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Who doesn't hate the new box?

11K views 87 replies 40 participants last post by  orangeboy 
#1 ·
It seems like anytime I go to a forum for a product, everyone hates the subject matter. It could be a howard stern forum, or the roku forum, or single serve coffee forums, at times it seems as if everyone on the internet hates everything...


I have never had a Tivo, I have a Roku player to play Netflix on my main tv. But my main tv is only 1080i, which is not supported by the Roku. I shut off my Direct TV for Roku over a year ago and have never looked back. I didnt even have OTA. But I have got so caught up on shows thanks to Netflix, I am now wanting to watch current run shows. So I went out and got a very nice outside antenna and amp, and now I get like 30 OTA channels with almost perfect reception. But I have no desire to be stuck to a tv time schedule.

So I started looking at Tivo back in December, right around the time of the Premiere manual mix up. I really wanted to buy the Best Buy $150 deal, but then I waited for the big announcement.

And I must admit, I was not blown away by the announcement, but to me it seems like in the future it will be sweeter. Anyhow, the point is, I have never had a Tivo, but I am going to buy a premiere, probably the XL. I thought about hitting up Ebay for the HD one, but I think they will probably add some stuff to the premiere in the future that will make it pretty sweet.

So there are like 20 threads on here about how much you all hate the new box.... is there anyone who does like it and is definitely going to buy it?
 
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#2 ·
I don't think it's as much that people hate it, but just that it isn't as revolutionary as the marketing makes it sound. There's no big incentive for a person to want to upgrade their current TiVos into new ones with huge new features.

If you're a new customer, I have no doubt that you will like the new TiVo box. It looks like a great box. It's just that the current subscribers were just hoping for more. And like you said, it does seem like in the future it could be even sweeter.
 
#3 ·
Looks like an improvement to me over their existing offers. It was about what I expected (sans streaming - I really expected streaming MRV), though a different subscription model would have been helpful I think. I will likely buy one in June.

But people like to complain, so...
 
#5 ·
At the risk of sounding stupid, i don't know what MRV is
MRV = Multi Room Viewing. Currently, the TiVo allows you to watch something recorded on a different box by sending a copy of the program to the other box. The problem with this method is that some cable companies set the copy protection flag on certain channels so that this is not possible. This would not be an issue if the content was simply streamed from box to box instead of copied.
 
#7 ·
Yeah, I would say in general that I like the Premiere.

I have three Series 2 boxes that I've been planning on upgrading to HD for a while now. I've held off on buying the Tivo HD box for two reasons: 1) I knew Tivo was working on a new Series 4 (it's been mentioned in their quarterly conference calls by their CEO for about a year); and 2) There are some bugs in the Tivo HD in dealing with analog channels, that I was afraid of encountering and that Tivo has never bothered to fix.

I don't believe the Premiere is revolutionary like Tivo marketing wants you to believe, but I think it will serve my needs just fine for the next 5 years or so (and should keep my wife and kids happy).

BTW, MRV is "multi-room viewing".
 
#8 ·
I certainly don't hate it- if my S3 dies tomorrow, I'll get one. I just was hoping for better- they seem to have focused on "fixing" some of the UI stuff at the cost of ignoring the back-end features (MRV, integration with home networked storage). They also overhyped this thing- it's an incremental upgrade, not the "revolutionary" change they hinted at.
 
#9 ·
Hate is a strong word. I don't hate it, I'm just very disappointed. It just feels like the pricing places TiVo in the premium range (as it always has been), but it doesn't feel like the new hardware is premium. I expected more from the hardware (3+ tuners, integrated wifi, moca, etc.) and I am disappointed in it.

Obviously the internals are much beefier than the old models and that will allow them to do much more with the software. Its just right now I don't see anything compelling enough for the price in the software package. Perhaps when they add some features in the coming months I will be more interested, but not at this time.
 
#10 ·
So there are like 20 threads on here about how much you all hate the new box.... is there anyone who does like it and is definitely going to buy it?
first thing to realize is that no one can buy the box yet, heck reviewers do not even have their review box yet; so all posts are simply about what little we have seen of it.

second thing to realize is that indeed - haters seem to post more tenaciously than someone that likes a product or is just looking for some info. So this forum will always be skewed* and it would be a full time job to try and balance it out.

as to your question - yes, I have 2 TiVo HDs(one with OTA) that will stay in service and do everything they always did with the same simple speedy menus. Love my TiVo HDs. I also have a Series 2 DT (dual Tuner) with a cable box on it. That I will 'upgrade' to a Premiere and the kids can have the dual tuner for all the analog channels they like to record.

*the marketing hype was also a major bad move by TiVo inc. that was like gasoline on a fire around here
 
#13 ·
I don't think it's as much that people hate it, but just that it isn't as revolutionary as the marketing makes it sound. There's no big incentive for a person to want to upgrade their current TiVos into new ones with huge new features.

If you're a new customer, I have no doubt that you will like the new TiVo box. It looks like a great box. It's just that the current subscribers were just hoping for more. And like you said, it does seem like in the future it could be even sweeter.
If we are to go by what others have said in this forum we shouldn't count on anything more being added to the s4. You should look at it as it stands right now before deciding to purchase.
 
#16 ·
It is just me and my six year old son at home, I have a tv in the main room, and he has a 13 in TMNT crv in his bedroom for his VSmile game system. I have the Roku on my main tv, but I am buying a lcd for the bedroom and will move my Roku to that, and put the Tivo on the main tv.

for you people who mention all of these other Tivo's and TV's... you have to pay a tivo subscription for every box you have?
 
#17 ·
I like it except for dual tuners.

This is 2010. Dual tuners were 2002's idea. Competitors have 3, 4 and more tuners.

The rest of stuff is minor, but I would have liked to see more of a whole house solution.
ok maybe tuners - but you need to clarify your statements

TiVo has 2 tuners for
-OTA
- Digital
- analog
all in the boix with unified guide data you can record 2 things at once from nay combination of the above

MOXI has 3 digital tuners only - no OTA at all and a dongle you get seperately for 1 analog recording and you still stay in the record 3 things at once mode.

Dish has some tuner setup I forget details of - but since it is only DISH then it is basically saying 3 digital recordings at once. OTA is in there somehow though, I think.

AT&T has 3 or 4 - but again that is all digital and you are severely limited by bandwidth on number of HD at one time and reports are the HD is crummy

that leaves HTPC as the master of tuners and since it has all the CPU and memory resources and ability to let the hardware on the card itself do a lot of work then you can go nuts with tuners in an HTPC. 2 caveats here - no one has actually used the cable card tuners coming for Windows Media center so they are some what of an unknown and of course you pay for the power and flexibility in some combo of time and money.

in effect TiVo needs to drop analog if it is to add more 'tuners'. That is fine by me but that really needs to be a box that can be 2 way interactive with the cable company.
 
#19 ·
If we are to go by what others have said in this forum we shouldn't count on anything more being added to the s4. You should look at it as it stands right now before deciding to purchase.
from what I read when the S3 was released first they didn't have Netflix, and it was added later, so why couldn't you see them adding things to Premiere later
 
#20 ·
I love the new Premier. I've stuck with my single external digital cable box controlled by the IR blasters from an S2 Tivo for over a year now waiting for a $299 40+ hr HD Tivo with cable cards. I arranged my season passes with network shows first and cable shows second to minimize conflicts in scheduling, but still miss about one show a month due to the IR blaster setup -- occasionally when I am watching and have no idea why the miss occurred and then the setup is fine for the next show. So, I will wait a few days but order the Premier and wait for it to arrive.
 
#21 ·
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
 
#23 ·
from what I read when the S3 was released first they didn't have Netflix, and it was added later, so why couldn't you see them adding things to Premiere later
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.
 
#24 ·
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.
 
#25 ·
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.
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?
 
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