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anyone else order a Caavo today?

60K views 607 replies 89 participants last post by  SidKa 
#1 · (Edited)
just ordered one
got the email saying they are shipping after waiting a full year after the demo. I was impressed with the youtube demo. They said they will support many devices including tivo, but for now the caavo will only function as a remote for the tivo, but my guess is once tivo adds the upcoming voice support this will change. even so, if it controls my Roku, Amazon Fire TV and apple TV with voice commands I'll be fine with it

in case you missed it, the caavo is a sophisticated set top box that will find your shows on up to 8 devices using voice control if device is supported, or as a universal remote if not

company link
Caavo - Smart Home Hub for TV, Cable, Streaming Apps and Devices

youtube demo

 
#2 ·
Caavo Brings Order to Your Jungle of TV Devices
Caavo review: the future of remotes, a little too soon
This $400 smart-TV box lets you control your Apple TV, cable box, and everything else with your voice

I was super excited for Caavo. I even set a reminder so I could get one first thing this morning.
The only negative I new about before today was no HDR support. I think anyone who is going to pay for a $400 device either already has an hdr tv or will be buying one soon.
Then there's the fact it can't control your smart tv apps. I use my lg TVs Netflix and amazon video apps because of there hdr and Dolby vision support.
The real deal breaker for me was no indexing of the TiVo. It might be only a matter of time till they support TiVo but I'll have to wait.
 
#3 ·
Caavo Brings Order to Your Jungle of TV Devices
Caavo review: the future of remotes, a little too soon
This $400 smart-TV box lets you control your Apple TV, cable box, and everything else with your voice

I was super excited for Caavo. I even set a reminder so I could get one first thing this morning.
The only negative I new about before today was no HDR support. I think anyone who is going to pay for a $400 device either already has an hdr tv or will be buying one soon.
Then there's the fact it can't control your smart tv apps. I use my lg TVs Netflix and amazon video apps because of there hdr and Dolby vision support.
The real deal breaker for me was no indexing of the TiVo. It might be only a matter of time till they support TiVo but I'll have to wait.
my main TV is still 1080p and I do not use the TV smart apps, I use Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV and Tivo, but most of my viewing these days is internet originals from Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. I like the Alexa Echo support. I am really looking forward to seeing it in action. I figure when I am due for a new 4K HDR TV in a few years they will have new Caavos that will fully support it and I'll shift my old Caavo to a bedroom TV
 
#7 ·
Kinda what Tivo universal search purported to offer several years ago and almost did before Rovi blew the data base in the takeover.

Wonder where Caavo gets its data?

Interesting device but a very limited use case. Plex is supporting it as well but no idea how Caavo would know what is on a Plex server.
 
#8 ·
My guess is that (whether or not this was the Caavo founders' plan) the actual Caavo product won't sell that many units but, if it works well, it will serve as a test model for the underlying concept and patents, which will get acquired by a larger company and somehow integrated into other, more mainstream, products. I could see aspects of the Caavo feature set integrated into an AV receiver or TV.
 
#12 ·
Yes, I ordered mine on the day of and it is already shipped. My main wish was to replace OnePass with something that actually works more than 63% of the time since I have a ton of content split among Recording, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. I was saddened to see TIVO was not included in the initial deep linking and went to confirm by e-mailing support:

Hello,

I was planning my base setup to be a Tivo Box and Roku through the Caavo to create a single Watchlist among all apps and recordings. If I understand the deep linking correctly, the Tivo Recordings will not show up on the Watchlist because it is not part of the program like the Dish or Xfinitity boxes are. Is my understanding correct? And if so, is this deep linking to Tivo and other boxes being added in the future?

Thanks!
And I got a response less than four hours later!!!

Thanks for contacting Caavo.

You've asked about deep linking for your Tivo? Thats a good question and I'd be happy to answer your query.

Yes, you're correct to say that you cannot deep link the Tivo with the Caavo just yet but we hope to support it soon. I've added a link to our compatibility page for you to have a look at.

Caavo - Compatibility with TV, Cable, Streaming Apps and Devices

If you have any additional questions, please do let me know and I'd be happy to help.
So there you go. Hopefully we'll get Deep Linking for TIVO in the next year or so and then Caavo will do everything I want. In the meantime, I'll at least have one list for all streaming content and will just manage my minimal recorded content (I've been weening off as much as possible).

To the person above who asked doesn't Roku do this, the answer is "no" on two fronts. One, Roku only adds something to its Feed when a new episode is added. So I could not add a show that already has episodes and get all the seasons listed as available to me. Two, Roku's Feed is not compatible with Netflix. Netflix shows up in Universal Search, but you cannot add a Netflix show to My Feed. I knew about the Netflix limitation (figuring at some point that would change), but I bought a Roku to specifically use My Feed to create a single Watch List.

Since Roku cannot do that and TIVO has a 37% failure rate of this function, Caavo seems like the next best (expensive) test to find something that will finally give a universal watch list. We'll see how it goes!
 
#14 ·
Yes, I ordered mine on the day of and it is already shipped. My main wish was to replace OnePass with something that actually works more than 63% of the time since I have a ton of content split among Recording, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime. I was saddened to see TIVO was not included in the initial deep linking and went to confirm by e-mailing support:

And I got a response less than four hours later!!!

So there you go. Hopefully we'll get Deep Linking for TIVO in the next year or so and then Caavo will do everything I want. In the meantime, I'll at least have one list for all streaming content and will just manage my minimal recorded content (I've been weening off as much as possible).

To the person above who asked doesn't Roku do this, the answer is "no" on two fronts. One, Roku only adds something to its Feed when a new episode is added. So I could not add a show that already has episodes and get all the seasons listed as available to me. Two, Roku's Feed is not compatible with Netflix. Netflix shows up in Universal Search, but you cannot add a Netflix show to My Feed. I knew about the Netflix limitation (figuring at some point that would change), but I bought a Roku to specifically use My Feed to create a single Watch List.

Since Roku cannot do that and TIVO has a 37% failure rate of this function, Caavo seems like the next best (expensive) test to find something that will finally give a universal watch list. We'll see how it goes!
Tivo does a rather poor job on setting up onepasses for streaming shows. At a minimum you cannot create a onepass for a streaming show until it has been out at least a week, and even then when you try to bookmark the season's episodes it usually does not work for several weeks and by that time you are done watching season 1. For example, Britannia on Amazon prime put out all 9 episodes on January 25 and they still do not show up in "my shows". I can name many other examples too

if Caavo improves on this mess at all the purchase will have been worth it because I like yourself watch more streaming originals now than cable fare
 
#13 · (Edited)
I should also note that I don't care about any of Caavo's other features like auto-switching between inputs (that aren't related to show watching like my house cameras) and voice integration because I already built my own solution with Harmony Hub + Raspberry Pi w/ Harmony API + Alexa + IFTTT + SmartThings + WebCore (Learned Groovy for that one!).

  • Tell Alexa action command
  • Alexa tells SmartThings or IFTTT (Depending upon the action)
  • IF IFTTT, kicks off weblink on WebCore that tells SmartThings multiple step actions
  • SmartThings tell Raspberry Pi w/ Harmony API
  • Raspberry Pi tell Harmony Hub
  • Harmony Hub performs action

Delay is roughly 1-2 seconds, better than Tivo's 5+ seconds, and I can do anything I want!
 
#16 ·
Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since I've posted here. Old-timers on this forum may recall that I'm an ex-TiVo employee (2000 - 2016) who was active in these forums until 2009 but stopped participating due to moving from Customer Support into the Beta team. I now work for Caavo as a Beta PM.

I tried to create a different account (JustJerry) but found out I'm only allowed one username here, so that account can't actually post. So, let me be clear that I am no longer a rep of TiVo. I hold zero ill will towards the product, company, or employees in any way whatsoever. I loved my time there and am still friends with many current and previous employees at TiVo, but am glad to have been motivated to move on to new ventures.

Being a lover of TiVo, I have tried to influence the Caavo team as best I can to include TiVo functionality. It is true that Caavo does not currently have the ability to retrieve the list of recordings from TiVo, and cannot link with its apps, but it does have full IR control (no RF or TiVo VOX). The Caavo remote uses Bluetooth to communicate with the Caavo device, which then sends IR commands to TiVo....so you won't have to worry about aiming the remote. With TiVo as my cable box, I can tell the Caavo remote "watch comedy central" and Caavo will switch to the TiVo input and change the channel. I can also navigate through the TiVo UI easily with the Caavo remote and switch over to the TiVo remote seamlessly (although it's rarely necessary). I can use Alexa to navigate TiVo's menu but I prefer using a remote. Searches on Caavo will pull all results from the services you get through your other attached streaming boxes....it just won't include TiVo recordings.

It is true that the current device we have does not support HDR, but does indeed support 4K. If you're anything like me, you have a complicated setup that confuses everyone else in your home. Caavo should actually be marketed as a marital aid....mine makes for a happy wife; she no longer has to know what device she's watching, which remote to grab (grabbing the wrong one in the past made the TV switch inputs), which input to use on the TV and/or AVR. Caavo truly simplifies the entertainment system environment.

I will do my best to try to answer questions on this forum as my time and duties permit.
Thanks in advance for having me back,
Jer
 
#17 ·
Hello everyone,
It has been a long time since I've posted here. Old-timers on this forum may recall that I'm an ex-TiVo employee (2000 - 2016) who was active in these forums until 2009 but stopped participating due to moving from Customer Support into the Beta team. I now work for Caavo as a Beta PM.

I tried to create a different account (JustJerry) but found out I'm only allowed one username here, so that account can't actually post. So, let me be clear that I am no longer a rep of TiVo. I hold zero ill will towards the product, company, or employees in any way whatsoever. I loved my time there and am still friends with many current and previous employees at TiVo, but am glad to have been motivated to move on to new ventures.

Being a lover of TiVo, I have tried to influence the Caavo team as best I can to include TiVo functionality. It is true that Caavo does not currently have the ability to retrieve the list of recordings from TiVo, and cannot link with its apps, but it does have full IR control (no RF or TiVo VOX). The Caavo remote uses Bluetooth to communicate with the Caavo device, which then sends IR commands to TiVo....so you won't have to worry about aiming the remote. With TiVo as my cable box, I can tell the Caavo remote "watch comedy central" and Caavo will switch to the TiVo input and change the channel. I can also navigate through the TiVo UI easily with the Caavo remote and switch over to the TiVo remote seamlessly (although it's rarely necessary). I can use Alexa to navigate TiVo's menu but I prefer using a remote. Searches on Caavo will pull all results from the services you get through your other attached streaming boxes....it just won't include TiVo recordings.

It is true that the current device we have does not support HDR, but does indeed support 4K. If you're anything like me, you have a complicated setup that confuses everyone else in your home. Caavo should actually be marketed as a marital aid....mine makes for a happy wife; she no longer has to know what device she's watching, which remote to grab (grabbing the wrong one in the past made the TV switch inputs), which input to use on the TV and/or AVR. Caavo truly simplifies the entertainment system environment.

I will do my best to try to answer questions on this forum as my time and duties permit.
Thanks in advance for having me back,
Jer
awesome that Caavo has a Tivo expert in the helm ! mine will arrive next week, I'm psyched, especially since my TV is 1080p and I have a zillion devices to connect to it and alexa too
 
#18 ·
I actually seriously looked at this but ended up concluding I would wait to purchase due to the lack of TiVo indexing. However I would gladly reconsider if it becomes a reality.

Question. I have TiVo, Xbox One, Roku, Apple TV, and a cable DVR from Frontier all on one TV. I’m not actively using the cable DVR at the moment; it came with a renegotiated deal I made with Frontier and they couldn’t even understand how to process an order without it. That’s a long story.

Anyway, my question is, since I have TiVo and the cable DVR, say I were to tell Caavo to watch Comedy Central, how would it decide which device, TiVo or cable DVR, and which input, to use? Can I have both connected and set one as a preference?
 
#20 · (Edited)
Does it handle HDR now? I thought when I first read about this, that it did not have HDMi 2.0a? which is required for HDR. And no HDR capability on a $400 UHD switch device, in 2018, just seems crazy to me.

EDIT: I also just looked at the specs. Is it true that it only handles up to DD+? and only legacy 20+ year old DTS? So that means it can't even be used to properly bitstream audio with the old 2K BD format that launched in 2006? That has Dolby True HD and DTS-HD MA. Is that actually correct?
 
#23 ·
ok set it up this morning. Fairly easy to connect devices. I have a Roamio, Roku Ultra, Fire TV, Apple TV and Sony Blu Ray connected. My only real issue (other than learning the remote buttons) is I can't get the Caavo to control my Tivo Roamio (and it should). I am using the extender they provided to connect my HDMI cable into the tivo with the other end an IR blaster, with another IR blaster connected to the Caavo. I can still easily use my Tivo remote until I get it figured out.
The watchlist feature is excellent. It lists all my Hulu, Netflix and Amazon watchlists on an easy to navigate screen. Alexa control is a bit funky. Setup was simple but it seems to want to play everything on my Fire TV even though my Roku is my preferred device. The Caavo mic does work great and does go to the Roku first, its just Alexa that is problematic. Am still playing with it. If I can get the Caavo to control my Roamio I'll be pretty satisfied
 
#25 ·
If Roamio is in an enclosure separated from Caavo, the IR emitters are essential to getting commands from Caavo. Make sure that you are using the 3ft IR transmitter that mates with the HDMI-IR cable and that it is fully seated. That transmitter would then need to point at the front of Roamio.

To make sure IR is emitting, use your phone's camera to see the transmitter flashing. If you are using an iPhone, you may need to use the camera that faces the user because the main camera has an IR filter. See Infrared LED Light With an IPhone 4.... Use a working IR remote to confirm the functionality on your camera and then test it against the Caavo emitter. You can even check that the Caavo box is emitting IR from its six emitters (two on front, two on top, one on each side), as well as to test the 9ft transmitter.

As I understand it, even when the TiVo remote is set to RF capability, TiVo can still receive IR commands. If that has changed since my tenure there, then you may want to put TiVo into IR mode.
 
#40 ·
I received my Caavo a few days ago and am a TiVo Bolt Vox user. LOVE the Caavo so far...works surprisingly well, particularly the deep linking. I am having one nuisance issue in that it's stopped turning my Panasonic TV on (it actually shuts it off, just doesn't turn it on), which is double odd in that this worked fine at first and then stopped at some point. Probably some component conflict issue...I have a weird setup in that my Sonos Playbar doesn't do HDMI audio and my Panasonic TV's optical out doesn't pass DD through so I have to use a splitter to get DD audio, and the Caavo is running through the splitter, which is on 100% of the time.

ANYway, nonsense details. If the HDR thing doesn't bother you and if you have multiple boxes I highly recommend getting this thing.
 
#47 ·
Wouldn't it be great if this just came down to a $6 solution (and even that's at a BB price, rather than Monoprice or eBay/China)? And then you could patent the solution and sell the implementation to Caavo and its users for ($1) per. ;)

Recommendation: try to make sure that you get a compatible extension (duh)--there are various (at least initially-appearing) similar types.
 
#48 ·
Wouldn't it be great if this just came down to a $6 solution (and that's at a BB price, rather than Monoprice or eBay/China)? And then you could patent the solution and sell the implementation to Caavo and its users for ($1) per. ;)

Recommendation: try to make sure that you get a compatible extension (duh)--there are various (at least initially-appearing) similar types.
Lmao I just want the damn thing to work. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with the caavo, it's pretty snazzy
 
#56 ·
So I think something is being lost in translation with Caavo support. The Caavo comes with two wired IR emitters and NO IR receivers. The two wired emitters are meant to be aimed at two different electronic devices as needed.

If you tried pointing the Caavo break out hdmi/ir dongle at the tivo ir window. I would suggest unplugging it all together. Then plug which ever ir emitter has the longest cable into the back of the Caavo and then point it toward the TiVo ir window.

The IR on Caavo works identical to all other ir emitters including the ones you already have on the front of your TiVo. With the only exception being the Caavo will send the remote signals down the hdmi cable then the break out hdmi/ir emitter you posted a picture of can reach out of site of the Caavo. The box itself has six ir emitters built in and one wired in the back.

Im suspecting the hdmi/ir break out dongle Caavo supplied is faulty
 
#58 · (Edited)
you sir are a genius ! I did exactly what you said. I unlpugged the 9 ft IR transmitter from the Tivo HDMI port, connected my new 6 foot extender, pointed the square head at the same IR window my slingbox IR's are pointed to, and plugged it into the caavo. And it works in a well lit room :):)
I will report back later to ensure it is not a fluke

 
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