The Tech Bookshelf

Credit (Tivo)Tivo announced their new Series 4 DVR today with the product name Tivo Premier.  The main draw of the new Tivo over their existing product appears to be a tighter integration with web video, support for multistream CABLECARDs, a true 1080p HD menu system, a new Bluetooth remote, and a new user interface.

Web Integration

Tivo has had integration with Youtube, Netflix and Amazon for a least a year now, and most recently they have added Blockbuster and Disney to the mix.  As the owner of a Series 3 and Tivo HD, I can say the services work relatively well although they have given me heartburn in the past.  What sets the Series 4 apart is that it now integrated all this video into a single interface.  The Now Playing list now has the ability to aggregate all the Youtube, Netflix, Amazon, and broadcast TV into a single list. 

Searching for a program also allows you to see upcoming events and video available from a multitude of sources at the same time.  Tivo began this about a year ago with their Swivel Search which turned into Tivo Search on the current Series 3 and Tivo HD models.  The two pictures below are of the searching feature within Tivo.  The picture on the Left is the new Tivo Series 4 search and the picture on the right is from my Series 3 Tivo Search (Beta).

    Credit (Tivo)

As you can see, the searches pretty much yield the same result and look.  The main differences are the new Series 4 has this as the default search, and this integration is also in your now playing list, and if you look in the upper right corner of the screen (on the new Series 4) the video from what you are currently watching is still being displayed.  I can tell you from experience that the Tivo search in my Series 3 is painfully slow so my hopes are they sped it up a little. With regards to the Now Playing update, nothing that I read tonight from any of the major blogs or news outlets mentions the advanced filtering that can be performed in the Now Playing list.  But from the pictures that I saw, it looks like you now have an easy way to choose a show type or even shows by particular family member, meaning that my wife won't have to look through "Family Guy" and "Modern Marvels" when she is looking for "Project Runway".

New Streaming Services and Remote

Tivo has added partnerships and apps for Pandora and Framechannel.  Credit (Tivo)These apps should be coming to the Series 3 as well and makes you wonder if other partnerships will be in the works (such as Hulu, Comedy Central, CBS).  The Series 4 also has a new bluetooth remote with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.  This is definitely a plus when searching for a long title or actor.

Pricing and Availability

Tivo says the new Series 4 will begin shipping in April with a price tag of $300 for the Tivo Premier (320GB HDD for 45 hours HD/400 hours SD) or $500 for the Tivo Premier XL (1TB HDD for 150 hours HD/1,350 hours SD). You will still need to pay the monthly Tivo service fee.  The base plan (which is the most expensive) starts at $12.95 a month.  You can get that price down to about $8 a month by paying for multiple years of service upfront, or buy a lifetime subscription.  At the time of this post, I could not verify the pricing because the Tivo site seems to be stuck at the product launch countdown for the Series 4.

Missing Features

There are some key things to me missing from the new Tivo Series 4 that severely disappoint me.  I was hoping this announcement would bring DLNA streaming so that you could stream home movies from your networked computer.  I was also hoping for some type of remote streaming offering similar to that of the Slingbox.  It would be sweet to turn your Tivo into a network streamer and send your recorded content to you phone or laptop when on the road, straight from the Tivo.  Finally, I was hoping to hear about and app store or API partnership that would bring more content to the Tivo.  The addition of Pandora is a huge plus for me, and I guess ordering pizzas from your Tivo is OK, but I want more integration with sites like Amazon.com and Hulu.com

Conclusions

I purchased my first Series 1 in 1999.  I upgraded to lifetime on that box about 6 months later.  I purchased a Direct TV Series 1 in 2002 (because it offered dual tuners).  In 2005 I switched to the Time Warner (Scientific Atlanta) HD DVR because it was HD, and I promptly switch back to a Tivo Series 3 the following year and transferred my lifetime service from my Series 1 ($750 for the hardware I may add and $200 for the lifetime transfer, ouch).  In 2007 I purchased a Tivo HD.  In 2009, I upgraded the hard drive to a 1 TB drive in my Series 3 and now get 150 hours of HD programming.  What I am trying to say is, my wife and I will not watch TV anymore without the Tivo.

I am locked into Tivo for as long as the company exists (or they seriously f'up their product), but do I think the Tivo Series 4 is worth the hype?  For me, not yet, and it is not worth upgrading my Series 3 for sure.  Tivo is undoubtedly the best DVR in the business, hands down.  And these new features make it very compelling.  But it is still primarily a DVR that integrates select web content.  When you factor in the $300-500 premium for the hardware, and anywhere from $8-$13 a month for service, plus an addition amount from your cable provider for CABLECARDs (mine charges $2.50 per month for CABLECARDs), it makes it a pretty tough sell. Although check your cable bill because TimeWarner in Cincinnati charges around $9 a month for their DVR which makes the monthly service fees almost a wash.

So, if your don't care a whole lot about your broadcast television viewing experience but want good web content, then continue to suffer with the DVR provided by your cable and check out the Boxee Box or Roku HD.  While the content from these devices does not integrate with your broadcast content, they also do not charge a monthly service fee.  And you can use the extra $150 you save to buy a nice Harmony Remote which will integrate everything nicely. 

However, if you take your television viewing seriously and want the best DVR around with some pretty good web content, wait until April and buy the Series 4.   I am dead serious on this, if you love TV and hate the cable companies DVR, check out a Tivo.  You will not believe how much better the Tivo experience is.  I can't praise it enough. 

If you are contemplating upgrading your system but are on the fence, I'd wait as long as you can before signing another 2 year contract with the cable company.  Let's see what Tivo has up it's sleeve to make it a competitor not only with the cable companies DVRs but with set-top boxes like the Boxee and Roku.

There is a Tivo press conference scheduled for tonight. They are expected to announce a new Series 4 DVR. My hopes are they announce a lot more streaming support, both Internet and local DLNA type streaming. Check back this evening when I hope to do a roundup of features.

Now before you get all crazy on me, I am simply referring to the massive porn purging that Apple recently did of it's apps in the iTunes App Store. It seems they are finding out that women in scantly clad clothes can sometimes be from a legitimate business, such as Simply Beach, akers of swim ware including maternity swim ware and an iPhone app that was recently banned. The Simply Beach app has been reinstated but it makes you wonder, does Steve Jobs hate mothers, or just think mothers in swim ware is bad taste?

Here is a pretty good Reuters article on the initial purging.