TiVo Premiere announced its fourth-generation DVR with much fanfare at a March 2 media event in Manhattan–at the top of Rockefeller Center, to be specific. Media invitations to the event included the teaser: “The DVR was just the beginning.” What TiVo delivered was…an incremental update of its existing product. If you look beyond the slick new enclosure, the biggest improvements were an improved interface (using, for the first time, Flash-enhanced HD graphics and the full range of the wide-screen real estate); an enhanced search system (it simultaneously searches TV listings and Web-based video sources); and the addition of Pandora’s music service.
It’s just the Series3 with a fancier paint job: Yes, we assume the TiVo Premiere is running a much beefier processor than the one found in the three-year-old TiVo HD. Still, take away the fancy new interface and the (hopefully) quicker search functions, and there are not a lot of new features. The older TiVo HD already has Amazon, Netflix, Blockbuster, and Rhapsody, and it’ll be getting the Pandora update via a future firmware update as well.
My TV and Blu-ray player can already do most of this: TiVo touts its integrated online media support as a big value-add, but the big attractions–Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, and Pandora–are widely available in Blu-ray players and TVs from a variety of manufacturers (LG, Samsung, Sony, Panasonic, Vizio), some for as little as $200. Some of these models also include DLNA network streaming and integrated Wi-Fi (see below).
