Did I read the article wrong, or are these boxes for cable providers only?
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I would guess that they'll have a retail version out soon. They'll need someone to beta test it.
Interesting...
While it's tempting to think that this explains where Tivo's engineers, time and focus have been, I'm afraid that's wishful thinking.
I fully expect the Q to be just a Premiere XL with 4 tuners instead of 2. Recall that the box is perfectly capable and has everything it needs to handle more than 2 tuners - Tivo just didn't insert them.
It's kind of sounding like the Preview is interesting but the big x-factor is the Tivo fee. If they're still charging 19.99/14.99 a month for it, I can see it flopping in a BIG way. This is especially the case because you're still going to need a Cablecard in each one, so that added expense and hassle may make the Preview more equivalent to the Premiere in the minds of many customers. I think the only way they address this is by making the Preview significantly cheaper. If it's $75 up front + $15/10 a month, well heck, you might as well just get a Premiere for 25 bucks up front and an extra 5 bucks a month! To really differentiate it, the pricing differential will have to be non-trivial.
Of course, all of this assumes Tivo has any plans at all to sell these to us - it's quite possible that this is the first stage of Tivo's overt MSOs-Only strategy, which has mostly been hinted at till now. Then again, Tivo may see an opportunity to set pricing out of this world for online-only Q purchases - after all, the only people who would buy one (other than RCN subs) would be diehard fanatics, the folks who paid $1000+ for Series 3's the first day, and so on. Plus, as nrc mentioned, Tivo needs someone to beta test... wait a second, why are we PAYING Tivo to beta test? One more advantage of lifetime!
While it's tempting to think that this explains where Tivo's engineers, time and focus have been, I'm afraid that's wishful thinking.
I fully expect the Q to be just a Premiere XL with 4 tuners instead of 2. Recall that the box is perfectly capable and has everything it needs to handle more than 2 tuners - Tivo just didn't insert them.
It's kind of sounding like the Preview is interesting but the big x-factor is the Tivo fee. If they're still charging 19.99/14.99 a month for it, I can see it flopping in a BIG way. This is especially the case because you're still going to need a Cablecard in each one, so that added expense and hassle may make the Preview more equivalent to the Premiere in the minds of many customers. I think the only way they address this is by making the Preview significantly cheaper. If it's $75 up front + $15/10 a month, well heck, you might as well just get a Premiere for 25 bucks up front and an extra 5 bucks a month! To really differentiate it, the pricing differential will have to be non-trivial.
Of course, all of this assumes Tivo has any plans at all to sell these to us - it's quite possible that this is the first stage of Tivo's overt MSOs-Only strategy, which has mostly been hinted at till now. Then again, Tivo may see an opportunity to set pricing out of this world for online-only Q purchases - after all, the only people who would buy one (other than RCN subs) would be diehard fanatics, the folks who paid $1000+ for Series 3's the first day, and so on. Plus, as nrc mentioned, Tivo needs someone to beta test... wait a second, why are we PAYING Tivo to beta test? One more advantage of lifetime!
Let me see if I have this straight:
The Series 3 TiVo has two tuners and good over the air reception in 2006.
The TiVo Premiere has two tuners and mediocre over the air reception in 2010.
The Tivo Premiere Q has four tuners but no over the air reception in 2011.
How friggin' tough is it to include an ATSC tuner with decent performance in a device that already has a QAM tuner, power supply, hard drive, case, etc.? It doesn't seem like the marginal cost nor the engineering expertise should be all that demanding.
WTF?!
The Series 3 TiVo has two tuners and good over the air reception in 2006.
The TiVo Premiere has two tuners and mediocre over the air reception in 2010.
The Tivo Premiere Q has four tuners but no over the air reception in 2011.
How friggin' tough is it to include an ATSC tuner with decent performance in a device that already has a QAM tuner, power supply, hard drive, case, etc.? It doesn't seem like the marginal cost nor the engineering expertise should be all that demanding.
WTF?!
We don't know. I am guessing.Let me see if I have this straight:
The Series 3 TiVo has two tuners and good over the air reception in 2006.
The TiVo Premiere has two tuners and mediocre over the air reception in 2010.
The Tivo Premiere Q has four tuners but no over the air reception in 2011.
How friggin' tough is it to include an ATSC tuner with decent performance in a device that already has a QAM tuner, power supply, hard drive, case, etc.? It doesn't seem like the marginal cost nor the engineering expertise should be all that demanding.
WTF?!
TiVo uses a 2 chip design. Previously the chips they could choose from were
1 OTA/1 qam tuner
2 qam tuners
2 OTA tuners
As a result they could do any combo but to get 4 tuners and stick to the two chip design they would have to go with 2 of the 2 qam tuner chips. Now like I said there could be new tuner chips out and bkdtv would probably know but he seems to be MIA.
If someone now makes a single chip with 2 qam tuners and 2 OTA tuners they could offer a box with 4 tuners for either qam or OTA.
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