockbuster On Demand coming to TiVo sometime today

TiVo users! Rejoice! Soon you’ll have access to Blockbuster On Demand content as if Amazon, Netflix, Walt Disney Studios, and Jaman services weren’t enough. I hear that sometime today, the service will go live on Series 2, 3, HD, and HD XL boxes but so far it isn’t up on either my HD or HD XL units. Not that it matters all that much. I’m not going to use it anyway. → Read More

September 30th, 2009

Jay Leno really is helping NBC at the 10 p.m. time slot

I’ve heard good things about The Jay Leno Show recently, which might be why he’s improving NBC’s TiVo stats. Previous seasons NBC saw nearly 70% of its viewers timeshift during the 10 p.m. time slot. Leno has managed to improve that to only 46%, with 20% of those people watching the show at 11 p.m. instead. That number is actually great considering CBS and ABC have been running 65% and 63%… → Read More

September 30th, 2009

Hands-on with the BlackBerry TiVo app

TiVo finally got with the program and released its first BlackBerry app this morning. The good news is that it seems to work as advertised, but let’s just say that it’s a pretty basic app and is just made for scheduling recordings. You can’t remotely control your TiVo or stream any content from it, but this app is a good start. It’s easy to use and gets the job done. → Read More