Who doesn't hate the new box?

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I like the looks, price is a bit high for the storage.

The lack a streaming for MRV, and additional tuner is a bit lame.
I expected TiVo to best the competition which they have not.

That said, I have to upgrade my fathers two S2's so I guess this is the way to go. I have not tried a Moxi though, I am thinking about it.

- Rich

 

As a replacement for my S2, I love it.
My HD doesn't need replacing yet, and judging by the S2's quality, won't for quite some time.

Either way, I love it. The box is more sleek and looks to be a lot slimmer

 

I was actually being facetious and practical at the same time. I do think TiVo will update the UI over time, especially with regard to money making partnerships like with Netflix. Others though have been railing against people that thought the S3 would get some improvements, telling them they shouldn't have expected anything new out of the box since TiVo isn't required to offer anything. The practical side tells me not to purchase a product based on past performance. Make certain the product has what you need right now before making a decision rather than what you hope it might get later since there is no guarantee what you find important will be the same as the people doing the development.

 

I like the Premiere box. The one thing I will miss from my S3 boxes is the OLED display. I use it on a daily basis to see the time and also what is being recorded.

But I decided to go all in with the Premiere and am getting six Premiere boxes and will be selling my three S3 and six TiVoHD boxes.

 

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Exactly!
I bought my HD unit because I had bought a 1080i plasma and the s2 looked awful. I wanted HD, bought HD, and haven't looked back!

Buying another unit because you think it might do something some time in the future is rather ridiculous. Of course, if the company surprises you and does that something in the future, then wow, that's good, but never, ever expect it (unless they advertise that they will).

Tivo never claimed "we're going to rewrite the entire menu for s3", why expect them to?

 

That's a lot of Tivos. One for every room in the house, two for the bathroom?

 

Every single TiVo model has gotten at least one big software revision. Season Pass Manager, skip-to-tick, folders, TiVo-to-go, MRV, music, pictures, etc were all added after release. TiVo WILL update the S4 but there's no telling WHAT will be in that update.

 

ditto.

 

If the S4 works like past models you will be able to upgrade the HDD after your purchase for much less than the 200.00 more TiVo wants for the XL. (I'd wait to make certain though) If you get the cheaper box to upgrade you will be missing out on the THX certification stuff, so if that is important to you... Even if you do decide to go with the cheaper model and upgrade, I'd play it safe and upgrade after your warranty expires. Others may tell you differently.

Bottom line, if you have to have the extra space now and don't want to risk voiding your warranty, get the more expensive box.

Since you've never had TiVo before I'd highly recommend you research your cable provider on this forum to see what issues, if any the TiVo HD/Premere might have on it.

 

Why is no one happy that premiere runs on 20 watts of power?

 

Some examples of people assuming specific features were coming to the TiVo S3 platforms:
TiVo is "obviously going to upgrade the UI, the current stretched SD UI is just a stopgap" and "it's a no brainer for them to add QAM mapping, there's just no downside".

Well it turns out neither of those ever got added and some people have been very unhappy because it sounds from their posts like they purchased expecting this functionality as an free upgrade somewhere down the line.

 

I love the Premiere. I'm only disappointed relative to the hype. Oh and maybe that they didn't at least announce a plan to resolve the CCI issue with streaming.

Tuners are a non-issue if we can get full remote control or cooperative scheduling and a streaming option. I'd rather see TiVo put money into that software than adding tuner hardware that many people don't need.

I will stick with my S3 until it dies or until the Premiere software becomes interesting enough. But I'll miss the OLED. Maybe I can find a cheap LCD picture frame and hack it to show what's recording.

 

Current set-up of S2, Pioneer DVD S2, and THD with 1TB upgrade will stay until either streaming or tru2way is a reality and not just speculation. (Unless, of course, one of my current units dies.)

 

I will probably buy one. If not now, then after one of my three year contracts are up.

 

I like the premiere, but I am not really excited about it. I definitely wouldn't say I hate it. My big problem is while all the extra features are nice I only use my TiVo for one reason. This is of course to record TV. While the potential for an improved transfer speed will be nice, it doesn't really sell me on the new unit.

If they had simply announced a TiVo HD with 3+ tuners, 1tb of space, and a faster broadcom chip I would be more excited than I am now. Of the three main things, I got two, but those are easily outweighed by the desire for more tuners.

 

I think the premiere is great- could be 'more great' but it is a good step forward. It is significantly more powerful than the original hds-I do expect tivo will increase the internet integration with time which is somethign I think they really built this box for- it runs java, has a fast processor, and has 2 way communication with the cable company- those are the key things to push it to the next level.

 

That's good. (I wish it went down to almost 0 when not "in use".. yes, I know, currently Tivos are always recording, yadda yadda yadda.. In this respect, I wish it were more like a VCR and "shut down" when it wasn't recording something the user asked for..)

but seriously, even with my rant, I'm glad that they reduced the power consumption.

 

i'm excited about it. in fact, after a couple days of reading about the new user interface and reflecting on what it means, i'm convinced that it is truly revolutionary.

the current s3/thd presents everything backwards; it stems from the fact that tivo simply added function ("tacked it on" is probably more accurate) to an old user interface that did not mature as technology improved. until they added the search beta, content was fragmented by source. to watch a netflix movie, you had to go into netflix, have the movie added to your queue, and select it. to download an amazon movie, you had to find it in amazon and download it. to find a youtube video on a subject, you had to launch the youtube application and search. to add a wishlist on your favorite actor, you had to find the submenu with wishlists and add it manually.

the centralized searching that is now a core part of the new UI makes finding content, regardless of source, extremely easy. it seems as straightforward as typing it in. from one search (say for "lost" for instance), you can get a season pass for the final season, browse previous seasons and stream individual episodes off netflix, search for a specific actor in lost and see what other movies they are in (and possible download that movie from Amazon), start a wishlist for an actor or search Youtube for more videos featuring that actor, etc. the process is no longer fragmented.

the good news for those of us with s3/thd units, this search functionality was added (albeit slow) last year. and the more i play with it, the more i appreciate how it integrates all the key functions of tivo.

the thing that excites me the most about this new platform (series 4) is the potential. its the reason people got excited about the iphone and why the ipad, while disappointing at first, will probably revolutionize the tablet/ereader market. its a blank canvas for development. like or hate it, the new software will probably be more portable (can be more easily ported to cable company hardware), easier to develop for, and opens huge avenues for future innovation at tivo. i couldn't say the same thing for the staleness of the current software design of the series 3.