TiVo : General TiVo Discussion Part 3

[tassiekev]

[QUOTE=vincerooney;35763041]i wish my ex girlfriend had thought the same!



Love it!!!

[ntluser]

The next time the Tivo software is updated perhaps they could return the copying facilities we had on the V+. Or create a "Copy" folder and allow recordings to be moved to it, so that users could use the existing "Play all recordings" feature to play them and output them to a VCR/CD recorder. Maybe too they could address the time lag experienced when waiting for the "My shows" recording list to appear as it iscurently very bitty. Not sure whether it's possible to increase the speed or simply cut out any in-built time delays.Thank you.

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by passingbat

Well, it's just loaded for me in 45 seconds. Not the fastest Netflix device that I have but more than acceptable. At one time it was taking over a minute; I can't remember if that was before or after the S/W update as I rarely use Tivo for Netflix.

Surely anyone can live with 45 seconds?

Netflix on my TiVo takes similar, and is quite slow with menu commands etc.

It's not unacceptable, but I recently got a new Samsung TV for the bedroom and being a 2014 Quad Core model, the difference in speed in Netflix is incredible. It loads nearly instantly, and just feels like a joy to use, rather than the chore TiVo feels like.

Yes, both work, but the user experience is far better on the TV and it makes it harder to go back to TiVo for my main TV downstairs.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by Stop It

Netflix on my TiVo takes similar, and is quite slow with menu commands etc.

It's not unacceptable, but I recently got a new Samsung TV for the bedroom and being a 2014 Quad Core model, the difference in speed in Netflix is incredible. It feels like.

Yes, both work, but the user experience is far better on the TV and it makes it harder to go back to TiVo for my main TV downstairs.

I have a Fire TV, LG Bluray and WDTV, and all of those load Netflix faster than Tivo, so I never use Tivo for Netflix.

However, there are some people (OLD BOY for example) who want Tivo to do everything and don't want to buy extra boxes or upgrade to a smart TV just for 'smart features'. For those people, IMHO opinion, 45 seconds is fine.

I bought the WDTV box just to get Netflix at 1080p and 5.1 audio. If Tivo had had Netflix at the time, and was not just restricted to UK Netflix, I would quite happily have lived with the TiVo's 45 second load time and not bought the WDTV.

[OLD BOY]

Originally Posted by passingbat

I have a Fire TV, LG Bluray and WDTV, and all of those load Netflix faster than Tivo, so I never use Tivo for Netflix.

However, there are some people (OLD BOY for example) who want Tivo to do everything and don't want to buy extra boxes or upgrade to a smart TV just for 'smart features'. For those people, IMHO opinion, 45 seconds is fine.

I bought the WDTV box just to get Netflix at 1080p and 5.1 audio. If Tivo had had Netflix at the time, and was not just restricted to UK Netflix, I would quite happily have lived with the TiVo's 45 second load time and not bought the WDTV.

Yes, it would be nice to have everything on one box, but even I am contemplating getting Fire TV or maybe a Smart TV with Amazon Instant included.

Streaming services is the answer, IMO, and so if VM provided the full range of streaming services available in their apps, I think the TIVO would be very popular indeed.

[Stop It]

Originally Posted by passingbat

I have a Fire TV, LG Bluray and WDTV, and all of those load Netflix faster than Tivo, so I never use Tivo for Netflix.

However, there are some people (OLD BOY for example) who want Tivo to do everything and don't want to buy extra boxes or upgrade to a smart TV just for 'smart features'. For those people, IMHO opinion, 45 seconds is fine.

I bought the WDTV box just to get Netflix at 1080p and 5.1 audio. If Tivo had had Netflix at the time, and was not just restricted to UK Netflix, I would quite happily have lived with the TiVo's 45 second load time and not bought the WDTV.

I totally agree, it's a great feature to have, but TiVo is no longer the trailblazer it was 4 years ago hardware wise and while the software is still pretty amazing, it could do with a specification boost going forward.

As OLD BOY said, streaming services are the future, and a more powerful, versatile box would allow the TiVo software to shine through again and help provide these services in a better way.

[Derekb108]

Originally Posted by ntluser

The next time the Tivo software is updated perhaps they could return the copying facilities we had on the V+. Or create a "Copy" folder and allow recordings to be moved to it, so that users could use the existing "Play all recordings" feature to play them and output them to a VCR/CD recorder. Maybe too they could address the time lag experienced when waiting for the "My shows" recording list to appear as it iscurently very bitty. Not sure whether it's possible to increase the speed or simply cut out any in-built time delays.Thank you.

They won't do that, ntluser. however they could give us two options that our American counterparts have. 1) Give us Cloud storage to send our beloved recordings into cloud storage. 2) Allow us to use NAS Storage, to send our recordings to our Network drive. that way our recordings are safe from broken tivos.

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

I am contemplating getting Fire TV or maybe a Smart TV with Amazon Instant included.

.

You can currently get the Fire TV stick for £19 if you are a Prime member or £7 if you aren't and take out a Prime membership at the time of purchase. Offer ends at 8:00am tomorrow. FTV Stick ships 15th April.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by Derekb108

They won't do that, ntluser. however they could give us two options that our American counterparts have. 1) Give us Cloud storage to send our beloved recordings into cloud storage. 2) Allow us to use NAS Storage, to send our recordings to our Network drive. that way our recordings are safe from broken tivos.

How would that help if the recordings are encrypted and also tied to a particular STB? The original STB would still be required.

---------- Post added at 14:33 ---------- Previous post was at 14:26 ----------

Originally Posted by passingbat

You can currently get the Fire TV stick for £19 if you are a Prime member or £7 if you aren't and take out a Prime membership at the time of purchase. Offer ends at 8:00am tomorrow. FTV Stick ships 15th April.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294

Yet another mains socket required. Why can't manufacturers come up with a better power supply solution?

[passingbat]

Originally Posted by nomadking

---------- Post added at 14:33 ---------- Previous post was at 14:26 ----------


Yet another mains socket required. Why can't manufacturers come up with a better power supply solution?

Yes, I don't get why they don't come with Solar panels attached!

[nomadking]

Originally Posted by passingbat

Yes, I don't get why they don't come with Solar panels attached!

Seriously, so many devices/chargers nowadays are low power 5V and/or 12V. One PSU could supply several of these devices.

[tassiekev]

Originally Posted by nomadking

Seriously, so many devices/chargers nowadays are low power 5V and/or 12V. One PSU could supply several of these devices.

Totally agree, its like spaghetti junction at the back of my set up and most of it would run off a USB hub (a big one). Not absolutely certain about this, but the Fire stick gets its power via a USB cable so if you have a spare USB port on the TV, this may solve that particular problem.

I think I read somewhere that the EU (bless their cotton socks) have mandated common charging sockets for 'phones - wonder why something similar can't be done for STBs.

Sorry for going off topic and the rant but I do feel much better now.

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by nomadking

Seriously, so many devices/chargers nowadays are low power 5V and/or 12V. One PSU could supply several of these devices.

And create a single point of failure.

---------- Post added at 15:27 ---------- Previous post was at 15:24 ----------

Originally Posted by tassiekev

I think I read somewhere that the EU (bless their cotton socks) have mandated common charging sockets for 'phones - wonder why something similar can't be done for STBs.

The EU have mandated how much power both 'simple' and 'complex' STBs should consume.

But there isn't really a need to worry about whether one box has the same power supply as another, as the main reason for the phone charger standard was how often people change their phone and get a new charger along with it. STBs don't get swapped as much.

[tassiekev]

[/COLOR]The EU have mandated how much power both 'simple' and 'complex' STBs should consume.

But there isn't really a need to worry about whether one box has the same power supply as another, as the main reason for the phone charger standard was how often people change their phone and get a new charger along with it. STBs don't get swapped as much.[/QUOTE]

Appreciate your point and I'm definitely not in a position to argue from a technical point of view - just a users point of view. There are two points I would make:

1. PVRs/DVRs are basically a low-end PC dedicated to a particular purpose
2. The capabilities of these devices are limited by marketing, not hardware or software. eg. The Fire TV box can access Netflix & Amazon but not NowTV; The NowTV box can access NowTV & some on demand services but not in HD - also can't access Netflix or Amazon; Tivo can access Sky & Netflix but not NowTV or Amazon. Similar limitations apply to SkyHD, Roku etc.

If we, as consumers want to access these services then we're forced to buy/rent multiple boxes. I'd love to see a box designed where it was possible to plug in various tuners: cable, satellite, Freeview etc and purchase the services required via that box**. Now, I know that Sky, Liberty etc are not going to acceed to this because it would limit their control and be good for the consumer so I think the least the various manufacturers/service providers could do is provide us with at least a common power supply so that I don't have to crawl about labelling everything. How much simpler life would be if all the 'complex' STBs had kettle plugs or similar - it would be a start.

**There are, of course 'Smart' TVs already made with Freeview/Freesat tuners & CI slots which would do the job and and I would be interested in hearing why these are not able to be accessed by VM or Sky customers.

Sorry, I've messed up the Quote bit at the top - don't know how to fix.

[heero_yuy]

Originally Posted by tassiekev

Sorry, I've messed up the Quote bit at the top - don't know how to fix.

Remember for every [tag] there has to be a[/tag]

And they can be nested as in [tag1][tag2]stuff[/tag2][/tag1]