First off, welcome to 2008. I mostly don’t do New Year’s resolutions, but if I were to make one, it would be “post on Oddball Update more often.” I seem to have mostly gotten the rest of my house in order, at least in terms of no longer working myself to death, trying not to get upset about petty things, and having a positive outlook toward the future that life may bring me. I have, however, been rather neglectful of this site lately, so I’ll see if I can do something to change that. It’s the first day of the new year and I’m posting, so that’s a start. I hesitate to pledge to post once a day or anything like that, since that’s largely just setting myself up to fail, but more than once a week would at least be nice.
With 2008 barely a day old, I’m already surrounded by technology aplenty. We celebrated a somewhat laid-back Christmas this year, but were joined by my parents here in Florida for the occasion, which was great. They generously gifted Apple and I with a new TiVo HD and a lifetime service subscription, which was beyond awesome. It didn’t take long before I had it set up, with both tuners resolving the full slate of analog channels with absolutely no problem.
However, in order to receive digital and HD channels — the TiVo HD’s raison d’être — it needs to be equipped with CableCARDs. These small devices, which are very similar to PCMCIA cards, essentially do all the heavy lifting that your cable box does: receiving and decrypting digital, HD and premium channels from your cable company. In fact, they serve the same purpose as a cable box, without the “box” part. By placing two of them in a TiVo, one for each tuner, you activate the TiVo’s ability to access your full channel lineup directly.
It sounds simple enough, but like so much else about technology, it oftentimes isn’t. I am now experiencing one of those “not so simple” times.
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TiVo’s Big Announcement Is…WebTV?
By Chief Oddball on March 4th, 2010 at 3:10 pm
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Last month, TiVo teased us with an upcoming announcement, saying that their inventing the DVR was just the opening act, or some such puffery. This week they finally revealed the meat and potatoes: it’s the all-new TiVo Premiere, otherwise known to us old hats as the Series4.
The big news about this box, to me, is the fact that the long-familiar TiVo user interface has been completely redesigned using Flash, of all things. It now runs in full HD resolution, unlike the existing UI which is 480p only. It also adds a “picture in picture” view of the channel you’re watching in the upper right corner like most cable company DVRs, an oft-requested feature. But the central point of the TiVo Premiere’s release, if you believe all of the TiVo marketing speak, seems to be the fact that it’s a “single box solution” for all of your video needs, including streaming video from Netflix and Amazon as well as web video from YouTube and what-have-you.
Personally, I found this announcement strange, because my TiVo HD already does all of those things. I’ve long been able to watch Amazon video on demand, although I never do because of the cost. I’ve long been able to watch YouTube, although I never do because, trust me, most YouTube videos look like total shit when they’re blown up to 1920×1080 on a 57-inch screen. I’ve even been able to stream Netflix Instant Queue titles to my TiVo, although I never do because the interface is poor and the performance is far inferior to the streaming on either my Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 (the latter of which is currently my Netflix streaming device of choice).
So it was hard to see the TiVo Premiere’s apparent raison d’être as anything but a new skin on a feature set that’s already been there for months or even years. If I were to get really derogatory, it’s almost like the TiVo Premiere is the next generation of Microsoft’s WebTV — a set-top device designed to as an alternative to a computer that allowed people to browse the web on their TVs, albeit at standard-def resolutions (a miserable experience) and without the features of most PC-based web browsers.
Now, realistically, TiVo is known for their great UIs, and from what I can see of the new UI in action, the Premiere UI looks to be no exception. Still, as a current two-TiVo owner and lifetime subscriber, I can’t help but feel a little underwhelmed — my current TiVo seems to be at least as capable as the Premiere when it comes to being a “single-box solution” for getting content on your TV. And, as one commenter on Engadget remarked, how can the TiVo Premiere be a “single-box solution” if it doesn’t play Blu-ray discs and DVDs?
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