TiVo Gifts Slide Pro Remotes. Amazon Instant Update Nearly Here?

tivo-glitch-slide-pro

TiVo’s minor spring software update was plagued by a few issues, including an inadvertent software rollback affecting ~200 DVRs and potentially resulting in some tedious cleanup. Well, kudos to TiVo for voluntarily squaring things with those subscribers.

Due to an operational issue, some TiVo boxes were inadvertently sent an old version of software which may have changed your channel lineup, your “To Do List“, and your “My Shows“ list. We have since mapped the correct software version to your DVR but you may still have to reconfigure your channel lineup, To Do List, and My Shows settings. As an apology for the inconvenience, TiVo is sending you a complimentary Slide Pro remote, free of charge.

In other TiVo software update news, it sure looks like the company is preparing to replace their ancient Amazon Instant experience with something a bit more modern… and unsuitable for the SDUI. Prime, please?

A change is being made to your Premiere Series DVR that we want to make you aware of. Soon the Amazon Instant Video application will be removed from standard definition (SD) menus on your DVR and going forward will it will only be available in high definition (HD) menus.

(Thanks Sam, Barrett, and Andrew!)

18 thoughts on “TiVo Gifts Slide Pro Remotes. Amazon Instant Update Nearly Here?”

  1. Also interesting, in both cases, to see TiVo match boxes to humans and their address (physical and digital). Wonder if they’re pitching targeted advertising yet, based on say zip or viewing preferences.

  2. When I got the email saying this remote was shipping for zero dollars, I thought it was a billing software error. When I got the note above saying why I was getting it; I was shocked they were doing this to fix their error since it wasn’t like they deleted anything from my Tivo. Good job Tivo!

  3. My email said they’re giving me 2 months of free service, but I would rather have the Slide Pro Remote instead.

  4. I haven’t really kept up… but does Amazon Instant Video actually work with the Amazon Prime free streaming movies, or is that feature still AWOL?

  5. Art, interesting. Wonder if it’s Lifetimed units geting the remote?

    Lawson, TiVo/Amazon hasn’t changed the Amazon Instant experience in years — it’s still download-only, which is probably better for quality, but doesn’t neccessarily stream in real-time and there is no Prime freebies at this point. Also, it doesn’t have its own UI to browse. So that’s the big update we’re looking for…

  6. My impacted unit was a Premiere XL4 and they are sending me a Slide Remote with Adapter. I noticed over on TCF that some users with Roamio’s are getting the Slide Remote without Adapter. I’m guessing that we will lose the ability to download once this update is released in the wild. I definitely have mixed emotions about that and there will be definitely complaints on TCF.

  7. I believe that Amazon Prime Streaming is available on every other Amazon client except for TiVo so I think its a pretty safe assumption that it will be there.

  8. The picture and sound quality of Amazon downloads is wonderful. I think its a smidge better than my Roku 2xs. I watch plenty of AMC shows like Mad Men, The Killing, Walking Dead and Breakunh Bad. But I would love for Tivo to own input 1 with Netflix, Amazon Prime and HBO Go. Please make it so Tivo.

  9. “The picture and sound quality of Amazon downloads is wonderful. I think its a smidge better than my Roku 2xs”

    IMHO, I think it’s really noticeably better than streaming. Maybe only by 25% or so, but that matters to me for movies. And it also has the major advantage of not being subject to the streaming hiccup problems I get in about 5% or so of my Amazon streaming rentals. (Amazon is clever enough to almost always automatically detect those streaming hiccup problems and automatically refund my rental cost, but it’s still a drag when it happens.)

    Personally, I tend to download movies to my TiVo, but watch teevee series on my Roku to avoid filling up the TiVo hard drive.

    “I like getting Amazon Prime, but I don’t want to lose the download option either.”

    Agreed. Perhaps a practical solution is to remove the download option from the TiVo interface, but still allow downloads for items rented/purchased from the Amazon website. (It’d be nice to have the option to do either from the TiVo interface, but that might be asking too much from Amazon’s development team for a niche market, and the Amazon website option would be a reasonable compromise.)

    Personally, while my speedy broadband would make the loss of the download option only a moderate loss for me, (a genuine loss, but one I could live with), the real problem in fully axing the download option is for folks with non-speedy internet connections. Currently, if you have a non-speedy internet connection, your only real VOD options are Amazon->TiVo and Apple->iTunes->Apple TV, and it’d be a shame for a lot of folks to lose one of those two options. Also, if one is subject to broadband caps, download once and watch twice or more is obviously superior to stream over and over again. Finally, loss of the download option would somewhat lessen my (currently high) confidence in purchasing Amazon content, considering the (small) chance that I might someday move to some location without a speedy broadband option.

    Tangentially, if Amazon would provide an option to up the bit-rate on downloaded content, that’d make me really happy. The PQ difference between DVR’d HBO and HBO Go is very, very large, since the HBO muticast ships very high bit-rate files. And if Amazon were to provide an option to up the bit-rate on downloaded content, it could increase the current download/stream PQ differential by much more than the current 25% or so…

  10. “Fwiw, Amazon downloads are available currently on Kindle Fire, iPad, Windows PC and TiVo. I’m hoping that TiVo stays on the list.”

    If I had to bet at even-money odds, I’d bet TiVo will stay on that list.

    Not only because, as you helpfully note, Amazon has non-TiVo download options, but also because the genius of Amazon’s audio/visual services is to be wherever the customer wants to be…

  11. Thank you Chucky and Sam. Either way I hope that Amazon Prime and other tent poles are on the way to my Roamio.

  12. Well, I’m very interested in an update of course. IF it both adds Amazon Prime AND vastly improves the browsing experience I might just stick with the Tivo and forgo an Amazon Fire TV. I’m holding off on the Fire for now anyway, waiting for iPhone app support, HBO Go, etc. We’ll see which one gets here first.

  13. “if you have a non-speedy internet connection, your only real VOD options are Amazon…Apple”
    There may be more, but I believe Vudu and Xbox Video are also downloadable VOD options. I don’t think you are required to have Gold for Xbox either.

  14. I got rolled back twice. They sent me the Slide Pro remote. I got it yesterday. Now I have five of them which is nice. Especially since they also sent me a free Mini for being the first to report the second rollback. And allowing them to avoid a larger number of people being rolled back a second time. I am extremely pleased with TiVo right now.

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