Series 4 TiVo wishlist

Justin Mecham has a fantastic wishlist for Series 4 TiVo features he'd like to see. Most of them are season pass related and I have to say I agree with them all 100%. Some of them are a bit complex, but I could picture the menu options in most cases (like setting defaults for season pass options).

For myself, in addition to everything Justin mentioned (especially Hulu integration), I'd like to see the two-way CableCARD technologies implemented so that video on demand and pay-per-view content directly from cable companies could be accessed.

I'd also like to see other ways to be notified by my TiVo, perhaps by RSS, when an important event is coming up. I keep a bunch of wishlists around that I don't set to automatically record, but I often forget to periodically check them for the 1 in 25 upcoming items I do want to see. If I could subscribe  to a feed of upcoming keyword/wishlist items with a handy link to record, I could easily scan recent matches and ignore or record items without having to dive into deep menus on my TiVo.

In addition to Hulu, I guess I'd like to see something more like boxee where I could play any media file on my TiVo (which is just a small computer capable of running anything), but given TiVo's ties to the major studios, I doubt that ever happens.

May 7, 2009 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (8)

What TiVo should do after ten years

There's a great long post at Engadget commemorating the ten years of TiVo and along with it are five ideas for how TiVo could improve. I really like all the suggestions and would love to see TiVo try at least a few of them. When TiVo was on the ropes a few years ago I wanted to do a "100 ways to save TiVo" post (ala Wired's 101 ways to save Apple issue) but me and a few friends petered out of ideas after 30-40 of them. A lot of the ideas were similar in some ways to the Engadget ideas by basically extending the TiVo box in ways the studios probably don't want them to.

Usually these sorts of posts where a blogger posts a few ideas never get anywhere, but amazingly enough, TiVo's head of marketing sent Engadget a response. It's got quite a bit of marketing boosterism in it without too much concrete plans for the future, but it's good that TiVo is at least listening to criticism.

April 29, 2009 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0)

A lengthy interview with Margret Schmidt of TiVo

I forgot to post this soon after it went up, but a few weeks ago, my friend Peter Merholz got to do a long interview with Margret Schmidt, head of User Experience for TiVo. It's in three parts on the Adaptive Path blog: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. In it, they talk about the design of the interface, how new features are developed, how groups work internally at TiVo, and how user experience ties into the business aspects of TiVo.

A few years ago I got to ask Ms. Schmidt a bunch of questions about the design of the TiVo remotes, how the user interface of TiVo was developed, and my personal favorite -- how they designed the audio bleeps and bloops that still to this day are the only helpful sounds I've used in a consumer device.

March 1, 2009 in Interviews, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Good News and Bad News about New TiVo Features

There's been a recent update to TiVo boxes, enabling two famous and long-rumored features: Netflix support and Ads displayed while pausing/fast-forwarding. Both were first discussed on this site four years ago and it wasn't until this week that both finally became available for TiVo users.

The Netflix support is really good, exactly like using a dedicated Roku box. You add things to your Instant Queue on the Netflix website, then walk over to your TiVo to play them. Unfortunately you can't search for new movies from your couch and have to use a computer to interact with the Netflix website, but the the syncing is nearly instant and easy enough to use. Video quality is quite good and I had some low-end HD video that looked a lot like the AppleTV's 720p HD movies. Movie selection is limited to studios that allow for Netflix streaming but one of my favorite genres (Documentary) is well represented.

The ads displayed during fast forwarding has been a long time coming and raised quite a ruckus when it first was announced. Gizmodo has a screenshot of what they look like and say it's only on the older Series 2 boxes for now. On first glance it doesn't seem as invasive as I envisioned, but it does seem like a distraction from the way a TiVo is typically used.

December 9, 2008 in News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (6)

TiVo mobile launched

I caught the news on Crave that m.tivo.com was launching as a new mobile presence for adding shows to your TiVo. TiVo previously had a mobile interface for Verizon customers (and they charged for it), but thankfully the new approach seems to follow a much more open model: a simplified HTML site open to anyone.

It definitely seems to be programmed with the iPhone in mind as it's very easy to use on one. I'll definitely use the site when I'm out and about and suddenly wonder if I was recording a major sporting event or a new show set to debut.

Here are a couple screenshots from my iPhone viewing the site this morning:

Daily picks (nice to see updated content that would make me check the site out more often):

Viewing a show when logged in (recording options match what you'd see on a TiVo screen nicely):

November 26, 2008 in News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (2)

TiVo mentions in Tropic Thunder

I just caught a showing of Tropic Thunder the other day, a goofy comedy about the movie industry and there's a running gag between one of the stars and his agent about getting a TiVo. It came up so many times I thought I should try and get a copy of the film and do a TiVo montage from it. After about an hour of editing, I give you every mention of TiVo in Tropic Thunder (spoiler alert: including a scene from the climax of the movie and the audio is NSFW):

I wonder if TiVo paid for all that product placement?

November 1, 2008 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (6)

Netflix coming to TiVo HD boxes

Wow, the partnership deal that began in 2004 and died in 2005 is back from the dead to finally happen in 2008. The New York Times reports that Netflix's stream now movies that are currently available on devices like their Roku player and their website will finally be coming to TiVo HD boxes soon.

The article states that it will go into beta this week and should be available to TiVo customers by December. It's a good idea and a long time coming, and I'm really looking forward to seeing this feature get released. Having purchased and used a Roku player to enjoy some of Netflix's library on my TV, I will definitely enjoy seeing the same films on my TiVo directly, removing one more device from my media cabinet. Kudos to TiVo and Netflix for finally making this deal work.

October 29, 2008 in News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0)

Netflix coming to TiVo HD boxes

Wow, the partnership deal that began in 2004 and died in 2005 is back from the dead to finally happen in 2008. The New York Times reports that Netflix's stream now movies that are currently available on devices like their Roku player and their website will finally be coming to TiVo HD boxes soon.

The article states that it will go into beta this week and should be available to TiVo customers by December. It's a good idea and a long time coming, and I'm really looking forward to seeing this feature get released. Having purchased and used a Roku player to enjoy some of Netflix's library on my TV, I will definitely enjoy seeing the same films on my TiVo directly, removing one more device from my media cabinet. Kudos to TiVo and Netflix for finally making this deal work.

October 29, 2008 in News, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (0)

TiVo's rebound

Five years ago, I wrote a post here called TiVo's Apple Problem. I looked at the current state of TiVo and wondered if they would be much like Apple was at the time (Apple has since gained much more mainstream appeal and higher sales), which was to say it would be a high-end product used by a small number of people and that things like cable company DVRs offered for free would dominate the space.

Off and on for the past six years I've been an armchair quarterback for TiVo telling them they should do anything and everything to become profitable, among other things: they should offer pay-per-view downloads (I asked for this in 2002), they should broker deals with cable companies, that they should release software for PCs, that they should move to international markets, and that while I'm not a fan of software patents in general I feel the TiVo patents are original and worth fighting.

What I realized this week is that TiVo has spent the past couple years starting battles on all these fronts, and it looks like (at least to this outside observer) like TiVo is winning on all fronts. Even as their CEO admits more people are using DVRs and skipping lots of ads, I'd say TiVo is doing well.

They released Amazon Unbox last year and are working on plans for HD downloads. They recently released branded PC software that lets you run a TiVo-like app on your media PC. They won the Dish Network patent battle and received not only $104 million in payout, but there are rumors that Dish Network will license parts of the TiVo experience they copied. DirecTV and TiVo have announced plans to work together again on a new HD DirecTiVo combo unit. TiVo got introduced into Canada last year and Australia this past summer. In the past year TiVo-branded units began rolling out to Comcast customers.

When you add it all up, TiVo is doing pretty well on all fronts -- 27% of homes in the US have a DVR now, and that number keeps increasing every time they run the survey (it was 22% last year). With TiVo available for all cable systems (including HD), available soon on DirecTV, and for some Comcast customers, and also available on your PC, there is a good chance TiVo the company could stand to increase their revenue as more and more people adopt DVRs into their homes and busy schedules.

I've given TiVo plenty of knocks over the past few years as it seemed the software wasn't improving, the service was too expensive, and it didn't seem like TiVo was going after every market it could. But I have to say in 2008, they've really turned it around and seem to be gaining on all possible revenue fronts. I've had a TiVo for eight years now and it has changed my life in that time, giving me back hours every week I would have spent on the couch channel surfing or staying at home in time to watch something. The financial health of TiVo is important to the continued development of the product as well as my ability to enjoy it, so I'm very interested in how the company is growing. I have to say it looks like they are doing well and have laid the groundwork for a prosperous future.

October 21, 2008 in Op-Ed, TiVo | Permalink | Comments (8)

Potential new TiVo UI

The Infinite Abyss blog has some pretty amazing screenshots and video of a potential new TiVo interface with plenty of details about each. If this is true, it's certainly breaking loads of nondisclosure agreements that testers must abide, if false it's still a pretty interesting and convincing new direction that TiVo could someday take.

I love the preview of each top level menu's options (seems like a time-saver when you're hunting for a specific function) and aside from the standard TiVo screens it looks a lot like the functionality on AppleTV where buying and renting video is first and foremost. I like the idea of owner profiles (mom, dad, kids get different shows/options) and hope that becomes a reality someday. The overall visual design of it reminds me of Windows Media Center and I can't say I like the large images across the top -- they take up 1/3 of the screen without conveying any information. [thanks davezatz for the pointer]

September 28, 2008 in TiVo | Permalink | Comments (3)