Goodbye TiVo. It's been a good run.

Advertisements

Thanks very much. That is just the advice I was looking for! I do have one Mini so that will still work. I’ll consider buying another one, I might know someone who has one available. As far as selling the decommissioned Bolt, I’m actually in Bermuda, so the cost of shipping it overseas might make it not worth it. I might consider offering it for free to anyone who would pay the shipping though. I have until March to decide though. Thanks again!

 

end of an era. I sold off my roamio plus and minis and can't imagine going back to a cable Tivo ever again.

YTTV makes it obsolete as far as I'm concerned.

OTA Tivo is another story. I could see it plus Netflix etc plus direct to consumer sports streaming packages replacing YTTV.


...unless YTTV evolves into a sports and news service for a cheaper price. They really should position themselves as such if possible in my mind.

 

The head of Hulu mentioned his desire over a year ago to offer a smaller package of live channels that wouldn't include entertainment channels, basically just channels focused on sports and news (including, I guess, the big 4 broadcast nets/locals). I don't think the content/network owners are at a point yet where they're ready to allow for that kind of package but, as cable TV continues to decline while those owners continue to build up their own entertainment-focused on-demand streaming services (e.g. Hulu, HBO Max, etc.), I think it will eventually come to pass.

But, realistically, what would be the cost of such a package if it included all the following?

ABC and the ESPN channels (including SEC Network, ACC Network, etc.)
NBC, NBCSN, Golf, MSNBC
CBS, CBS Sports Network, CBSN
Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, Fox News, Fox Business
Sinclair-owned regional sports networks (necessary in order to get Sinclair-owned affiliates of the big 4 networks)

Such a package might also include the Warner-owned CNN, TBS and TNT as well, although it could probably attract enough subscribers without them (and live sports and news from those networks will likely become available inside HBO Max eventually, anyhow).

Comcast cable TV is already charging $15/mo for local broadcast nets plus about $8.50 for RSNs, so that's $23.50/mo for those. Add another $10 for the ESPN channels, plus several bucks for everything else listed. Hard to see such a package coming to market for less than $40, I'd say.

 

Probably. Channels would have to evolve. The networks would have to spin off their sports into a separate package. Same with a TNT and TBS.


But there's a whole section of Lifestyle channels: aMC, Bravo, ComeTV, Cozi, Discovery, E!, Food Network, FX, FXM, FXX, HDTV, ID, IFC, Motortrend, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild, Own, Oxygen, Pop, StartTV, SundanceTV, Tastemade, TBS, TLC, TNT, Travel Channel, TruTV, TCM, Universo, USA, Wetv.

then Family channels: Animal Planet, Cartoon Network, Disney, Disney Jr, Disney XD, Freeform, PBS Kids, Smithsonian, Univeral Kids

They could dump those. Maybe take out news too. Take out: BBC America, BBC World News, Cheddar Business, Cheddar News, CNBC, CNBC World, CNN, Fox Business, Fox News, HLN, Local Now, MSNBC, Newsy, TYT Network

Maybe they could get it down by $15-$20. But they would have to add in the sports from TNT maybe TBS. And then if you could get rid of the prime time network programming and morning crap and day time stuff. ...

...that would probably be an ideal package for me. ...if the price went down by at least $20/mo. I would rather spend the $20/mo savings on additional streaming services than on those cable channels.

But yeah the other problem is as they split stuff out it can get more expensive per channel. Sports is high priced but at the same time subsidized by a ton of cable customers who don't watch sports. So it will probably be even higher if they split it out so just sports fans are paying for it.


But end of an era for Tivo and the cable dvr for me. I just don't see a case where I would ever come back to a Tivo cable dvr. Stuff like YTTV will only get better at a faster pace than Tivo and we are only going to see more sports move to streaming with more options.

 

Advertisements

This is why Comcast was so smart to invest in the X1 platform when they did, IMO. It is still more expensive than Youtube TV, but at least is on feature parity with them in the ability to access all of your things from wherever you are (which is a big appeal to OTT services like YTTV). Tivo tried to dip their toes in that barrel, but it is all still dependent on home hardware and internet that you need to maintain yourself. That's probably the biggest thing that has me starting to look at X1, the ability to access everything from everywhere and have it just WORK every time. This all includes in the home too, as it seems to never fail that I sit down to watch something on my Mini, tablet, or PC only to have that component stop working and require a reboot to fix.

The second appeal to YTTV is to not have to worry about hardware failure since everything is already in the cloud, meaning that you won't lose recordings due to a hard drive dying or even a power failure. And Comcast answers that too by either having a hybrid solution where you have a local hard drive, but the last certain number of hours is also in the cloud, or moving 100% to the cloud like they are starting to do now.

Lastly, the third thing I am looking forward to with X1 is because I have already used the Stream app to define all of my favorite channels, shows, etc. when I get the hardware it will already be set up (and once the recordings are set up, if I ever change the hardware it should retain that as well).

This is the future of linear TV, as long as it continues to exist. Watching whatever you want, wherever you want, with no friction. And that requires having the entire ecosystem to do.

 

Yup. And stripping out all those entertainment/lifestyle/family channels from a package only brings the cost down so much, because their carriage fees are generally low. It's sports that costs so much.

I do think that sports will eventually all become available via streaming services too, as opposed to remaining exclusively within linear channels. In fact, the logical end point I'd say is for the most popular sports to be sold and streamed like all other major video entertainment will be, direct-to-consumer from the content owners. I don't see why the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and major NCAA Div 1 men's college sports aren't packaged up and sold directly by the leagues/teams themselves. There could still be a place for one or two multi-sport channels/services like ESPN to offer consumers a "variety mix" of games across various sports/leagues. But it's hard to see how in the future you won't be able to just buy a season ticket to stream all the games from your local team directly from the league. MLB seems to have been flirting with that idea (as opposed to just out-of-market games) for awhile now.

 

Yep. AT&T will aim to do the same thing with their new AT&T TV. But instead of developing their own hardware/software platform in-house, as Comcast did with X1, they're just relying on Google's Android TV Operator Tier and their own apps for a range of popular retail devices. But the key is having all your content -- live channels, on-demand, DVR recordings -- in the cloud and available on whatever device you want, wherever you go, as long as you're connected to the internet. That's where cable TV has to go to survive in the 2020s.

 

My cable company has a package (not on their rate card) that removes all sports channels. Both local and national. It doesn't affect the networks like CBS NFL Sunday games. I save $30 a month. But I can't have any premium channels or other specials, just basic cable. It's all I watch anyhow. It seems that HBO/Cinemax are unencrypted every month anymore. It used to be in the clear just every 3 months.

 

All this talk of Comcast reminds me of my days of being with them. I used to love TiVo, but when I was able to find an IPTV service that includes EVERYTHING for only $15/month, I quickly dumped TiVo/Comcast and have never looked back.

All my locals, every cable tv channel on the planet, premium movie channels (hbo,showtime,Cinemax, etc) sports packages (nhl/nba/nfl/mlb) and weekly PPV events. Yea, this new IPTV service I got May not last forever, but there are 50 others just like it right around the corner. This is the true reason I think they are all raising rates. Long live TiVo and Comcast

 

What's the link to the how-to for reverting back to 3? The one provided doesnt seem to have it.
Thanks, Scott

 

How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1 works for Bolt except for the OTA models ending in "V".

 

I read an article on-line four years or so ago about the true cost of a-la-carte payTV. If ESPN were to maintain existing revenue, and spread that cost to only those who watch it, it would be a $25 per month channel.

Like Doctor Zaius said, "Be careful Taylor, you might not like what you find...."

 

Those IPTV services with ridiculously low rates are all illegal copyright infringers that routinely get busted and shut down by law enforcement. As long as you're willing to buy stolen goods, sure, the price is great!

 

After a very long run with TiVo, I'm close to where OP is at. I'm not running to a Cox Contour DVR because it is special, I'm just running away from the pain.

Any chance I have of sticking it out comes down to these two questions:

1. If I downgrade my Bolt to its original v3, will I still get guide data?
2. If I downgrade my Bolt to its original v3, will the guide data be infested with fake Tivo+ channels?

Thanks all.

 

1. Yes
2. No

 

Before you go to TE3 use kmttg to backup your onepasses and channel list then after you are back on TE3 you can put these back on your Tivo.

 

You're both jewels and appreciated!

Thanks for the answers Joe, we're going TE3.

Kev, I was going to copy our Onepasses to another device (using the TiVo websites) and then copy back once completed, but you've saved me the effort of fighting their Java interface which (in the past) had trouble working with so many entries (only ~100).

Channel listings? Boy that was going to be a real pain to rebuild. Thanks! (And thanks to kmttg!)

 

Just remember, it's not as pretty.

 

I like to think that TE3 has a pettier interface "on the inside". (The flow of the user interface, not the appearance.) RESULT: Finally, relief. We're putting away the pitchforks for now.

Only one question about a TE4 feature which is missing in TE3:

The ability to search for the title of any Movie or TV Episode, and then have it tell me which provider(s) offer it, and at what cost(s). It sounds like a problem the cord-cutters would have already come across.

Is there a good website for seeing which services offer which titles, and any additional incremental cost?

PS: Thanks again!

 

In TE3 when you search a for something and then select its title, in the next screen you'll see little icons for TV and/or streaming services in the lower right corner of the screen, just to show you the options. If you select Get This (or move right), the next menu may offer OnePass, Bookmark, Wishlist and/or Watch Now depending on where it's available.