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TiVo releases big new DVR… ho hum

March 3rd, 2010, 2:14 pm by

Noted: Pioneering DVR company TiVo has updated its devices but many in the industry are saying Ho Hum.

The new TiVo Premiere adds a wider-screen menu to fit HDTVs better and also offers shortcuts and a powerful search function that hunts down videos on YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Video on Demand or Blockbuster On Demand. And there’s a nifty remote with a QWERTY keyboard inside.

But other then that, there aren’t too many changes from the last upgrade. Technologizer laments the lack of video-on-demand, access to online TV site Hulu.com, and a TiVo that works with all TV services, including satellite.

While over at Zatz Not Funny, Dave Zatz writes, “The TiVo Premiere isn’t the home run I was hoping for. In it’s current form, and for potential upgraders, the Premiere basically offers the same core features of a TiVo Series 3 or HD.”

Two versions are available beginning April: the TiVo Premiere, with 320 gigabytes for $299.99; and the $499.99 TiVo Premiere XL,  with 1 terabyte, a backlit remote and THX-certified audio and video technology. As before, the box supports cable TV and Verizon FiOS users, but not satellite TV or AT&T U-verse.

Other key features: It supports E-SATA technology to users can add an external hard drive if they run out of storage space. It also uses the faster Wireless N Wi-Fi connection.

As more consumers ponder about cutting down their monthly TV bill by looking for cheap TV viewing online, TiVo won’t help much with that. Besides the upfront cost, there’s a monthly $12.95 fee for service even if you opt for basic broadcast TV service. If you want regular cable channels, you’ll need a limited cable TV subscription and a CableCARD. Plus you’ll still need broadband Internet, which can be another $30 to $50 a month. Netflix, Amazon and Blockbuster also charge for online rentals.

Read more about the new boxes and see more photos at TiVo’s site: TiVo Premiere, press release, official video

More reviews:

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Cable TV (really) does want to offer multi-room DVRs

February 12th, 2010, 6:42 am by

Broadcom MoCA chipChances are high that your next TV set-top box will have features like a multi-room DVR, Internet access and home networking — even if you’re a cable TV customer, says Michael Inouye, a TV industry analyst with ABI Research.

In a new report, Inouye projects that there will be 15 million next-generation set-top boxes in the market by 2014. These 15 million boxes will have MoCA, a technology that uses existing coaxial cables to send video to devices throughout the home. While other home networking technologies like Powerline (uses electrical lines)  and HomePNA (uses phone lines), are gunning to be in the next set-top box, Inouye said that MoCA is attracting the TV companies that actually provide the hardware to consumers.

My first thought? Cable companies have long offered set-top boxes with advanced features. But they haven’t enabled them. The USB and eSATA ports on my cable TV box don’t work so I can’t add a hard drive to store more TV shows or view photos. I asked Inouye to tell us what really might happen with future set-top boxes.

“Indeed, you are spot on in regards to cable providers’ previous practices of limiting STB (set-top box) functions. But in many cases just because it’s not ‘active’ doesn’t mean it’s not there, so when we established the forecast we focused on estimating the number of boxes that could support MoCA (e.g. hardware in place) but not necessarily active,” Inouye said in an e-mailed response.

Ahh… so, no MoCA features for cable customers. No, not quite, Inouye said. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • Wi-Fi & networking • • • • • • • • • | 15 Comments »

Microsoft sues TiVo on behalf of AT&T U-verse

January 20th, 2010, 2:45 pm by

TiVo logoNoted: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that TiVo just got slapped with a lawsuit of its own. By Microsoft, no less.

Microsoft, which provides the software that runs AT&T U-verse set-top boxes, intervened on a dispute between AT&T and TiVo. Microsoft is willing to settle the dispute with licensing agreements and has attempted to talk with TiVo, says the paper.

UPDATED: TiVo just issued its statement on the Microsoft suite: “”Microsoft’s recent legal actions, including its decision to seek to intervene on behalf of its customer, AT&T, and its recent complaint against TiVo in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California do not bear on whether the AT&T products and services that are the subject of TiVo’s complaint infringe the patents asserted by TiVo. Rather these actions are part of a legal strategy to defend AT&T. We remain confident in our position that AT&T will be found to infringe on the TiVo patents asserted.”

As some consumers know, TiVo has been suing companies that have a DVR that offers users the ability to pause, rewind and record live TV. Dish Networks has been in a long patent dispute with TiVo, sometimes losing, sometimes winning.

TiVo went on to file infringement suits against AT&T and has said it would go after anyone who may be violating its patents.

Read more: Microsoft Sues TiVo in Attempt to Defend Partner AT&T (Wall Street Journal)

Older stories:

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Time Warner Cable answers reader questions

December 3rd, 2009, 12:08 pm by
Time Warner Cable answers questions, Dec. 2009.
Read the series:

Readers asked questions, and Time Warner Cable’s local presidents responded. Mostly.

Back in October, I told readers that Time Warner was letting me meet Deborah “Debi” Picciolo, president of residential services for the West Region, and Clarence Caldwell, president of network operations/engineering for the West Region.  Picciolo and Caldwell, pictured below on right, were willing to answer questions. So, readers asked away.

Picciolo and Caldwell were patient and responsive. And they’re relatively new to Time Warner. Picciolo joined three years ago from Comcast Corp. Caldwell came in 2007 from Cox Communications.

twcpres2009For those keeping track, Time Warner acquired the Orange County operations of Adelphia and Comcast in April 2006. Customers have had everything to complain about ever since, as Time Warner faced merging billing systems, customer service, programming, equipment. In Orange County, Time Warner combined its billing systems last fall. Picciolo said call-center operations consolidated in June.

During the interview, I concentrated on a few major questions:

  • How much work is left in Orange County?
  • Why are cable prices so high?
  • When are we getting more HD channels? (Here’s an answer.)

And then there is the a la carte question many readers want answered: When will Time Warner let customers pay for only the channels they want to watch?  These key questions I split up as separate posts and will publish them in upcoming days.

I went through all the reader questions that made it by my Nov. 1 deadline and categorized them. I edited some for clarity and consolidated duplicate questions and submitted them to Darryl Ryan, director of media relations. My instructions to him: Please answer all questions possible with simple responses. Follow-up questions can be asked later.

Not all questions were answered, but I’ve listed them in case Picciolo, Caldwell or Ryan would like to try again (Update: Here’s the list of unanswered questions). Answers are categorized in these topics:

  • Programming
  • DVR questions
  • Customer service, pricing
  • Technical, reception

Here are the questions:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • • | 54 Comments »

Cox’s special TiVo adapters now available in O.C.

November 27th, 2009, 8:10 am by

Cox working with Motorola on TiVo adapter.UPDATE, 11/30/09: Cox confirms the tuning adapters are now available at Cox stores in Rancho Santa Margarita, Quail Hill and Laguna Niguel.
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After what was an apparently successful test run, Cox Communications has begun rolling out a special adapter for customers who prefer to record cable TV using a TiVo rather than a Cox recorder.

Thanks to reader Roger Elliott who spotted the message on the TiVo forums, Cox notified users this week that “Tuning Adapters are now available and are being offered to Cox Orange County and Palos Verdes / San Pedro Digital Cable customers with a CableCARD in a TiVo Series 3, TiVo HD and TiVo HD XL digital video recorders at no charge.”

I’m still waiting to hear officially from Cox. I’ll post any update here.

If you’re among those affected, another reader Michael Taube encourages you to get your adapter today. In an e-mail, Taube said this after getting his adapter:

“Well, I reviewed every single blessed HD channel Cox offers, now that I have my free, trusty Motorola Tuning Resolver (MTS). The picture quality on ALL HD channels is simply amazing! It makes my previous HD reception look positively awful. Please urge your TiVo audience to run, don’t walk, to their nearest Cox store to obtain their MTS. It makes a HUGE difference!”

Without such a device, TiVo users who rely on CableCARDs are unable to get several channels.

Since cable companies have limited space in the cable pipes to a customer’s home, they are trying to find new ways to squeeze more channels in the available space. Cox is using “switched digital video” technology to free up its broadcast stream for new HD channels. But it means some channels turn to on-demand status, making it impossible for CableCARD users to tune in.

The majority of customers probably won’t notice the change to switched digital. There could be a slight delay when selecting a switched channel, but just like an on-demand movie, the channel should tune in quickly. To see the channels affected, read the earlier story, “Cox moving 100 channels to on-demand format.” Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 10 Comments »

11 things a DVR should do

November 19th, 2009, 3:25 am by

DVR with Broadcom inside can do 12 things that others can't.Not all digital video recorders are created equal. But there’s no question these DVRs, or TiVo’s, or new fangled VCRs or whatever you want to call them have changed the way many of us watch TV.  If you have such a device, do you even remember what it was like when you couldn’t pause and rewind live TV?

But being consumers, we want more. More storage space, more content, more options. Thing is, more is out there but many of us have no access to these DVRs. But what is more?

I posed the question to Broadcom Corp., the Irvine designer of DVR silicon chips. What should a DVR be able to do these days? Plenty, the company tells me. Here’s a list of what Broadcom DVR chips can do. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean that DVRs with Broadcom chips have all these features enabled. But this is just a list of what is available today.

11 things a Broadcom DVR can do:

Number 1 stock artUse home Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth or MoCA to connect to other devices in the house. You probably know what wireless Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and wired Ethernet are. The newcomer is MoCA, which uses existing coaxial cable running through the house to send high-definition video signals between devices. It’s one way to avoid ripping up walls and installing fiber-optic cables.

Number 2 stock art Enable a Multi-room DVR so households can skip a second DVR at home. All shows are stored on one box, which can be accessed from any room with TV and receiver (i.e., a standard set-top box for most users). Multiple people can watch the same show at the same time on different TVs and pause or rewind without affecting anyone else’s playback. Verizon FiOS and AT&T U-verse offer one and Cox Communications plans to offer one before the end of the year.

Number 3 stock art Stream content from your cell phone. Record a video on your phone that you want to watch on the big-screen TV? It’s been possible for a few years. Thanks to Digital Living Network Alliance technology, such DLNA-enabled cell phones or computers can stream digital content from one device to another. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in: Video & TV • • • • • • • • • | 8 Comments »

Add 2-terabytes of capacity to a DVR (that’s 250 hours of HD!)

November 4th, 2009, 12:45 pm by

Apricorn DVR Expander in 2 TB.Spreading the word: Apricorn just announced a two-terabyte DVR expander. The catch: It’s for DirecTV DVRs.

The Poway-based Apricorn says that two terabytes can boost a DVR’s capacity by 250 hours of high-definition recordings or 1,124 hours of standard definition video. (Just did the math — you can record TV 24/7 for nearly seven weeks!)

The DVR Expander is available in capacities of 1 TB for $129; 1.5 TB for $199; and 2 TB for $259.  It plugs into the DirecTV DVR’s eSATA port. But when you power it up, you won’t be able to access recordings on the actual DVR. To do so, users must disconnect the DVR Expander and restart the DVR.

Apricorn tells me that the new device is not compatible with TiVo. It was released specifically for these DirecTV DVR receivers: HR20, HR21, HR22 and HR23. More details at Apricorn’s site HERE.

The company does offer DVR expanders for other DVRs that have eSATA or USB ports. But those devices only go up to 1.5 TBs. Here’s a link to other models.

Other companies that offer DVR expanders include Lake Forest’s Western Digital, which has expanders for DVRs with enabled eSATA or USB ports. That pretty much excludes cable TV company DVRs but does include TiVos. Seagate Technology also has a 1-TB DVR expander that works with Dish Network receivers.

More on gadgets:

Posted in: Gadgets • Video & TV • • • • • • • | 1 Comment »

Broadcom’s new 5-in-1 DVR chip

October 27th, 2009, 4:41 pm by

broadcommocachipWhenever Irvine’s Broadcom Corp. unveils a new chip, we know it probably does three things: Combine two or more older chips, use less power and cost less than existing technology.

Its latest chip, announced today, does just that for the home TV’s digital video recorder, the DVR.

The Broadcom’s BCM7125 conceivably can change the DVR world by offering consumers a smaller set-top box packed with all the features the most-advanced DVR offers. Stuff like multi-room viewing, video transfer from cell phone to set-top box and back, slide shows streamed from a home PC, and a plethora of on-screen widgets.

“If you look at the 7125, typically in the basic box there are two tuners, front-end with DOCSIS, HD backend and MoCA,” said Peter Schenitzki, senior product group manager at Broadcom’s Broadband Communications Group.

Essentially, he said, “So five chips are now in one chip.”

On top of this convergence, the chip can cut power consumption by shutting down unused features. An example: When the always-on DVR isn’t recording or broadcasting an HD show, it could shut down the HD decoder. Read the rest of this entry »

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