[magic168]

Quick context --

Parents have been TiVo users for years now, and it's one of the few pieces of "technology" they've actually latched onto, understand, and willing to use. We have a Roamio.

Recently, got notice from Comcast that their Chinese channel (Jade TV) is moving to one of the IPTV channel numbers (3000+) and that our current equipment (CableCard for the TiVo, I'm gathering!) no longer will work.

So reluctantly, I grabbed an Xfinity X1 box, thinking it's just a matter of having my parents learn or acclimate to a new interface.

After a few days of usage, it's become abundantly clear this is NOT a viable replacement for TiVo.

1) The interface is horrendously slow and there are menus every which way, which confuses the hell out of my parents (and to be honest, confuses me, too, but at least I know how to get out).

2) There is no channel buffering! I didn't know this! There are six tuners, but once you switch to another channel, there are NO OTHER CHANNELS that are being recorded unless you are explicitly recording something. This is crazy to me. We LOVE the channel buffering of the TiVo.

3) The guide is even worse than TiVo for the chinese channel, and we've already missed a couple recordings because the guide data was absolutely wrong. We make do with the TiVo.

At this rate, I was thinking of getting the SlingTV chinese package and figuring out how to help my parents make sense of this "on demand streaming" of their channel rather than make them face the Xfinity box. Then we'd keep the TiVo for all the other channels.

Is there any other alternative anyone can think of? Will TiVo ever support IPTV?

 

[lparsons21]

I’ve been playing around a bit with SlingTV. The guide is the grid guide most are used to. The other parts of the UI are not all that hard to figure out IMO. The beauty is that you could sign them up for a month to let them find out if it works OK for them.

 

[magic168]

There's no "always on" option, right? Like, I can't duplicate the effect of having a "channel." They have to pick a program to start watching through Sling?

Also, I'm a bit confused since it says there are 8 days of on-demand programming. If that's the case, what's the "50 hour DVR" for? To keep programs longer than 8 days?

 

[lparsons21]

I’m not sure how it works for the Chinese package but for the regular ones, like Sling Blue that I have there is a grid guide similar to TiVo’s. Assuming that it works the same with the Chinese package it should have channels you select to watch or record.

And yeah, I suppose that you would use the DVR to keep programs longer. But again, it costs $30 to try it for a month, just give it a shot.

 

[chiguy50]

There's no "always on" option, right? Like, I can't duplicate the effect of having a "channel." They have to pick a program to start watching through Sling?

Also, I'm a bit confused since it says there are 8 days of on-demand programming. If that's the case, what's the "50 hour DVR" for? To keep programs longer than 8 days?

If by "always on" you mean live TV, your parents can get that feed from the Chinese channels over IPTV on the Xfinity Stream app (or web site). The simplest (and cheapest) solution would probably be to use a Roku streaming device on one of their TV's HDMI inputs. They will not be able to record the streaming content, but they should have access to both live and VOD programming once you download and install the Xfinity Stream app.

You (or they) can check out the availability and features first on the web site to determine whether it will suit their needs.