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TiVo: The Next Generation
Jul. 2nd, 2011 05:29 pmSo, TiVo discontinued their service in the UK, and the programme guide information was gradually evaporating. There is a fan run alternative programme guide but Virgin offer a TiVo box which has a larger hard disk, 3 tuners, and HD capability, so I figured after a decade it was time to upgrade.
So, here's a mini review for existing TiVo users.
The new box is actually rather nice. It still needs to be trained, and doesn't seem to be doing any suggestions yet. Oddly the remote doesn't have the TiVo logo on it. The TiVo button says "home". I have no idea why that is. I've been playing with it a lot. One improvement is that the 30 minute cache has been extended to 60 minutes. The three tuners is good since I never have issues with programmes clashing. It's nice to have HD capability. It's actually surprisingly clear when I'm watching 720p. Wonder if I'd see the difference at 1080p. Perhaps I should have bought a more expensive telly after all:)
The box has "apps" built in. iPlayer, youTube, twitter, a photo gallery and a couple of others. youTube is integrated quite nicely. Programme information will automatically search for related videos. Slight oddity is that the various means of getting content are a little oddly distributed. Catch-up/on demand is in the catch-up/on demand menu for most channels but the apps menu for iPlayer and recorded shows are in the "my shows" section. While the interface is very TiVo-ish it feels a little bolted on.
The search has changed. TiVo provides full episode guides to programmes and tells you when episodes will be broadcast. I actually find this harder to use than the series 1. Can't search by name within a category (or haven't worked out how). The other minor downgrade is the skip button. Rather than immediately skipping 30 seconds, it fast forwards by 30 seconds. I suspect there may be some technical reason for this, perhaps Series 1 encoded time index information and this version records a more-or-less raw stream without time indexing. Who knows? Final (?) annoyance is frequent demand for PIN to access programmes recorded after 9 if I want to watch them before 9.
I do like the new box. It will take some time for us to get used to each other.
Must acquire an electric monk at some point.
As for my faithful Gen 1 TiVo - I really must see about hacking it to use AltEPG. This will involve connecting to the serial port. This in turn requires making a serial port (TiVo has a jack plug serial connection). Might have a go at that tomorrow.
So, here's a mini review for existing TiVo users.
The new box is actually rather nice. It still needs to be trained, and doesn't seem to be doing any suggestions yet. Oddly the remote doesn't have the TiVo logo on it. The TiVo button says "home". I have no idea why that is. I've been playing with it a lot. One improvement is that the 30 minute cache has been extended to 60 minutes. The three tuners is good since I never have issues with programmes clashing. It's nice to have HD capability. It's actually surprisingly clear when I'm watching 720p. Wonder if I'd see the difference at 1080p. Perhaps I should have bought a more expensive telly after all:)
The box has "apps" built in. iPlayer, youTube, twitter, a photo gallery and a couple of others. youTube is integrated quite nicely. Programme information will automatically search for related videos. Slight oddity is that the various means of getting content are a little oddly distributed. Catch-up/on demand is in the catch-up/on demand menu for most channels but the apps menu for iPlayer and recorded shows are in the "my shows" section. While the interface is very TiVo-ish it feels a little bolted on.
The search has changed. TiVo provides full episode guides to programmes and tells you when episodes will be broadcast. I actually find this harder to use than the series 1. Can't search by name within a category (or haven't worked out how). The other minor downgrade is the skip button. Rather than immediately skipping 30 seconds, it fast forwards by 30 seconds. I suspect there may be some technical reason for this, perhaps Series 1 encoded time index information and this version records a more-or-less raw stream without time indexing. Who knows? Final (?) annoyance is frequent demand for PIN to access programmes recorded after 9 if I want to watch them before 9.
I do like the new box. It will take some time for us to get used to each other.
Must acquire an electric monk at some point.
As for my faithful Gen 1 TiVo - I really must see about hacking it to use AltEPG. This will involve connecting to the serial port. This in turn requires making a serial port (TiVo has a jack plug serial connection). Might have a go at that tomorrow.
