[mobilelawyer]

This rather expensive streaming device is getting some positve reviews, including this one by Chris Welch in The Verge.

As a TiVo user, this paragraph in the review was of particular interest to me:

"I’ve only lightly experimented with the Fire TV Cube’s new HDMI input functionality. I don’t have cable anymore, but other reviews say Alexa does a sufficient job of channel surfing when you’ve got a cable box running through the port. ... You don’t have to run your cable box through the HDMI port for Alexa to control it; this can also be achieved with the integrated IR blaster. But taking advantage of the new passthrough support means you won’t be hopping between HDMI sources."

I have the four tuner Bolt and am currently using it for OTA reception. I would love to have the Alexa functionality if the cube was able to treat my TiVo like a cable box using the feature described above and be able to say "Alexa, tune the TV to Channel 5" and have the box respond by turning on the TV and switching to channel 5. If this feature does in fact work on the Bolt, I would actually consider ordering a cable card and switching back to cable.

I am not looking for any "it should work" guesses, but rather a "yes it does work" or "no it does not work" from someone who has a TiVo and the new Fire TV Cube.

 

[lujan]

This rather expensive streaming device is getting some positve reviews, including this one by Chris Welch in The Verge.

As a TiVo user, this paragraph in the review was of particular interest to me:

"I’ve only lightly experimented with the Fire TV Cube’s new HDMI input functionality. I don’t have cable anymore, but other reviews say Alexa does a sufficient job of channel surfing when you’ve got a cable box running through the port. ... You don’t have to run your cable box through the HDMI port for Alexa to control it; this can also be achieved with the integrated IR blaster. But taking advantage of the new passthrough support means you won’t be hopping between HDMI sources."

I have the four tuner Bolt and am currently using it for OTA reception. I would love to have the Alexa functionality if the cube was able to treat my TiVo like a cable box using the feature described above and be able to say "Alexa, tune the TV to Channel 5" and have the box respond by turning on the TV and switching to channel 5. If this feature does in fact work on the Bolt, I would actually consider ordering a cable card and switching back to cable.

I am not looking for any "it should work" guesses, but rather a "yes it does work" or "no it does not work" from someone who has a TiVo and the new Fire TV Cube.

I have both the TiVo Edge as well as the new Fire TV Cube but I have not connected them together. I have the TiVo (antenna only) connected to a Denon AVR with the Fire TV Cube connected directly to an LG TV HDMI port. Not sure what I would need to do to work your experiment?

 

[cwoody222]

This rather expensive streaming device is getting some positve reviews, including this one by Chris Welch in The Verge.

As a TiVo user, this paragraph in the review was of particular interest to me:

"I’ve only lightly experimented with the Fire TV Cube’s new HDMI input functionality. I don’t have cable anymore, but other reviews say Alexa does a sufficient job of channel surfing when you’ve got a cable box running through the port. ... You don’t have to run your cable box through the HDMI port for Alexa to control it; this can also be achieved with the integrated IR blaster. But taking advantage of the new passthrough support means you won’t be hopping between HDMI sources."

I have the four tuner Bolt and am currently using it for OTA reception. I would love to have the Alexa functionality if the cube was able to treat my TiVo like a cable box using the feature described above and be able to say "Alexa, tune the TV to Channel 5" and have the box respond by turning on the TV and switching to channel 5. If this feature does in fact work on the Bolt, I would actually consider ordering a cable card and switching back to cable.

I am not looking for any "it should work" guesses, but rather a "yes it does work" or "no it does not work" from someone who has a TiVo and the new Fire TV Cube.

I don’t know about the HDMI passthru but I had an older Fire Cube and it could control the TiVo via IR.

You set up TiVo as a cable box. TiVo is listed as a choice during setup.

 

[mobilelawyer]

I both the TiVo Edge as well as the new Fire TV Cube but I have not connected them together. I have the TiVo (antenna only) connected to a Denon AVR with the Fire TV Cube connected directly to an LG TV HDMI port. Not sure what I would need to do to work your experiment?

The reviewer could have been clearer in the section of the review I quoted. I am assuming that if you took the HDMI output from your TiVo and ran it into HDMI input of the Cube, the Cube might be able to change the channels on the TiVo using CEC. And since the HDMI output from the TiVo would be passed directly through the Cube, you would not have to worry about Alexa having to change he inputs (from the Cube to the TiVo) when you spoke "Alexa, Watch Channel 5".

My experience with relying on CEC over the years has led to many disappointments. Note that the poster below was using the older Cube without passthrough and his Cube was able to change channels on the TiVo using Infra red commands, and that during set up of the Cube, he treated the TiVo as a cable box.

This gives me reason to have some optimism about the New Cube working with my Bolt.

 

[mobilelawyer]

I don’t know about the HDMI passthru but I had an older Fire Cube and it could control the TiVo via IR.

You set up TiVo as a cable box. TiVo is listed as a choice during setup.

I had the older Cube as well and could never get it to behave consistently to control my equipment, via IR or otherwise. But your exprience gives me some reason for optimism. I do have the Firestick 4K and the seperate Fire TV Blaster, which I ordered a couple of years ago, but never set up. I guess the question would be "If the Cube's IR controller did not work with my equipment, then why would the Fire TV Blaster's since that device is of the same vintage as the older Cube?" At least I could try my own experiment with the Bolt and the Blaster and see if it worked.

The ultimate goal would be to use Alexa voice control without ever touching the remote. "Alexa, tune to Channel 5." Hearing the command, Alexa would turn on my TV, turn on my Onkyo receiver, turn on my TiVo and switch the input on the receiver to my TiVo, and then change the channel on the TiVo to channel 5.

 

[mobilelawyer]

Here is another article discussing the HDMI passthrough port on the new Fire TV Cube.

 

[MacBrian]

Here is another article discussing the HDMI passthrough port on the new Fire TV Cube.

Thanks! It's looking like HDMI-CEC is not exactly reliable either...but it seems like the only way I'll know is to try it. Or, maybe I'll retire the Harmony and use a Broadlink RM Pro to IR-blast the necessary commands to my system to switch between the FireTV and the Tivo. It might be more reliable than Harmony...