Why I'm pleased about the TiVo update

As you may have read, Virgin have seen it fit to announce by post to TiVo users that the TiVo will soon be getting a major software update.

It includes some very neat touches, should they have been included from the start? That's one for debate, but it shows that the TiVo hasn't just been forgotten about and that it's fully supported, surely inspiring some confidence with owners.

Features I'm most looking forward to are the text entry by the number buttons, this will make searches loads quicker, also the HD Youtube update sounds cool.

I'm trying to think of reasons Virgin felt the need to announce this update via snail mail, but can't really.  I do consider that to be a rather strange move

scan courtesy of Nialli's TiVo blog post 

Fellow TiVo blogger unleashes fury at TiVo's slack EPG

Our friends at Virgin Media TiVo Blog have posted a bunch of thoughts I happen to completely agree with.  Mainly about the accuracy of the EPG which us TiVo customers pay £3 per month for, on top of the expensive £180 TiVo itsself.

Check out their post here  

Screenshot of TiVo iPad app spotted!

Not sure if this is old news or not, but the TiVo app for iPad looks very very cool....check it out!

The reason behind TiVo's performance issues?

Prolific TiVo Community member CWaring has revealed how TiVo behaves when it's web connection isn't working properly.

What became apparent was that TiVo doesn't appear to cache data locally!  The pictures don't appear, and the "programme details" page can't even load at all.

We're grateful in the TiVo community for Carl to bring this to our attention, it's a huge step forwards in us understanding what might be making the TiVo sluggish at times.  It could well be the load on Virgin's broadband network.

Whoa - new app!? Photo gallery

Hi all, I browsed through the features on my TiVo tonight for the first time in a few weeks, and browsing through the apps I came across the Photo Gallery app.

It reads your Flickr and Facebook pictures, anything like this is a worthy addition (it's free!) but it doesn't perform as smoothly as you'd like with a few bugs.   Even though it's on version 1.9 apparantly!?

My take on this is that it at least shows intent from VM to add more apps, and it's not too bad at that.  As an XBMC user though, a lot of the features of Virgin TiVo though I find myself thinking, "well I can do that better on my XBMC", I'm glad to say that this app is something different.  Not as polished as photo gallery from within XBMC, but pulls in live data from your Facebook and Flickr web streams.

Nice work Virgin Media!    Anyone know when this went live btw?

Latest thoughts on TiVo: May 2011

Hi all,

I've been letting my TiVo "bed in" past it's latest update to 3 tuners, and on the whole I'm happy.

However I do have some gripes with my TiVo.  So far it's crashed on me twice with a circle image spinning round just by pressing the "My Shows" button.  Also I missed the Royal Wedding, for some reason (I still havn't figured out why) my TiVo stopped recording about 1 hour 30 minutes into the coverage.

I can forgive a single blip in recording, but the hanging at the circle annoys me the most, once I had to take the power lead out of the back of the box (I wasn't happy to do this, I could hear the hard drive heads crash when I did it) and the other time I decided to leave it, which it eventually clicked back in (not to the My Shows screen though) to the main menu.

Third tuner enabled with software fix!

Virgin Media TV Powered by TiVo now has three tuners!!

Yes, you can record three channels at once!

More details to come from VM about what other changes were made in the much anticipated software update.

New TiVo remote up close

Rumoured £90 TiVo on the way!?

Commenter Square Eyes has posted on a fellow TiVo blog that it's believed a cheaper TiVo with 500GB hard drive is in the pipeline from Virgin Media, for £49.99 plus £40 installation.

If true, this may anger the existing 1TB TiVo owners, but give the revolutionary interface of the TiVo more market share.

This would be a great sales move from Virgin Media, the fanatics would have paid any price, and were happy enough with the £149+ on offer for original S1 TiVo owners.  This new price point will attract a wider audience and the hype has already been generated from the existing user base.

This rumour comes about as Virgin Media have had their parent company's CEO Richard Branson comment on the TiVo as a "weapon" against Sky.

New app appears on UK TiVos, Millionaire

I just looked at the Apps menu on my Virgin Media TV Powered by TiVo box, and there's a new Millionaire app there, the first game to appear.  I'm not sure how long it's been there but roll on more apps!

UK TiVo S1 service ends on 1st June 2011

The day has unfortunately arrived where the service for the Series 1 TiVo will end.

This has been confirmed by my trusted friends on the TiVo Community forum by current S1 owners receiving a system message to tell them as such.

Options when recording a live show on the UK TiVo

Questions I was asked on Cable Forum included how TiVo copes by not having a dynamic EPG when it comes to "live" programs.

I stumbled across my first example of this today (stumbled because I didn't expect a sports chat show to be classed the same type of "live" broadcast as a football match) so thought I'd share how Virgin Media TV Powered by TiVo behaves and what options it offers.

TiVo basics - Recording a program with padding

Following a request I received on cable forum, I thought I'd show how the new TiVo remains loyal to the S1 interface.  In the first video here it shows how you can set start and end padding for an upcoming show, and options in series links.

Here is recording a forthcoming program with manual start and end padding

Here is a recording of a program which is live on TV including a demonstration of manual end padding

By the way, note the speed of the interface, pretty much up to S1 standards in my opinion

£5 off a Just-Eat takeaway with an on demand film!

Every so often, Virgin Media team up with online takeaway portal Just-Eat to give you £5 off a takeaway when you buy an on demand film.  This offer is on this weekend!

TiVo wise, I havn't seen an advert as I used to at the bottom of the screen on my Samsung V+ HD box, so it's a good job someone told me about the deal being on! My Indian meal is on the way! (Chicken Tikka Chilli Achari if you're interested)

Ethernet port: Virgin say "I'm sure there is a reason for it"

In response to a question I asked of Virgin, spurred on by ashpole in comment to a previous blog post; Virgin have told me

Far too early to say at the minute, however I'm sure there is a reason for it being there

So there's a titbit of hope for TiVo desktop software and ultimately exporting of programs in the future??

VM say "TiVo is a beta" explains slowness

I had the following from Virgin Media when I asked about whether the TiVo's speed is something to worry about:

TiVo is very much in beta stage at the moment and is continually being worked on.  The TV team are working hard to iron out any glitches and problems with response time. Going forward you should expect to see improvements towards a truly smooth and slick service.

Reassuring I'm sure you'll agree, here's to more functionality and more speed!

Why does the TiVo interface vary in speed?

I've just asked Virgin Media a direct question as to whether or not the TiVo interface is being worked on over time, I'll report up here on my blog when I receive a response.

Last night my TiVo was the fastest its been since I had it installed.  One thing to note is that I've not yet rebooted it  (assuming that pressing the power button on the front doesn't turn it fully off)

Search by actor function on new HD TiVo

Here I show what the search functions are like on the new Virgin Media TiVo. I search by actor and as you can see in this video, TiVo knows what films they star in and gives you options to watch them on demand, either paid for or free (if they're on the VM On Demand platform), or create a wishlist to record the film when it does appear on TV.

YouTube app for Virgin Media TiVo

Here I'm having a look at the YouTube app for Virgin Media TV powered by TiVo. As you can see I'm searching YouTube (for one of my previous TiVo videos actually!) and the result shows up, I assume the standard quality for that video is chosen by default, and I didn't see a way of choosing other quality settings. Someone asked me to answer that question on the TiVo Community

Enjoy! please feel free to ask me questions in the comments and when I can get the remote from the wife I will try to answer questions!

For a bit of further reading on the YouTube integration check out this link

Oh dear...TiVo slowness

The responsiveness of the TiVo's interface is confusing. A lot of the time it's fast enough, although sometimes it's embarrassingly slow. I took the below video to show Moe UK on the Tivo Community forum the Youtube app.....

As you can see the Apps seem to be unavailable, but thought I'd upload the video as an example of slowness on occasion going from live TV to the home screen. I just happened to be recording for this

First video of UK Virgin Media TiVo

I took this video of general navigation of the long awaited new TiVo, some basic menu options can be seen in this and a look at the expected real life performance of the box.   More videos of other features to come!

Thanks to other blogs around the web and TiVo Community for showing my video!