With the introduction of the TiVo Premiere ($300), it’s no surprise that they’re blowing out excess inventory of prior models. And Woot’s got a decent deal today on the Series3: $169.99 + $5 shipping.

It’s a refurbished unit, but the enclosure will still look better than your Premiere or TiVoHD… with that OLED front panel display. The S3 also includes the higher end Glo remote and provides the freedom to add an eSATA hard drive of your choosing for increased recording capacity. Unfortunately, the Series 3 consumes more power and will require two CableCARDs for dual tuning digital cable. Depending upon your provider, that could result in multiple phone calls and additional fees. Beyond your TiVo subscription, of course. The Premiere, hitting next month, features significantly faster hardware and a new UI. But it’s not yet known how the experience compares.

As for me, I’m hanging on to my original Series3, purchased after review. And intend to swap my TiVo HD for a Lifetimed Premiere when the time is right. Unless I blow it all up for a $1000 3-room Moxi bundle. Or Ceton Media Center solution. Hm.

Thanks for the tip, Jon!

I’ve been covering the TiVo/DISH/EchoStar patent infringement case for years. (With varying degree of interest.) And it looks like we’re that much closer to a conclusion given today’s ruling/affirmation by the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit:

Appellants (collectively, “EchoStar”) appeal from the district court’s decision finding them in contempt of the court’s permanent injunction order. TiVo Inc. v. Dish Network Corp., 640 F. Supp. 2d 853 (E.D. Tex. 2009). Because we find that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing sanctions against EchoStar, we affirm the finding of contempt.

The Premiere may not have moved the needle, but there’s nothing like the prospect of (large sums of) cold, hard cash to whip the investors into a frenzy:

Yes, TiVo should be receiving (additional) cash from DISH and/or EchoStar. And, yes, it looks like a number of DISH DVRs will be disabled. Davis Freeberg and I are still sifting through the ruling to get a better sense of what this ultimately means and if DISH/Echo has any moves left. I’d also keep an eye on Engadget’s resident legal eagle for a more thorough analysis.

TiVo Premiere, er, premiere week continues! And, last night, I was a guest on the EngadgetHD podcast dedicated to TiVo’s launch. Unfortunately, as with my write up, we had a difficult time focusing on what the Premiere offers… versus what it lacks. Of course, we’re not representative of the broader consumer market and have the advantage of being über-geeks, being able to roll our own Windows Media Center alternatives. But what about the typical TV-viewer? Are they willing to pony up for an improvement over the cable-co DVR experience? They haven’t demonstrated it recently…

Which brings up the TiVo Premiere Paradox, a title I’ve swiped from ‘doormat’ on the TiVo Community. (Sorry. Thank you). What is it exactly that holds folks back? For the majority, it’s probably a combination of education and motivation… in realizing there’s an alternative to the cable co and figuring out how to get it done. An upfront fee and an additional, ongoing subscription (beyond the cable-co’s fees) are probably also a barrier to entry. Whether or not it really costs more, long-term. Also, the competition is catching up to TiVo in many cases. Exceeding them in others. (With whole-home DVR and access to free on demand content being the most obvious examples.)

An interesting comment from that Paradox thread, by ‘eisenb11′, that I identify with:

So will I buy the Premier? Maybe. I’m leaning towards it, but it’s going to be begrudgingly and not in a totally excited manner, like when the Series 3 came out.

My response, keeping in mind that I actually reviewed the Series3 for Engadget back in the day:

Yeah, it’s crazy to think back on how much I paid for the S3 and Lifetime. Without TiVoToGo and MRV even! And was excited about it. Compared to how I feel now. Somewhat let down. I’m not sure the Premiere is a big enough splash to get people to defect from their cable provider’s hardware. Or their connected Blu-ray player. Or Roku. In some strange way I feel sad for TiVo. It obviously wasn’t their intent to let many of us down. And I’m not sure they saw this reaction coming. But potential exists… they’ve got smart people, they’ve got solid relationships, they’ve got plenty of cash and probably more on the way. So I’m hopeful that they’ll surprise and impress me over the next 12 months. In the meantime, I’m playing the field a bit more – digging Moxi’s extender and will build a Ceton HTPC whenever that card hits.

So, as we discussed on the EHD podcast last night, I’ll most likely be purchasing a Premiere once the review period concludes. Given what we do here on ZNF. But will you?

As no one beyond TiVo Inc, and their NDA-ed testers or partners, have spent more than a short while with the TiVo Premiere, there are quite a few outstanding questions of the CableCARD DVR. Is the hard drive still user expandable/replaceable? To what extent has the HME API been expanded to support the new Flash UI? How much faster is re-ordering Season Passes? How has the grid and/or live guides been updated? Etc, etc, etc…

But there are also three very new mysteries. Which I missed by being a little too efficient. As I was preparing my Premiere coverage, I knew exactly what images I wanted based on our demo time together. So those are the ones I specifically asked for. As it turns out, the total HD UI press pack imagery spotlights some real curious and compelling items…

Comcast On Demand? Hm… For a retail Premiere, we know it’s not tru2way. So could this be an IP/Internet version of Comcast’s TV Everywhere initiative for third party set-top boxes? Or does this foreshadow a replacement of Motorola hardware for the Comcast-deployed TiVo initiative. Unfortunately, I suspect it’s just as likely that this is a Photoshop error.

In my original Premiere write-up, I dinged TiVo for lacking the sort of personalized user experience Sezmi is championing. Yet TiVo pioneered this with Kidzone, filed a possibly related outlandish RFID patent, and has made some vague comments leading me to believe it’s on their radar. And, surely, the proof of the pudding is seen above.

Another item many of us have been requesting for some time is the ability to share scheduled recordings, show recommendations, or similar. As it turns out, TiVo may be on the same page given the ‘Friends Recommend’ tile above.

Stay tuned…

After a few months of unintended leaks and 3 1/2 years since third generation hardware was introduced, the TiVo Series 4 Premiere has arrived. As with TiVo’s HD line, which is being cleared out, the Premiere will ship (next month) in two SKUs: A base model with 45 hours of HD storage (320GB) at $300. And a higher tier THX certified “XL” unit, containing a terabyte of storage (150 hrs of HD), for $500. Service fees are unchanged. As you’d expect, the Premiere sports significantly beefed up processing power and, also as expected, finally realizes TiVo’s new HD UI.

Additionally, the Premiere represents a savvy reboot of TiVo marketing. With, perhaps, a little help from their friends. Now that “DVR” functionality has essentially been commoditized, TiVo’s pitching the Premiere as a “cable box.”  That also provides video, web, and music content. Basically, “One Box” to rule them all.

So that’s what the TiVo Premiere is.

However, given TiVo’s inaugural role and leadership in space, not to mention the tens of millions spent annually on R&D, I have to say I’m somewhat underwhelmed. I get why they didn’t go the tru2way route, given the cable industry’s inability to roll out as planned and requirement to implement an inferior, secondary interface. But where’s the improved whole-home DVR experience (like Moxi), additional tuners, Blu-ray player, social media apps (like FiOS), DLNA, user personalization (like Sezmi), etc?

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s dive into the Premiere specifics…

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Over the years, I’ve experienced more CableCARD installs than most. As I frequently rotate devices and have lived something of a gypsy lifestyle since unloading our home (along with our projector) and given bi-coastal employment. The vast majority of installs have been problematic. When the Comcast or Cox Communication techs bother to show. I even had to get in touch with my (previous) local franchising authority (Montgomery County, MD) at one point. Which is both good and bad… Fortunately, I know how to get things taken care of. On the other hand, why did getting a timely CableCARD install require filing a report? Plus, in most situations, I still firmly believe a CableCARD install shouldn’t require a truck roll — even if pairing is required. Let me pick up the card at their office and give me a number to call to read off my STB numbers for pairing. Saving the savvy some time (while preserving my PTO).

However, having moved to Cox’s switched digital video (SDV) ecosystem, a truck roll ($30/tv) is probably still required. As their Cisco/SA tuning adapters have been extremely flakey. Last summer, my first tech was a no show and the second installer arrived several hours later to get two TiVo units going. It took him, Cox’s ninja CableCARD tech, over 2 hours of continual tuning adapter and TiVo reboots along with multiple calls back to the office to get everything going properly. (Followed by months of my own regular device reboots to reclaim those switched stations, which randomly vanished and magically reappeared a few days later.) So my expectations were pretty low yesterday, when reactivating a loaner Moxi HD DVR for testing the Moxi Mate DVR extender’s new live TV streaming functionality (which overcomes TiVo’s biggest limitation in our household).

The Cox installer had never seen a Moxi HD DVR before, and had many Moxi versus TiVo questions for me, but showed no fear in getting it running. I appreciated his methodical approach — pairing and verifying the CableCARD before tackling the SDV tuning adapter. Amazingly, he was in and out in 35 minutes. With ZERO Moxi and ZERO tuning adapter reboots. (Plus, he wore booties over his shoes and wouldn’t take a tip.) So, either Moxi is better at CableCARD technology than TiVo or those tuning adapters have received some sort of firmware update. Maybe both. Regardless, this gives me (tru2way) hope and kudos to Cox for a flawless install.

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While TiVo employees program automated laundry machine tweets, TiVo customers continue to give their DVR a Twitter voice. About a year ago, we first saw TwiVo – which tweets newly completed TiVo recordings and was hacked together in PHP, primarily for the author’s own usage. However, this weekend, the new and far more sophisticated TweeVo has been released to the masses by Brian Peek.

Like TwiVo, TweeVo periodically polls your TiVo’s Now Playing list (via embedded web server) to determine and then broadcast new recordings on Twitter. But TweeVo also provides a GUI for easy and smart customization (above left), when the Windows system tray app isn’t running in the background. (.NET 3.5 SP1 required.) Additionally, TweeVo mates your recordings to Zap2it show information so followers can optionally learn more.

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