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Usability tweaks in the Series 3 Remote

I love my new series 3 TiVo and I'll post a review in the next few days, but one thing keeps jumping out at me whenever I use it, and it's the new remote. After using it for a couple weeks, I have to say I don't like it, and I've figured out the problem.

Take a look at the button layout of an old Tivo remote and compare to the new one:

Did you notice how the volume/channel rockers moved up, and the thumbs up/down moved down? That little change is a big problem.

I've had a total of five TiVos over the past six years and with all of them, I've been able to use it by feel, without looking, thanks to the simple tight layout. All the normal things I do when watching TV like change channels, alter volume, and fast forward are within easy reach. You can leave your thumb in one spot and reach them all. The direction/select stuff was always at the top, but once you learned how far to "jump up" the remote with your thumb, it was easy to select a show, then start watching it and changing volume while zipping through the boring parts.

With the new remote, it's taking a long time to learn how to jump over those thumbs up/down buttons without looking. Now, maybe it's my muscle memory here that is the problem, but I've used other remotes and they often keep the most frequently used buttons together within easy reach.

Here's a highlighted view of my remotes, showing the differences:

I know that years of research went into the remote design. In my past interview with the head of user experience at TiVo, she covered the design of the remotes. I am surprised by these changes, since I don't often rate shows after the first couple weeks I own a TiVo. To help the suggested recordings engine, I might triple thumbs up the 4-5 shows I love and do the opposite with the ones I dislike, but after that early learning period, I don't use it at all. With the new remote, the ratings buttons are always there in the way.

On the other hand, I use the volume button constantly. Every channel has different volume levels and even within a single recording the ads are going to be much louder and dialogue is going to be quieter than action sequences. With a baby in the house, I'm using the volume button more than the fast forward these days, so from the moment I started using it, I noticed this new change.

Another minor quibble: the play/ffwd/rwd/slow area now has bigger buttons which is a good thing, but the buttons have sharp edges and similar shapes. With the old remote, the buttons are much smoother when your thumb is resting on them and the less important ones (like the slow button, which I use maybe once a month during an instant replay of sports, but otherwise not at all) are much smaller and less likely to be hit by accident.

Again, maybe it's just me and I realize these may sound like minor quibbles, but I definitely feel like the new remote isn't as easy to use and I'm constantly looking down at the remote to make sure I'm hitting the right button, which is something I haven't had to do in years with the previous TiVo remote designs. I'd love to hear the reasoning behind the change in the button layout.

by Matt Haughey October 3, 2006 in Product Reviews

Comments

"I am surprised by these changes, since I don't often rate shows after the first couple weeks I own a TiVo. To help the suggested recordings engine, I might triple thumbs up the 4-5 shows I love and do the opposite with the ones I dislike, but after that early learning period, I don't use it at all. With the new remote, the ratings buttons are always there in the way."

I think you hit the nail on the head there. My guess is they are trying to get you to use the ratings more often so they can better serve you advertising in the future. The more you rate shows the more they know about you. In recent years I think Tivo has realized the marketable value of its subscriber base and is looking to leverage that as much as possible.

Posted by: Rory at Oct 3, 2006 11:43:26 AM

Does the old remote work with the new Tivo?
If you don't like the new layout can you continue to use the old remote?

Posted by: Greg at Oct 3, 2006 11:51:52 AM

I never use thumbs up or thumbs down, and I don't let TiVo record suggestions either. Looks like they screwed up a good thing.

Posted by: Eric at Oct 3, 2006 12:01:13 PM

The old remote does work, but the new remote is much nicer in many respects.

As far as gripes, the TiVo button up top is lower, not as prominent and the outside edges of ff/rw feel weird. Improvements... I like the backlight, weighting, shiny blackness, and location of the select button.

The Toshiba SD-H400 remote had some quirks (location of zero, for example), but I think it might still be my favorite.

Posted by: Dave Zatz at Oct 3, 2006 12:04:16 PM

I haven't noticed any backlighting, even in a dark room. Is there something I'm missing? Do I have to activate it?

I noticed also (and forgot to mention it in the original post) that I keep hitting the select button by accident while rocking the direction thing. I think I like the select in the old spot better.

Posted by: Matt Haughey at Oct 3, 2006 12:11:19 PM

Yes... I hit mute all the time now... You can't move the select button after all these years...

D

Posted by: Derek J. Nolan at Oct 3, 2006 12:29:38 PM

I love the new remote, although I do agree about the placement of the thumbs up and down keys which I don't use since there is no way to tell the TiVo only to record suggestions that are in HD!

The fwd/rwd etc are not a problem at all, considnering where they are located.

But none of this matters to me, since the back light and other new features far out weight the mis-placement of the thumbs.

Posted by: Ben Drawbaugh at Oct 3, 2006 12:37:26 PM

Get a Harmony Remote... one remote for everything and works great with Tivo. I do agree.. the new button placement is silly. Why do engineers feel the need to ruin a good thing??

Posted by: Steve at Oct 3, 2006 2:36:09 PM

I think it really is a matter of personal preference. I *LOVE* the position of the buttons on the new remote. So much so that I find the S2 remote, which I used to love, annoying to use now. I instantly took to the S3 remote and I find the Channel and Volume buttons so much easier to use regularly in their new locations. There isn't a single thing about the new remote I don't like. I used to think the S2 remote was excellent and couldn't see how it could really be improved, but as soon as I started using the S3 remote the button feel, the 5-way navigator, the repositioned buttons - it was all better.

Posted by: MegaZone at Oct 3, 2006 11:59:11 PM

Oh, as for the backlight - there is a light sensor behind the IR window on the front of the remote. If the room is dim enough it should activate the backlight when used. You can cover it with your hand to test it - if the keys don't light up when you start pressing them, something is wrong.

Posted by: MegaZone at Oct 4, 2006 12:01:46 AM

They would not have made the change without reason. My thought is that as TV becomes more interactive, via TiVo, (response to interactive tags, voting, etc.) the thumbs up/down will get more use.

Posted by: 20TIL6 at Oct 4, 2006 1:44:06 PM

I like the new remote too, but then, I'm one who uses the thumb rating buttons pretty often. The TiVo ratings and TiVo Suggestions are part of the reason that my old Comcast HD DVR box felt so empty after I left my DirecTiVo in the dust.

The thing I don't like about the new remote, though, is that the down-arrow doesn't switch to the other tuner any more. You now have to use the Live button.

Posted by: Craig at Oct 4, 2006 3:53:35 PM

Craig - the down vs LiveTV thing isn't related to the remote. Down has never changed tuners on standalone TiVos (S2DT or S3). I don't know why, but they opted to use LiveTV on the standalone boxes.

Having only used the S2DT and S3 for dual-tuner boxes (I've never had DTV) it was only when it came up in discussion threads that I learned of the difference.

Posted by: MegaZone at Oct 4, 2006 7:44:44 PM

I think your focus on the Thumbs buttons being closer led you in the wrong direction. To me, it's the Page Up/Down buttons that moved closer to the Direction Pad. Let me explain... Say you're navigating the Now Playing List, or other listings. To quickly scroll down, you use the Page Up/Down buttons which are now closer and easier to hit from the Direction Pad.

Having Channel Up/Down farther away from Pause is fine, unless you're a big fan of LiveTV. I'm not, so the new layout is better for me.

Posted by: crazy at Oct 5, 2006 12:15:54 AM

Thanks for setting me straight, MegaZone. The S3 is my first standalone TiVo, and in addition to getting the details wrong about changing tuners from the remote, I almost always forget that most people with standalone TiVos don't have 2 tuners.

Posted by: Craig at Oct 5, 2006 10:11:33 AM

Moi aussi on the Mute/Select - I keep muting the damn TV. Other than that, this remote is great.

Posted by: Canoehead at Oct 5, 2006 4:43:57 PM

Until someone develops a remote that has a lightning bolt button whose sole function is to zap whoever's on screen with 20000 volts (with double the voltage for local newscasters, reality show hosts and that grinning jackass selling hard-on pills), I'll just have to settle for the thumb buttons.

Posted by: Adam Rakunas at Oct 8, 2006 4:16:08 PM

Let me second MegaZone's comment on the placement of the Vol / Chan buttons. I immediately noticed how easily I was able to PgUp / PgDn using the new button configuration. I'm guessing this was the reason for the new placement. I'm not much of a Live TV fan either so almost all my work with the Chan button involves scrolling through the menus.

As for the placement of the 'Select' button, I say it's about time. The placement is far more task-oriented now. How many times have you ever had to use the Select button when you're NOT navigating / highlighting? I feel the placement is perfect.

The TiVo team has always been focused on perfecting task-oriented UI design to put TiVo in front of all other DVRs.

Posted by: IBreak4TiVo at Oct 10, 2006 12:08:54 PM

You may have mentioned this elsewhere, and if so my apologies as I am new here, but I would like to know if you find the series 3 system to run more quietly than the series 2. I still have a 2 (which always was a bit noisy but more so of late) and would consider upgrading on that point alone. Thanks!

Posted by: JMH at Oct 13, 2006 2:17:18 PM

电动推杆
电动缸

Posted by: 电动推杆 at Oct 16, 2006 1:14:27 AM

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