is there any redeeming quality to Hydra?

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Is there any redeeming quality to this thread? [no replies needed]

 

I agree with you totally, but for one little caveat. I don't believe in going backward. Therefore, dump TE4 in the Garbage along with Microsoft VISTA and unfortunately, what's looking more and more like Windows 10, and come out with TE5 that hasn't any of these senseless software issues and mistakes.

 

Ponder that statement for a bit...

 

downsides for me are:

1. less responsive on a Mini via Roamio Plus. if you quickly delete 5 episodes you'll see only 1 or 2 deleted and the other 3 don't appear to be deleted. Count to 5 and they may delete.

2. annoying menu prompts. for example, hit delete on a folder and a menu prompt comes up everytime. so annoying. i just want to delete. the whole reason to use the shortcut key (clear) is to quickly delete something. Not answer a menu prompt on whether i want to delete show, onepass or cancel.

3. in the grid guide the up/down arrows page up/down when at the top/bottom of the guide instead of scrolling up/down one more channel. This results in being sometimes annoying to see certain channels side by side like say eSPN 1 and ESPN 2.

4. in the guide the movie info is often terribly lacking (even after hitting the info button) and results in additional button presses. But record the show and hit the info button on the same show under My Shows and you are given thorough information displayed front and center.

5. can't page/up down in menu prompts. For example, add an extra hour to a sporting event and you have to hit arrow up 5 or 6 times to get back up to the top and complete your task. Before you could just hit page up/down (channel up/down.)

positives are:

1. it's got auto commercial skip. Youngest kid loves it it but his couple of shows (like impractical jokers with its 20 episodes per day ) usually have the option. Personally I rarely get to use it on my shows. Funny thing is the person most likely to skip commercials (read: skips commercials 100% of the time) is the person that rarely sees auto commercial skip. The 2 others still in the household who often watch commercials including my youngest kid mentioned above constantly get auto commercial skip.

2. TE4 allows me to watch live tv or recordings while in the menus on my Mini. I like this because I'm often going back into the menus while a show is playing.

3. Last I suppose the ease of watching the next show in a group is a positive. It does save a few button presses I guess. ... although I get annoyed by the often premature prompts to do so and by the prompts to delete or keep shows after I exit. And the old way was left arrow out, arrow down and hit play. It was tried and true and worked quick. Now I'm waiting a little bit for prompts. So unsure if this one is a positive or not.

 

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Well, hopefully it keeps the Hydra pro/con fights out of other threads, or at least lessens the incursions.

 

Sorry but both points aren't necessarily true. Maturing software often doesn't gain features rather you refine the experience which can often lead to less features... a different direction and or a more focused experience. In this case they were migrating a package and from user experience (as well as desired future use) they decided what was worth the effort of migrating... for a variety of reasons (with the understanding some may "miss" a feature or two).

Typically you'll put a bow on x features and that's what you'll go live with. Now with additional time you'll often "pretty" up the experience when time allows based on the current feature set not what you dismissed long ago.

 

I think the objective interpretation would map to a slowed rate of change, trending slower to a final state. TE3 is mature software.

Maturity in terms of code seems moot, though, in the context of TE3 vs TE4 since the code was supposedly rewritten for TE4 (as a “new experience”).

 

We realize the tail is wagging the dog.

 

Tivo is going to Hydra and that is that. There will come a time when TE3 will no longer be an option.

 

I don't think anyone disagrees with this which is why we are asking for the feature we still use and love in TE3 to be added to Hydra before we are forced*.

Hell, a lot might WILLING convert to Hydra if these features were brought back before we are forced*.

*and by forced I am talking about either being forced to use Hydra or being forced to move on from TiVo completely.

 

I stream most of my video content now. And I've been streaming all my music for many years now. So the change to Hydra accelerated that. But what really pushed me over was the crappy video quality that FiOS(and Comcast) has now. That is what pushed me last year to start watching most of my content from streaming providers.

And as part of that, I also use my TiVos, much, much, much less than I used to. If the FiOS video quality was even like it was five years ago(twelve years ago it was superb), I would still be on the Ultimate HD tier and viewing those shows from my TiVo recordings.

Although I still have my 200+ One Passes and everything still gets recorded on my TiVos from FiOS and OTA like before(as a last resort option to watch). But I mainly use my TiVos for only watching news now.

 

Dumb question, but since you are still paying for cable, do you have FIOS Verizon?
Did they come to your house to do a test?

 

A test for what? The video quality is what it is. Whether I take a raw stream recorded from a TiVo, viewed on a PC. Or viewed on my UHD TVs. Or viewed at friends houses on an 8K TV, OLED TVs etc. It looks like crap everywhere I've viewed FiOS in Virginia, DC, and Maryland.

It looks nothing like the FiOS recordings I have from five or ten years ago.

 

But, they are listening.

 

I was a huge TE3 fan and hated Hydra, then I sold the TiVos and we used Plex and Emby for 6 months. Deciding we liked TiVo's functionality better, I bought back in and we started using the installed Hydra with no recent comparison to TE3. No problem, no hate, and we can see why it will lend itself to a similar app for streaming boxes. I guess it was just the abrupt change that put us off initally -- slower transition like the SD to HD menu move in TE3 might have worked better.

 

Sorry for asking, don't know what came over me.

 

My take is the changes (per se) isn't/aren't really the main issue. Rather some believe they own (their) TiVos and as such TiVo doesn't have the "right" to alter it without their expressed permission. Now it's fine if they add features they like however if it goes the other way not so such. Ultimately you are using TiVo's service which can be altered at any time and one would have to reasonably expect it to be changed in a way that might not be to your liking. Obviously some people aren't willing to sacrifice for the greater good.

 

Sorry about that. I didn't intend to word it the way I did.

I guess some of the hostility in this thread wore off on me.

 

I view this as no different than any other piece of software that gets upgraded and causes frustration. The last version of MS Office which was a major overhaul (maybe Office 13?) was so frustrating to use at first and I rolled it back as long as I could at home and thankfully my employer didn’t adopt it until they needed to as well. Still stuff that’s annoying 6 years later.

Part of the issue is that many designers consider themselves auteurs and not just programmers and they get wrapped up in the visual vs the functional. I guess that’s just part of the design process. You can’t design something people want, you have to give them something they never knew they wanted to be a home run.

Is this something anyone never knew they needed?

 

Now you use the anger to call Fios and say, I am mad as hell and I am not going to be robbed anymore.