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?

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!

£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??

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!